Posted on 07/23/2007 7:02:45 AM PDT by BGHater
New Family Tree Is Constructed For Indo-EuropeanUsing a new computer program, or algorithm, the scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have sifted through the myriad possibilities and come up with what they believe is the general shape of the tree. According to their picture, the first to split off from Proto-Indo-European was Anatolian, an extinct group of languages, including ancient Hittite, which were once spoken in Turkey... Dr. Melchert cautioned that the data fed into such a model were always open to interpretation and dispute. He, for one, strongly disagrees that the scientists have verified that Anatolian was the first to split away from Proto-Indo-European. This theory, the Indo-Hittite hypothesis, has been debated for years... Dr. Ringe noted that before this study, he believed, contrary to his findings, that the Indo-Hittite hypothesis was wrong. "It might even be fair to say that I was biased against it," he said. "So you can imagine how startled I was when the algorithm kept turning up Anatolian as one first-order branch of the family, and everything else as the other first-order branch -- exactly what the hypothesis says." ...The first surprise was that in all four trees, the Anatolian language group immediately split away from Proto-Indo-European, just as the Indo-Hittite hypothesis has held.
by George Johnson
The New York Times
January 2, 1996
Bull. Tens of thousands of years ago, populations only a few dozen miles apart might have had so little contact with one another that a common language would not have developed.
These “scientists” make stuff up to obtain further “study” grants. Beats having to produce anything useful or meet a payroll, you know!
Sanskrit echoes around the world
Christian Science Monitor | July 5, 2007 | Vijaysree Venkatraman
Posted on 07/06/2007 3:18:56 AM EDT by Lorianne
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1861604/posts
There wouldn’t be any particular reason for all languages to go back to a common origin. Look at Arabic where they have 500 words for dust and 800 for sword. This is because each clan had its own word and the total national language is the collection made as the clans slowly merged. Perhaps they can identify a common origin after a cetain point when the clans had merged sufficiently but before that there could be thousands of independent origins.
Y'know, other than 400,000 year old artifacts which are routinely dismissed on a priori grounds, i.e., the conclusions fit the original assumptions, just by coincidence. What good is language, anyway? :')Anthropology: No Last Word on Language OriginsUnfortunately, "speech does not fossilize," notes anthropologist John Shea of the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Writing appears 6000 years ago, and there is scant evidence for the existence of notation before 13,000 years ago. How long might language have been around before that? The only evidence is indirect, and it suggests two wildly different answers... "Everybody would accept that by 40,000 years ago, language is everywhere," says Stanford University archaeologist Richard Klein... "At one extreme there are people who think that all hominids are 'little people' and at the other that the really 'human' things about human behavior are really very late," says Alan Walker of Pennsylvania State University in University Park. Judging from anatomy alone, speech of some sort--although not like that of modern humans -- has probably been around for at least a million years, says Philip Lieberman of Brown University... Meanwhile, the other precondition of modern language, a big brain, was also emerging... By at least 200,000 years ago, says anatomist Jeffrey Laitman of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, African hominids had cranial bases "identical to [those of] modern humans." ...Even though modern humans were equipped to talk up a storm, there are few definitive signs, for tens of thousands of years, of any of the behaviors anthropologists associate with language: complex tool technology and other signs of conceptualization and planning, trade, ritual, and art.
by Constance Holden
My high school historty professor pointed this out to us about 50 years ago.
s/b
My high school historty professor is pointing this out to us 50 years ago.
;’)
There is a serious lack of an exhaustive etymological dictionary. Lacking that, meaningful communication is impossible.
The Origin of Language:
Tracing the Evolution
of the Mother Tongue
by Merritt RuhlenA Guide to the
World's Languages:
Volume I,
Classification
by Merritt RuhlenOn the
Origin of Languages:
Studies in
Linguistic Taxonomy
by Merritt Ruhlen
:’)
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
a socialist’s dream—
one world,
one lingo.
si.
I’ve got the leftmost, had it for, hmm, eight years, haven’t finished it yet... [blush]
LOL!
“I’ll be ready in 5 minutes, Adam.”
Adam, under his breath: “Guess I have time to hunt another brontosaurus, then.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
