Lee Olsen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Geotio Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lee Olsen Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Geotio Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > >
> > > >
> > > > And even without dna we know the
> story
> > > about
> > > > entire continents e.g. N America
> > ,S.America
> > > to a
> > > > lesser degree , Australia . In Asia
> ,
> > > millions of
> > > > Chinese and Indians now live
> thousands
> > of
> > > miles
> > > > away from where they were born .
> Check
> > > census
> > > > records , the settled people
> fantasy
> > applies
> > > to a
> > > > very small minority , it is what
> people
> > do
> > > and
> > > > always did.
> > >
> > >
> > > Lots of languages from same DNA pool.
> > >
> > > The only way that could have happened,
> IMO,
> > is
> > > that for the most part, populations as
> a
> > whole,
> > > were not moving around much in the
> Americas
> > thus
> > > lots of "isolates" in language.
> >
> > But we know that these populations had
> migrated
> > to the Americas .
>
> Right.
>
> >
> > Foragers and nomads would have almost
> certainly
> > kept their language despite not settling in
> the
> > one place for any period .
>
> Europe is different from here, out in the wild
> west (we actually have remnant hunter/gathers we
> can ask). When Lewis and Clark showed up on the
> Columbia River, they noted multiple language
> groups were camping, literally side by side,
> during the salmon season. Not in discrete separate
> areas, but right in each others face and neither
> neighbor could understand the others language.
> They all had some form of a Stick Man legend that
> varied a lot from group to group, but still
> recognizable as related stories to
> anthropologists. When the salmon run was over they
> then separated as a unit camp and went back to
> their own separated homes in different areas. They
> also had something else, sign language.
>
> What happened next is simply amazing. When the
> European fur trappers showed up they didn't know
> sign language, yet it was important everyone
> speaking all these different languages to
> understand each other. Business needs a common
> language simply because money is so important.
>
> What to do to solve the impasse? Jargon. In just a
> few years the Chinook jargon (not the language
> itself), but a combination of all of them, words
> here and there taken from all the groups solved
> the problem and only in the amount of time the fur
> trade era was going on.
>
> Two generations later a friend of mine's dad had a
> most unusual distinction. Since he lived on the
> Columbia river and the closest school was on the
> Yakima Indian Reservation, he ended up the only
> white kid in an all Indian school for his
> education. What was he taught for language? Both
> Chinook jargon and English. Fortunately before he
> died an anthropologist audio taped many of his
> experiences and some of the words he could still
> remember in the Chinook jargon.
>
> I haven't checked lately on how many people can
> still understand Chinook jargon, probably not
> many. So now it's changed again to the dominate
> English.
>
> That's how fast languages can change...in
> geological time overnight.

The sign language is fascinating on so many levels .

Dominant incomers/invaders bringing their language into territories with an entirely different lingo can really complicate things . In the historical periods when we have accounts of what actually took place it's great with a variety of outcomes . English ,the dominant tech lingo is a good example , but it's mostly French .Despite only being separated by a days crossing, French had little influence on English until the Normans invaded , and French wasn't the original lingo of the Normans .