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Ask-A-Linguist - Message details
Subject: How to research the origin of language
Question:
I have read that when linguists want to find where a language family originated, they look for the place where the greatest diversity of its subfamilies are found e. g. austroasiatic on Taiwan. Could the same method be used to find where language itself started? It's usually assumed to be in Africa, but it has only four indigenous families. East Asia is far more linguistically diverse and New Guinea has dozens of families. Could language have originated there and spread to the rest of the world?

Reply:
Africa is an interesting case. Although it has the greatest diversity, there isn't as much linguistic diversity as one might expect. On the other hand, there is compelling evidence from anatomical comparison, anthropology and archaeological findings to suggest that humans probably had language before they left Africa

As my colleague indicates, we know there have been several migrations/expansions in Africa which have significantly expanded a few families, in particular the Bantu family (part of the Niger-Khordofanian family) and several Afro-Asiatic branches including Semitic (Arabic and others) at the expense of the others. While some families survive in pockets, there are probably families that have been completely eliminated.

Ironically, we can use the diversity principle to trace Bantu back north to its homeland. However, the data for the languages Bantu has replaced has been lost.

I also agree that the comparative method can't take us back as far as we would like. Once a language has lost its native speakers, unless there are substantial written records, the data we could have used is gone.

It's frustrating on a number of levels.

Reply From: Elizabeth J Pyatt    click here to access email
Date: Oct-18-2009
Other Replies:
  1. Re: How to research the origin of language John M. Lawler    (Oct-18-2009)
  2. Re: How to research the origin of language Herbert Frederic Stahlke    (Oct-18-2009)
  3. Re: How to research the origin of language Joseph F Foster    (Oct-18-2009)
  4. Re: How to research the origin of language Geoffrey Richard Sampson    (Oct-19-2009)
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