This might be a dumb question but i’ve always wondered since they had never encountered people who spoke a completely new language they’d never heard, how did they communicate?
In: Other
ELI5:
You ever play charades with your friends, and guess what the word is by acting it out? If you and your friends played a lot of charades you’d eventually learn a WHOLE bunch of words.
Non ELI5:
I moved to France when I was 18, having never studied French. Initially my vocabulary peaked when I’d just hold objects up to people and they’d tell me what it was. I learned the phrase ‘what is this” pretty early on to aid in it.
I remember learning how to say “I am hot” and then “I am cold” and now I could express feelings not just objects.
Then I learned to ask basic questions like “I’m hungry” translated to “are you hungry?” to see if my friends wanted to eat.
Now I can ask about you in a basic sense… and it just grew from there. I remember when I got to the point I could carry on simplistic conversations and was excited to talk to people and I’d learn more questions and phrases from each interaction.
Christopher Columbus never interacted with Native Americans like we think of them today.
He landed on an island in the Gulf of Mexico, which later became Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The expedition members communicated by pointing, gesturing and using body language, or drew pictures to communicate, with the natives.
Eventually some men of his expedition stayed in Hispaniola and learned the language, but Columbus also took natives back to Spain to learn Spanish, and then brought them back as translators on his later expeditions.
There’s actually a great video by the YouTube channel History Matters about this very question. Very basically, they used a kind of improvised sign language to try and communicate at first. Eventually there would be captive Europeans or captive natives on either side of the Atlantic that would then learn the other language. Then those people would act as interpreters in future interactions. Here’s the video if you want more: [How did European Explorers Speak to Newly-discovered Natives? (Short Animated Documentary)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-EdQ44EZU)
I used to work at a Dr’s office and sometimes you’d get a patient that didn’t speak English and nobody else spoke the language. I’d use google translate for some stuff, but honestly you’d be surprised how much you could communicate with someone using pantomime
This doesn’t answer your question, but I find it fascinating!
When Magellan’s crew was circumnavigating the globe, his personal *slave* was very likely the first individual to do so, long before the rest of the crew.
When they arrived in the Philippines, his slave could understand and communicate with the natives. He spoke a different, but closely related language from his childhood. So it’s speculated that he was taken from somewhere in Southeast Asia as a child and sold into slavery. So he got back to his original starting point before anyone else on the voyage did.
To give a little insight, we call llamas ‘llamas’ because when the spanish first pointed at a llama, the response was a repeat of the word ‘this’, ie llama.
People communicate by pointing if all else fails.
A few diffeent aproches:
1
Show you a shovel.
Show you how to use it.
Give it to you.
Point where I want you to dig.
You gesture to me ‘no’ and dont start digging.
I raise my Gun, point it at your friend, fire.
Point Gun at you. Then Point at the shovel, you and where I want you to dig.
Now you are digging with my sailor fellows standing over you with their guns. Apparently i made you understand 1 i wanted you to dig 2 where. Communication seems to be fine for now, at least between you and me, not so much your friend.
—
2
I Point to a tree, say ‘tree’. I Point to a rock, says ‘rock’. Look at you, with a question facial expression.
You Point to a tree, says ‘smu-ga’, points to a rock, says ‘gda-ha’.
Now we know 2 words of each others languages. Communication seems to be picking up fine, more work to do before we understand each other realy well.
—
3
I say ‘i want your gold’
You dont understand and shake your head or some other gesture.
I Show you some gold, and a picture of gold being mined. Point to myself.
I also lay out some pretty glass beads, Iron tools and Point between you, my stuff, and the gold and mining picture.
If you know about gold, you can now trade. If you have no clue what gold is, you should now know i offer trade of valuable (and for you never seen before) Iron tools and you can start showing what you have in hope i want some of that for that shiny Iron stuff with an amazin sharp edge.
Communication seems to have started. We can go to 2 if we want to be able to chat in the future. Or 1 if you Show me where you dig for gold.
I have always wondered if Columbus bothered communicating with natives. They would have clued him in that he was not in India. I read that he died thinking that his four voyages to the new world took him to India.
1. He killed them
2. He captured them to enslave them
Communication was not his top priority.
Probably talked very loud and very slow with hand motions that don’t really correspond to what he is saying
Latest Answers