[REMOVE ADS]




Results 1 to 5 of 5
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    10,473
    Rep Power
    311

    The original names of the -americas??? Did they have any???

    Gang this is not a trivia question because i truly don't know,but since today is the birthday of the nation known as-the united states of america,i've been thinking about if the continent had a name prior to the arrival of outsiders,now many native tribes occupied different regions of course,did they have a name for the continent as a whole?? Anyone?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    10,798
    Rep Power
    350
    I don't think the native tribes shared a common language, so on that basis there wouldn't have been a common name for the American continent. I also wonder if the tribes would have had enough knowledge of American geography to have developed the concept of a continent.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    10,473
    Rep Power
    311
    I'm sure that they had names for their regions,i'm gonna do some more checking though.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Posts
    14,979
    Rep Power
    402
    Quote Originally Posted by 144man View Post
    I don't think the native tribes shared a common language, so on that basis there wouldn't have been a common name for the American continent. I also wonder if the tribes would have had enough knowledge of American geography to have developed the concept of a continent.

    Name:  av-5.jpg
Views: 256
Size:  21.1 KB
    I don't think they could have. So, it would have been impossible to have a name for North America or South America, or the 2 continents as a whole. There were several different language groups, which corresponded to the different, time/era-separated waves of migration from out of Asia, and the early breaking off of population segments from the larger groups, after reaching The Americas. There WAS some borrowing from language to language, of geographical names, but that was a very small amount, and only would have involved a few tribes in small regions. There couldn't possibly be a name for all of The Americas, together, or the 2 continents, individually, because no one circumnavigated the whole area, and the tribes in the coastal areas didn't share information with tribes outside their area, and geographical information couldn't get from the extremities of one region, to all the other regions.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Posts
    10,473
    Rep Power
    311
    Absolutely robb, you just answered my question it is one of those things that i think about from time to time,robb you are ...the guru of sdf!

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

[REMOVE ADS]

Ralph Terrana
MODERATOR

Welcome to Soulful Detroit! Kindly Consider Turning Off Your Ad BlockingX
Soulful Detroit is a free service that relies on revenue from ad display [regrettably] and donations. We notice that you are using an ad-blocking program that prevents us from earning revenue during your visit.
Ads are REMOVED for Members who donate to Soulful Detroit. [You must be logged in for ads to disappear]
DONATE HERE »
And have Ads removed.