Origins
In American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America (1997), Lyle Campbell lists several hypotheses for the historical origins of Amerindian languages.
- A single, one-language migration (currently not widely accepted)
- A few linguistically distinct migrations (favored by Edward Sapir)
- Multiple migrations
- Multilingual migrations (single migration with multiple languages)
- The influx of already diversified but related languages from the Old World
- Extinction of Old World linguistic relatives (while the New World ones survived)
- Migration along the Pacific coast instead of the Bering Strait
Roger Blench (2008) advocates for multiple migrations along the Pacific coast of peoples from northeastern Asia who already spoke diverse languages.
Read more about this topic: Indigenous Languages Of The Americas
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)