To evaluate the number and time of the migration(s) that colonized the New World we analyzed all available sequences of the first hypervariable segment of the human mitochondrial DNA control region, including 544 Native Americans. Sequence and population trees showed that the Amerind, Na-Dene, and Eskimo are significantly closer among themselves than anyone is to Asian populations, with the exception of the Siberian Chukchi, that in some analyses are closer to Na-Dene and Eskimo. Nucleotide diversity analyses based on haplogroup A sequences suggest that Native Americans and Chukchi originated from a single migration to Beringia, probably from east Central Asia, that occurred approximately 30,000 or approximately 43,000 years ago, depending on which substitution rate is used, with 95% confidence intervals between approximately 22,000 and approximately 55,000 years ago. These results support a model for the peopling of the Americas in which Beringia played a central role, where the population that originated the Native Americans settled and expanded. Some time after the colonization of Beringia they crossed the Alberta ice-free corridor and peopled the rest of the American continent. The collapse of this ice-free corridor during a few thousand years 14,000-20,000 years ago isolated the people south of the ice-sheets, who gave rise to the Amerind, from those still in Beringia; the latter originated the Na-Dene, Eskimo, and probably the Siberian Chukchi.

ABSTRACT Introduction Aphasia assessments in languages other than English are scarce. In the case of Spanish, this scarcity includes a need for assessments with linguistic and cultural adaptations that consider dialectal varieties and cultural traits across Spanish-speaking populations. Aims of the study This study discusses the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT) to Spanish (SP-CAT), a version that can be used in Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, and provide pilot results assessing whether performance is comparable across samples. Methods For the linguistic adaptation, we discuss considerations such as typological differences between English and Spanish, Spanish varieties, gender cues, spelling-sound regularities, transparency, and other syntax-related aspects. For the cultural adaptation, we discuss considerations such as culturally relevant items and images, and covering different Spanish varieties within the SP-CAT. The pre-testing of items for the SP-CAT included controlling variables such as name agreement of visual stimuli (examined in n=237 healthy participants), imageability (examined in n=244 healthy participants), and lexical frequency (from the Corpus of Reference of Current Spanish). We also conducted a pilot study of the SP-CAT with 82 healthy participants from Chile, Colombia, and Spain to assess differences in performance within tasks between the included countries; analysis of such differences was completed within a Bayesian framework. Results The SP-CAT provides a linguistic and cultural adaptation of the original English CAT. Item pre-testing included name agreement, lexical frequency, and imageability tests to ensure comparability with the English original version. Our pilot study confirmed that there are no clinically significant differences in performance within tasks between the included countries in healthy participants, a necessary step towards the final validation of a test for the Spanish-speaking world. Discussion The SP-CAT responds to a need to develop linguistically and culturally sensitive adaptations of assessments for Spanish-speaking people with aphasia to be used in clinical practice. Pilot results indicate that the adaptation meets the criteria to be used across Spanish varieties. In light of promising pilot results, the next phase of this study will assess the validity and reliability of the SP-CAT, providing normative data for its administration.

Abstract Nominalization (in different forms and guises) is one of the most common subordination strategies in South American indigenous languages. A frequently used nominalization strategy is to use case markers to indicate the semantic or structural relationship of the nominalized clause to the proposition expressed in the main clause. This paper aims to establish the extent to which these extensions of case markers to subordinate clauses are non-random, and to separate the role of language contact, genealogical retention, and universal preferences in explaining the distribution of case markers as subordinators in South American indigenous languages.

The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America. When viewed as a single continent, the Americas are the second largest continent by area after Asia and the third largest continent by population. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and constitute the "New World", in contrast to the "Old W The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America. When viewed as a single continent, the Americas are the second largest continent by area after Asia… The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska about 40,000–17,000 years ago, when sea levels were significantly lowered during the Quaternary glaciation. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets. Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific coast to South America. Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice age. Both routes may have been taken, although the genetic evidences suggests a single founding population. The micro-satellite diversity and distributions specific to South American Indigenous peoples indicates that certain populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region. A second migration occurred after the initial peopling of the Americas; Na Dene speakers, found predominantly in North American groups at varying genetic rates, with the highest frequency found among the Athabaskans at 42%, derive from this second wave. Linguists and biologists have reached a similar conclusion based on analysis of Amerindian language groups and ABO blood group system distributions. Then the people of the Arctic small tool tradition, a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait c. 2500 BCE, moved into North America. The Arctic small tool tradition, a Paleo-Eskimo culture, branched off into two cultural variants, including the Pre-Dorset and the Independence traditions of Greenland. The descendants of the Pre-Dorset cultural group, the Dorset culture, were displaced by the final migrants from the Bering sea coast line, the Thule people (the ancestors of modern Inuit), by 1000 CE.

by the concept of the culture area, namely a region where shared cultural traits occur. The northwest culture area, for example, shared common traits such Native Americans (also called Indians, American Indians, First Americans, and Indigenous Americans) are the Indigenous peoples of the United States, particularly of the lower 48 states and Alaska. They may also include any Americans whose origins lie in any of the Indigenous peoples of North or South America. The United States Census Bureau publishes data about "American Indians and Alaska Natives T…