LINGUIST List 23.3029
Thu Jul 12 2012
Media: DNA Evidence Supports Linguistic Classification
Editor for this issue: Anna Belew
<annalinguistlist.org>
Date: 12-Jul-2012
From: Anthony Aristar <aristar
linguistlist.org>
Subject: NY Times: ''Earliest Americans Arrived in Waves, DNA Study Finds''
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North and South America were first populated by three waves ofmigrants from Siberia rather than just a single migration, sayresearchers who have studied the whole genomes of Native Americansin South America and Canada.
The finding vindicates a proposal first made on linguistic grounds byJoseph Greenberg, the great classifier of the world’s languages. Heasserted in 1987 that most languages spoken in North and SouthAmerica were derived from the single mother tongue of the first settlersfrom Siberia, which he called Amerind. Two later waves, he surmised,brought speakers of Eskimo-Aleut and of Na-Dene, the language familyspoken by the Apache and Navajo.
Read the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/science/earliest-americans-arrivedin-3-waves-not-1-dna-study-finds.html?_r=3
Linguistic Field(s):
Genetic Classification
Historical Linguistics
Page Updated: 12-Jul-2012