1. ASIAN FAMILIESLANGUAGE IN THE PRE-COLOMBIAN AMERICA: A PROPOSAL
FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Final Paper
By: Pablo Fernández Colón
ENGL 8005
Dr. Melvin Alleyne
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.
12/2/2013.
As earlier discussed in The Arahuac (Arawac) Indigenious language of the first Caribbean
inhabitants, “there is enough sustainable evidence that demonstrate the Asian input in the precolonized America, including the Caribbean”.
Tangible documentation regarding, DNA traces, religious practices and social traditions have
been also linked as part of the Asian input in the Pre-Colombian America (Department of
Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA. In Schurr TG, Ballinger SW,
Gan YY, Hodge JA, Merriwether DA, Lawrence DN, Knowler WC, Weiss KM, Wallace DC.,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1968708).
In the article Colombia: la puerta de ingreso a Suramérica ,
http://www.banrepcultural.org/museo-del-oro/sociedades/primeros-pobladores/colombia-puertade-ingreso-a-suramerica there it is sustained the theory which consider Colombia as the gate for
the entrance of South America by a diversity of pre-Columbus Asian inputs as far as 14,000
2. years ago. Itisalsosustainedthatafterthelast Glaciar era, whatnowadaysisPanama, waspart of
Colombia beforeitsindependence, and bythissite, “Los arqueólogos coinciden en señalar el Istmo
de Panamá y la región del Darién colombiano como paso obligado de los primeros habitantes a
Suramérica”.This is, archeologists signals this geographical zone as entrance to South America
as well as to the Caribbean.
Theories of earlier Asian routes to the Americas:
3. Three main theories have been proposed as origins as cited previously in the article Origins of
the Americas. http://www.slideshare.net/albanydia79/primeros-pobladores-de-america
http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/Teor%C3%ADas-Sobre-Los-Primeros-PobladoresDe/1292079.html,and in http://www.monografias.com/trabajos26/asia-y-america/asia-y-america.shtml, as it is
shown in the previous illustration.
But because of the cruel extinction of these early Amerindian setlers by the Europeans “conquistadores”maily
Spaniards after 1492, this is why it is so difficult to evidence the possible presence and influences of Asian Family
Language which could have had their influence in the Arahuacos (Arawaks) as well as other pre-Spanish
languages in the Americas as well as in the Caribbean.
But the logic says that if there are enough anthropological, cultural, religious as well as empirical medical DNA
data linked to the possible cross-cultural Asian-Amerindian interaction or contact, why not language contact also?
Because this writer does not master the expertise of linguistics as well as antropologists, it is why this paper is
presented only as a proposal for in deph studies regarding this possibility of Asian Family Languages in the
Amerindians much earlier than any other European languages links.
There is no doubt that a great number of formerCaribe-Ignerilanguage connections to south-americanArawak
language formed the Caribbean predominant creolesthat came to be the “Taino” language as pointed by Miner
Sola, Edwin (2002) in:DiccionarioTainoIlustrado as well as Alvarez Nazario, Manuel (1992)in:
El HablaCampesina del País. It is well documented that in the island of Dominica,ArahuacoIgneri language (Kalinago) was still spoken by its population up to the year 1920. If it were the
case, Saint Vincent in the British Honduras, as well as Dominica, could be considered as the last
evidence of Arahuaco-Igneri language of the Caribbean.Nowadays the Creole spoken form of
4. Garifuna as well as English, Spanish and Mayan Languages are found in the Island (Bolland,
Nigel. "Belize: Historical Setting". In A Country Study: Belize (Tim Merrill, editor). Library of
CongressFederal Research Division (January 1992).As well as St. Vincent, Dominica is home to
a wide range of people. Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes, the
Arawaks and KalinagoCarib tribes remained by the time European settlers reached the island as
it is cited in: "Dominica Ethnic groups 2001 Census". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2013-09-29.
Consecuently, the remaining Caribs now live on a 3,700-acre (15 km2) territory on the east coast
of the island of Dominica.Although the official languageis English,there is also aCreoledialect
calledVicentinowhich isa dialectwithlexicalmostlyEnglish,Frenchelements, Antillean Creole,
Spanishand Portuguese.
In the specific case of Puerto Rico (Boriken) indigenious or native Tainosetlersbecause of their
early extinction, as presented byAlvarez Nazario, Manuel (1992):“An important and very
relevant finding was the one sustained by the bishop Bastidas who by the year of 1544 found
only sixty (60)Tainos in the Island (Boriken)”, as a direct consequence, their language was
practically eliminated and substituted by the conquerors’ Spanish. Also religious Taino elements
were also difficult to evidence due to their quick extinction.
Triangulation evidence used by antropologists, points Taino language roots back to South
America, mainly Colombian Arawaks and St. Vincent indigenous who still keep manifestation of
what was earlier called Carib, Igneri or Aeawaktonges (Alvarez, M., 1992), and
http://www.banrepcultural.org/museo-del-oro/sociedades/primeros-pobladores/colombia-puertade-ingreso-a-suramerica.
5. Some considerations for further research are suggested in the following lines as guidance
forestablishing possible connections between early Amerindians languages and Asian Families
Languages due to the evidenced of language contact much more before the European presence in
the Americas as well as the Caribbean region.
Certain cultural parallels between ancient China and Peru suggest Chinese influence in the
Cupisnique-Chavin, Moche, Nazca, and Chimu cultures that existed along Peru’s coastal desert
from about 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Numerous nineteenth- and twentieth -century scholars have
observed linguistic, epigraphic, artistic, religious-cosmological, and technological parallels
suggestive of such influence. (See George Carter’s good summary, “Chinese Contacts with
America,” Anthropological Journal of Canada 14, no. 1 (1976), pp. 10–24; Joseph Needham,
Science and Civilization in China, vol. 4 (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 1971,
Part III, esp. pp. 540–43; R. A. Jairazbhoy, Ancient Egyptians and Chinese in America (Totowa,
N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1974); Paul Shao, Asiatic Influences in Pre-Columbian American
Art (Ames, Ia.: Iowa State University Press, 1976); and recently deceased HenrietteMerz’s more
speculative Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America (Chicago:
Swallow Press, 1953; revised 1972). As previously mentioned in: American Indigenous
languages and Chinese influences in the pre-colonialism, presented in class on October 30, 2013,
More recently studies have shown additional insights in these regards:
“Present-day Asians and Native Americans are descended from a group of people who were
already in China 40,000 years ago, according to an analysis of fossil DNA published this
week”SvantePaabo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology cites: The
genetic analysis from the ancient bone showed similarities to genetic profiles from modern-day
6. Asians and Native Americans, the researchers explained.http://www.rawstory.com/rs/, By
Agence France-Presse, posted on: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 21:10 EDT. Additional DNA traits
were reviewed in PeriódicoMercurio from Chile signaling the presence of Asian DNA traces in
Perubian primitive cultures as sustained by the studies conducted by Rothhammer, (Transpacific
Theory), .” http://www.escolares.net/historia-universal/teorias-poblamiento-americano/.
AlešHrdlička (1869-1943), as well as the works done by the linguist Joseph Greenberg,
paleoantropólogist Christy Turner and genetist Stephen Zegura, in a co-authors work published
in "El Poblamiento de América: Unacomparación de la evidencialingüística, dental y genética".
GREENBERG; TURNER; & ZEGURA (1986).
Using vocabulary found both in Asian Family Languages as well as Arawak (Taino) Language
as presented in Miner Sola, Edwin (2002) in: DiccionarioTainoIlustrado as well as Alvarez
Nazario, Manuel (1992)in: El HablaCampesina del País. Also in http://www.tainotribe.org/tsdict.html, BienvenidosA La PrimeraEdicion Del DiccionarioModernoTainoEL
Diccionario Del LenguajeHabladoTaino, a Project for the Taino Language is proposed in this
site, which can be useful for further research.
To facilitate translation between traditional – Chinessepidging the following online dictionary
provides an easy correlation, including pronunciation: Chinese pidgin
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2010/05/pidgin-english/,
http://members.dandy.net/~orocobix/tsdict.html, and http://translate.google.com/#en/zhCN/Buren%2C%20Boya%2C.
7. While considering Grammar of the Chinese language, as for example the word order is subject,
verb and object but is also subject, object and verb, can be utilized as another useful source in
http://html.rincondelvago.com/lenguas-de-todo-el-mundo.html.
Conclussion: A vision of the future:
What is happening today between China and Latin American Countries (LAC)? In the following
link this question is answered: Time to recalibrate China-Caribbean relationship
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2013-01/06/content_27597904.htm.
The following summary is taken from this site to illustrate this inter relationship between LAC
and China: “China and the LAC region also share a long history. Chinese explorers already had
maps of Latin America and the Caribbean in 1418 -- more than seven decades before Columbus
and the Europeans first arrived in 1492. But China's re-engagement with the English-speaking
Caribbean is of more recent vintage. The first Chinese arrived in Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad
& Tobago in the 1840s -- along with Indian indentured servants -- following the abolition of
slavery in the British Caribbean in 1838. Another batch arrived in Jamaica in 1854.
(Interestingly, all the early Chinese in the Caribbean came from China's Guangdong Province.
Today, people of Chinese descent can be found in every Caribbean territory.)
But there are new factors that will color China's relationships with Latin America and with the
Caribbean, both as a whole and in parts. The dynamics of the current acceleration of improved
cross-Straits ties also have implications for Chinese mainland and Taiwan's respective relations
with the countries of LAC region and vice versa.”
8. References
Agence France-Presse: The genetic analysis from the ancient bone showed similarities to
genetic profiles from modern-day Asians and Native Americans, the researchers
explained.http://www.rawstory.com/rs/, posted on: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 21:10
EDT.
Alleyne M.C., Chaper 7: Caribbean Popular Vernaculars in CARIBBEAN
COMMUNICATION: Vol. II Language in CaribbeanCommunication,
Alvarez Nazario, Manuel (1992)in: El Habla Campesina del País: Editorial de la
Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, PR
Bering Passage:http://www.escolares.net/historia-universal/teorias-poblamiento-americano/
Bousquet, Earl:Time to recalibrate China-Caribbean relationship,
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2013-01/06/content_27597904.htm
CAVALLI-SFORZA, L. L., et. al. (1988).«Reconstruction of human evolution: Bringing
together genetic, archaeological, and linguistic data».«A new genetic map of living
humans in interconnected world regions».DNA Tribes
Colombia: la puerta de ingreso a Suramérica , http://www.banrepcultural.org/museo-deloro/sociedades/primeros-pobladores/colombia-puerta-de-ingreso-a-suramerica
China: 7000 Years of Discovery (Toronto, 1982), pp. 8–9: Carter’ George, “Chinese Contacts
9. with America,” Anthropological Journal of Canada 14, no. 1 (1976), pp. 10–24.
DNA Study traces Ancestry of Native American to Beijin:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/22/dna-study-traces-ancestry-of-native-americansto-beijing/ and http://descubriramerica.wordpress.com/).
Early Setlers:http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/Teor%C3%ADas-Sobre-Los-PrimerosPobladores-De/1292079.html.
Merz, Henriette: Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America (Chicago:
Swallow Press, 1953; revised 1972).
Miner Sola, Edwin (2002) in: Diccionario Taino Ilustrado Serie: Puerto Rico Prehistorico
Vol.1 Ediciones Servilibros, PR. ISBN: 0-9633435-9-9
Needham,Joseph:Science and Civilization in China, vol. 4 (Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge
University Press, 1971, Part III, esp. pp. 540–43.
Origins of the Americas.http://www.slideshare.net/albanydia79/primeros-pobladores-de-america
http://www.buenastareas.com/ensayos/Teor%C3%ADas-Sobre-Los-PrimerosPobladores-De/1292079.html, and in http://www.monografias.com/trabajos26/asia-y-america/asiay-america.shtml.
Pidgins & Creoles: An Introduction, edited by JacheresArends, Pieter Muysken and Norval
Smith (1995)
10. Primera Edicion Del Diccionario Moderno Taino EL Diccionario Del Lenguaje Hablado Taino,
http://www.taino-tribe.org/tsdict.html
R. A. Jairazbhoy, Ancient Egyptians and Chinese in America (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and
Littlefield, 1974
Reich, David, et. al. 2012 Reconstructing Native American population history Nature 2012
DOI: doi:10.1038/nature11258
Schurr TG, Ballinger SW, Gan YY, Hodge JA, Merriwether DA, Lawrence DN, Knowler WC,
Weiss KM, Wallace DC.Amerindian mitochondrial DNAs have rare Asian
mutations at high frequencies, suggesting they derived from four primary maternal
lineages:Department of Biochemistry, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta,
GA. In Schurr TG, Ballinger SW, Gan YY, Hodge JA, Merriwether DA, Lawrence DN,
Knowler WC, Weiss KM, Wallace DC., http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1968708.
Shao Paul, Asiatic Influences in Pre-Columbian American Art (Ames, Ia.: Iowa State University
Press, 1976)
Theories on early Asian input in America:
http://www.monografias.com/trabajos26/asia-y-america/asia-yamerica.shtml#ixzz2hw5ynxSH. Also in: (http://www.escolares.net/historiauniversal/teorias-poblamiento-americano/
11. Tomas Navarro, Tomas (1999) El Español en Puerto Rico: contribución a la geografía
lingüística hispanoamericana. Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, 1998.