All Languages Linked To Common Source 318
Old Wolf writes "A New Zealand evolutionary psychologist, Quentin Atkinson, has created a scientific sensation by claiming to have discovered the mother of all mother tongues. 'Dr Atkinson took 504 languages and plotted the number of phonemes in each (corrected for recent population growth, when significant) against the distance between the place where the language is spoken and 2,500 putative points of origin, scattered across the world (abstract). The relationship that emerges suggests the actual point of origin is in central or southern Africa, and that all modern languages do, indeed, have a common root."
Reader NotSanguine points out another study which challenges the idea that the brain is more important to the structure of language than cultural evolution.
Cradle of Life & Language (Score:3, Insightful)
The "cradle of life" was apparently the same place that language originated?!
Astounding!
Africa gave us life and language, and now look at her =(
Re:Not what the Bible says. (Score:4, Insightful)
So... you're saying that according to the bible there was a point when everyone on the planet spoke the same language and then something changed and different languages developed. Ignoring details like time, location, towers to heaven, and god's holy wrath; I'd say the bible got the broad strokes of the truth right, even if only by accident.
Re:Here's to human unity (Score:4, Insightful)
Hopefully, we'll be able to get our act together and stop blowing each other up (and also unite against a common enemy - government/power elites).
Just because two people share some distant, obscure ancestor doesn't mean they won't try to kill each other. Heck, even if they share the same parents it doesn't always stop them. If we want people to stop blowing each other up, unfortunately we need something better than family ties.
Re:Patent nonsense. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:All Languages Linked To Common Source (Score:4, Insightful)
That'd be the green plants, you know, the ones that released huge quantities of a poisonous gas, destroying 98% of life on earth.
Humans are pathetic by comparison.
Re:All Languages Linked To Common Source (Score:5, Insightful)
That'd be the green plants, you know, the ones that released huge quantities of a poisonous gas, destroying 98% of life on earth.
Humans are pathetic by comparison.
Awesome post! Please allow me to elaborate for those that didn't get it.
Oxygen IS pollution produced by photosynthesizing organisms. Before plants, the earths atmosphere was radically different than it is today. There was almost no free oxygen in our atmosphere. Once life began to photosynthesize for energy, oxygen was released as a byproduct of that process, just as CO2 is a byproduct of our respiration. Oxygen is actually plant pollution. That pollution killed off nearly all of the early life on earth, radically changed the climate, and gave rise to what we have today.
So it appears that releasing gas that fundamentally changes the atmosphere is a completely natural, 100% organic function. If anything, by driving SUV's we are actually restoring our planet to it's natural, original condition before photosynthesis came along and screwed it all up!
Eat that, GW hippies!
Re:Patent nonsense. (Score:3, Insightful)
Somebody modded this "flamebait".
Slashdot has reached a new low point, we have to pander to the feelings of the know-nothings.
Are you complaining that someone got offended at your joke that was meant to offend? Basically, what you did was equivalent to telling a racial joke with members of %race% in the crowd and then bitching because some of them booed you. I do agree with you that the moderation was incorrect. I think "Troll" would be a more accurate mod.
With that said, I thought the joke was mildly funny and took little offense to it. Although, I found the response to your post about Jesuses reading The Bible in Spanish was much better.
I do take offense to your calling Christians "know-nothings", however. There have been many posts here about renowned scientists who were actually Christians as well. Look up who first theorized the Big Bang for just one example. Louis Pascal was another. You can Google for more if you wish to open your mind a bit. Information is the fist step in curing your bigotry.
Finally, if you truly believe that Christians are "know-nothings", I find it incredibly offensive that you would make a joke about them. If you truly believe that Christians are "know-nothings", then ridiculing them would be on par with making fun of the Special Olympics. Very low class of you.
Re:All Languages Linked To Common Source (Score:5, Insightful)
Not even that. The 6000 year figure is from an Anglican Archbishop who had too much time on his hands, and a poor grasp of mathematics (for instance, he assumed that if someone were mentioned as dying at age 112, that that meant he died on his 112th birthday.)
Why ANYONE would take an Anglican Archbishop's opinion as the unaltered word of God is beyond me. Though it's obvious why the militant atheists would (they think it makes the religious look dumb), though those of us who know where the figure comes from think that its use by militant atheists makes the militant atheists look dumb....