[Note: All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]
AINU & BASQUE
LANGUAGE *
CORRELATION
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Introduction
An ancient language form that
originated in the North African area of our most ancient civilizations has
been studied by Nyland
(2001). He found that many words used
to describe names of places and things in northern Japan seem to be closely
related to the ancient language, which is being called Saharan.
It appears that the Basque language is a close relative to the
original Saharan. Following is a
discussion of this relationship:
The language of the Ainu people of Northern Japan has been
considered a language-isolate, apparently being unlike any other language on
earth. Edo Nyland has noted taht few researchers found a relationship with
languages in southeast Asia; others saw similarity with the Ostiak and Uralic
languages of northern Siberia. The Ainu look like Caucasian people, they have
white skin, their hair is wavy and thick, their heads are monocephalic
(round) and a few have gray or blue eyes. However, their blood types are more
like the Mongolian people, possibly through many millennia of intermixing.
The Ainu are a semi-nomadic hunting and fishing group but also practice
simple planting methods, which knowledge may have been acquired from the
newcomers. The invading people, under their Yamato government, called them the Ezo, the unwanted,
and forced the Ainu in fierce fighting to retreat north to the island of Hokkaido.
The name Ezo likely is an abbreviation
of the Basque word ezonartu (to disapprove
of). The following summarizes the accounts by Nyland and others on the
possible correlation of the two languages: ARCHAEOLOGY
Archaeologists determined that the Ainu have been living
on many of Japan's islands, from Okinawa to Sakhalin, for 7,000 years and
likely longer. Their Jomon
pottery is found
everywhere; it is characteristic although somewhat clumsy and can be dated
from 5,000 bce. until just before the Christian era. It is very attractive
and is distinguished by the fantasy of its shapes with elegant and
imaginative cord decorations. Some of the most striking finds were the
clearly anthropomorphic clay and stone figurines resembling pregnant females
with mask-like faces and protuberant eyes; very similar to those found in
many other parts of the world, especially in Europe. A number of stone circles have also been found, similar to
those in Cornwall (England) and Senegal (North-West Africa). A few still have
the slender upright stone in the center, also found in the British Isles and
elsewhere in Atlantic Europe and N.W. Africa. Around 300 bce., Mongolian type
people moved in from Korea and aggressively forced the Ainu north onto the
large island of Hokkaido where an estimated 17,000 of them are still living.
Some 10 dialects have been recognized, such as those of Sakhalin, Hokkaido
and the Kurils, but several are at the point of being lost forever. In
Hokkaido, young Ainu are now making an effort to restore their ancient
language and traditions. RELIGION
There are many intriguing resemblances between the
religious customs of the Ainu and the Shinto Japanese. The Ainu called their
God Kami while the Japanese called him Kamisama.
The Aleut and Eskimo word kammi means
"ancient thing" or "at the beginning," one of a great
many correlations between Ainu and Inuktitut. (The Eskimo people call
themselves the Inuit; note the similarity between the names Inuk and Ainu). Bear worship is still part of the Ainu religion and
is described in detail by Joseph Campbell in Primitive Mythology. This Paleolithic bear-worship may
date back to before 100,000 bce., to the days of the Neanderthals. It appears
to have been practiced worldwide; wherever the bear was not found (mainly in
Africa), its place was taken by similar panther-worship. Bear worship was not tolerated in those areas later
dominated by the major religions; therefore, it was only possible for anthropologists
to study the religion in the peripheral areas of northern Europe and Siberia.
This gave rise to the idea that the Ainu must have moved eastward through
Siberia, even though the nearest people of their type are found almost 5,000
miles away. However, bear-worship has also been reported from Indonesia where
languages similar to the Ainu language are still spoken (to be discussed with
the Indonesian language). Could it be that the Ainu were part of the mass
migration of "Caucasian" type Sea Peoples who fled the
burning Sahara and, among others, became the "Caucasian" looking
Polynesians and Maories? The following language comparison for the Ainu seems
to indicate that this was the case. THE NAMES AND WORDS OF JAPAN
In books about Japan it is often remarked that many of the
names of Japan's geographical features were taken over from the Ainu. For
instance, the many names beginning or ending with ama
(Goddess) are all thought to be of Ainu origin. In 1994 the newly
married prince and princess of Japan traveled to the cave of the Goddess Amaterasu to ask her blessings for their
marriage. The name Amaterasu
is agglutinated from ama-atera-asu, ama (Goddess) atera (to come out, to
appear) asturu (blessings
flow): Blessings flow when the Goddess appears. This name is made up
of perfect Basque! Other well-known names were similarly assembled such as Hokkaido: oka-aidu: oka (big meal) aiduru (looking forward
to): Looking forward to a big meal; and Fujiyama,
fa-uji-ama: fa (happy) uju (cry of joy) ama (Goddess): "A
happy cry of joy for the Goddess" is uttered by everyone who reaches
the top of the holy mountain, just like is still being heard on many other
mountains of the world (e.g . at Croag Patrick in Ireland, on the last Sunday
of July). The Basques even have a word for this yodel cry for the Goddess,
which they call irrintzi. The name Amaterasu is made up with
the vowel-interlocking Ogam formula, which was surprising to me because in
the Ainu language itself there is not a hint of this agglutinating formula.
Nyland then searched for more Japanese names and words which were assembled
with the vowel-interlocking Ogam formula and found many such as Kamikaze and Samurai. The surprise
which came from this comparison was that those words which showed
vowel-interlocking were usually associated with fighting and male domination.
This appeared to be true all over the Pacific, including Peru and Mexico.
Could this mean that there were two major migrations, the first one many
millennia ago from Mesopotamia which brought the peaceful people of the
Goddess to the Pacific and a much later one, missionary based, bringing
aggressive male domination and the language-distorting vowel-consonant-vowel
(VCV) formula to these same areas? None of the Ainu words was the same as in Basque, but many
were extremely close such as ikoro and koro (money), kokor and gogor (to scold), tasum and eritasun (illness), iska and xiska (to steal). A
surprise was the Ainu word nok (testicle) which
is much like the Basque word noka (familiarity
with women). In English slang the same word is used in "to knock
up" meaning "to cause a woman to become pregnant." In
Indonesian nok means
"unmarried young woman," while dénok
means "slender, elegant woman." In Dutch slang the word
is slightly altered to neuk (sexual
intercourse). There is little doubt that the word goes way back to the
Neolithic or even Paleolithic. From the following comparisons it seems clear
that Ainu and Basque are genetically related. In comparing Ainu with
Dravidian, there was no such a relationship, although Dravidian itself is
obviously also related to Basque. Two separate branches of the same tree? The following words were taken from: An Ainu Dialect Dictionary edited by Shiro Hattori and
printed mostly in Latin characters. This work provided a wealth of excellent
material for comparison. Don't forget that the Basque "s" is
pronounced as a soft "sh" and that our sharp "sh" is
written as "x" in Basque. (The page column shows the word
number/page number from his book): Page # AINU ENGLISH BASQUE ENGLISH 2/5 tontone to be bald tontordun crested, plumed 2/6 kepsapa bald head kepireska heads or tails 6/38 aspa to be deaf aspaldiko old, ancient 6/41 papus lips papar breast 6/69 taspare to sigh asparen to sigh 11/82 aske hand esku hand 12/94 poro monpeh thumb erpuru thumb 15/130 nok testicle noka familiarity with women 15/131 pok vulva puki vulva (slang) 16/133 uka'un sexual intercourse seukan to possess, to have 16/134 meno kupuri to menstruate kopor-kopuri goblet, quantity 17/136 kema leg, foot kemen vigor, strength 17/137 hera to limp herren cripple 18/149 kiski hair kizkur curly, wavy hair 18/152 kamihi surface of kamisoi nightgown, the skin 19/161 tur dirt lur dirt 23/188 hatcir to fall(down) atzeratu to fall (back) 24/194 hotkuku to stoop kukutu to stoop 24/201 mokor sleep makar sleep 28/1 siko to be born zikoina stork 28/4 hetuku to grow up gehitu to grow up 28/4 sikup to grow up siku miserly 29/14 sinki to get tired sinkulin crying, whining 29/15 yasumi to rest jaso to get better 29/16 tasum illness eritasun illness 29/16 araka illness arakatu to be examined 30/22 ukikosmare to sprain ukitu to touch, to affect 31/34 pirika to recover pirri shaky, jittery 31/36 kusuri drug kutsu infection 31/38 shuruku poison shurrut gulp, drink 34/2 okkai man oka egin to eat too much 34/3 meneko woman eme female 35/7 sukukur young man sukor having a temper kuraia strength 35/10 poro aynu adult porrokatu tired 35/11 onne kur old person onegi benign kurrinka moaning 36/12 ekasi old man ekarri to contribute, provide 36/13 hutci old woman hutsikusle fault-finding 36/13 ruhne mah old woman urrumakatu to sing a lullaby 36/16 pon to be very young ponte baptismal font 39/12 ona father onartzaile authority 40/16 po child poz happiness 42/31 uriwahnecin sibling aurride sibling 42/31 irutar siblings irutara three different ways 42/35 umatakikor to be sisters umatu to reproduce 44/52 kok son-in-law kok bellyful 45/56 aukorespa to be engaged aukeratu to choose, select 45/58 usante to marry usantza tradition 45/59 umurek married couple umotu to have children 47/68 ekkur guest ekuru peaceful, peace of mind 47/73 ipakasnokur teacher ikaserazi to teach 48/75 kusunkur enemy kuskusean spying 50/1 kotan village -kote multiplicity, many 50/2 porokotan city porrokatu to destroy 50/3 sinotusi open space sinotsu strange, unfamiliar 50/8 oiakunkur out of doors oian forest 51/10 ankahpaaki foreigner ankapetu to trample under foot 51/13 uraiki to make war jarraiki to attack 51/17 kotankoro tribal chief koroa crowned, glorified 52/18 tono official tontor plumed, feathered 52/21 u'ekari meeting ekarle bringer (of news) 52/21 u'ekarpa meeting ekarpen contribution 52/23 kotan orake to go to ruin oraka financial ruin 52/23 kiru to die out kirru blond 52/23 sikupu to perish siku shriveled up 53/32 isocise jail isolamendu isolation 56/1 itah language itano speaking in second person 57/12 kayo to cry out kaio seagull 58/15 ese to answer esetsi to argue 58/15 itasa answer itaun question 58/18 u'uste to pass along uste opinion 58/19 sonko information esonde advice 58/21 senpir backbiting senper suffering 58/22 sinititak to joke sinoti crazy 58/23 sunke falsehood suntsun foolish, idiotic 59/26 esina to conceal esinguratu to surround, to block 59/27 etekke confidential etekin profit, wages 59/28 eramankorka to pretend eramankor tolerant, enduring 59/28 ennuka to pretend enulkeria weakness, debility 60/40 itokpa to mark itoka quickly 64/1 ariki to come ariketa assignment, activity 64/2 koman to go komandante commander 64/5 eson asin to go away esonde advice asi to start, to begin65/11 rutu to move aside urrundu to move away 65/12 somaketa to approach somaketa attention, perception 65/14 etaras to stop etapa |