Basque whalers (fl. 670-1713) hunted whales in the Atlantic Ocean, from Spitsbergen north of Norway to Brazil, but especially near what is now Newfoundland, Canada. It seems they reached the Americas before Columbus.
The Basque live on the Atlantic coast of Europe, their country divided between France and Spain. They speak a language unrelated to any other in Europe.
Their land was not great for farming, but it had plenty of oak and iron – perfect for building ships. There was plenty of cod off their coast and whales wintered there too.
By 670 the Basques were hunting whales at sea. They preferred Eubalaena glacialis: they float when you kill them and can produce huge amounts of oil.
In the 800s the Norse (Vikings) arrived. They taught the Basque two things: how to make better ships and how to cross the ocean. Contrary to what you might think, there are hardly any fish in the middle of the ocean. There is no food out there. The trick, as the Norse discovered, was to bring enough salted, dried cod.
The Basque followed whales north in the summer. They may have followed them all the way to Newfoundland and discovered the huge cod fishing grounds there. The Norse themselves reached Newfoundland by 999.
By the 1300s the Basque were selling so much cod that no one knew where they were getting it from. No fishing grounds near Europe could account for it. But the fishing grounds near Newfoundland could – and later did.
In the 1400s the Basques were rumoured to have discovered a land or island in the Atlantic.
In 1412 Basque whalers were recorded sailing west from Iceland.
By the late 1400s Basques built the best ships in Europe. They probably built and helped man the Santa Maria of Columbus and the Victoria of Magellan, the first ship to go around the world (in 1,096 days).
In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian explorer hired by the English, arrived in Newfoundland, making the first recorded Western discovery of the island. Some reported that the people there tried to speak to him in – Basque!
By 1512, at the latest, Basques were in the region. They had the fishing grounds mostly to themselves till the 1600s.
Unlike the English, the Basque did not keep themselves apart from the natives of North America. Unlike French Jesuit priests, they did not look down on them as wretched savages sunk in superstition. They thought the Innu (Montagnais), for example, were “extraordinarily capable and ingenious” and called them “real allies and friends”. They spoke to each other in a pidgin language that was half Basque and half Algonquin.
In the 1600s the French, Dutch and English came in numbers and planted successful colonies in North America. The Basque taught whaling to the Dutch and English. Huge mistake: Despite a treaty of safe passage, the English attacked Basque shipping and started to take over.
By 1713 it was over: at the peace conference at the end of the War of Spanish Succession, the English got Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
Sources: mainly:
- Mark Kurlansky: “The Basque History of the World” (1999),
- Jack D. Forbes: “The American Discovery of Europe” (2007),
- James Wilson: “The Earth Shall Weep” (1998).
See also:
“The Basque taught whaling to the Dutch and English. Huge mistake: Despite a treaty of safe passage, the English attacked Basque shipping and started to take over.”
****************
Yet we still give these people the benefit of the doubt after all this time…. Unbelievable!
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Good post.
Easy to forget just how important salted cod was to the New World.
Europeans wouldn’t have got there without it.
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Matari, do you mean the English?
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I’ve never heard of this bit of history. Thanks Abagond.
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“Matari, do you mean the English?”
*********
Bulanik, who else would I mean?
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[…] "Basque whalers (fl. 670-1713) hunted whales in the Atlantic Ocean, from Spitsbergen north of Norway to Brazil. They also fished for cod, especially near Newfoundland. It seems they reached the Americas before Columbus." […]
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@ Matari
I wanted to clarifiy whether “these people” were the Dutch and the English, and the other colonising European nations before, and after them, too.
It’s said that the Basque, though spurned by and separate from the Spaniards, also participated in the Spanish incursion into the Americas.
The Basque were conquistadors, too.
As a nation, though, I am not sure if they would have taken the same trajectory into conquest and colonisalism as their French and Spanish neighbours if they had refused to share their knowledge with the English when they did.
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This is a good post. Never heard of this before. I like these types of post threads. Do more of them.
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@Abagond: I love learning, so please do more of these types of posts.
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Let me be clearer then.. when I think of RACISM/white supremacy’s roots and origin, I’m not thinking of the Basque (however guilty they may or may not be). As far as I know, the Basque followed whales, not Africans!
According to my understanding, the English and Dutch took their “fishing gains” and used it to make in-roads to GREATER gains… colonization, slavery….
My point is that Europeans should NEVER be simply handed the benefit of the doubt. History is rife with inordinate amounts of lessons and examples on this matter! They are NOT to be automatically trusted.
If I get just ONE THING from this site, it is that Europeans should NEVER be simply handed or given the benefit of the doubt!
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“The Basque live on the Atlantic coast of Europe, their country divided between France and Spain. They speak a language unrelated to any other in Europe.”
– – –
The Basque language seems to be a very old one. According to what I’ve read, their word for ‘ceiling’ translates as ‘the top of cave’. Rhesus negative blood (my own group is A-) is said to have originated amongst them, and is relatively rare, especially amongst Asians and Africans.
I recall meeting a girl once who had a French accent but explained to me that she is from the Pyrenees area. When I inquired if she is Basque, a flash of annoyance crossed her face before she finally answered, “yes”.
Apparently the name “Basque” is French derived as Euskaldunak is these people’s own name for their ethnic grouping.
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^ why the annoyance on the girl’s part?
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Not sure. I got the impression she was unhappy to be identified as a Basque, and had probably assumed I would not know anything about Basques or the location of Basque Country.
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@ Matari
The Basques are not known for following the Africans, you’re right.
But there are reasons for that. They changed their names, or had their names changed for them by Spaniards who called them by Spanish names they could pronounce. Also, the Basques were relatively few in number, even though influential.
W.A. Douglass wrote a book about the Basques in the New World, and he says that the Basques were involved in the whole horrible business of conquest and slaving in Spanish-speaking colonisation right from the start. The Basques were probably the finest seamen of all the Europeans at the time, and their skills were heavily deployed from the time of Colombus’s first voyage. When they settled in, the Basques were no less greedy, and they no less cruel.
They would kill the Native peoples they met and destroyed unimaginable numbers of Native peoples and enslaved African in the silver mines of Bolivia/Peru, too. That was the clear message.
I don’t know for sure, but the Basque’s participation in the New World might have been one way to compensate for losses after giving up their whaling know-how to the English? It’s well-known that as a people they always sought to distinguish themselves as a minority, and their involvement in conquest and slavery wasn’t excluded from that endeavour.
(This article puts the numbers of slaves at 8 million. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-xiao/the-mines-of-potosi-boliv_b_1349295.html)
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Legion, just an observation: Spanish Basques seem to be more “comfortable” being identified as Basque. They will seem more likely to say they are Basque, straight out, whereas the ones from the French side not so much as France doesn’t recognise them as such and wants them to be absorbed.
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Spanish Basques seem to be more “comfortable” being identified as Basque.
Comfortable!
Haha! That’s a very gentle way of putting it cherie. 🙂
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@ Pay it Forward
… hmm.., yes. I suppose she could have been “passing”, so to speak. It’s always disconcerting when a random stranger demonstrates unexpected perceptiveness.
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That is a large generalization.
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But not one I disagree with.
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[…] "Basque whalers (fl. 670-1713) hunted whales in the Atlantic Ocean, from Spitsbergen north of Norway to Brazil. They also fished for cod, especially near Newfoundland. It seems they reached the Americas before Columbus." […]
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No doubt there were Basques who took part in the horrors of the Spanish and French empires. Their Condoleezza Rices and Barack Obamas, so to speak. What I find interesting about this bit of history, though, is that it suggests that such horrors were not inevitable, that they were probably driven by state power and racist ideology rather than some inborn “tribalism”.
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I think some commentators confuse the Early Modern colonialism with that of the 19th century. In the 19th century there is no dout that the europeans applied different rules to their “civilized” (=white) enemies than to their “barbaric” (=non-white) enemies and that certainly was born out of racism. But in the Eraly Modern Era (especially in the 16th and 17th century) religion was much more important in terms of identity, though race wasn’t completly irrelevant. The european wars fought over religion were pretty brutal themselves and hold up to the horrors of the spanish conquest of America. I write this not to diminish the suffering of those conquered, but we have to put them into context.
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Agabond, you mean that it is not in human nature to be racist? Oh dear, such bold theories! What next, saying that this whole insanity is a cultural phenomenon created and sustained by the very people who claim it is a natural human condition. Shocking.
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@Matari: I think the following quotes are brilliant:
“My point is that Europeans should NEVER be simply handed the benefit of the doubt. History is rife with inordinate amounts of lessons and examples on this matter! They are NOT to be automatically trusted.”
“If I get just ONE THING from this site, it is that Europeans should NEVER be simply handed or given the benefit of the doubt!”
Absolutely right. I’ve come across the Basques in my reading over the years but never had any further interest in them. Perhaps they were a little more civilized in their dealings with the people in this part of the world than other Europeans, but the fact remains that just like other Europeans, their arrival here meant disaster for the native people.
As far as I’m concerned it goes without saying that they should not be trusted or given the benefit of the doubt. I can’t think of any other group of people on the planet who are less worthy of those things.
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Very interesting post Abagond
The Basque are an interesting people and one of the oldest “tribes” in Europe — they and the Iberians are said to be the only indigenous people of Spain.
“ Many go further and assert that the Basques are the pure descendants of the first modern humans to arrive on the European continent, heirs of the Cro-Magnons.
Why did people think that the Basque were so special? Mostly because their language is special. It is non-Indo-European.
Behind mountains on the fringes of Europe and against the ocean the Basques evaded Indo-Europeanization. Likely it was simply luck and a random act of history”
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/02/the-basques-may-not-be-who-we-think-they-are/
probably one of the reasons that they have ALOT of pride in themselves and their culture and want to be separate from the Spanish.
“ Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna, Eta, whose name stands for Basque Homeland and Freedom, first emerged in the 1960s as a student resistance movement bitterly opposed to General Franco’s repressive military dictatorship.
Under Franco the Basque language was banned, their distinctive culture suppressed, and intellectuals imprisoned and tortured for their political and cultural beliefs.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11183574
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• such horrors were not inevitable, that they were probably driven by state power and racist ideology rather than [insert chosen propaganda or insert misguided notion or insert mistaken belief]
I couldn’t help but think about state power and nation building (parallels are the same ,pretty much, for empire building) when doing my little pseudo book review yesterday.
When I mentioned the nasty or brutal business of nation building, it was state power/violence that I was thinking about.
• If I get just ONE THING from this site, it is that Europeans should NEVER be simply handed or given the benefit of the doubt!
Yeah, but why? Why should they [any group, depending on the discussion] never be trusted? <—–A significant amount of the comments and main posts on this blog give or present different answers to this question. A presentation example would be posts on the likes of Charles Murray. A comment example would be murky racist innuendo, with cleverly utilized appeals to sympathy to other black people, in order to not look like a racist or just a con artist. I think Trojan Pam fits that description.
An answer I've given, sometimes well put and sometimes not so well put, is to simply look at the institutions that a people are coming from and operating under. We don't think of the Basques as fanatical mercantalists doing whatever needs be to enrich the Crown (the empire). By contrast, it's easy to think of the Spanish, the English, the French, etc. in that way: mercantalist* and therefore violent. My last best attempt at such an answer was on the following thread:
—————-
* during the period of Mercantalism
——————————————————————————————————-
Again,
such horrors were not inevitable, that they were probably driven by state power
I know you [Abagond] have since realized this, and so, I’m just making a general point:
Similarly, no one should have expected anything wonderful or amazing, and not anything wonderful or amazing for black americans, just by electing a black person to the Presidency. How shockingly naive and ignorant.
Something wonderful was not inevitably going to arise from electing a black person. State power/ State policy is going to be carried out by whomever is in office, that is what they are there for; I also made that point in the corporate contribution links I left in the Obama-rented negro thread.
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Very interesting post Abagond
Yes, it very much is.
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Interesting bit of history but typical.
“The world is nearly all parcelled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered and colonised. To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far.” – Cecil Rhodes
That is the mindset of insatiability that drives it all.
It is true that Europeans generally could not get along with each other in Europe either but that follows from the overwhelming desire to acquire that seems to dominate the cultural outlook. They have fought more bloody wars against each other than anyone has fought against them. (The discovery of other lands and people to exploit probably served as an escape-valve during the ‘age of discovery’).
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Wow Origin, not one iota of pseudoscience hanky-panky from you there, I’m impressed.
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@Legion
I have a different reason for posting things that don’t impress you…lol. Those posts are for people in a different state of mind. I wouldn’t have earned my degrees without knowing what impresses the establishment. So if I want to say things that people, in general, will think are reasonable I know exactly what those are. But I am opposed to a mental blockade that hands the whites in power a permanent monopoly on declaring what is true knowledge (scientific truth). For if there were knowledge that we could use to threaten their position of power would they share it with us? I think you know the answer.
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I’m waiting for white people to claim the north and south pole…. You know its coming…
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@ Linda
The Basques are definitely one of the most distinct and probably the oldest of the Europeans.
Unlike other Iberians and southern Europeans, though, they were never subject to the rule of the Normans, Visigoths or the Franks.
Also, they never succumbed to the Moors.
Because their resistance to Islam and Africa, the Spanish monarchs rewarded them with “Hidalgo” (noble) status. In doing so, the Basque were bestowed with a disproportionate number of privileged positions in Spainish society, the New World (and the Philippines).
This probably explains the unusual level opportunity open to them, and influence they enjoyed, during the Conquest of the New World. This was despite their numbers being relatively small, and even fewer distinguished by family wealth.
But … Basques are the children of Cro-Magnon?
That’s food for though.
As far as research from this part of Western Europe goes, most findings about Basque pre-history seems to strongly suggest a Neanderthal settlement (in the Middle Paleolithic age) instead: http://www.basqueresearch.com/elkarrizketa_irakurri.asp?hizk=I&Elkar_Kodea=87#.UzypqajMSSo
In Mark Kurlansky’s book on the Basques, he talks about their earliest origins.
He says that many Basque people have a distinct and difference appearance to their French and Spanish neighbours. Basque faces stand out for having strong chins, large heads, strong bodies, and so on and such.
I do actually agree with him about their appearance.
But personal perception is unreliable and loaded with confirmation biases (I didn’t bring my calipers and measuring devices with me! Ha!), so what I concluded about Basque faces and bodiesadds up to a hill of beans.
However, some modern research of Basque “physiognomy” does suggest a Neanderthal origin.
Language is highly significant, as you point out. Research (by Steve Lieberman) again leans to Neanderthals. His research indicates that the facial structure and possible speech-form probably made pronunciation of the vowel “ee” particuarly difficult — and this vowel is absent in spoken Basque.
Language aside, blood research in the region seems to point to another marked connection to the idea that the Basque have particularly pronounced Neanderthal ancestry: A, B and Rh fblood actors were absent among the Neanderthal. The Basques have the lowest rate of B blood group, and highest rate of O negative in the world. Most of them are O Neg.
This may explain the reason behind why Basque women have such a high rate of stillbirths and miscarriage, and possibly why the Basque birthrate has never been high as in the past many Basque women could only bear one child…
http://rhnegativebloodsecrets.blogspot.ie/2013/01/are-you-related-to-neanderthals.html
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The English attacked the Basque shipping and started a take over. It seems like all through world history the narrative is the English are killing and stealing from indigenous people.
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sondis wrote:
I’m waiting for white people to claim the north and south pole…. You know its coming…
—————
I’ll take the south pole if it’s still available. Thanks.
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According to the link as provided by Bulanik at the end of her comment which concerns the Basque and the rhesus negative blood type (which is my own type as I mentioned further up thread, though I don’t have a “cauda”), this same blood type is associated with certain physical and mental characteristics. I’ve read elsewhere that psychic abilities, as well, are said to occur more frequently amongst those who lack the rhesus factor (which is present in most human beings regardless of race, and is named after the rhesus monkey, as the Rh factor in humans is supposedly linked to this creature).
“There are other physical characteristics of humans which are typically associated with Rh-negative blood, but which in the present scenario would be regarded as belonging to the N-people. These include early maturity, large head and eyes, high IQ [6], or an extra vertebra (a ‘tail bone’ — called a ‘cauda’), lower than normal body temperature, lower than normal blood pressure, and higher mental analytical abilities.”
http://rhnegativebloodsecrets.blogspot.ie/2013/01/are-you-related-to-neanderthals.html
*
It’s also interesting, the possible connection between the Basque and the archaic human, Neanderthal Man (or, as he is sometimes called, “Homo sapiens neanderthalensis”), who is said to be an ancestor, not only of modern day “Caucasoid” peoples (Homo sapiens sapiens –“wise, wise man”, as are all modern day people), but of the majority of humankind as well.
Most people who have early Homo sapiens ancestors that left Africa probably carry Neanderthal DNA. I know I do (I’m pretty sure I posted about this on another thread a while back).
My own Neanderthal genes are 1.7 percent while many of my ‘Caucasoid’ DNA cousins (on the DNA test website 23andMe.com) hover around 4 percent.
It is Homo heidelbergensis who is thought by some to have given rise to Neanderthals, modern humans … and to Denisovans. I myself have Denisovan DNA as well. This particular type of archaic human DNA was discovered after scientists extracted nuclear DNA from a well-preserved finger bone found in Siberia. Both modern day Papuans and Southeast Asians are said to be partially descended from Denisovans. And while Oceania doesn’t show up on my DNA results (it’s one of only two major regions of the globe that don’t show up — the other being Antarctica), both Siberia and Southeast Asia do ….
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Bulanik,
That last website you linked to reads like it is trying to promote the claim of Neanderthals being superior and more evolved. It also tends to make an effort to point out the fact that Neanderthals never came out of Africa. Is this a site you read frequently? What do you think the person who writes this stuff is trying to say?
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@ Anne, is a site about Neanderthals a site I read frequently?
😀 😀 😀
I really hope that is not a serious question. Why do YOU ask?
Throughout my life I’ve read a range of books, sources, etc.,
Some of the things I have read, or skimmed, in my lifetime are quite eye-brow raising, some are boring, some are enlightening, all though, come under a thought process, a critical filter, a sense of humour…that sort of thing.
I believe many people who take in a range of information AND think for themselves with too much ado, do that, too.
What about you?
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@ Pay it Forward
I have had no DNA test done, but am Rh Negative.
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Bulanik,
I asked because I was wondering if you shared the author’s views. So, as to my other question, what do you think the author’s goal is? And, yes, I do think some things should be read with a critical filter and sense of humor. In your last sentence, you meant to say “WITHOUT too much ado”, right?
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Anne, what have said to make you think I shared the author’s views, and why do you think like that?
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Anne, what have I said to make you think I shared the author’s views and why do you think like that?
You see. A self-correcting dyslexic (sometimes).
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Bulanik,
You haven’t said anything to give me that impression. I was only asking. The topics on it seemed odd to me. No offense intended sorry.
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my blood is o negative
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Anne, not a worry, thank you.
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“His research indicates that the facial structure and possible speech-form probably made pronunciation of the vowel “ee” particuarly difficult — and this vowel is absent in spoken Basque.”
Don’t know where you’re getting this complete bullshit, Bulanik, but modern Basque retains both rounded and unrounded forms of the high-front vowel (the “ee” which you are referring to), and this has been well documented by linguists for decades[1][2]. In fact, even Basque’s supposed ancestor language, Aquitanian, has evidence of these vowels in terms of written accounts in Latin or of names on gravestones[3].
[1] http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Basque_Phonology.html?id=PBqPPLE2iXEC&redir_esc=y
[2] http://www.academia.edu/3570162/2013a_-_Basque_and_Proto-Basque_Phonetics_and_Phonology
[3] http://webs.ono.com/documenta/ib8b_en.htm
Hell, what you are saying is so easily refutable and fringe that I don’t even have to cite this. You can simply listen to a native speaker voicing these supposedly absent vowels in Basque right here, many thanks to Jon of Wikitongues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suK34prc56o&list=UUBgWgQyEb5eTzvh4lLcuipQ
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Yoseph, I listened to the video provided.
The speaker uses “e” and “i”. Yes.
But, I am not a Basque speaker, so could you identify the words from it that are loan words which have entered the contemporary Basque?
Could you also identify the words that are definitely “ee” ones — ones which are not the product of agglutination (where words are fused together)?
That way, we can separate the bull from the sh!t.
By “ee” I don’t mean “e” (as in elbow) and “i” (as in critter).
Perhaps I need to be more explicit: I don’t actually have a horse in this race.
I don’t know Steve Lieberman or his work.
This is not MY research, and it is not MY theory.
But I am interested in what the truth is, so specifics from you would hit the spot.
***
So, in order to see your point and be convinced by it, I also accessed the “Omniglot” website to hear more Basque and along with the same You Tube video you posted, there was a recording with more of the same”i” and “e” sounds. That made no difference.
***
I checked the link to the first book you provided. That says:
“Basque is a morphologically rich and fairly regular language with a number of active phonological rules that are limited to certain morphological environments. In addition, it has a high degree of dialectical fragmentation…”
I don’t know what that really means. Could you explain?
Nor did I find the passage with regard to “ee”. You say that the “Basque language retains both rounded and unrounded forms of the high-front vowels”, but I didn’t the bit which corroborates that.
Perhaps I looked in the wrong place.
It’s not that I doubt you, Yoseph, but I am not a linguist, so a simple explanation that actually backs up your claim (with orginal references) would be of great use.
***
You then say:
Really? I looked for that, too.
What the author of that link you provided said was this:
Well, perhaps it would be a long story to demonstrate a false decipherment to a person who does not have linguistic knowledge, even if it is very suspicious that the “ability” to translate every word in every inscription isn’t accompanied by a minimal ability to reconstruct the grammar or the historical phonology of those languages (my emphasis)
So, if there is minimal abiliyt to reconstruct Aquitanian phonology, why are you so confident that —
“this has been well documented by linguists for decades[1][2]. In fact, even Basque’s supposed ancestor language, Aquitanian, has evidence of these vowels in terms of written accounts in Latin or of names on gravestones[3].”
— when the linguists in the field admit they might lack this very ability?
It can’t be “well documented”, then, can it?
I see what you do in saying my remarks are crap, but yours are coming over like a false claim.
***
Further down in the same link you provided the author ALSO says:
“…many of the “Basque” words that Alonso finds in the Hittite inscriptions are clear Romance loan words in Basque …”
And further down, says:
...But the evidence is still scarce and it is sure that Basque has undergone many important phonetic changes, besides the fact that great part of the Basque vocabulary is of Latin or Romance origin, questions that the “magical translators” make enormous efforts to disregard.
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typo correction* :
I see what you are trying to do in saying my remarks are crap, but yours are coming over like a false claim
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Yoseph, out of curiosity, I searched the internet to see if there was any further research on the speech of Neanderthals. I found this New Scientist article from several years ago:
“In the 1970s, linguist Phil Lieberman, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, inferred the dimensions of the larynx of a Neanderthal based on its skull. His team concluded that Neanderthal speech did not have the subtlety of modern human speech.
Some researchers have criticised this finding, citing archaeological evidence of an oral culture and even errors in Lieberman’s original vocal tract reconstruction.
Undeterred, the linguist ..[tried to].. simulate Neanderthal speech based on new reconstructions of three Neanderthal vocal tracts. The 50,000-year old fossils all came from France.
By modelling the sounds the Neanderthal pipes would have made, [the] team engineered the sound of a Neanderthal saying “E”…
In contrast to a modern human “E”, the Neanderthal version doesn’t have a quantal hallmark, which helps a listener distinguish the word “beat” from “bit,” for instance….
Though subtle, the linguistic difference would have limited Neanderthal speech…”
Full article: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13672#.Uz8e3ajMSSo
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@Pamela
You said: ” I can’t think of any other group of people on the planet who are less worthy of those things.”
I suppose you mean that they are not worthy of being considered people that they should not be trusted.
Otherwise you have no idea what you are talking about.
In fact the spanish expresion “palabra de vasco” in english “word of basque” means “truth” in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Venezuela, Chile and most of the spanish speaking countries.
Even in Spain and despite the political issues, spaniards consider the basques as people to be trusted.
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@ Eneko Aritza
This is the context of what Pamela said:
It is pretty clear that she is referring to Europeans in general, not the Basque in particular.
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Are the people of Catalonia Basque?
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@ Mary Burrell
No, they aren’t. There may be some Basques living in Catalonia just due to human migration patterns, but that isn’t the main area of Spain where the Basques now live.
The Catalan language is a Romance language, whereas Basque isn’t related to any other language in Europe. The Catalan language looks to me like a cross between Spanish and French (that isn’t a very professional assessment, just my impression when I tried to read it).
To the best of my knowledge, the people of Catalonia are believed to have descended from the Goths, which is also true of the Spaniards and the Portuguese. The Basques lived in what is now Spain long before the Goths arrived.
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@Solitaire: Thanks👍🏿
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@ Mary Burrell
The similarity is both Catalonia and the Basques have a movement to gain independence from Spain. ☺
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Huh. That’s not how the emoticon looked on my end. It was just a plain smiley.
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@Soliitare: I see a smiley and I gave you a 👍🏿
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@Solitare: Thumbs up😊
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@ Mary Burrell
I see your thumbs up, thank you!
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