European and Asian languages have one mother tongue

[Apech]

The team then ran a list of these cognates – such as those meaning "I", "mother", "hand" and "fire" – through a statistical model that deduced the relationship between the words based on how quickly they changed with time. This gave a tree of the Eurasian superfamily whose common ancestor can be traced back 15,000 years.

"We found it remarkable that we got this 15,000-year result because it coincides beautifully with the retreat of the ice sheets after the last glacial maximum," says Pagel. "One realistic scenario is that the tree represents the expansion of human populations as the climate improved and more people could be supported."

 

 

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23496-european-and-asian-languages-have-one-mother-tongue.html#.Ug3rA2TwJOh

[xor]

The language map doesn't seem that accurate and I don't know why they are focusing on similiar words, I think deeper levels of language are on the grammar side. But this seems atleast like a small step forward... thanks for the heads up.

[Apech]

The language map doesn't seem that accurate and I don't know why they are focusing on similiar words, I think deeper levels of language are on the grammar side. But this seems atleast like a small step forward... thanks for the heads up.

 

 

What is inaccurate about the map?

[xor]

Some Uralic parts are missing, the most glaring mistake is Estonia is marked Indo-European while it is more Uralic.

[Apech]

Some Uralic parts are missing, the most glaring mistake is Estonia is marked Indo-European while it is more Uralic.

 

 

OK but I don't think that destroys the basic premise ....

[Urpflanze]

If you are really interested in languages, no site offers deeper penetration in the past and in the future than this: http://forgottenlanguages-full.forgottenlanguages.org/

 

And if you are looking for a Dan Brown esque plot, this thread might help you: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread958299/pg1

Edited August 17, 2013 by Urpflanze

[xor]

OK but I don't think that destroys the basic premise ....

 

Yeah I didn't say that. The map being less than optimal and the emphasis on word relations are different issues. In my opinion grammar tells more about a language than words.

[Aetherous]

In my opinion grammar tells more about a language than words.

 

Do you have any credentials or background in this? What's this opinion based on?

[xor]

Do you have any credentials or background in this? What's this opinion based on?

 

Experience and study of multiple languages Indo-European and "Uralic". I'm a lifetime fan of etymology. My native language is from the "Uralic" side and I have followed the mainstream theories as well as some considered alternative for some time now, even considered studying it at the University but I was more of a hard science guy back when I was choosing what to study... What's your backround and why do you disagree(assuming you disagree)?

Edited August 19, 2013 by Guest

[Aetherous]

I don't disagree; I was just interested in more information. I've only been exposed to this stuff very briefly in a Viking Mythology course in college

[xor]

Expanded Ural-Altaic languages theory had some agglutinative languages like Fenno-Ugric, Turkic, Mongolian, Koreanic, Japonic languages as being related. It fell out of favor for some decades I would suggest partly because of political reasons(racism, counter-racism and finally the cold war). Many people who are native speakers from these language groups intuitively recognize the connections and similiarities which is why it never completely died out, but then again gut feelings are rarely appreciated in science even the "softer" ones. It's been continuously studied as an alternative at some Universities even when it was out of favor.

 

The article posted from New Scientist is part of a comeback of this theory perhaps in another form that is going include Ural-Altaic, Indo-European languages(like English and Sanskrit) and maybe some "language isolates" like Basque...

Edited August 19, 2013 by Guest