PIE vs. Proto-Language)

[Patrick C. Ryan]

Dear Steve and IEists:

 ----- Original Message -----
From: <X99Lynx at aol.com>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 1999 2:46 AM

<snip>

> Yeah.  And this multi-meaning of the word "language" can be a real problem in
> the discussion of broader language issues among list members here.  In
> correspondence with certain linguists, I've noticed a laudatory habit of
> being precise about the way the word is being used - the physiological event,
> the act of communication, speech versus the written word, and (once again)
> the Saussurian distinction between the act of speaking and as a specific
> "system of language" maintained by members of an identifiable speech
> community.  As I've pointed out before, "language" among biologists can refer
> to any behavior that has a communicative effect without regard to species.
> My impression is that the quote re monogenesis above refers to the
> distinction often made by paleobiologists - language as the emergence in
> humans of speech capabilities that other primates were/are not
> physiologically capable of.   The current issue in this area circles around
> what evidence in fossil finds suggests the emergence of physiological
> features that would make human speech complexity possible.

Yes, this would be the interpretation of 'language' that I would prefer in
terms of the discussion of monogenesis.

Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN | PROTO-LANGUAGE at email.msn.com (501) 227-9947 * 9115 W. 34th
St. Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES: PROTO-LANGUAGE:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/index.html and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit
ek, at ek hekk, vindga meipi, nftr allar nmu, geiri undapr . . . a ~eim
meipi er mangi veit hvers hann af rstum renn." (Havamal 138)