Proto-Human language
The Proto-Human language (also Proto-Sapiens, Proto-World) is the hypothetical direct genetic predecessor of the world's languages.
The concept is purely speculative and not amenable to analysis in historical linguistics. It presupposes a monogenetic origin of language, i.e. the derivation of all natural languages from a single origin, presumably at some point of the Middle Paleolithic. As the predecessor of all extant languages, it would not necessarily be ancestral to a hypothetical Neanderthal language.
Contents
1 Terminology
2 History of the idea
3 Date and location
4 Characteristics
4.1 Vocabulary
4.2 Syntax
4.3 Criticism
5 See also
6 References
6.1 Notes
6.2 Sources
7 External links
Terminology
There is no generally accepted term for this concept. Most treatments of the subject do not include a name for the language under consideration (e.g. Bengtson and Ruhlen 1994). The terms Proto-World and Proto-Human[1] are in occasional use. Merritt Ruhlen has been using the term Proto-Sapiens.
History of the idea
The first serious scientific attempt to establish the reality of monogenesis was that of Alfredo Trombetti, in his book L'unità d'origine del linguaggio, published in 1905 (cf. Ruhlen 1994:263). Trombetti estimated that the common ancestor of existing languages had been spoken between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago (1922:315).
Monogenesis was dismissed by many linguists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the doctrine of the polygenesis of the human races and their languages was widely popular (e.g. Saussure 1986/1916:190).
The best-known supporter of monogenesis in America in the mid-20th century was Morris Swadesh (cf. Ruhlen 1994:215). He pioneered two important methods for investigating deep relationships between languages, lexicostatistics and glottochronology.
In the second half of the 20th century, Joseph Greenberg produced a series of large-scale classifications of the world's languages. These were and are controversial but widely discussed. Although Greenberg did not produce an explicit argument for monogenesis, all of his classification work was geared toward this end. As he stated (1987:337): "The ultimate goal is a comprehensive classification of what is very likely a single language family."
Notable American advocates of linguistic monogenesis include Merritt Ruhlen, John Bengtson, and Harold Fleming.
Date and location
The first concrete attempt to estimate the date of the hypothetical ancestor language was that of Alfredo Trombetti (1922:315), who concluded it was spoken between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, or close to the first emergence of Homo sapiens.
It is uncertain or disputed whether the earliest members of Homo sapiens had fully developed language. Some scholars link the emergence of language proper (out of a proto-linguistic stage that may have lasted considerably longer) to the development of behavioral modernity towards the end of the Middle Paleolithic or at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, roughly 50,000 years ago.
Thus, in the opinion of Richard Klein, the ability to produce complex speech only developed some 50,000 years ago (with the appearance of modern humans or Cro-Magnons).
Johanna Nichols (1998) argued that vocal languages must have begun diversifying in our species at least 100,000 years ago.[2]
In a 2012 study, an estimate on the time of the first emergence of human language was based on
phonemic diversity. This is based on the assumption that phonemic diversity evolves much more slowly than grammar or vocabulary, slowly increasing over time (but reduced among small founding populations).
African languages today have some of the largest phonemic inventories in the world, while the smallest inventories are found in South America and Oceania, some of the last regions of the globe to be colonized.
The authors used data from the colonization of Southeast Asia to estimate the rate of increase in phonemic diversity.
Applying this rate to African languages, they arrived at an estimated age of 150,000 to 350,000 years, compatible with the emergence and early dispersal of H. sapiens.[3]
The validity of this approach has been criticized as flawed.[4]
Characteristics
Speculation as to "characteristics" of Proto-World is limited to linguistic typology, i.e. the identification of universal features shared by all human languages, such as grammar (in the sense of "fixed or preferred sequences of linguistic elements"), and recursion ("clauses [or phrases] embedded in other clauses [or phrases]"), but that beyond this nothing can be known of it (Campbell and Poser 2008:391).
Christopher Ehret has hypothesized that Proto-Human had a very complex consonant system, including clicks.[5]
A few linguists, such as Merritt Ruhlen, have suggested the application of mass comparison and internal reconstruction (cf. Babaev 2008). A number of linguists have attempted to reconstruct the language, while many others[who?] reject this as fringe science.[6][unreliable source?]
According to Murray Gell-Mann and Merritt Ruhlen (2011), the ancestral language would have had a basic order of Subject (S) - Object (O) - Verb (V) or SOV.[7]
Vocabulary
Ruhlen tentatively traces a number of words back to the ancestral language, based on the occurrence of similar sound-and-meaning forms in languages across the globe. Bengtson and Ruhlen (1994) identify 27 "global etymologies". The following table, adapted from Ruhlen (1994b), lists a selection of these forms:
Language | Who? | What? | Two | Water | One/Finger | Arm-1 | Arm-2 | Bend/Knee | Hair | Vulva/Vagina | Smell/Nose |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Khoisan | !kū | ma | /kam | k´´ā | //kɔnu | //kū | ≠hā | //gom | /ʼū | !kwai | č’ū |
Nilo-Saharan | na | de | ball | nki | tok | kani | boko | kutu | sum | buti | čona |
Niger–Congo | nani | ni | bala | engi | dike | kono | boko | boŋgo | butu | ||
Afroasiatic | k(w) | ma | bwVr | ak’wa | tak | ganA | bunqe | somm | put | suna | |
Kartvelian | min | ma | yor | rts’q’a | ert | t’ot’ | qe | muql | toma | putʼ | sun |
Dravidian | yāv | yā | iraṇṭu | nīru | birelu | kaŋ | kay | meṇḍa | pūṭa | počču | čuṇṭu |
Eurasiatic | kwi | mi | pālā | akwā | tik | konV | bhāghu(s) | bük(ä) | punče | p’ut’V | snā |
Dené–Caucasian | kwi | ma | gnyis | ʔoχwa | tok | kan | boq | pjut | tshām | putʼi | suŋ |
Austric | o-ko-e | m-anu | ʔ(m)bar | namaw | ntoʔ | xeen | baγa | buku | śyām | betik | iǰuŋ |
Indo-Pacific | mina | boula | okho | dik | akan | ben | buku | utu | sɨnna | ||
Australian | ŋaani | minha | bula | gugu | kuman | mala | pajing | buŋku | puda | mura | |
Amerind | kune | mana | p’āl | akwā | dɨk’i | kano | boko | buka | summe | butie | čuna |
Source: Ruhlen 1994b:103. The symbol V stands for "a vowel whose precise character is unknown" (ib. 105).
Based on these correspondences, Ruhlen (1994b:105) lists these roots for the ancestor language:
ku = 'who'
ma = 'what'
pal = 'two'
akwa = 'water'
tik = 'finger'
kanV = 'arm'
boko = 'arm'
buŋku = 'knee'
sum = 'hair'
putV = 'vulva'
čuna = 'nose, smell'
Syntax
In a 2011 paper, Murray Gell-Mann and Merritt Ruhlen argued that the ancestral language had subject–object–verb (SOV) word order.[8] The reason for thinking so is that in the world's natural language families, it is typical for the original language to have an SOV word order, and languages that evolve from it sometimes deviate. Their proposal develops an earlier one made by Talmy Givón (1979:271–309).[how?]
Languages with SOV word order have a strong tendency to have other word orders in common, such as:[9]
Adjectives precede the nouns they modify.- Dependent genitives precede the nouns they modify.
- "Prepositions" are really "postpositions", following the nouns they refer to.
For example, instead of saying The man goes to the wide river, as in English, Ruhlen's Proto-Human speakers would have said Man wide river to goes. However, half of all current languages have SOV order, and historically languages cycle between word orders, so finding evidence of this order in the reconstructions of many families may reflect no more than this general tendency, rather than reflecting a common ancestral form.
Criticism
Many linguists reject the methods used to determine these forms. Several areas of criticism are raised with the methods Ruhlen and Gell-Mann employ. The essential basis of these criticisms is that the words being compared do not show common ancestry; the reasons for this vary. One is onomatopoeia: for example, the suggested root for 'smell' listed above, *čuna, may simply be a result of many languages employing an onomatopoeic word that sounds like sniffing, snuffling, or smelling. Another is the taboo quality of certain words. Lyle Campbell points out that many established proto-languages do not contain an equivalent word for *putV 'vulva' because of how often such taboo words are replaced in the lexicon, and notes that it "strains credibility to imagine" that a proto-World form of such a word would survive in many languages.
Using the criteria that Bengtson and Ruhlen employ to find cognates to their proposed roots, Lyle Campbell finds seven possible matches to their root for woman *kuna in Spanish, including cónyuge 'wife, spouse', chica 'girl', and cana 'old woman (adjective)'. He then goes on to show how what Bengtson and Ruhlen would identify as reflexes of *kuna cannot possibly be related to a proto-World word for woman. Cónyuge, for example, comes from the Latin root meaning 'to join', so its origin had nothing to do with the word 'woman'; chica is a feminine adjective coming from a Latin noun meaning 'worthless object'; cana comes from the Latin word for 'white', and again shows a history unrelated to the word 'woman' (Campbell and Poser 2008:370–372). Campbell's assertion is that these types of problems are endemic to the methods used by Ruhlen and others.
There are some linguists who question the very possibility of tracing language elements so far back into the past. Campbell notes that given the time elapsed since the origin of human language, every word from that time would have been replaced or changed beyond recognition in all languages today. Campbell harshly criticizes efforts to reconstruct a Proto-human language, saying "the search for global etymologies is at best a hopeless waste of time, at worst an embarrassment to linguistics as a discipline, unfortunately confusing and misleading to those who might look to linguistics for understanding in this area." (Campbell and Poser 2008:393)
See also
- Adamic language
- Borean languages
- Linguistic universals
- List of languages by first written accounts
- List of proto-languages
- Origin of language
- Origin of speech
- Polygenesis (linguistics)
- Proto-language
- Recent African origin of modern humans
- Universal grammar
References
Notes
^ Used by the Harold Fleming (2003) and John Bengtson (2007).
^ Johanna Nichols, 1998. The origin and dispersal of languages: Linguistic evidence. In Nina Jablonski and Leslie C. Aiello, eds., The Origin and Diversification of Language, pp. 127-70. (Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, 24.) San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.
^ Perreault, C.; Mathew, S. (2012). "Dating the origin of language using phonemic diversity". PLoS ONE. 7 (4): e35289. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0035289. PMC 3338724. PMID 22558135..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ Hunley, Keith; Bowern, Claire; Healy, Meghan (2 January 2012). "Rejection of a serial founder effects model of genetic and linguistic coevolution". Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Bowern, Claire (November 2011). "Out of Africa? The logic of phoneme inventories and founder effects". Linguistic Typology. 15 (2): 207–216. doi:10.1515/lity.2011.015. ISSN 1613-415X.
^ CARTA: The Origin of Us -- Christopher Ehret: Relationships of Ancient African Languages. August 1, 2013.
^ "Linguists seek a time when we spoke as one". Christian Science Monitor. 19 July 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
^ Gell-Mann, Murray; Ruhlen, Merritt (August 26, 2011). "The Origin and Evolution of Word Order" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (42): 17290–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.1113716108. PMC 3198322. PMID 21987807.
^ Gell-Mann, Murray; Ruhlen, Merritt (2011). "The origin and evolution of word order". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (42): 17290–17295. doi:10.1073/pnas.1113716108. PMC 3198322. PMID 21987807. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
^ Gell-Mann & Ruhlen (2003:3–4)
Sources
.mw-parser-output .refbegin{font-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul{list-style-type:none;margin-left:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li,.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>dl>dd{margin-left:0;padding-left:3.2em;text-indent:-3.2em;list-style:none}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-100{font-size:100%}
- Bengtson, John D. and Merritt Ruhlen. 1994. "Global etymologies". In Ruhlen 1994a, pp. 277–336.
- Bengtson, John D. 2007. "On fossil dinosaurs and fossil words". (Also: HTML version.)
- Campbell, Lyle, and William J. Poser. 2008. Language Classification: History and Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Edgar, Blake (March–April 2008). "Letter from South Africa". Archaeology. 61 (2). Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- Gell-Mann, Murray and Merritt Ruhlen. 2003. "The origin and evolution of syntax"[dead link]. (Also: HTML version[dead link].)
- Givón, Talmy. 1979. On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press.
- Greenberg, Joseph. 1963. "Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements". In Universals of Language, edited by Joseph Greenberg, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 58–90. (In second edition of Universals of Language, 1966: pp. 73–113.)
- Greenberg, Joseph H. 1966. The Languages of Africa, revised edition. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Published simultaneously at The Hague by Mouton & Co.)
- Greenberg, Joseph H. 1971. "The Indo-Pacific hypothesis". Reprinted in Joseph H. Greenberg, Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and Method, edited by William Croft, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. 1987. Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Greenberg, Joseph H. 2000–2002. Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family. Volume 1: Grammar. Volume 2: Lexicon. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Klein, Richard G. and Blake Edgar. 2002. The Dawn of Human Culture. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
McDougall, Ian; Brown, Francis H.; Fleagle, John G. (2005). "Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia". Nature. 433 (7027): 733–736. doi:10.1038/nature03258. PMID 15716951.
- Nandi, Owi Ivar. 2012. Human Language Evolution, as Coframed by Behavioral and Psychological Universalisms, Bloomington: iUniverse Publishers.
- Ruhlen, Merritt. 1994a. On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Ruhlen, Merritt. 1994b. The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
- Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1986. Course in General Linguistics, translated by Roy Harris. Chicago: Open Court. (English translation of 1972 edition of Cours de linguistique générale, originally published in 1916.)
- Trombetti, Alfredo. 1905. L'unità d'origine del linguaggio. Bologna: Luigi Beltrami.
- Trombetti, Alfredo. 1922–1923. Elementi di glottologia. 2 volumes. Bologna: Zanichelli.
- Wells, Spencer. 2007. Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.
White, Tim D.; Asfaw, B.; DeGusta, D.; Gilbert, H.; Richards, G.D.; Suwa, G.; Howell, F.C. (2003). "Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia". Nature. 423 (6941): 742–747. doi:10.1038/nature01669. PMID 12802332.
External links
- "Genetic Distance and Language Affinities Between Autochthonous Human Populations"
- Babaev, Kirill. 2008. "Critics of the Nostratic theory", in Nostratica: Resources on Distant Language Relationship.