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'Oldest English Words' Identified
BBC ^
| Thursday, 26 February 2009
Posted on 02/26/2009 4:51:56 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
“We use a computer to fit a range of models that tell us how rapidly these words evolve,” said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading.
Evolve? Aren’t intelligently designed?
To: Bertha Fanation
To: nickcarraway
Reading University researchers claim "I", "we", "two" and "three" are among the most ancient, dating back tens of thousands of years.Aww Geeze, another computer model....
Garbage in, garbage out.
There is really no way to know if they are correct in some cases, like this one.
4
posted on
02/26/2009 4:54:46 PM PST
by
SteamShovel
(Global Warming, the New Patriotism)
To: nickcarraway
oldest sentence found:
"You're not the boss of me"
:)
5
posted on
02/26/2009 4:54:52 PM PST
by
ZinGirl
To: Bertha Fanation
Language is, of course, intelligently designed ~ by humans.
At the same time it changes. These guys want you to accept the idea that "evolve" and "change" mean exactly the same thing ~ which they don't.
6
posted on
02/26/2009 4:57:03 PM PST
by
muawiyah
To: nickcarraway
If 'bad' is going away, what will it be replaced by?
Ungood?
7
posted on
02/26/2009 4:57:17 PM PST
by
who_would_fardels_bear
(The cosmos is about the smallest hole a man can stick his head in. - Chesterton)
To: nickcarraway
....and all this time I thought it was a present participle.
8
posted on
02/26/2009 4:58:57 PM PST
by
BIGLOOK
(Keelhaul Congress! It's the sensible solution to restore Command to the People.)
To: nickcarraway
The team says it can predict which words are likely to become extinct - citing "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as probable first casualties. Huh?
9
posted on
02/26/2009 4:58:59 PM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: nickcarraway
I bet I know some other old English words that aren’t being reported having to do with bodily functions. Does Chaucer come to mind?
10
posted on
02/26/2009 4:59:13 PM PST
by
Thebaddog
(Obama really did believe that stuff he was saying during the campaign)
To: nickcarraway
First word was definitely "Duh"...
Then it morphed to "dad"...
Dad and son went fishing...brought the fish home and told wife..."dead"
And wifey said....."Duh".
The great circle of life!!
11
posted on
02/26/2009 4:59:18 PM PST
by
Sacajaweau
(I'm planting corn...Have to feed my car.)
To: nickcarraway
I have a book on the etymology of words. They contend that one of the oldest words is a four letter word that refers to a part of the female anatomy that starts with a c and ends in a t. It is spelled a myriad of ways but rhymes and sounds like grunt.
To: ZinGirl
Nice, “Your not the boss of me”, I could think of a few others, but decorum and posting rules prohibit such language. Aside from all that it is good to know that we Americans aren’t the only ones that waste tax money on “not absolutly, but gosh darn close” useless studies.
13
posted on
02/26/2009 5:00:32 PM PST
by
ChetNavVet
(Build It, and they won't come!)
To: nickcarraway
“”I”, “we”, “two” and “three””
It sounds like sex talk to me.
14
posted on
02/26/2009 5:00:44 PM PST
by
ansel12
( Am I the only freeper that has been held in an American internment center 1971?)
To: wagglebee
Yeah, if those are the predicted first to go, then the computer model must be doing double duty as a climate change predictor. Equally flawed results.
15
posted on
02/26/2009 5:02:36 PM PST
by
NonValueAdded
(May God save America from its government; this is no time for Obamateurs)
To: nickcarraway
And BTW, all mathematical and logical explanations for language change miss the mark. Whim and whimsy are much more likely.
16
posted on
02/26/2009 5:03:19 PM PST
by
BIGLOOK
(Keelhaul Congress! It's the sensible solution to restore Command to the People.)
To: who_would_fardels_bear
Don’t be so judgmental. “Bad” is simply “differently good.”
17
posted on
02/26/2009 5:05:48 PM PST
by
Procyon
(To the global warming fanatics the problem is too many people and the solution is genocide.)
To: NonValueAdded
Yeah, if those are the predicted first to go, then the computer model must be doing double duty as a climate change predictor. Equally flawed results.That was my first thought, too. Then I thought of a really old anglo-saxon word beginning with F and applied it directly to the computer model-makers.
18
posted on
02/26/2009 5:06:29 PM PST
by
paulycy
(BEWARE the LIBERAL/MEDIA Complex)
To: NonValueAdded
I’m pretty sure that the words these people would like to see become extinct are “God”, “gun”, “freedom”, “liberty” and “private”.
19
posted on
02/26/2009 5:08:39 PM PST
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: nickcarraway
So, the Clovis people spoke early English?
20
posted on
02/26/2009 5:09:55 PM PST
by
ConservativeMind
(Who is now in charge of the "Office of the President-Elect"?)
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