Evolution of Human Languages
The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) project is a historical-comparative linguistics research project hosted by the Santa Fe Institute.[1][2] It aims to provide a detailed genealogical classification of the world's languages.[3]
The project was founded in 2001 by Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann when he decided to partner with Sergei Starostin and Merritt Ruhlen to map out the evolutionary tree of human languages. Initial funding was provided by the Santa Fe Institute and the MacArthur Foundation.[4] It is currently led by Russian linguist Georgiy Starostin, the son of Sergei Starostin.[5]
Many of the project's members belong to the Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics, including Georgiy Starostin and Ilia Peiros.[6] Other project members include Vaclav Blazek, John D. Bengtson, Edward Vajda, and other linguists.
Overview
The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) is an international project – of which Georgiy Starostin inherited his father's membership – on "the linguistic prehistory of humanity" coordinated by the Santa Fe Institute. The project distinguishes about 6,000 languages currently spoken around the world, and aims to provide a detailed classification similar to the accepted classification of biological species.
Their idea is that "all representatives of the species Homo sapiens presumably share a common origin, [so] it would be natural to suppose – although this is a goal yet to be achieved – that all human languages also go back to some common source. Most existing classifications, however, do not go beyond some 300-400 language families that are relatively easy to discern. This restriction has natural reasons: languages must have been spoken and constantly evolving for at least 40,000 years (and quite probably more), while any two languages separated from a common source inevitably lose almost all superficially common features after some 6,000-7,000 years".[7]
The Tower of Babel is an international etymological database project that is part of the Evolution of Human Languages project. It is coordinated by the Center of Comparative Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities.[8]
Global Lexicostatistical Database
In 2011, the Global Lexicostatistical Database (GLD) was launched as part of the EHL project. The database makes use of the Unified Transcription System (UTS), designed specifically for the database.[9]
110-word list
The Global Lexicostatistical Database includes basic word lists of 110 items each for many of the world's languages.[10] The 110-word list is a modified 100-item Swadesh list consisting of the original 100 Swadesh list items, in addition to the following 10 additional words from the Swadesh–Yakhontov list:
- far
- heavy
- near
- salt
- short
- snake
- thin
- wind
- worm
- year
The 110-word expanded Swadesh list by Kassian et al. (2010) is as follows.[11]
no. English Russian 1 all все 2 ashes зола 3 bark кора 4 belly живот 5 big, large большой 6 bird птица 7 to bite кусать 8 black черный 9 blood кровь 10 bone кость 11 breast грудь 12 to burn (trans.) жечь, сжечь 13 cloud облако 14 cold холодный 15 to come приходить 16 to die умирать 17 dog собака 18 to drink пить 19 dry сухой 20 ear ухо 21 earth земля 22 to eat есть 23 egg яйцо 24 eye глаз 25 fat жир 26 feather перо 27 fire огонь 28 fish рыба 29 to fly лететь, летать 30 foot нога 31 full полный 32 to give давать 33 to go идти 34 good хороший 35 green зеленый 36 hair волосы 37 hand рука 38 head голова 39 to hear слышать 40 heart сердце 41 horn рог 42a I я 42b me меня 43 to kill убивать 44 knee колено 45 to know знать 46 leaf лист 47 to lie лежать 48 liver печень 49 long длинный 50 louse вошь 51 man (male) мужчина 52 man (person) человек 53 many, a lot of много 54 meat мясо 55 moon луна 56 mountain гора 57 mouth рот 58 nail ноготь 59 name имя 61 new новый 62 night ночь 63 nose нос 64 not не 65 one один 66 rain дождь 67 red красный 68 road дорога 69 root корень 70a round (3D) круглый 70b round (2D) круглый 71 sand песок 72 to say сказать 73 to see видеть 74 seed семя 75 to sit сидеть 76 skin кожа 77 to sleep спать 78 small, little маленький 79 smoke дым 80 to stand стоять 81 star звезда 82 stone камень 83 sun солнце 84 to swim плыть, плавать 85 tail хвост 86 that тот 87 this этот 88 tongue язык 89 tooth зуб 90 tree дерево 91 two два 92 warm теплый 93 water вода 94a we (incl.) мы (incl.) 94b we (incl.) мы (incl.) 94c–d we (excl.) мы (excl.) 95 what что 96 white белый 97 who кто 98 woman женщина 99 yellow желтый 100a you (thou) ты 100b you (thou) тебя 101 far далеко 102 heavy тяжелый 103 near близко 104 salt соль 105 short короткий 106 snake змея 107a thin (2D) тонкий 107b thin (1D) тонкий 108 wind ветер 109 worm червь 110 year год
50-word list
A 50-word list of "ultra-stable" items for lexicostatiscal use with the database was also proposed in 2010. The 50-word list is an abridged version of the 110-word list.[12]
no. English Russian 1 we мы 2 two два 3 I я 4 eye глаз 5 thou ты 6 who кто 7 fire огонь 8 tongue язык 9 stone камень 10 name имя 11 hand рука 12 what что 13 die умирать 14 heart сердце 15 drink пить 16 dog собака 17 louse (head) вошь 18 moon луна 19 fingernail ноготь 20 blood кровь 21 one один 22 tooth зуб 23 new новый 24 dry (e.g. of clothes) сухой 25 eat есть 26 tail хвост 27 hair (of head) волосы 28 water вода 29 nose нос 30 not не 31 mouth рот 32 ear ухо 33 bird птица 34 bone кость 35 sun солнце 36 smoke дым 37 tree дерево 38 ashes зола 39 rain дождь 40 star звезда 41 leaf лист 42 kill убивать 43 foot нога 44 horn рог 45 hear слышать 46 meat (as food) мясо 47 egg яйцо 48 black черный 49 head голова 50 night ночь
References
- "Evolution of Human Languages: An international project on the linguistic prehistory of humanity". ehl.santafe.edu. Santa Fe Institute. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
- Velasquez-Manoff, Moises (July 20, 2007). "Linguists seek a time when we spoke as one". USA Today. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
- Mark Pagel, Quentin D. Atkinson, Andreea S. Calude, Andrew Meade. Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2013, 110 (21) 8471-8476; doi:10.1073/pnas.1218726110
- "Evolution of Human Languages": current state of affairs (March 2014).
- Woodward, Richard B. "The Man Who Loved Languages: A Scholar with the Ability and Audacity to Rebuild the Tower of Babel Died a Year Ago, but His Controversial Project Lives on." The American Scholar 75, no. 4 (2006): 44-57. Accessed December 27, 2020.
- Evolution of Human Languages - The Participants.
- "Evolution of Human Languages - An Introduction" at Santafe.edu, retrieved 25 October 2007. New link, see here. Accessed Oct 27, 2009.
- The Tower of Babel project. at Starling.rinet.ru, retrieved 25 October 2007.
- Unified Transcription System (UTS) for the Global Lexicostatical Database.
- Starostin, George (ed.) 2011-2019. The Global Lexicostatistical Database. Moscow: Higher School of Economics, & Santa Fe: Santa Fe Institute. Accessed on 2020-12-26.
- Kassian, Alexei, George Starostin, Anna Dybo, Vasiliy Chernov. 2010. The Swadesh wordlist. An attempt at semantic specification. Journal of Language Relationship 4: 46–89. (PDF)
- Starostin, George. Preliminary lexicostatistics as a basis for language classification: A new approach. Journal of Language Relationship, No. 3 (2010). P. 79–116.
External links
- The Tower of Babel: Evolution of Human Language Project by Georgiy Starostin
- The Global Lexicostatistical Database
- Santa Fe Institute homepage
Videos
- Murray Gell-Mann and the Evolution of Human Languages (Santa Fe Institute video)
- Murray Gell-Mann: Do all languages have a common ancestor? (TED talk in 2008)
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