Re: Judean-Sanskrit/Bantu/Austronesian?

On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Kristian Jensen wrote:

> Here's another idea again: Judean-Austronesian. What if Yemenite
> Jewish sailors were bold enough to venture away from the coast of
> East Africa to 'discover' Madagascar? What if they settled in
> Madagascar? Might there not have been a Jewish language that would
> have developed when influenced by the local Austronesian speakers?
Well, as the resident Malagasy buff, I have to say this sounds like
a fun idea.  There is, of course, a lot of Semitic in Malagasy already,
in the form of Arabic loanwords, many of them borrowed by way of
Swahili.  The days of the week, for example, are all borrowings from
Arabic (except the word for Friday, which is "Zoma", meaning "market").

How a Jewish 'discovery' of Madagascar would play out would depend on
exactly *when* the discovery was made.  Madagascar was settled by
Austronesians well within recorded history - say, about 500 AD.
If the Yemenites had arrived before, then they might have prevented
the Austronesian settlement completely, and Madagascar would have
been a Semitic-speaking island.  (Or perhaps Semitic-Bantu, if you
accept the possibility - still disputed - that there were Bantus
already living on Madagascar when the Austronesians arrived.)

Matt.