[Ads-l] "The root of all languages"

[Salikoko S. Mufwene]

Here we go again... back to primitive people, primitive cultures... and 
of course they must speak the primordial, primitive languages! The 
clicks, so complex as sounds, must have been the primordial consonants, 
right? Damn! I once wrote an essay in which I argue that Africa is not 
more likely to tell us what the primordial language was like, if there 
was just one, than any other part of the world. Here's the link to it, 
for those more interested in the complexity of the phylogenetic scenario:
http://mufwene.uchicago.edu/publications/WHAT_AFRICAN_LINGUISTICS_CAN_CONTRIBUTE_TO_EVOLUTIONARY_LINGUISTICS_-_ACAL_43.pdf

Sali.

On 2/24/2016 7:42 AM, Amy West wrote:
> On 2/24/16 12:00 AM, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:
>
>      From: Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>  To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU   Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 4:37 PM
>  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "The root of all languages"
>
>> On Feb 23, 2016, at 3:42 PM, Joel Berson<berson at att.net>  wrote:
>>
>> Today's puzzling Boston Globe again --
>>
>>
>> "Long ago, I spent some years in what now is Namibia, mostly in the 
>> Kalahari Desert. At the time, the Kalahari was virtually unexplored 
>> except by the people known as San, Bushmen, or Ju/wa hunter 
>> gatherers, now believed to have been the people from whom all of us 
>> descend. Their language is thought to be the root of all languages
>
> Ah, it all clicks for me now.
>
> LH
>
>> Date:    Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:49:51 +0000
>> From:    Joel Berson<berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject: Re: "The root of all languages"
>>
>> Groan.
>>
>> Joel
> The worst thing, Joel, is that he does this live and in person as 
> well. I think the ADS annual meeting should carry a warning label 
> because of this. ;-)
>
> ---Amy West
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

-- 
**********************************************************
Salikoko S. Mufwene                    s-mufwene at uchicago.edu
The Frank J. McLoraine Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics and the College
Professor, Committee on Evolutionary Biology
Professor, Committee on the Conceptual & Historical Studies of Science
University of Chicago                  773-702-8531; FAX 773-834-0924
Department of Linguistics
1115 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
http://mufwene.uchicago.edu/
**********************************************************


------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org