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Show Fear of Dead Is Blamed in Indians' - Babel of Languages Washington. Dead men tell no tales, but they helped . create the babel of over 100 languages spoken by American Ameri-can Indians. This theory is advanced by Dr. John P. Harrington, Smithsonian Institution In-stitution ethnologist and authority on America's ancient tongues. Widespread among Indian tribes, he explains, was terror of the dead so intense that even a dead person's per-son's name was not whispered aloud. Since Indians commonly bore personal per-sonal names such as Blue Reindeer or Strong Bow, relatives and friends, after a death would find it advisable advis-able to invent new words or at least change slightly the words of the dead Indian's name. This doubtless accounts in part. Dr. Harrington says, for there being over 100 Indian languages, many as different as English and Russian. Another reason why ancient America had many languages, in contrast to modern America's few, is that Indian groups kept encountering encoun-tering new animals, plants, and new experiences, and so a group would invent words to meet the situation. Dr. Harrington believes that the varied Indian tongues possibly developed de-veloped from one "proto-American" language brought from Siberia into Alaska by early immigrants. |