Ainu-Minoan languages

Ainu-Minoan
(hypothetical)
Geographic distribution	Abkhazia, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, India, Japan, Russia, Thailand, Turkey
Linguistic classification	hypothetical language macrofamily
Subdivisions	Ainu Great Andamanese Sino-Tibetan Yeniseian Hattic Northwest Caucasian Northeast Caucasian Sumerian Minoan

The Ainu-Minoan languages are a hypothetical macrofamily proposed by Alexander Akulov (2018) and supported by Tresi Nonno (2021). It is effectively a variant of the Dené–Caucasian languages, which is rejected by most linguists.^[1]

Internal classification

Alexander Akulov (2015) is the first paper trying to prove a relation between the Ainu languages and Great Andamanese languages, in a hypothetical Ainu-Andamanese language family. For this, he uses the Prefixation Ability Index and the Verbal Grammar Correlation Index, two language comparison techniques developed by himself. According to him, this proves that Ainu would originate from further south than its present location, and that the two families would be about as distant as English and Persian (two Indo-European languages). He rejects the hypothesis that Ainu is related to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian or Altaic families, as he considers the genetic classification of languages to be based on syntax and grammar rather on the basis of lexicon, but supposes that Ainu-Andamanese may be linked to the West Papuan and North Halmahera families.

Afterwards, with the same methods, he extends his hypothesis to the Sino-Tibetan languages, forming an Ainu-Andamanese-Sino-Tibetan family. According to himself, Ainu is the closest to Qiang, which he explains by possible influence from Austric on Mandarin.

He then incorporates languages such as Northwest Caucasian, Minoan and Hattic into the macrofamily, which he renames the "Ainu-Minoan languages",^{[alpha 1]} excluding a connection with Etruscan and the Hurro-Urartian languages due to their absence of prefixation and usage of suffixation and postpositions, and opening up possible connections to other languages. He then proposes the following classification:

Ainu-Minoan

Later, using words he considers to be cognates with Ket and Proto-Yeniseian with the Northwest Caucasian languages and Hattic, as well as loanwords of the hypothetical language of paja ul deˀŋ in Kildin Sámi, he puts the Yeniseian family and paja ul deˀŋ as being of Ainu-Minoan stock. He then reforms the classification, this time being split into two branches:

Ainu-Minoan

- Western branch
  - - Northwest Caucasian
    - - Hattic
      - Minoan
  - - Yeniseian
    - Paja ul deˀŋ
- Eastern branch
  - Sino-Tibetan
  - Ainu
  - Great Andamanese

He considers later that paja ul deˀŋ is intermediate between Yeniseian and other western Ainu-Minoan languages.

The Northeast Caucasian languages are later also included, but Akulov (2021a) criticizes Starostin's and other linguists' methods of comparing the "basic" lexicon. He also rejectds a connection between Northeast Caucasian and Hurro-Urartian.

Later, he proposes to add Sumerian to his hypothesis with the same methods, and writes off other hypotheses of the affiliation of Sumerian to be "naïve and amateurish" or looking "like a plot for a vaudeville sketch". He supposes Sumerian to be particularly close to Northeast Caucasian.

Proto-language

Proto-Ainu-Minoan
(hypothetical)
Reconstruction of	Ainu-Minoan
Era	50000-60000 BP

Proto-Ainu-Minoan is believed by its proponents to have existed around 50 000 to 60 000 years ago,^[2] thus being very difficult to reconstruct, and the different branches would have separated after that time. The reconstructed form of "man" for Proto-Ainu-Minoan is *[k]wVd[V], based on proto-forms of its constituent languages.^[2] Based on genetic analysis of haplogroup Y-D, present in Qiang, Tibetans, Andamanese and Ainu, Akulov supposes that the eastern branch of Ainu-Minoan originated in the Bay of Bengal. According to Tresi Nonno (2021), the Great Andamanese languages were the first to diverge from Eastern Ainu-Minoan.

Contradictions

The general consensus among linguists is that the language families are unrelated. In the case of certain language families, there is debate on the relations between them.

A possible connection between Ainu and Great Andamanese has only been studied by Akulov, but Ainu^[3]^[4]^[5] and Great Andamanese^[6] are generally considered to be individual language families unrelated to any other.

Notes

^ Akulov refers to his hypothetical language family by this name.

References

^ Campbell, Lyle (2017). Language Isolates. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-61090-8. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
^ ^a ^b Nonno, Tresi (May 2021). "A preliminary attempt to reconstruct the lexeme of "man" / "person" of the Ainu-Minoan proto-language" (PDF). Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics.
^ Strazny, Philipp (2013). Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Vol. 1. Taylor & Francis. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-135-45523-1. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
^ Heinrich, Patrick (2012). The Making of Monolingual Japan. Multilingual Matters. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-847-69656-4. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
^ Gottlieb, Nanette (2005). Language and Society in Japan. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-521-53284-6. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
^ Fedorak, Shirley A. (2013). Global Issues. University of Toronto Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-442-60598-5. Retrieved 12 March 2023.

Bibliography

Akulov, Alexander (2015). Ainu and Great Andamanese are relatives (proved by Prefixation Ability Index and Verbal Grammar Correlation Index). CAES. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2016). Ainu is a relative of Sino-Tibetan stock (preliminary notes). Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2018). Ainu-Minoan stock. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2021a). Northeast Caucasian languages and the Ainu-Minoan stock. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2022a). On the etymology of the hydronym Sestra. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2021b). Substrate lexical items of Sami which correlate with words of Northeast Caucasian languages. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2020). Substrate lexis of Kildin Sami interpreted through languages belonging to the Western branch of the Ainu-Minoan stock: some notes on the language of Paja ul deˀŋ. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2022b). Sumerian and the Ainu-Minoan stock. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Akulov, Alexander (2019). Yeniseian languages and Ainu-Minoan stock. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Nonno, Tresi (2022a). Androgynous deities/beings in mythologies and art of the Ainu-Minoan people as a sign of positive attitude toward variations of gender. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Nonno, Tresi (2021). A preliminary attempt to reconstruct the lexeme of "man" / "person" of the Ainu-Minoan proto-language. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
Nonno, Tresi (2022b). The meaning of Sumerian culture for the reconstruction of cultural patterns existing in societies speaking languages belonging to the Ainu-Minoan stock. Cultural Anthropology and Ethnosemiotics. Retrieved 10 January 2023.