proto-proto-proto...

[Jonathan Lighter]

Occam's principle, as I have learned more than once, is a probability and a
method, not a guarantee.

JL


On Tue, May 7, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: proto-proto-proto...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5/7/2013 02:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Way I see it, once ape-persons got the synapses to talk, they started
> >talkin'. If they started when there was just a single band, language is
> >ultimately monogenetic. Iffen they waited till they wuz split up like,
> >polygenetic.
> >
> >Existin' language families, though...you'd figger they came late enuff
> that
> >their *immediate* proto forms musta been one at a time, barrin' the
> >cross-pollinatin' an' general interferin'.
>
> OK, humans are mongenetic, according to the one revealed Truth.  (And
> proven scientifically, as I think Kant argued, according to Occam's
> principle -- polygenesis is more complicated, and the development of
> human races can be explained -- or at least he could explain --
> without it.)  But what do we learn from the Tower of
> Babel?  Polygenesis of language(s)?
>
> Joel
>
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