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Re: Basque, where did they come from?
(davidwss@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca)
16 Aug 1995 13:29:40 GMT
David A.H. Perry (thedavid@clark.net) wrote:
: Bryan Cowan (loquismo@aimnet.com) wrote:
: :
: : As I understand it, the Basque language is in a different language family
: : (I once read it was a *Na-Dene* language or something like that).
: ^^^^^^^^^^
: To me the Dene people are the "Navajo." Very curious...Explain? I'm lost!
Linguistic evidence indicates three separate migrations to the Americas
from Asia (all of them a long time ago). The first one, reaching
Western Canada possibly 12,000 years bp, provided the people whose
language develo[ped into most native languages. The Na-Dene language
group forebearers came next - I can't remember what the suggested time
period is - 5000 to 9000 years before present might be the range. These
languages are found across north-central Canada, plus Navaho and Apache
in the southwestern USA. Last came the Inuit-Aleut language forebearers,
who are still to be found in Northern Siberia as well as Northern North
America; perhaps 4000 years before present. I don't recall anyone
relating Basque very closely to the Na-Dene group.
--
David Wasserman (davidwss@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca)
Curmudgeon-At-Large (DWasserman@edc.gov.ab.ca)
"The older I get, the more value I place on experience."
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