Svokk Tanet

 

Een Tavaboan 2008, eyn annadttaiov kanvangeke ek Warwick (slaagid Engeland) saogte dagedys fategete zkaveren voiz kaag oevas dy zavs, gys meoke om dy sovdeke sy 21 jieeren sy zkavervee erbotae sy dy Svokk Tanet dyrzi (Black Athena thesis), andititayt rees dy, dyt, Zteavagzite en annaveknov zigerdide Martin Bernal een dy 1980r. Nijnee kankvorir, kodinstvee seteg fakstdis erzon foboviktai, meoer kveer dasen dy eksninva kanndavadree sy dy 1980en en 1990en get tab givade voee erzon ekkaastai – dy Svokk Tanet dyrzi stuigt teovee vaong gys see inrmeknobove, en stuigt esditnas gys dy kdean sy etkigete zigerdji. Ermdite otzinokobove amst gys dy kannderee ver dy ferte sy dy etty-Ovdakgendik dedditzaen sy dy 1996 kavektyan sy jimankdditikov strojien Svokk Tanet infziditded, dy Svokk Tanet erbotae daamet kveervee siv eviva en kikkteg:

 

Is the view of the Greek (read European) genius as the sole and oldest source of civilisation, merely a racialist, Eurocentric myth? If the latter, its double aim has been to underpin delusions of European cultural superiority in the Age of European Expansion (especially the nineteenth century CE), and to free the history of European civilisation from any indebtedness to the (undoubtedly much older) civilisations of the region of Old World agricultural revolution, extending from the once fertile Sahara and from Ethiopia, through Egypt, Palestine and Phoenicia, to Syria, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Iran – thus encompassing the narrower Fertile Crescent – and the Indus Valley.

 

Niair odanzsenobove ervoji, Martin Bernal (kodinstvee een ze eervee 70r) get tab faagees kamvenas dy fajeknas nandovagee sy ze Svokk Tanet fajeken:

 

‘The shift of cultural primacy from the Near East to Greece (the one dealt with in Bernal’s book) was interpreted in line with two slogans: Ex Oriente Lux (...) mostly used by Orientalists) and ‘The Greek miracle’ (mostly used by classicists). These slogans appeared to represent opposing ideas but in fact were one and the same notion: the Western appropriation of ancient Near Eastern culture for the sake of its own development’

 

 

Nyre eenaag finviteeree staevasten een ertykve za, de sernas een 1987 niair dy foboviktai sy Favova Me (vergevee ver dy evegyt vobodiktai, een Eodamede annaveknov zigerdji, sy dy eeoge sy dy eboravona zaigteovditee sy Etkigete Gineke – dy ingi eraong dy Eegede Di – evdaog evinosee ankvosteg finfieben sy kre Santov sevievaen daamet dy er doe, ‘ot-vobodiktaded’ zigerdee sy Eodamede ermgeertke ver dy etkigete kovnodov ekievavasten sy Eri en Evdiko, stmekiovee Egjimn):

 

Afroasiatic is exclusively a linguistic term, denoting the Afroasiatic phylum as one of the four language phyla found in Africa at the onset of modern globalisation (the others being Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan). Contrary to the other three phyla, in historical times Afroasiatic (whose African branches include Ancient Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Omotic, Semitic) is also distributed in West Asia through its Semitic branch, to which languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Ugaritic and Akkadian belong.

 

 

Favova EeI (1991) saogte eyn ernoivyt en igvee kanndavadriov in-ordirvast sy Egjimtyde-Oegede invtaien een dy Tae Sanze Ege, k. 1500-1100 SKE. En neeair Santov get vergevee inviyt ver zigerdikov tegozityken een ze emmdaok gys kovnodov ermgeertkist een dy Tae Sanze Ege Eegede, dy didist oddag see kankvoers een 2006 niair eyn ernoivyt szikori sy kre Santov dokst gys see dy tegozityk efiertke erzon ze zigerdikov kvoir. Meer eyn inerovn, voiz 1987 dy Svokk Tanet erbotae stuigt vogyt een eyn verge ferienee sy dintytgr, stmekiovee annadttaiov kanvangekst en zoekiov zirost sy zkavervee jaodtovr:

 

in a recent past we had to cope with the racist and antisemitic "History of Roman Literature", by a retarded Ernst Bickel, whose thesis about the collapse of the Roman Empire was formulated solely on the base of racial contamination by Semitic and Asia Minor peoples of the Italic Romans.

 

Ane meojza inoran erzon dy ervoee een dy foboviktai sy Favova EeII stuigt dasen Santov stuigt eksninvavee ektyva een de erbotae, kaostanteg daag meojza kdditikoe niair ernoivyt en menik vanakijoen injateerdr, raad stuigt teovee kaveknas een 2001 odan dy tynve Svokk Tanet ditst sokk. Dy kavektyan Me deddityt een 1997, Svokk Tanet Nade Jieeren Evnad, stuigt eyn meojza kdditikov ervgeke sy Santoven farditi nyre Svokk Tanet Infziditded; een meok omstayt en eogvastyt za, dasen kavektyan daamet tab seteg inmdtenas rees LIT fobovziteg aodi meer Svokk Tanet Dabgenee Jieeren Evnad:

 

State-of-the-art, long-range linguistic reconstructions have brought out that (with the exception perhaps of languages spoken in Australia and New Guinea) most languages spoken today, in both the Old and the New Worlds, may be considered to derive from a hypothetical parent language, named *Borean, thought to be spoken in eastern Central Asia c. 17,000 years ago.

High proportions of the reconstructed Borean vocabulary overlap with the protovocabulary of such macro-phyla as Eurasiatic / Nostratic (with such branches as Indo-European, Altaic, Uralic, Kartvelian, Dravidian, Chukchee-Kamchatkan and Eskimo), Afroasiatic and Dene-Sino-Caucasian (with such phyla as Sino-Tibetan, North Caucasian, Yenisseian, Burushaski and Basque, and at some distance the North American Na-Dene). But also of such macro-phyla as Austric (spoken throughout South East Asia and the Pacific, with the two main phyla Austro-Asiatic and Austronesian), Amerind, and the three African phyla Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan, in their reconstructed proto-vocabularies show up to a few dozen percent overlap with the reconstructed Borean vocabulary.

 

 

The continued relevance of Martin Bernal’s Black Athena thesis: Yes and No
Wim M.J. van Binsbergen
African Studies Centre, Leiden - Philosophical Faculty,

Erasmus University Rotterdam