Many of us believe the caveman was so very different from ourselves.
Certainly their societies were simpler and their language matched that
simplicity. However, the very beginning of our modern language is based in the
impressions and experiences of the past.
Some words have made it into the modern world suggesting that even
though we have more complex lives our history cannot be detached from
those that came before us. Professor Pagel from the University of Reading has
recently published in the PNAS journal some interesting findings as to where
our modern language started.
It may be surprising to learn but languages come
from root associations based in our understandings and impressions of the
world. The images in our heads are represented by words that we use to share
those images with other people. At the root of our language are 23 words that
existed 15,000 years ago in much the same way as they do today.
According to Discovery the 23 words are as follows
(2013):
give,
who, this, that, not, what, man, mother, old, ye, hear, hand, black, pull,
flow, bark, worm, spit, ashes, though, I, we, thou
Mark Pagel led a team of researchers that have traced
back words through time. Proto languages are the words before language that are believed to have passed away around 8,000 years ago (DW, 2013).
However, the root words that make up the modern European (Eurasian) language are currently thought to have started in
Turkey and Iraq and then moved northward as the ice receded in Europe allowing
people to migrate and develop their own language patterns.
Professor Pagel believes that language is a form of
identity. Each tribe had different types of languages that helped them not only
identify each other but also maintain that identity when interacting with
others. This appears to be logical considering that language is a
representation of images that the same tribal members share from their shared past
experiences. It is these images that create their shared experiences, manners
of thinking, identity, and approaches to life.
You may be interested in reading
the abstract and report free online (Pagel et. al.,
2013):
The
search for ever deeper relationships among the World’s languages is bedeviled
by the fact that most words evolve too rapidly to preserve evidence of their
ancestry beyond 5,000 to 9,000 y. On the other hand, quantitative modeling
indicates that some “ultraconserved” words exist that might be used to find
evidence for deep linguistic relationships beyond that time barrier. Here we
use a statistical model, which takes into account the frequency with which
words are used in common everyday speech, to predict the existence of a set of
such highly conserved words among seven language families of Eurasia postulated
to form a linguistic superfamily that evolved from a common ancestor around
15,000 y ago. We derive a dated phylogenetic tree of this proposed superfamily
with a time-depth of ∼14,450 y,
implying that some frequently used words have been retained in related forms
since the end of the last ice age. Words used more than once per 1,000 in
everyday speech were 7- to 10-times more likely to show deep ancestry on this
tree. Our results suggest a remarkable fidelity in the transmission of some
words and give theoretical justification to the search for features of language
that might be preserved across wide spans of time and geography.
What I find most interesting
about this research study is that as our brains become more complex and able to
handle greater complexity of thought we have invented additional methods of expressing our experiences. Yet, we as a human species still hold some of
the very same things important today as we did in the past. The 23 words
presented are common everyday words used in modern language and are central to
our experiences. Most of these words express concepts revolving around work
(foraging and hunting), family, and social arrangements.
You may be interested in Mark Pagel's book Wired for Culture. You may view a review at a previous post.
You may be interested in Mark Pagel's book Wired for Culture. You may view a review at a previous post.
Indo-European language came from a common root about 15,000
years ago. (May 7th, 2013). DW. Retrieved May 7th, 2013
from http://www.dw.de/indo-european-languages-came-from-a-common-root-about-15000-years-ago/a-16796900
Pagel, M., et. al.
(2013). Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia. PNAS. Retrieved May 7th, 2013
from http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/05/01/1218726110.full.pdf
Viagas, J. (May 7th, 2013). 15,000 Year Old
Words? Discovery. Retreived May 7th,
2013 from http://news.discovery.com/history/15000-year-old-words-130507-2.htm
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