Was there ever a mother tongue?


Historical unsolved riddles

A mother tongue?

The Archbishop of Armagh, James Usher (1581-1656), considered that the creation of everything on Earth and in Heaven took place in 4004 BC. And this belief was dogma until the 19th century in the Anglo-Saxon countries. Now no one would dare to ensure that before 4000 BC. everything was chaos or emptiness; but almost in fact, many find it impossible to find out what languages ​​were spoken in the world 6, 000 years ago.

Generally, this tacit renunciation to look for a mother tongue is given by the difficulty of finding universal roots, so variable in time (because of phonetic transformations) and in space (dialect variations). But sometimes they weigh more considerations of another kind.

For example, a linguist ensures that although in Persian and English the word bad ”means the same (bad), and they are written in the same way, that does not imply that they have the same origin. Not even considering that both languages ​​belong to the Indo-European linguistic family ... We sincerely believe that this caution is a bit excessive. We fully agree with the idea that the similarity between words does not necessarily imply that two languages ​​are related. For example, in the Ainu language "eraman" is equivalent to "understanding", and in Basque "eraman" is transporting ". In short, we have two identical words with different meanings (two "homonymous" words). But when two words are similar and also mean the same, that is something else.

In this article we intend to show several cases of words that meet these two conditions: a) They are homophones (it is the case of "eraman" in Basque and Ainu). b) They also have the same semantic value (in the case of "bad" in English and Persian). Linguists generally have a wide panoply of homophonic words, with the same or similar semantic value, when judging whether there are affinities of any kind between languages. For our part, we will just show a few, we believe that they are significant enough. All of them refer to basic objects or ideas, typical of an extremely simple way of life. This is another characteristic that defines linguistic homologies: they must be expressive of a remote time, and therefore, with a poorly advanced way of life. It is common sense to think that the more distant two countries where languages ​​are spoken with homophonic words (and with the same meaning), the closer they should be to a hypothetical "mother tongue." And vicecersa: the less geographical distance exists between two countries where languages ​​are spoken with homophonic words, the more likely that these homologies are due to “linguistic loans” (for example, from Latin to Basque, or from Basque to Spanish), or that both share a common root (this is the case of Spanish in relation to Italian: the common root would be Latin).

Comparative analysis of languages ​​is an essential tool in the study of protohistory. It is common sense to think that if people have a common origin (the famous Mitochondrial Eve, the mother of all current humans), languages ​​have it too. The problem is to identify it. Multiple typologies have been established as regards the establishment of subgroups, groups and supergroups of languages. And there is not even consensus on the need to establish such classifications: in terms of comparative philology there is talk of "lumpers" (contrary to establishing classifications) and "splitters" (supporters of them). The main linguistic groups proposed to date are the following: a) Nostratic: this would include Afro-Asian, Altaic, Dravidic, Indo-European, Eskimo-Aleutian and Ulaic languages.

Lately thesis has been proposed that the Sumerian and Elamite dead languages ​​would be part of the dravidic group. (We will leave aside the Eurasian group proposed by J. Greenberg.) B) Sinodenocaucasian: which would include the Sinotibetan, Basque, Na-Dené (of the North American plains) and Caucasian languages. And even some dead languages ​​like Etruscan, or other extinct anatomical languages. c) Native American: in which all Native American languages ​​would be included, except Na-Dené (from group b) and Eskimo-Aleutian (from group a). d) Industrial: in which we would integrate the Malay-Polynesian, Thai, Mon-Khmer and other languages ​​of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. Lately, even broader groups are being proposed, joining the nostratic, sinodenocaucasian and Amerindian groups into a single package (unnamed), and converting the industrial group (from Southeast Asia and the Pacific) into another called “New Guinea”. According to Stephen Oppenheimer ("Eden in the East"), Irén Hegedus considers the early Austronesian language to be an early member of the nostrmatic superfamily; the linguist Paul Manansala, meanwhile, relates the Austronesian language with dead languages ​​such as Sanskrit and Sumerian.

These disputes, and the “tug-of-war” of lists and counter-lists of linguistic families, are an inevitable result in the arduous search for that ancestral language. ” What would this be? The specialists in comparative philology have tried to reconstruct the primordial language, the "mother" of all languages ​​(living and dead, current and past). To the point of identifying some dozens of etymologies that, according to specialists, would be really universal. Here are some examples: HAND (man): “min” (phallic god) in ancient Egyptian, “mantar” (people) in Tamil, “man” in English… KUNA (woman): “qena” (lady) in the tongue oromo (African); “Quani” (woman) in Tasmania; “Kunu” (wife) in Kyrgyz (Central Asian Turkish); "Queen" (queen) in English ... k'OLO (hole): "kuli" (anus) in the Kanuri language (Nilosahariana); "Kolo" (hole) in Finnish; "Hole" in English; "Ass" (idem) in Spanish .. PUTI (vulva): "butu" (vulva) in malinke; “Puti” (vulva) in tulu (dravidian language); “Puta” (idem) in Spanish… TIK (finger, or one): “tok” (one) in dinka; "Teki" (one) in Korean; "Tikiq" (finger) in Eskimo; “Digitus” (finger) in Latin… AQ'WA (water): “kwe” (nyimang, Nilosa-Saharan language); aka (Japanese); wakka (ainu); aqua (Latin) ... Anyway, after the abyss of time we are still able to glimpse the "mother tongue".

Would this be the one that, according to the Bible, was spoken before the confusion of tongues ”, which happened during the episode of the Tower of Babel? We do not know, but studying the linguistic homologies between two languages ​​as separated in time and space as the Sumerian and the Hopi language will bring us some pleasant surprises. The Hopi people of Arizona, a descendant of the Anasazi culture, speak a language of the Uto-Aztec family. He considers himself a “people of peace”, with a responsibility to fulfill: to be “guardian of the Earth” (“tutskwa”) That is why he has been surrounded by a halo of sacredness, which has allowed him to survive in an environment hostile, despite its irreducibly pacifist philosophy. His case is one of the most intriguing singularities in the field of ethnology: not only because his god Sun (Taiowa) remembers the word expressed by the star king in Japan (Taiyo-wa); not even because of the obvious similarities between his mythology and that of the Old World. But mainly because of its perseverance in the preservation of its culture, in the manner of the Hebrew people; although, unlike this one, using only oral tradition.

But there is another aspect that makes it a special case: its language. We are convinced that in it we can find traces of a universal protolanguage, in which the Sumerian language would be included. The Sumerian language is of the "agglutinative" type. That is, each idea (whether nominal or verbal) is expressed by a syllable (or polysyllable), which can be modified by a series of prefixes or suffixes, as is the case with modern Turkish. For example, we have: She (barley) + Gu (ox), and therefore: Shegu (ox fed with barley). We believe that phantasmagoric language called “nostrática” is more than a laboratory product: it has real consistency. Note the following Hopi terms, and their (possible) Sumerian transcription: Baho (prayer staff). In Sumerian we find the term "bar-ús", that is to say: "cane with a copper tip". Kiva (underground house).

In Sumerian we find “ki” (land, place, area, soil, grain) and “ba4” (house). (Note that the peoples of the Andronovo culture [in the Eurasian steppes, during the II millennium BC.] Also resided in semi-buried houses. Significantly, the term of ancient Iranian alluding to home was * kata, which means "excavated.") Mana (female kachinas [spirits of Nature and ancestors]). In Sumerian we find "mu10" (woman) and "na" (human being). Piki (a type of bread). In Sumerian we find "ki" (land, place, area, soil, grain). Shongopavi (the first place where the Hopi lived; note that the Hopi live in the Arizona desert). In Sumerian we find "shum4" (ancient), gú "(land) and" parim "(arid land). Sipapu (hole through which the Hopi reached, climbing up a bamboo cane, the Fourth World). In Sumerian we find “yes” (antenna, remain vertical [bamboo?]) And “pú” (well, deep). Tiponi (corncob to which feathers are hooked, which has strong magical power). In Sumerian we have "you" (to be scared), "pa" (wing, feather), and "ní (strength, fear, respect). Toho (oil to spread the body for ritual purposes). In Sumerian we find tu5, 17 (wash, spill, make libation). (Note that in Sumerian there is no vowel o .)

We believe that behind these homologs there is at least one expression of the mother tongue we are looking for. This, of course, would evolve differently at each point. And we also think that the Sumerian language (and perhaps also the Turkish language) can be the key to deciphering a certain number of dead languages, so far unintelligible to historians.

We would not like to finish this article without making a brief digression about certain linguistic coincidences that we believe should not go unnoticed. It is difficult to explain the similarities that we expose below if it is not through the existence of a hypothetical mother tongue. (Note that we have underlined certain Basque words, trying to demonstrate that this language is not at all an orphaned language, as it has often been said.) 1) The roots Indo-European * arg (white, bright) and * bhel (shine) are related to those of many other languages: Scripted arko Tocario arci Basque argi Slavic Bel Lithuanian baltas Turkish beyaz Japanese byaku Chinese bai 2) And now let's look at the word negro : Scripted kala Mongolian har Turkish kara rabe qara Japon s kuro Tamil karuppu 3) Note the following similarities in relation to the idea water : Indo-European * rod, * var (water, river) Subscribed var (water) Guaran beru (water) Hebrew beer (well) Sirio biro (well) Vasco bera (soak) Arabic bahri, bahr (sea, river, river Nile) Indo-European * sea (sea) Samudra (ocean) Finland s meri (sea) Bret n mor (sea) German sea (ci naga) Georgian imer (from beyond the sea) Egyptian mer (canal, lake) Turkish kemer (r o) 4) The mala root, alluding to monta a, is spread throughout the world: Maladeta (Spain) Malaysia Maldives 5 ) The word muerte also offers astounding coincidences at the universal level: Scripted mrta Avesto mrete Lat n mors Egyptian mut Berber muth Hebrew mut arab mawt Arameo mota Sirio mawto 6) Now fixed monkeys in the root of the numeral siete : Latin septem Gothic sibun Scripted Saptan Tocario spat arab sab Hebrew seva Sirius savo Hungarian set Tuareg sa Copto sasf Swahili saba Cambodian satta Malay sapta 7) The word perro also seems to be related in many languages: Greek kur s Lat n canis Japanese s ken (or ku) Chinese quan Vietnamese Tibetan cho khyi Korean kae 8) Now let's examine the word rey : S written rajah Lat n rex Thailand 9)

And then the word God : Greek Theos Latin Deus Germano Teiwa, or Tiwaz (former name of Od n) Snskrit Dewan Aymar Tia Nahuatl Teotl Orinoco dialect Theos Chinese Tien Malay Tuan 10) Finally, note the following homologues between Hebrew and Basque: Hebrew Eretz (people-nation) Basque Herri (people-nation) Hebrew Araba (plain) Basque Araba (probably pa s between mountains ) Hebrew loves (maid) Basque loves (mother) Hebrew encompasses (crossing [a river or a sea]) Basque ibar (river in ancient Basque ) Hebrew Haran (crossover) Vasco Haran (valley) In short, behind these coincidences we can glimpse perhaps the old mother tongue that we intended to find taken from gestae.com

Next Article