Reply #73: See my post no. 53 [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Everything I said about the alleged Japanese-Maya connection is also true of the alleged Japanese-Zuni connection.

I've done a little googling, and here's what I've found:

Unlike many of the people who propose odd theories about connections between far-flung ethnic groups, Nancy Yaw Davis is actually an anthropologist. I don't know what she says about the respective customs of these two peoples. There may be accidental resemblances. For example, Japan and Europe went through highly similar medieval periods (feudal lords, knights/samurai, lots of monasticism) at approximately the same time without any known contacts between them. (It was too early for the Portuguese and too late for the Silk Road.)

However, if Davis thinks the Japanese and Zuni languages are alike, she's crazy. (Judging from the samples that I've seen on the web.)

People who aren't trained to analyze languages come up with all sorts of crackpot theories. There are definite rules about when you can declare that two languages are related.