[Bertha Fanation]

“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?

[SteamShovel]

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.

[ZinGirl]

oldest sentence found:

"You're not the boss of me"

:)

[who_would_fardels_bear]

If 'bad' is going away, what will it be replaced by?

Ungood?

[BIGLOOK]

....and all this time I thought it was a present participle.

[wagglebee]

The team says it can predict which words are likely to become extinct - citing "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as probable first casualties.

Huh?

[Thebaddog]

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?

[Sacajaweau]

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!!

[vetvetdoug]

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.

[ansel12]

“”I”, “we”, “two” and “three””

---

It sounds like sex talk to me.

[ConservativeMind]

So, the Clovis people spoke early English?

[J40000]

NI!

[Yardstick]

The team says it can predict which words are likely to become extinct - citing "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as probable first casualties.

What's wrong with "stick" that it would go extinct?

It's a fine, useful noun and an even better verb.

[Recovering_Democrat]

The team says it can predict which words are likely to become extinct - citing "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as probable first casualties.

Bullshit. "Freedom", "liberty", "capitalism", and "individual" are more likely to die.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Whoops.

Stone Age phrasebook developed by scientists studying oldest words
Telegraph | 25 Feb 2009 | Alastair Jamieson
Posted on 02/26/2009 8:52:45 AM PST by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2194604/posts

[Uncle Miltie]

can predict which words are likely to become extinct - citing "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as probable first casualties

My main squeeze says I ain't got the guts to stick up the bodega, so I shot her. My bad.

[Varda]

The headline is silly.
“a lexicon of 200 words that is not specific to culture or technology”, meaning this isn’t about English but about Indo-European or something before that.