Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 15/03/2004 21:55, Yigal Levin wrote:

> While this article does not deal with proto-semitic, it should be of
> interest.
>
> Yigal
>
>
>  
>
> > > From <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/science/16LANG.html>
> > ======================================
> >
> > March 16, 2004
> > A Biological Dig for the Roots of Language
> > By NICHOLAS WADE
> >
> > Once upon a time, there were very few human languages and perhaps only
> > one, and if so, all of the 6,000 or so languages spoken round the world
> > today must be descended from it.
> >
> >    
Thnak you for the fascinating article. Unfortunately this was ruined for 
me by the opening paragraph which is a non sequitur. If humans could 
invent language from nothing once, there is nothing to stop them doing 
so again, and so it is possible that language arose independently more 
than once and so that some modern languages are descended from a 
separate second or later original language.

But the rest of this makes good sense. It would be interesting to see a 
similar study on Semitic and Afro-Asiatic - for which we have written 
(Egyptian) records going back 5,500 years or so.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/