In early 1980s, out of curiosity, I was wondering about a possible existence of an affinity between Altaic Languages and the native languages spoken in the Americas. So I made a research, (although not as a linguist), with the hope of finding some living words presently used in Turkish and also in the languages of the Native Peoples of Americas. After all thousands of years ago, the ancestors of both the Turks and those of some of the Native Peoples of the American continents shared the same geographic area in Central Asia and Siberia. I wrote a paper about my findings through my research entitled "Probable Existence of a Linguistic and Cultural Kinship Between the Altaic Peoples and the Native Peoples of Americas." The following is a rearrangement of the original paper.
In my search I used the following facts and/or assumptions:
1a) Turks and their ancestors are Central Asiatic (particularly Altaic) people. The ancestors of Turks have lived in this part of the world (i.e., Central Asia and most parts of Siberia) not only throughout the known history, but most likely for thousands of years before that in the distant past. From Central Asia they have migrated to other parts of the world. At present, many ethnic Turkish people live in Siberia all the way up to the Kara Sea north of Ural Mountains, to East Siberian Sea and to the Bering Straight in the east as well as in Central Asia.
1b) The ancestors of most of the Native Peoples of North, Central and South Americas are known to have migrated from Asia through the Bering Sea many thousands (10000 or more) of years ago.
1c) In view of these facts, it is very likely that in the distant past, the ancestors of some of the Native Peoples of Americas and the ancestors of Turks and other Altaic peoples lived in the same or adjacent geographic regions of Central Asia and/or Siberia. If so, it is again very likely that all these peoples could have been members of the same people or closely related people who spoke the same language or closely related languages. Due to their possible relationship with each other in the distant past, one is inclined to think of probable existence of some cultural and linguistic relationship between these peoples, in spite of the fact that while some members stayed in their homelands in Asia, the others left Asia and went to North America.
1d) All languages are dynamic and subject to change in time. Similarly, a proto-Altaic language spoken by the members of an Altaic community who became separated from each other, in time by thousands of years and in space by thousands of kilometres, would definitely develop independently of each other in a way that when examined at present, they would appear alien to each other. In present times, it would be difficult for people who speak such languages to communicate with each other with the present form of their languages.
1e) However, in spite of this independent development of the languages of the Native Peoples of Americas and the Altaic Peoples, there may still exist in both groups of languages some living words that may be used to express the same meaning in the same way as before. There should still be some living words as "linguistic artefacts" which are reminiscence of the language that these ancient people spoke while they were all living in Asia.
1f) In any language, the first two words that a child learns in his/her mother tongue are probably the ones that correspond to the words "father" and "mother". These two words are repeated in each person's life time, particularly early in age, so frequently that they become permanently embedded in everyone's memory. These two words are the most likely ones to be passed on from generation to generation during the life times of languages that may live thousands of years. Although, peoples of the same ethnic origin may become separated from each other and live in different parts of the world for long duration of time, yet their present languages may still retain these two words either in their original form or in a form which is similar to or a derivative of the original form. In spite of the evolutionary forces that act upon a language and cause changes in its structure and in the pronunciation of its words, one can still recognise these two words in languages which are related to each other.
1g) Turks being Altaic people of Central Asia are the lucky and proud inheritors of the Altaic words "ata", "apa" and "ana" through their Turkic languages.[1] [2] [3] In this set of Altaic words, the first two have been used for "father", "ancestor" and "old man" and the last one for "mother" throughout the history by different Altaic groups of peoples. Where ever the ancestors of Turks have migrated from their original homelands in Central Asia, they have carried with them these words as "linguistic artefacts" of their Altaic language to their new destinations. In their new homelands, they have passed these words to generation to generation up to the present time. The preservation of these words would particularly be highly likely if the speakers of the language were a dominant group with respect to their new neighbours. In this case, they would not only retain particular features of their language but it is quite likely that they would influence the languages of their new neighbours. On the other hand, if they were not as strong as their new neighbours in the new homelands, it is also likely that their language would be influenced by the languages of their neighbours. In any case, there would be some degree of cross pollination between the languages of people interacting closely with each other. With these suppositions, I feel that it would be very appropriate to use the Altaic words "ata", "apa" and "ana" and their derivatives as reference linguistic artefacts to trace the footsteps of the ancestors of Turks and other Altaic peoples.
1h) In addition to these basic words which do not easily change in time, one could also use as reference the names for some things that influence the lives of people to the degree that people tend to regard them highly and/or worship them in their every day life. People could take with them the names of such things as the Sun, the Moon, stars, gods, mountains, rivers, living things, etc. , wherever they go. Therefore, the names for such objects could also be used as reference linguistic artefacts to trace people.
1i) In Turkish, the two words that have been used interchangeably for "father", i.e., the words "ata" and "apa" could go through some transformation in time. Particularly, the phonemes "t" in "ata" and "p" in "apa" would tend to change into consonants "d" as in "ada" and "b" in "aba" respectively. This is noted to be so in various dialects of Turkish.
1j) The Altaic word corresponding to the word "mother" is "ana". A probable derivative of this word may be the word "ama" for "mother" which seems to be related to the Turkic word "meme" meaning mother's breast. For any child, "meme" is nothing but the "mama" or "ama" and hence "ana". In dialects of a proto-Altaic language, the word for "mother" could have been "ana" or "ama". By having "n" in "ana" change into "m", the word "ama" would result; similarly, by having the "m" in "ama" change into "n" would make the transformed word "ana". We will probably never know the exact nature of the relationship that may have taken place in history between the words "ana" and "ama". However, it seems that, throughout the historic development of the Altaic languages and thus of Turkish, "ana" is the word which is used most dominantly to mean "mother".
1k) Derivative words based on "ata", "apa" and "ana" are used to express various kinship's, particularly, for "father's father", "father's mother", mother's father" and "mother's mother". Table 1 below lists some of the possible derivative words based on these words. Turkish as an Altaic language, has used some of these derivative words not only in its archaic form but also in its present spoken dialects.
1a) Turks and their ancestors are Central Asiatic (particularly Altaic) people. The ancestors of Turks have lived in this part of the world (i.e., Central Asia and most parts of Siberia) not only throughout the known history, but most likely for thousands of years before that in the distant past. From Central Asia they have migrated to other parts of the world. At present, many ethnic Turkish people live in Siberia all the way up to the Kara Sea north of Ural Mountains, to East Siberian Sea and to the Bering Straight in the east as well as in Central Asia.
1b) The ancestors of most of the Native Peoples of North, Central and South Americas are known to have migrated from Asia through the Bering Sea many thousands (10000 or more) of years ago.
1c) In view of these facts, it is very likely that in the distant past, the ancestors of some of the Native Peoples of Americas and the ancestors of Turks and other Altaic peoples lived in the same or adjacent geographic regions of Central Asia and/or Siberia. If so, it is again very likely that all these peoples could have been members of the same people or closely related people who spoke the same language or closely related languages. Due to their possible relationship with each other in the distant past, one is inclined to think of probable existence of some cultural and linguistic relationship between these peoples, in spite of the fact that while some members stayed in their homelands in Asia, the others left Asia and went to North America.
1d) All languages are dynamic and subject to change in time. Similarly, a proto-Altaic language spoken by the members of an Altaic community who became separated from each other, in time by thousands of years and in space by thousands of kilometres, would definitely develop independently of each other in a way that when examined at present, they would appear alien to each other. In present times, it would be difficult for people who speak such languages to communicate with each other with the present form of their languages.
1e) However, in spite of this independent development of the languages of the Native Peoples of Americas and the Altaic Peoples, there may still exist in both groups of languages some living words that may be used to express the same meaning in the same way as before. There should still be some living words as "linguistic artefacts" which are reminiscence of the language that these ancient people spoke while they were all living in Asia.
1f) In any language, the first two words that a child learns in his/her mother tongue are probably the ones that correspond to the words "father" and "mother". These two words are repeated in each person's life time, particularly early in age, so frequently that they become permanently embedded in everyone's memory. These two words are the most likely ones to be passed on from generation to generation during the life times of languages that may live thousands of years. Although, peoples of the same ethnic origin may become separated from each other and live in different parts of the world for long duration of time, yet their present languages may still retain these two words either in their original form or in a form which is similar to or a derivative of the original form. In spite of the evolutionary forces that act upon a language and cause changes in its structure and in the pronunciation of its words, one can still recognise these two words in languages which are related to each other.
1g) Turks being Altaic people of Central Asia are the lucky and proud inheritors of the Altaic words "ata", "apa" and "ana" through their Turkic languages.[1] [2] [3] In this set of Altaic words, the first two have been used for "father", "ancestor" and "old man" and the last one for "mother" throughout the history by different Altaic groups of peoples. Where ever the ancestors of Turks have migrated from their original homelands in Central Asia, they have carried with them these words as "linguistic artefacts" of their Altaic language to their new destinations. In their new homelands, they have passed these words to generation to generation up to the present time. The preservation of these words would particularly be highly likely if the speakers of the language were a dominant group with respect to their new neighbours. In this case, they would not only retain particular features of their language but it is quite likely that they would influence the languages of their new neighbours. On the other hand, if they were not as strong as their new neighbours in the new homelands, it is also likely that their language would be influenced by the languages of their neighbours. In any case, there would be some degree of cross pollination between the languages of people interacting closely with each other. With these suppositions, I feel that it would be very appropriate to use the Altaic words "ata", "apa" and "ana" and their derivatives as reference linguistic artefacts to trace the footsteps of the ancestors of Turks and other Altaic peoples.
1h) In addition to these basic words which do not easily change in time, one could also use as reference the names for some things that influence the lives of people to the degree that people tend to regard them highly and/or worship them in their every day life. People could take with them the names of such things as the Sun, the Moon, stars, gods, mountains, rivers, living things, etc. , wherever they go. Therefore, the names for such objects could also be used as reference linguistic artefacts to trace people.
1i) In Turkish, the two words that have been used interchangeably for "father", i.e., the words "ata" and "apa" could go through some transformation in time. Particularly, the phonemes "t" in "ata" and "p" in "apa" would tend to change into consonants "d" as in "ada" and "b" in "aba" respectively. This is noted to be so in various dialects of Turkish.
1j) The Altaic word corresponding to the word "mother" is "ana". A probable derivative of this word may be the word "ama" for "mother" which seems to be related to the Turkic word "meme" meaning mother's breast. For any child, "meme" is nothing but the "mama" or "ama" and hence "ana". In dialects of a proto-Altaic language, the word for "mother" could have been "ana" or "ama". By having "n" in "ana" change into "m", the word "ama" would result; similarly, by having the "m" in "ama" change into "n" would make the transformed word "ana". We will probably never know the exact nature of the relationship that may have taken place in history between the words "ana" and "ama". However, it seems that, throughout the historic development of the Altaic languages and thus of Turkish, "ana" is the word which is used most dominantly to mean "mother".
1k) Derivative words based on "ata", "apa" and "ana" are used to express various kinship's, particularly, for "father's father", "father's mother", mother's father" and "mother's mother". Table 1 below lists some of the possible derivative words based on these words. Turkish as an Altaic language, has used some of these derivative words not only in its archaic form but also in its present spoken dialects.
1l) In phonetic languages such as Turkish in Altaic languages, the consonants in a given word make up the skeleton of each word while vowels in the word provide its proper sounding. However as the language develops in time, the vowels in a word may change into other vowels such as "a" into "e", "o", "u" while consonants of the words, in general, would tend to maintain their identity in the word through time.
1m) One should also note that each one of the derivative words from these Altaic words would readily go through transformations as people use and repeat them from generation to generation. For example, in the word "ataata" for "father's father", one of the vowels "a" in the middle of the the word would tend to be dropped off and the new form of the word would be "atata". In time, the word could go through further transformations and may take the possible derivative forms of "taata", "tata", "tate", "tatI", 'tete", "tat" and in the case of "adaada", it could transform into "adada", "dada", "dede", "dadI" "dad", etc.. In time, some of these derived words will be used to mean not only the "father's father" but also to mean "ancestors", "father", "old man" and "man". There are living examples of such usage in Turkish and in other Altaic languages. In my research, I have found evidence that the Altaic words "ata", "apa" and "ana" and their derivatives are used in considerable number of languages spoken by the Native Peoples of North, Central and South Americas. My findings are listed in Table 2 where I have listed the languages which use these words and the names of the Native Peoples of Americas who speak these languages with appropriate references.
1m) One should also note that each one of the derivative words from these Altaic words would readily go through transformations as people use and repeat them from generation to generation. For example, in the word "ataata" for "father's father", one of the vowels "a" in the middle of the the word would tend to be dropped off and the new form of the word would be "atata". In time, the word could go through further transformations and may take the possible derivative forms of "taata", "tata", "tate", "tatI", 'tete", "tat" and in the case of "adaada", it could transform into "adada", "dada", "dede", "dadI" "dad", etc.. In time, some of these derived words will be used to mean not only the "father's father" but also to mean "ancestors", "father", "old man" and "man". There are living examples of such usage in Turkish and in other Altaic languages. In my research, I have found evidence that the Altaic words "ata", "apa" and "ana" and their derivatives are used in considerable number of languages spoken by the Native Peoples of North, Central and South Americas. My findings are listed in Table 2 where I have listed the languages which use these words and the names of the Native Peoples of Americas who speak these languages with appropriate references.
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