Central Asian Language Similar to Denesuline
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 14:12
Researchers say a language in central Asia is showing some remarkable similarities to Denesuline.
Scientist James Kari says the Ket people are located about 4,000 miles west of Fairbanks, Alaska.
They are also one of the last hunting and fishing peoples in the region.
He explains that through careful research a number of similarities in language and grammar have been pinpointed.
“There’s grammatical correspondences that are pretty subtle like some of the inner-most prefixes in the Athabascan verb that mark the prefective like the “s” or the “th” sound. The verb “to be”. Those appear to be intimately-related prefixes.”
Kari says this could potentially be the oldest language link, with this amount of evidence, on the planet.
He notes around a dozen academics have looked at the research.
He says some are convinced of the link while others say it looks promising and more scrutiny is warranted.
A book has been compiled out of the research entitled “The Dene-Yeniseian Connection.
It is a publication of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Anthropology and the Alaska Native Language Center.