I just received a copy of Language in the Americas by Joseph H. Greenberg. Greenberg maintains that aside from the Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene language families, all other indigenous American languages fit into the Amerind family. Greenberg states that all Amerind languages have a common root that is about 10,000 to 11,500 years old. Several other linguists have criticized both Greenberg's methodology and conclusions.
Greenberg discusses 11 language sub-families in Amerind group, including three in Mesoamerica: the Chibchan family which includes most of the Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, and Panamanian languages, as well as Cuitlatec in Mexico; the Penutian family which includes the Mayan, Mixe-Zoque, and Totonac languages; and the Central Amerind family, which includes the Oto-Mangue (Zapotec) and Uto-Aztecan (Nahuatl) languages.
I do disagree with some of his placements, including Lenca which he places in the Chibchan family. It seems clear to me that Lenca should be in the Penutian family as it is closest to Mixe-Zoque and Totonac. I also think that the Penutian and Central Amerind families should be combined.
Greenberg's conclusions are consistent with the history of Mesoamerica as presented in this blog. I believe that the Xibalbans arrived first to the Americas, either across the Atlantic ice-sheet or across the more common Pacific Bering ice-sheet. Quite quickly the Xibalbans established themselves at the Gruta del Espíritu Santo cave near Corinto, El Salvador. From there they could not only survive the cold of the end of the Ice Age but also control virtually all human traffic coming down the Central American isthmus toward South America.
A few people made it to South American past the Xibalbans or perhaps before the Xibalbans set up in the cave, given the Clovis points located in South America. But it would appear that they did not survive. In addition, people crossing the Bering Strait did not venture into any part of North America, but rather all traveled down the coast toward Central America and nearly all were captured by the Xibalbans.
I have found that six families escaped from the Gruta del Espíritu Santo in about 8800 BCE, as determined by the Mars long-count calendar. At that time all people in the cave spoke the same language. Four of the families became the great Mesoamerican people. As their language diverged on Isla Tigre in the Gulfo de Fonseca, it became the proto-Penutian language family, which includes Maya. The other two families became the peoples associated with the Chibchan-Paezan language family. Eventually they left the Gulfo de Fonseca, with most migrating south.
Nearly all of North America, except for the Eskimo-Aleut in the far north and the Na-Dene in the northwest and southwest, was populated from the south, by the Mayan, Lenca, and Chibchan peoples. Likewise they are the root of all or nearly all of the indigenous people of South America.
Greenberg lists etymologies (cognates) that are shared by two or more of the 11 language families. By counting the number of times a language family shares a cognate, one can get an idea which language families are the oldest and may serve as the core or proto-Amerind language(s). The results of this exercise are consistent with the narrative of this blog. The Penutian family, which includes Maya, has the most shared etymologies out of the 329 that are listed, while Chibchan-Paezan has the third most. Of the 11 language families, Central Amerind has the least shared cognates. This family includes Nahuatl, which shows how young a language it is.
|
Penutian Macro-Ge Chibchan-Paezan Hokan Equatorial |
Number of Shared Etymologies 129 124 117 116 110
|
I believe that nearly 90 percent of the indigenous languages in the Americas can be traced to the Gruta del Espíritu Santo and the islands in the Gulfo de Fonseca. The Mesoamerican people were not only a civilizing people but were critical to the peopling of the hemisphere.
Comments