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

[Benjamin Barrett]

A similar claim made in the press is that endangered language X is “ancient,” as though Indo-European is still going through creolization or something.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Human_language <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Human_language> for an attempt to find the proto-proto-language. It is not widely accepted. Also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostratic_languages <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostratic_languages> says that some African families are sometimes included in Nostratic.

I haven’t studied this specifically, but saying “living language X is the mother tongue” doesn’t account for the fact that X has changed, too. In fact, when a group of people splits, those who travel away are generally believed to be more conservative, so since the San have travelled less than those groups who have left Africa, the San's language should be expected to have changed more.

Lots more linguafamiliageekery at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_families <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_families>.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 23 Feb 2016, at 12:42, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "The root of all languages"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Today's puzzling Boston Globe again --=20
> 
> 
> "Long ago, I spent some years in what now is Namibia, mostly in the Kalahar=
> i 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 ha=
> ve been the people from whom all of us descend. Their language is thought t=
> o be the root of all languages, and they had lived there for 200,000 years.=
> Archeologists were to find an encampment which had been occupied continuou=
> sly for 35,000 years."
> 
> Online as "The story behind the book =E2=80=98Dreaming of Lions=E2=80=99", =
> by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas.
> 
> The story behind the book =E2=80=98Dreaming of Lions=E2=80=99 - The Boston =
> Globe
> 
> | =C2=A0 |
> | =C2=A0 |  | =C2=A0 | =C2=A0 | =C2=A0 | =C2=A0 | =C2=A0 |
> | The story behind the book =E2=80=98Dreaming of Lions=E2=80=99 -...Elizabe=
> th Marshall Thomas describes her fascination with lions, and what inspired =
> her autobiography. |
> |  |
> | View on www.bostonglobe.com | Preview by Yahoo |
> |  |
> | =C2=A0 |
> 
> 
> 
> How true is the statement about the San language being "the root of all lan=
> guages"?=C2=A0 I see there is a book Moran, Shane (2009). Representing Bush=
> men: South Africa and the Origin of Language;=C2=A0is that its thesis?
> 
> I won't ask about the assertion that the San are "now believed to have been=
> the people from whom all of us descend", unless some anthropologist wishes=
> to comment.
> 
> 
> Joel


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