What was the first language, and what was it like?
Does it still exist? And out of all the languages on earth today, which one is the oldest?
These are tricky questions, and linguists have tricky answers. Linguist Daniel Midgley goes back to basics on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Show notes
What Part of “No, Totally” Don’t You Understand?
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/what-part-of-no-totally-dont-you-understand
No, Yes, Definitely: On The Rise Of ‘No, Totally’ As Linguistic Quirk
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/12/399210557/the-rise-of-the-no-totally-linguistic-phenomenon
How to Say ‘Yes’ (by Not Saying ‘Yes’)
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/04/how-to-say-yes-by-not-saying-yes/390129/
People in Northern Sweden have the world’s weirdest way of saying ‘yes’
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/people-in-northern-sweden-have-the-worlds-weirdest-way-of-saying-yes/story-fnq2oad4-1227187456841
Russian-language version of Apple personal assistant Siri gives ‘homophobic’ responses to questions about gay people
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3040346/Russian-language-version-Apple-s-Siri-gives-homophobic-responses-questions-gay-people.html
“In Soviet Russia Siri questions you”
Until yesterday, Russian Siri was giving out homophobic replies
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/15/8420763/apple-russian-siri-homophobic-replies
Apple fixes ‘homophobic’ Russian Siri: ‘This emotion should be considered negative’
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/16/apple-fixes-homophobic-russian-siri-emotion-should/
Russia’s Apple monument dismantled after Tim Cook comes out as gay
http://www.digitalspy.com.au/tech/news/a607640/russias-apple-monument-dismantled-after-tim-cook-comes-out-as-gay.html#~paaNX4QTTVCTl0
Barbara Klein Moss: The Search For The First Language
A good rundown of ideas about early language
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-klein-moss/the-search-for-the-first-_b_7011208.html
Another one: The first chapter of God’s Sacred Tongue: Hebrew and the American Imagination by Shalom L. Goldman
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/page/372
There was some idle talk about making Hebrew the official language of the USA.http://www.languagepolicy.net/archives/LLPT1.htm
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/officialamerican/banenglish/
The Ten Lost Tribes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, borrowed the Hebrew origin story for his work of fiction, The Book of Mormon.
http://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/mormon-scripture-and-the-lost-tribes-of-israel.aspx
Smith also speculated that the Ten Lost Tribes lived at the North Pole. In a kind of hollow.
http://mormonthink.com/QUOTES/losttribes.htm
This ties right into the ‘Hollow Earth’ theory that was also going around at the time. Smith picked up on a lot of stuff that was going around.
http://www.unmuseum.org/hollow.htm
RationalWiki: Sanskrit is not the first language
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sanskrit
Nutty stuff from The Vedic Foundation: Sanskrit was the first language, and it’s never changed. Warning: crackpottery.
http://www.thevedicfoundation.org/valuable_resources/Sanskrit-The_Mother_of_All_Languages_partI.htm
MIT Press Release: The rapid rise of human language
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/miot-trr033115.php
The paper: The precedence of syntax in the rapid emergence of human language in evolution as defined by the integration hypothesis
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00271/full
New paper suggests speech developed in a now-familiar form
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-paper-speech-now-familiar.html
Early humans did not mumble and grunt: Language ‘developed rapidly’
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/early-humans-did-not-mumble-grunt-language-developed-rapidly-1494573
The authors think it all comes down to Merge.
We Got Merge: Noam Chomsky on the Cognitive Function that Made Language Evolve
http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/06/20/noam-chomsky-the-science-language/
Linguist List, Ask a Linguist: What’s the oldest language?
http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/oldest.cfm
Percy Sledge: Soul singer’s link to cricket’s sledging
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-15/percy-sledge-soul-singer-link-to-cricket-sledging/6393694
World Wide Words: Sledging
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-sle1.htm
Image credit:
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-paper-speech-now-familiar.html
Transcript
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