Could the extinct elephants of North China that lived as recently as 3,000 years ago have been a relict species of straight-tusked elephant?
Much of China was home to elephants, but the records of elephants in northern China bothered scientists.
The Asian elephant (Elaphas maximus) is a tropical species that does roam up into southwestern provinces of China. It is poorly adapted to the cooler temperate climate that characterize much of central and northern China.
So was there an unusually cool climate-adapted subspecies of Asian elephant in China?
It turns out that the answer is no.
And the truth is more spectacular than we might have imagined.
A team of researchers in China examined the fossilized teeth of elephants from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties from 4,000 to 3,000 years ago and also examined elephant-shaped bronzes.
Their findings suggest that the elephants of North China were not Asian elephants but a relict species of a genus of elephant that was believe to have gone extinct 10,000 years ago.
The researchers believe that the elephants of North China were a late surviving species of Palaeoloxodon or “straight-tusked elephant.”
Now, one should be a bit skeptical of this research. Tooth morphology can have a tendency towards convergence. If these elephants actually were a subspecies of Asian elephant, it is possible that they might have evolved similar dentition to straight-tusked elephants, and one should be careful about making claims of animal morphology based upon artistic expression. Even photographic evidence can be somewhat dubious, so one needs to be careful about using artwork in this fashion.
That said, if these findings are corroborated with more evidence– say, an examination of a full elephant skeleton from that time period– then it will be one of the most amazing findings in recent years.
It’s only recently become clear that there are actually two species of elephant in Africa, and if these findings are further corroborated with more evidence, then Asia also had two species in historic times.
That would be a great discovery.
[…] North Chinese elephants that lived 3,000 years ago belonged to an … Tooth morphology can have a tendency towards convergence. If these elephants actually were a subspecies of Asian elephant, it is possible that they might have evolved similar dentition to straight-tusked elephants, and one . […]
re: 3000 year old Chinese Palaeoloxodon
Why are the words for ELEPHANT so similar across EURASIA??
On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 7:02 PM, Louise Jandacek wrote:
Chinese S ee AH N g
Hakka (south China) S I O N g
Tocharian A ON K A L A M
Tocharian B ON K O L M O
Latvian Z I L O N us
Saami/Lapp S L O NN
Tibetan G L A N
Slavic (MANY languages!) S L O N
Polish (Slavic variant) S “u” O N
Vietnamese C O N VOI
Mongol Z A A N
Japanese Z O S A N
Anecdotal record: Early in March 2013 I hurried to complete a paper for peer review and possible publication in a ZBORNIK (Journal) of a Veneti Society based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. (See below). Later in March 2013 I went on a series of safaris in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Quite naturally my paper and the WORDS FOR ELEPHANT were still on my mind as I rode an AFRICAN Elephant. While riding the African Elephant I indeed was looking for answers in all the right places. Riding on an Asian Elephant is rather common. Riding on an AFRICAN ELEPHANT is very rare. Just for sake of curiosity I asked what were the local words for
Elephant. Imagine how exited I was when the first word which I learned for Elephant was
T L O U. (I learned that word from N.M. Mateugu). To many people there would be no resemblance between TLOU and SLON. Allow me to point out the meaning behind the Slavic “ON” on the end of the word “SLON”. The Slavic word for “HE” is “ON” and ALL words which end that way (Animate or INanimate) are of Masculine Gender. Slavic examples of words ending in ON are: ZVON (BELL), HON (Czech HUNT/CHASE), KON (ACTion), ZÁKON (CONSTITUTION/LAW), KONj (HORSE), and SLON (ELEPHANT). When foreign words become part of the Slavic vocabulary they assume masculine gender if they end with ON – such as Baron, Wagon, Horizon, Bison…
The T in TLOU and the S in SLON are interchangeable. They are “dentals”. The T is produced by pressing the tongue against the TEETH and releasing the AIR by withdrawing the tongue and allowing the AIR to make a plosive sound. The S is produced by AIR hissing between the teeth. Substitution of such “DENTALS” is evident in words like ExtenT and ExtenSion, RaTional & ReaSon, CommiT & CommiSSion etc. (K is often a substitute for S or C-TS-TZ as in Caesar=Kaiser/Císař/Tsar/Tzar.)
This brings up THE DISTINCT POSSIBILITY THAT THE TLOU/SLON WORD FOR ELEPHANT CAME FROM AFRICA TO ASIA AND EUROPE 60,000 YEARS AGO WITH THE FIRSTS HOMO SAPIENS. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2297658/Out-Africa-story-rewritten–New-DNA-analysis-puts-date-human-migration-early-62-000-years-ago.html
Earlier hominids lived not only in Africa but throughout Eurasia. Australopithecus-like hominids lived in Georgia and on the Island of Flores in Indonesia. Peking Man had relatives in Heidleberg http://www.google.com/search? q=heidelberg+man&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=psBqUYSXBYGmyQGHu4GgBA&sqi=2&ve
d=0CD4QsAQ&biw=1213&bih=814
Denisovans had relatives among the Neanderthals.
We must question Symbolic Thought and Language capacity of these earlier humans because they left no representational ART. Cro Magnons were fully human in language as indicated by virtuosity in art. While riding on an African Elephant and while on the ground I had collected quite a few words for elephant in the Bantouid languages of southern Africa.
When Homo Sapiens migrated to Asia and Europe there were ELEPHANTS EVERYWHERE they went!!! There were Stegodons http://www.elephant.se/stegodon.php on the Island of Flores in Indonesia and throughout Eurasia. There were Mammoths in Europe and Asia,…and more Mammoths and Mastodons in the Americas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon It was totally unnecessary to create a new lexeme for an animal so similar to one they knew in their homeland. The word TLOU went with them into new lands.
When I was in Africa I collected quite a few words for ELEPHANT IN NATIVE LANGUAGES.
I annotated them here:
THE LEXEME……… LANGUAGE…………… and the AUTHORITY who provided theINFORMATION
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
TLOU Setswana: (National tongue of Botswana) Mavis Ndaruka Matengu, Kachikau Village
Private Bag K-1 Kasane, Botswana
ZHOU (ŽOU) Kalanga Tribe Ookeditse “Onx” Boy onxboy@ymail.com
NDJOU (NDŽOU) Baherero
OTJOU (OTŽOU) Harero Priscillah Orman tjiuaorman@yahoo.com
UZOVU Subiya
NZOVU Kaonde Brian Shiompa (guide) Bravo_sierra 1977@yahoo.com
NJOVU Ngoni Mwami mwami.Banda@gmail.com
NJOMVU Nyanja most widely spoken in Zambia: Nyanja & Bemba
INSOFU Bemba Mwami mwami.Banda@gmail.com
NDTHOVU Mbukushu Calebuse Maboga Box 1625 Maun, Botswana
TLOU Setswana tiso.teko@yahoo.co.uk
MNUZOVU Tonga: (National tongue of Zambia) Fredson Mulamata c/o Bulungu Primary
School, P.O. Box 830194, Mumbwa, Zambia
ZHOU (ŽOU) Karansa Mike Tsoka Nyoni (Masai) nyonimike@ymail.com
INDLOVU Ndebele Avias Ncube aviasncumbe@yahoo.com
NZOVU Tonga Mafiyos Ndolo Muzamba Mambanje School
P.O.Box 33 Dete Hwange, Zimbabwe
NZOU Shona Micha Munkuli Songwa School P.O.Box 5424
Cross Dete, Hwange, Zimbabwe
All of the above Bantoid Languages contain a Dental Z,T,Ž,S,TH plus an open vowel O much as the Eurasian languages below. Alternately, the tongue is placed on the an alveolar ridge (upper gum) instead of the upper teeth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_ridge
http://www.google.com/search?q=alveolar+ridge&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=YCJrUYaqOML1iwKtk4AY&sqi=2&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1213&bih=814
to produce the N,D,L sounds accompanied by the open vowel – very much like in Europe and Asia.
In some instances the word is a bit longer and the phonemic elements identified above are sandwiched in a bigger word. Here I underline the elements identified above.
Word for ELEPHANT Native Language
INGl/rOFU Tsonga
NDTHOVU Mbukushu
INGLOUFU Bayeyi
NDHOVUO Hambu Kushi
INGLOFU Zulu
A Ready Synoptic Comparison of Onomatopoeic words for Elephant in many Eurasian Languages
Chinese S ee AH N g
Hakka (south China) S I O N g
Tocharian A ON K A L A M
Tocharian B ON K O L M O
Latvian Z I L O N us
Saami/Lapp S L O NN
Tibetan G L A N
Slavic (MANY languages!) S L O N
Polish (Slavic variant) S “u” O N
Vietnamese C O N VOI
Mongol Z A A N
Japanese Z O S A N
The words for ELEPHANT may be based on the Onomatopoeic sound which is made by the animals.
SOUNDS of TRUMPETING ELEPHANTS (Asian & African)
Subject: Words for Elephant are very similar in Chinese,Mongol,Tocharian,Japanese,Slavic etc….. from times of MAMMOTHS??
Recently I had discovered that there are THREE CLUSTERS of lexemes which are the words for Elephant in Eurasia:
#1. The Greco-Sudanic word cluster “ELEPHANT”,
#2. The Semitic word cluster “FEEL- PEEL- FIL-PIL etc”. and
#3. the Eurasian (Chinese, Mongol, Tocharian, Tibetan, Japanese, Slavic etc. ( S##N, Z##N, SL#N, GL#N, KL#N, Z#S#N, S###Ng, Z###Nus etc.)
This suggests to me that the word is a vestige of the lexicon of Northern Eurasian Mammoth Hunters. Please be so kind and read my SHORT paper and comment.
Thank you,
Petr Jandáček
SLON in the minds of Gravettien/Pavlovian/Kostienkian & other Mammoth Hunters
“SLON” IN THE LANGUAGE OF MAMMOTH HUNTERS
Petr Jandáček
127 La Senda Rd.
LOS ALAMOS NM USA
87544 e-mail p.jandacek@gmail.com www.jandacek.com
ABSTRACT
In my recent travels through Mongolia and China I was struck by the fact that in Chinese and in Mongol the words for “ELEPHANT” were not very dissimilar from the Slavic word “SLON” “слон”.
The Chinese word for “Elephant” is See-AHng. The Mongol word for “Elephant” is Zaan – (in Cyrillic written = 3aaH). In both Mongol and Chinese there is the omission of the “L” sound in their indigenous words for “Elephant”. I was motivated to find out what the Japanese called an “Elephant”. A quick look on Google revealed that the Japanese word for “Elephant” is Zosan or Zo. As an artist I am often accused of “overactive imagination”… but by adding an “L*” sound to Z*OsAN or to Z*O we come up with a word not very dissimilar to SLON-слон . This short paper suggests that the hunters of mammoths called their prey “SLON” or some such lexeme which starts with a dental S or Z. and ends with an alveolar/nasal N with an open vowel A or O in the middle with an optional liquid/alveolar L.
LEXICONS re: ELEPHANTS
The Slavic word SLON is now found between the geographical points of Ljubljana – Vladivostok as well as Prague – Vladivostok, and extends to remnants of Slavic populations in Eastern Germany (Wends) and Slovenian dialects in Italy, Austria and Hungary. ZILONUS (or ZILONis) is the Latvian word for Elephant. GLAN is the Tibetan word for Elephant. (G & Z or S are often interchangeable as in Zrno/Grain or Zlato/Gold.) Tocharian A word for Elephant is ONKALAM. Tocharian B word for Elephant is ONKOLMO. We may consider here OKEL or KEL= elephant’s tusk. It may be prudent to consider both SLON and “the animal having OKEL” “Creative” rearranging of phonemes can yield words resembling “KLON” = (SLON). (As in the English word “CARP” can result in Slovenian KRAP or Czech KAPR.)
The “L” sound in many languages is problematic. When we were in China we had a guide who spoke very good English. A very important word in the tourist industry is “Hotel”. Our Chinese tourist guide could only pronounce the word as “Hoter”. In America a very popular comical utterance is “Rots of ruck!”. Most Americans had lost the context of this phrase. A Japanese reporter wished Richard Nixon:” Rots of ruck on your next erection!”… He meant to say: “Lots of luck on your next election!”.
Keep in mind that the word VENETI arose because Sloveneti was too arduous for non-Slavic people to utter. In a similar way the SLOwends (Slavic) peoples in Germany are called Wendisch or Wends. Often times Germans would pronounce the phonemic combination SL as in SLeep >> “SCHL” = SCHLafen. “Slo” on the other hand is a very common and endearing combination of sounds in SLOvanic languages. National states in modern Europe as well as smaller ethic groups use the “slo” or “sla” element in their identity. Among them are Slovenes, Slovaks, Slavonians, and (in northern Poland) the Slovincians, and other Slavs.
There are many significant and poignant Slavic words with the SL prefix. Among them are the Czech words: slast = bliss, sláva = glory, sluj = cave or cavern, sládek = brewer, sladký = sweet, slaný = salty, slza = tear, slunce = sun… Even more poignant is the fact that SLOVANIC Languages obtain their name from the lexeme: “SLOVO” which means “Word” or “Word of Honor”. Thus, SLAVS by definition are the “Users of Words”.
It is very unlikely that “SLON” was a loan-word from Germanic or Italic languages. It could be a loan from Asia.
Hakka language is a variant of Chinese spoken in the south of China and as the native dialect on Formosa. The Hakka word for Elephant is SIONG. In Polish the “L” sound in SLON is palatalized and approaches the sound of the “English W” and thus it is a semi-vowel. In Polish the word is pronounced SuON. Thus it may be expected that the “L” sound became fugitive/silent in SLON as languages evolved from the original Eurasian language. The Vietnamese word for Elephant is CON VOI. The Saami/Lapp word for Elephant is SLONN.
[1.]wold.livingsources.org/vocabulary/14
Semitic Languages have a totally different form for their word for Elephant. The Arabic word for Elephant is FEL. The Hebrew word for Elephant is FEEL or PEEL. With the Diaspora as well as with the spread of Islam there are variants of Peel or Feel or Fel in many parts of Central Asia and among peoples who had an extensive maritime tradition such as the Vikings and the Greeks.
The Farsi word for Elephant is FEEL.
The Azerbaijani word for Elephant is FIL.
The Kazakh word for Elephant is PIL.
The Pushtu word for Elephant is PIL.
The Uzbek word for Elephant is PHEEL.
The Armenian word for Elephant is PLUGH.
The Chechen word for Elephant is PIYL.
The Tatar word for Elephant is FIL.
The Tajik word for Elephant is FIL.
The Turkish word for Elephant is FIL.
The Icelandic word for Elephant is FILL (ostensibly from their Viking travels).
The Faroese (Viking) word for Elephant is FILUR.
The Greek word for Elephant is either FEEL or ELEPHANTAS! ελέφαντας
The Latin word for Elephant is ELEPHANTUS. (The Romans used the grapheme “V” to write the “U” sound.)
Most European languages subsequently had adopted some form of the Greco-Latin “ELEPHANT derivative”.
The Basque word for Elephant is ELEFANTE.
The Finnish word for Elephant is ELEFANTTI or NORSU.
The Estonian word for Elephant is ELEVANT.
The Hungarian word for Elephant is ELEFÁNT.
The Afrikaans word for Elephant is OLIFANT.
Irish Gaelic word for Elephant is EILIFINT.
Scottish Gaelic word for Elephant is AILBHEAN.
Welsh Gaelic word for Elephant is ELFFANT.
The Yiddish word for Elephant is HELFOND.
The Kiribati word for Elephant is EREBANTI. The Kiribati word demonstrates the aversion which some languages have to “L” and “F-V-PH” phonemes.
Suffice it to say that all the Germanic and Italic languages also derive their words for Elephant from the Latin model.
[2.] www.himandus.net/elefunteria/library/words/languages.html
Thus, in Europe there are Three Linguistic (Phonemic) Sources for the cognate of “Elephant”.
#1. The Phonemic source from the Greek ELEPHANTAS …
#2. The Phonemic source from the Semitic or FEEL, PEEL, FEL …
and #3. The Phonemic Slavic -SLON – perhaps from Bantoid TLOU 60,000 years ago
The Semitic source is imported from the Arabian peninsula and the Levant. The Hellenic Word Source has most likely origins which are Hamitic from the Sudan. (The author had played with the concept that the Slavic prefix “VELE” {VERY BIG} as in Velehrad, Velegrad, ве̏легра̄д velemesto, velemoc, velesila…may play a role in the word: “Elephant”.) The Slavic-optional innitial “V” sound would follow the same rule as the Slavic word for Eight = Osem or Vošem. (The author had eliminated the Slavic “VELE” option and cautions others against such dead-end scholarly pursuits.)
The word SLON as used in ALL SLAVIC LANGUAGES is the only one which is evidently indigenous and autochthonous. The use of the word SLON (and variations) may extend in some modified form to the Himalayas and to China and Japan (and other parts of Asia) and into the time of the Eurasian Ice Age… and by same logic, to the Mammoths.
Discussion
The Last of the Mammoths survived ON WRANGEL ISLAND to about 4,000 years ago.
[3.] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrangel_Island]
By 4,000 humankind entered the Historical period and Elephants from India and Africa were known to caravans and locals through tales, sagas, byliny and legends. Thus for the Slavs and others there was no need to remove the word “SLON” from their lexicon. Most mammoths were extinct by 10,000 years ago. But recent evidence places mammoths on St. Paul Island, Alaska till 3750 BC and on Wrangel Island till 1650 BC.
[4.] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth
[5.] io9.com/5896262/the-last-mammoths-died-out-just-3600-years-agobut-they-should-have-survived
When Thomas Jefferson sent out the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery (1804 – 1806) He (Jefferson) hoped that the explorers would still find living samples of mammoths.
[6.] www.earlyamerica.com/review/2000_fall/jefferson_paleon.html
Etymology
The word “mammoth” comes from the Russian мамонт mamont, probably in turn from the Vogul (Mansi) language, mang ont, meaning “earth horn”. The word first appeared in English in Richard James’sDictionariolum Russico-Anglicum of 1618.[3] In English, the noun “mammoth” also has become an adjective meaning “large” or “massive”.
[7.] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth
The Word ELEPHANT also is of rather modern coinage:
elephant (n.) – Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=elephant
from Latin elephantus, from Greek elephas (genitive elephantos) “elephant, ivory,” … Hamitic elu “elephant,” source of the word for it in many Semitic languages, …
[8.] www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=elephant
The word Fel-Feel-Peel is a recently imported word from Abrahamic lands.
The word SLON and related words: GLAN, SIONg, See-AHng, SLONN, ZAAN, ZILONUS etc seem to have been used throughout Eurasia for thousands of years.
Unless we can pinpoint an individual who indulged in neologisms and coined the word “SLON” in the last couple of thousand years we must always assume that the word comes to us from great antiquity. We can safely say that the Slavic Languages began serious “branching” After Cyril and Methodius — since a SINGLE Glagolitic language served ALL Slavic people well at that time – a thousand years ago. Since all Slavic peoples use the ONE AND ONLY TERM “SLON” we are prone to assume that the term goes back to a time when ALL speakers of the language had EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT PROBOSCIDEA in their own Homeland. Even after the extinction of Proboscidea from their immediate environment oral and written traditions continued to live on and on… perpetuated by trade from India and the Orient.
For Thousands of years the people of the Alps had not seen any elephants. Yet,
when Hannibal was crossing the Alps it is a safe bet that the locals knew what those
critters were and had a lexicon dealing with the huge beasts and their valuable ivory.
Proboscidea – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscidea
The Proboscidea (from the Latin proboscis) are a taxonomic order containing one living family, Elephantidae, and several extinct families. This order, first ..
[9.] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscidea
Thus we can rather safely assume that Mammoth Hunters used (some form of) the word “SLON” to call their prey.
Carl Sagan wrote a famous book: The DRAGONS of EDEN where he argued that
humans from birth have a fear of snakes because primates in trees were safe from
most predators, but not so much from snakes.
[10.] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dragons_of_Eden
Apologia:
I must confess that I had trepidations even suggesting that the word “SLON” was used by the
Mammoth Hunters of the Gravettien-Pavlovian-Kostienkian cultures of the Paleolithic. Yet there are
only two ways to account for the word “SLON”.
#1. 19th Century scholars promulgated that millions Slavs emerged from the small area of Pripyat
River Marshes in the 6th Century AD and populated over half of Europe. As these people
obtained knowledge about elephants some authoritative individual or group of individuals then
would send messengers to all the Slavic villages from the Elbe River to the Ural Mountains
and compel all the Slavic people to abandon the use of words like FEL or ELEPHANT and
adopt the word “SLON”. Alas, there were no elephants emerging from the Pripyat River
Marshes 1500 years ago. There would have been no room for the SLONS next to the tightly
packed SLAVS.
#2. The other scenario suggested is that in the Stone Age people of the Gravettien-Pavlovian-
Kostienkian and Other related cultures hunted Proboscidea in Eurasia. Only thousands (or
perhaps few hundreds of thousands) of hunters and gatherers would have used the word
“SLON” and passed the word on to their more numerous descendants. Mammoths became
extinct, but southern Eurasians domesticated elephants and perpetuated the knowledge of
such animals among their trading partners who continued to use the word “SLON”.
Supporting the linguistic connection between GLAN, ZAAN, SIONg, See-AHNg, ZOsAN, KLON,
and SLON is the 16,000 year old genetic link of R1a and R1b.
[11.] Perdih*, Jandáček, Feb. 2012 Volume 5, No.2 Proceedings of the Academy of DNA
Genealogy / Rossijskaja Akademija DHK – Genealogii // Boston-Moscow-Cukuba
pp 38 through 94 “New Understanding of Western Eurasia in Prehistoric Times”
* Corresponding author a.perdih@gmail.com
PS. There is one more fascinating feature about Elephants….. The two forms of Elephants (Asian and African) are not merely 2 different species…. But they belong to TWO different GENERA! Lexodonta & Elephas. Yet, there is at least one case where the mating (in a zoo) between the two genera PRODUCED A LIVE BIRTH! This could suggest that MAMMOTHS could be fertile with both Elephas and Lexodonta! pj
PSS The Czech word for Hippopotamus is Onomatopoeic “HROCH” (the CH is pronounced as in BaCH) . Perhaps the Mongol word ZAAN! is the best Onomatopoeic representation of the call of an elephant with a Mammothean accent. SLON is not quite as onomatopoeic, but it is OK. pj