Rare Find: a New Language (fwd link)

[Slavomír Čéplö]

Dear Jennifer,

for one, the verb 'to discover' is used here in very much the same
meaning as when it refers to the discovery of America. <sarcasm> The
natives sure knew it was there, but who cares about them - it was a
new thing to us in Europe and that's all that matters.</sarcasm>
But it was a true discovery in another sense:

"Indeed, the local Koro speakers themselves didn't consider theirs a
separate language, even though it is as distinct from those spoken by
other villagers as English is from Russian, the researchers said."

Somewhat OT, I'm quite surprised that no one has yet commented on some
strange turns of phrase used in the article:

... encoded in its mental grammar of words and sentence structure that
helps shape thought itself
... where so many languages are spoken that they seem to intermingle
effortlessly in streams of thought

Yours,

bulbul

On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 09:46, Jennifer Teeter <teeter42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> How it possible for these linguists to have "discovered" a language?
> Certainly, the speakers of the language
> have been using it and they surely know that their language exists.
>
> Best wishes,
> Jennifer Teeter
> Kyoto
>
> On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Phillip E Cash Cash
> <cashcash at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
>>
>> OCTOBER 6, 2010
>>
>> Rare Find: a New Language
>> As Native Tongues Rapidly Become Extinct, Linguists Discover an Exotic
>> Specimen
>>
>> By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
>> USA
>>
>> In the foothills of the Himalayas, two field linguists have uncovered
>> a find as rare as any endangered species—a language completely new to
>> science.
>>
>> The researchers encountered it for the first time along the western
>> ridges of Arunachal Pradesh, India's northeastern-most state, where
>> more than 120 languages are spoken. There, isolated by craggy slopes
>> and rushing rivers, the hunters and subsistence farmers who speak this
>> rare tongue live in a dozen or so villages of bamboo houses built on
>> stilts.
>>
>> The language—called Koro—was identified during a 2008 expedition
>> conducted as part of National Geographic's Enduring Voices project.
>> The researchers announced their discovery Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
>> So many languages have vanished world-wide in recent decades that the
>> naming of a new one commanded scientific attention.
>>
>> Access full article below:
>>
>>
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703843804575534122591921594.html
>
>
>
> --
> Greenheart Project
> www.greenheartproject.org
>