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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:
Dear Nigel Begg,

Your question assumes that human language got going only once, in one place, in the history of our species; we don't know for sure whether or not that is true but I think it's fair to say that the consensus leans towards it not being true, and that language probably emerged independently at many places on the globe. Whether that is so or not, I think it would hardly be possible that language could have spread from New Guinea to the rest of the world, because I believe that biological genetics research makes it pretty certain that New Guinea, Australia, and the Pacific islands were populated from Eurasia, the population didn't spread in the other direction.

Regards,

Geoffrey Sampson

Reply From: Geoffrey Richard Sampson    click here to access email
Date: Oct-19-2009
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 Elizabeth J Pyatt    (Oct-18-2009)
  4. Re: How to research the origin of language Joseph F Foster    (Oct-18-2009)
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