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Linguists identify 15,000-year-old 'ultraconserved words'
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May 7, 2013, 12:30:18 PM5/7/13
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Linguists identify 15,000-year-old �ultraconserved words�
Graphic: Hear and see the pronunciation of words from
their ancient language families
By David Brown
The Washington Post
May 6, 2013
You, hear me! Give this fire to that old man. Pull the
black worm off the bark and give it to the mother. And no
spitting in the ashes!
It�s an odd little speech. But if you went back 15,000
years and spoke these words to hunter-gatherers in Asia
in any one of hundreds of modern languages, there is a
chance they would understand at least some of what you
were saying.
That�s because all of the nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs in the four sentences are words that have
descended largely unchanged from a language that died out
as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age.
Those few words mean the same thing, and sound almost the
same, as they did then.
The traditional view is that words can�t survive for more
than 8,000 to 9,000 years. Evolution, linguistic
�weathering� and the adoption of replacements from other
languages eventually drive ancient words to extinction,
just like the dinosaurs of the Jurassic era.
A new study, however, suggests that�s not always true.
A team of researchers has come up with a list of two
dozen �ultraconserved words� that have survived 150
centuries. It includes some predictable entries:
�mother,� �not,� �what,� �to hear� and �man.� It also
contains surprises: �to flow,� �ashes� and �worm.�
The existence of the long-lived words suggests there was
a �proto-Eurasiatic� language that was the common
ancestor to about 700 contemporary languages that are the
native tongues of more than half the world�s people.
Continues at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/linguists-identify-15000-year-old-ultraconserved-words/2013/05/06/a02e3a14-b427-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
Graphic: Hear and see the pronunciation of words from
their ancient language families
By David Brown
The Washington Post
May 6, 2013
You, hear me! Give this fire to that old man. Pull the
black worm off the bark and give it to the mother. And no
spitting in the ashes!
It�s an odd little speech. But if you went back 15,000
years and spoke these words to hunter-gatherers in Asia
in any one of hundreds of modern languages, there is a
chance they would understand at least some of what you
were saying.
That�s because all of the nouns, verbs, adjectives and
adverbs in the four sentences are words that have
descended largely unchanged from a language that died out
as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age.
Those few words mean the same thing, and sound almost the
same, as they did then.
The traditional view is that words can�t survive for more
than 8,000 to 9,000 years. Evolution, linguistic
�weathering� and the adoption of replacements from other
languages eventually drive ancient words to extinction,
just like the dinosaurs of the Jurassic era.
A new study, however, suggests that�s not always true.
A team of researchers has come up with a list of two
dozen �ultraconserved words� that have survived 150
centuries. It includes some predictable entries:
�mother,� �not,� �what,� �to hear� and �man.� It also
contains surprises: �to flow,� �ashes� and �worm.�
The existence of the long-lived words suggests there was
a �proto-Eurasiatic� language that was the common
ancestor to about 700 contemporary languages that are the
native tongues of more than half the world�s people.
Continues at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/linguists-identify-15000-year-old-ultraconserved-words/2013/05/06/a02e3a14-b427-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
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