Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Paleo-Egyptian-Black African Language

 

During the late pleistocene clay pottery or baskets were probably used by hunter/fisher/gather groups to collect grain, as evidenced by numerous millstones found on early Saharan sites.

     These hunters early domesticated the dog. These dogs were used by hunters to catch their prey. The Egyptian term for dog is

0 uher #. This Egyptian term corresponds to many African, and Dravidian  terms for dog:

Egptian     uher                

Azer        wulle

Bozo        kongoro

Guro        bere

Vai         wuru, ulu

Bo(Bambara)  -ulu

Wassulunka   wulu

Konyanka     wulu

Malinke      wuli, wuru, wulu

Dravidian    ori

The above data indicates that there is contrast between Paleo-Afican l =/= r. The Egyptian 0 uher # , Azer 0 wulle # and Manding 0 wuru #  suggest that the r> l in Paleo-African. There is also vowel alternation in the terms for dog  o =/= u. The predominance of the vowel /u/ in the terms for dog, make it clear that o<u. This evidence suggest that there are two Paleo-African terms for dog: Paleo-African (PA) *uru and *oro.

     Although the Paleo-Africans may have had seasonal migration patterns their ceramic traditions and intensive exploitation of plant foods show a continuity of the technological and structural tradition in the Libyan Sahara, and in our opinion do not reflect a true nomadic herder tradition characterized by historic nomadic societies.(Winters 1986b) It is interesting to note that while cattle predominate the pictorial scenes in the Libyan Sahara, the faunal remains from Uan Muhuggiag and El Kaduda for example, indicate that most Paleo-Africans kept domesticated goat/sheep.

(Obenga 1988; Barich 1985; Winters 1985a,1986b)  Moreover the earliest animal engravings in the Fezzan were of rams and goats/

sheep. (Quellec 1985:367)

     The inhabitants of the Fezzan were roundheaded blacks .(Jelinek 1985:273) The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to C-Group culture items and people of Nubia.(

Quellec 1985; Jelinek 1985) The C-Group people occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 B.C. (Close 1988)

     These early Paleo-Africans of Libya were called the Temehu

by the Egyptians.(Behrens 1984:30) Ethnically the Temehu had the same physical features of black African people. (Quellec 1985; Jelinek 1985; Diop 1984:72)

     These C-Group people used a common black-and-red ware. B.B. Lal (1963) of the Indian Expedition in the Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia proved that the Dravidian people probably originally lived in middle Africa before they settled South India. A common origin for black Africans and Dravidians would explain the analogous cultural and linguistic features of these

two groups. (Anselin 1982; Winters 1980,1981,1981b,1985a, 1985c)

      The Proto-Mande speakers in the Saharan highlands were probably one of the numerous C-Group tribes settled in this area. If we accept this hypothesis the C-Group people would represent a collection of ethnic groups that later became the Supersets we now find in the fragmentation belt, such as the  Niger-Congo speakers Greenberg (1970) believes early domesticated ovicaprids. The origin of the Mande among the sedentary pastoral C-Group ethnic groups supports the linguistic data indicating an early Mande domestication of cattle.

      In the Sahara pastoralism was the first form of food production. Augustin Holl (1989) a specialist on western Africa believes that pastoralism was the first form of food production developed by post-paleolithic groups in the Sahara.

    In the eastern Sahara it would appear that ovicaprid husbandry preceded cattle domestication because cattle were maladaptive to rocky lands. This is in sharp contrast to the western Sahara where cattle was the mainstay domesticate for sedentary pastoral economies.

     Much of the evidence relating to this pastoral way of life comes from the discovery of cattle bones at excavated sites in the Sahara dated between 7000-2000 BC, and the rock drawings of cattle. (McIntosh &McIntosh 1981) In the western Sahara, sites such as Erg In-Sakane region, and the Taoudenni basin of northern Mali, attest to cattle husbandry between 6000 and 5000 BP. The ovicaprid husbandry on the other hand began in this area between 5000 to 3000 BP. Cattle pastoral people began to settle Dar Tichitt and Karkarichinkat between 5000 to 3500 BP.

      The term for cattle,cow in the various African languages

show much correspondence. Below we will compare the term for cow

from various African languages:

 

                          CATTLE/ COW

Egyptian         ng, nag

Wolof            nag

Peul/Fulfulde    nag

Angas            ning

Ankwe            ning

Susu             ninge

Nuer             yang

Baguirmi         m-ang, mang

Gbea             m-angu, mangu

Sar(a)           m-ang, mang

Serere           nak

Mande            nika

Burma            nak

Jarawa           i-nak

Kagoro           nyak

Kaje             nyak

Burak            nyek

Kagoma           nyak

Bobo             nyanga

Kono-Vai         nige

So.W. Mande      ninke

Sembla           nigi

Congo-Benue      *i-nak

Duala            nyaka

Mpongwe          nyare

 

Fang             nyar

Kwa              nare

Azer(Azayr)      na

Soninke          na

Gourmantche      nua, nue

Senufo           nu

Ewe              nyi

Niellim          nya

Boua (Bwa)       nya

Tarok            ina

Iregwe           nya

Dadiya           nee

Amo              na

Baya             nday

Bobofing         nya-nga

Gera              ndiya

Koro              indak

Hausa             nagge

Dravidian Languages

Tamil             naku

Tulu              naku

     The correspondence between African terms for cattle support the archaeological evidence for the early domestication of cattle in the Proto-Sahara. This view is supported by the similarity in the terms for cow/cattle by speakers of the Mande, Niger-Congo, Chadic, and Afro Asiatic Supersets.

 

     Ceramics spread from the  Central and Eastern Sahara into North Africa. These ceramics were of  Sudanese inspiration and date back to the 7th millennium B.C. This pottery was used from the Ennedi to Hoggar. The makers of this pottery were from the Sudan (Andah 1981).

    By the late stone age (LAS) Dravidans were well established in the Sahara (Winters 1985b). These Proto-Dravidans were members of the Saharo-Sudanese tradition (Camps 1974). They lived in the highlands.

      We call these people who live in the ancient Sahara: Proto-Saharans (Winters 1985). Most of the Proto-Saharans lived on hillocks or slopes near water. But some Paleo-Africans lived on the plains which featured lakes and marshes. During much of the neolithic/epipaleolithic period the Sahara resembled the Mediterranean region in climate and ecology.

     In the Sahelian zone there was a short wet phase during the Holocene (c. 7500-4400 B.C.), which led to the formation of large lakes and marshes in Mauritania, the Niger massifs and Chad.  The Inland Niger Delta was unoccupied. In other parts of the Niger area the wet phase existed in the eight/seventh and fourth/third millennia B.C. (McIntosh & McIntosh 1986:417)


     There were few habitable sites in West Africa during the Holocene wet phase. McIntosh and McIntosh (1986) have illustrated that the only human occupation of the Sahara during this period were the Saharan massifs along wadis. By the 8th millennium B.C.

Saharan-Sudanese pottery was used in the Air. (Roset 1983)  Ceramics of this style have also been found at sites in the Hoggar. (McIntosh & McIntosh 1983b:230) Dotted wavy-line pottery

has also been discovered in the Libyan Sahara. (Barich 1985)

     During the late Pleistocene clay pottery or baskets were probably used by hunter/fisher/gather groups to collect grain, as evidenced by numerous millstones found on early Saharan sites.

     These hunters early domesticated the dog. These dogs were used by hunters to catch their prey. The Egyptian term for dog is

0 uher #. This Egyptian term corresponds to many African, and Dravidian  terms for dog:

Egptian     uher                

Azer        wulle

Bozo        kongoro

Guro        bere

Vai         wuru, ulu

Bo(Bambara)  -ulu

Wassulunka   wulu

Konyanka     wulu

Malinke      wuli, wuru, wulu

Dravidian    ori


The above data indicates that there is contrast between Paleo-Dravido-Afican l =/= r. The Egyptian 0 uher # , Azer 0 wulle # and Dravidian 0 ori #  suggest that the r> l in Paleo-African. There is also vowel alternation in the terms for dog  o =/= u. The predominance of the vowel /u/ in the terms for dog, make it clear that o<u. This evidence suggest that there are two Paleo-Dravido-African terms for dog: Paleo-Dravido-African (PA) *uru and *oro.

 

     Although the Paleo-Dravido-Africans may have had seasonal migration patterns their ceramic traditions and intensive exploitation of plant foods show a continuity of the technological and structural tradition in the Libyan Sahara, and in our opinion do not reflect a true nomadic herder tradition characterized by historic nomadic societies (Winters 1986b). It is interesting to note that while cattle predominate the pictorial scenes in the Libyan Sahara, the faunal remains from Uan Muhuggiag and El Kaduda for example, indicate that most Paleo-Dravido-Africans kept domesticated goat/sheep (Obenga 1988 ; Barich 1985; Winters 1985a,1986b).  Moreover the earliest animal engravings in the Fezzan were of rams and goats/

sheep (Quellec 1985:367).

     The inhabitants of the Fezzan were roundheaded blacks (Jelinek 1985:273). The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to C-Group culture items and people of Nubia (


Quellec 1985; Jelinek 1985). The C-Group people occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 B.C. (Close 1988).

The C-Group people are believed to have founded the Kerma dynasty of Nubia.

     These early Paleo-Dravido-Africans of Libya were called the Temehu by the Egyptians (Behrens 1984:30). Ethnically the Temehu had the same physical features of black African people (Quellec 1985; Jelinek 1985; Diop 1984:72).

     These C-Group people used a common black-and-red ware. B.B. Lal (1963) of the Indian Expedition in the Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia proved that the Dravidian people probably originally lived in middle Africa before they settled South India. A common origin for black Africans and Dravidians would explain the analogous cultural and linguistic features of these

two groups (Anselin 1982; Winters 1980,1981,1981b,1985a, 1985c).


      The Proto-Dravidian speakers settled in the Saharan highlands during the LSA were probably one of the numerous C-Group tribes settled in this area. If we accept this hypothesis the C-Group people would represent a collection of ethnic groups that later became the Supersets we now find in the fragmentation belt, such as the  Niger-Congo speakers Greenberg (1970) believes early domesticated ovicaprids. The origin of the Proto-Dravidian people among the sedentary pastoral C-Group ethnic groups supports the linguistic data indicating an early Dravidian term for cattle which is genetically related to terms for cattle in the Niger-Congo Superset of languages.

      In the Sahara pastoralism was the first form of food production. Augustin Holl (1989) a specialist on western Africa believes that pastoralism was the first form of food production developed by post-paleolithic groups in the Sahara.

    In the eastern Sahara it would appear that ovicaprid husbandry preceded cattle domestication because cattle were maladaptive to rocky lands. This is in sharp contrast to the western Sahara where cattle was the mainstay domesticate for sedentary pastoral economies.

     Much of the evidence relating to this pastoral way of life comes from the discovery of cattle bones at excavated sites in the Sahara dated between 7000-2000 BC, and the rock drawings of cattle (McIntosh &McIntosh 1981).

    The research indicates and independent origin for the Sanga or Indian type cattle of Africa. Muzzolini (1983) has personally visited many sites in the Sahara and studied the Rock Art found there. He is sure that the zebu cattle of Indian are derived from the humped cattle found in the Rock Art of the Sahara Muzzolini (1983).

    In the western Sahara, sites such as Erg In-Sakane region, and the Taoudenni basin of northern Mali, attest to cattle husbandry between 6000 and 5000 BP. The

ovicaprid husbandry on the other hand began in this area between


5000 to 3000 BP. Cattle pastoral people began to settle Dar Tichitt and Karkarichinkat between 5000 to 3500 BP.

 

ANIMAL DOMESTICATION

     As early as 15,000 years ago cattle were domesticated in Kenya. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals including the pack ass, and a small screw horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia.

   The zebu or humped cattle are found in many parts of Africa.The oldest faunal remains of the Bos Indicus come from Kenya, and date to the first millennium B.C.

    The recent evidence that Bos Indicus , humped cattle, may have originated in East Africa suggest that this type of cattle may have first been situated in Africa, and then taken to Asia by the Proto-Saharans. Testimony to the ancient humped cattle in Africa is supported by the depiction of this type of cattle in the rock art of the Sahara.This view is also supported by the fact that  the advent of the Bos Indicus, cattle in Egypt corresponds to the migration of the C-Group  people into the Nile Valley.

    The C-Group people came from the Fertile African Crescent. Augustin Holl (1989) has made it clear that pastoralism was the first form of food production developed by post Paleolithic groups in the Sahara.


    In the western Saharan sites such as Erg In-Sakane region, and the Taoudenni basin of northern Mali, attest to cattle husbandry between 6000 and 5000 B.P. (McIntosh & McIntosh, 1979,1981,1986,1988). Cattle pastoral people began to settle Dar Tichitt and Karkarchinkat between 5000 and 3500 B.P. (Holl, 1989).

      The term for cattle, cow in the various African languages

show much correspondence. Below we will compare the term for cow

from various African languages:

 

                          CATTLE/ COW

Egyptian         ng, nag

Wolof            nag

Fulani           nag

Hausa            nagge

Angas            ning

Ankwe            ning

Susu             ninge

Nuer             yang

Baguirmi         m-ang, mang

Gbea             m-angu, mangu

Sar(a)           m-ang, mang

Serere           nak

Mande            nika

Burma            nak

Tamil            n_ku


Malayalam       n_ku

Tulu            n_ku

Jarawa           i-nak

Kagoro           nyak

Kaje             nyak

Burak            nyek

Kagoma           nyak

Bobo             nyanga

Kono-Vai         nige

So.W. Mande      ninke

Sembla           nigi

Congo-Benue      *i-nak

Duala            nyaka

Mpongwe          nyare

Fang             nyar

Kwa              nare

Azer(Azayr)      na

Soninke          na

Gourmantche      nua, nue

Tamil            _, _n

Malayalam        _, _n

Konda            _.v

Kannda           _, _vu

Telugu           _vu


Senufo           nu

Ewe              nyi

Niellim          nya

Boua (Bwa)       nya

Tarok            ina

Iregwe           nya

Dadiya           nee

Amo              na

Baya             nday

Bobofing         nya-nga

Gera              ndiya

Koro              indak

Malinke           gu_ga, ko_go ‘zebu’

Songhay           dyu_go

Swahili           Ki-go_go

Kannada           g_nde

Kolami            k_nda, kanda

Gadaba            k_nde

Gondi             k_nda

     The correspondence between Dravidian and African terms for cattle support the archaeological evidence for the early domestication of cattle in the Proto-Sahara. This view is supported by the similarity in the terms for cow/cattle by speakers of the Dravidian, Mande, Niger-Congo, Chadic, and Afro Asiatic Supersets.


     The oldest written evidence from Africa comes from the Egyptian language. The Egyptian terms for cattle/ cow were ng and nag . In other African languages we find either the consonant  n-, before the consonant g/k , e.g., n/v______(v)g/k  ;or the nasal consonant n- , before the vowels  -i,-y , and -a  , e.g., n+i+a =

nia , or n+y+a = nya .

     This evidence of cognition in Dravidian, African terms for cattle/cow show considerable correspondence in consonants and vowels within roots.

Table 1.

                  Correspondence within Roots

Niger-Congo         Nilotic     Dravidian     Chadic    Egyptian

-g/-k                   g        -g/-k         -k         -g

  -s-                             --           -z-         s/z

-n-                   -n-         -n-          -m-          n-

Table 2.

                  Correspondence within Vowels

Niger-Congo        Nilotic     Dravidian   Chadic      Egyptian

-i/-y                           -e/-a     -i/-y          -y

a/u                   a           a/u      a/u            a

 


     The linguistic evidence supports the view that the Paleo-Dravido-African term for cattle/cow was *n'n , *n'g /n'k , and *nia . This data also makes it clear that /g/ and /k/ were interchangeable consonants long before the separation of the Proto-Saharans into distinct African cultural and linguistic groups.

     It is interesting to note that the Chadic terms for cow and cattle corresponds to the Mande terms. Mukarovsky (1987) provides numerous analogous Mande and Chadic terms for cow/cattle.

Mande                                Chadic

Bambara     misi                      Sha   nisi mu

Xassanke     nyinsi                    Gofa  mizzaa

Dyula        misi                      Welamo  mizzaa

Malinke      nisi, misi                Zala    mizzaa

                                       Basketo  mizaa

                                       Boro     miizaa

                                       Anfillo  mintso

       *misi                                        *mizaa

 

     This illustrates  an ancient alternation of the s =/= z consonants in Paleo-African. In terms of the term for cow and

cattle it would appear that the usual pattern was m/v__(v) s/z__.

 

Susu       ninge                       Anga       nin

Mende      nika                        Goemai     nin, nen

Malinke    ningi                        Kofyar    nen

Kono       ningi                        Sura      nin

Vai         nii                         Sha       nisi mu


Bande      nika-i                 Tamil   n_ku

Lomo       nik                Malayalam   n_ku

Kpelle     nina                    Tulu   n_ku

Bobo       nyanga

     *nig / *nik,  *nin                          *nin

 

    In the above Chadic and Mande  terms for cow/cattle we see the n/v_________(v) n. The pattern for Dravidian, Chadic and Mande pastoral words is n/v_________(v) k. The cognition between Chadic Dravidian and Mande terms for cattle/cow indicate that the speakers of these languages were in close proximity to one another during the neolithic.

     In summary, B.B. Lal (1963) has made it clear that the BRW of Nubia and Dravidian megakithic pottry are genetically related. This indicates that the Dravidian people may have originally lived in Middle Africa where this pottery style originated.

    It was in Middle Africa, where we find Rock Art, with humped cattle. Muzzolini (1983) believes that Indian cattle may have come from the ancient Sahara.

References:

Winters,C.(1998). Afrocentric historical and linguistic methods, The Western journal of Afro-American Studies 22(2): 73-83.

_______________.(1999a). ProtoDravidian terms for cattle. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 28, 91-98.

_______________.(1999b). Proto-Dravidian terms for sheep and goats.PILC Journal of Dravidian Studies, 9 (2), 183-87.

_______________.(2000). Proto-Dravidian agricultural terms. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 30 (1), 23-28.

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