LINGUIST List 14.3302

Mon Dec 1 2003

Media: English Language Traced to Turkish Farmers

Editor for this issue: Steve Moran <stevelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. aide ma, Re: 14.3291, Media: Nature: Lang-Tree Divergence Times / Subject: Glottochronology lives!

Message 1: Re: 14.3291, Media: Nature: Lang-Tree Divergence Times / Subject: Glottochronology lives!

For an downunder twist on this story, the Sydney Morning Herald wins
my personal prize for superbly gormless sub-editing with the following
headline on its home page for Dec 1:

Turkish farmers invented English

This then leads to the slightly more sober heading:

English language traced to Turkish farmers 

December 1, 2003 

Auckland University researchers have stunned academics around the
world by tracing the origins of the English language to Turkish
farmers. Using a novel approach to develop an Indo-European language
tree, the researchers say they have evidence the roots of the English
language go back about 9,000 years to Turkey. Associate Professor
Russell Gray and PhD student Quentin Atkinson published their research
in the British journal Nature and their findings on the long debated
origins of the language have quickly spread in news headlines around
the world.

The full story can be found at:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/30/1070127275013.html

=====
Edward McDonald 
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