Evolution of Brain and Language V Later developments: From 100,000 BP to 1,000 BP Language spread and diversification The Indo-European family and other families

Outline of Topics for the Course 1. Introduction 2. Linguistic structure From 5 million years BP to 1 million years BP How/why the brain grew so large 4. Early stages of language evolution:       From 3,000,000 BP to 100,000 BP 5. Later stages: From 100,000 BP to Present Language spread and diversification The Indo-European family and other families 6. The last few hundred years Cultural evolution The exponential progress of recent times

Some old questions about evolution of language Monogenesis or polygenesis? Sudden or gradual? Is there a language gene? If so, must have been a sudden mutation As we have seen, it was a gradual development

Implications of the gradual evolution of language Monogenesis vs. polygenesis Not a meaningful question Language gene? Altogether unlikely

From Australopithecus to Homo Thousands of years ago (logarithmic scale) 3200 1600 800 400 200 100 50 25 | | | | | | | | ________ Australopithecus _______ Habilenes ________________ Homo erectus _________________ Homo heidelbergensis ______________________________ Homo neanderthalensis _______________________________ Homo sapiens m e a t e a t i n g c o o k i n g | | | | | | | |

From Australopithecus to Homo Thousands of years ago (logarithmic scale) 3200 1600 800 400 200 100 50 25 | | | | | | | | ________ Australopithecus _______ Habilenes ________________ Homo erectus _________________ Homo heidelbergensis ______________________________ Homo neanderthalensis _______________________________ Homo sapiens m e a t e a t i n g c o o k i n g P r e – l a n g u a g e | | | | | | | |

From Homo erectus to Homo sapiens Thousands of years ago (logarithmic scale) 1600 800 400 200 100 50 25 12.5 | | | | | | | | __________________ Homo erectus ______________ Homo heidelbergensis _______________________________ Homo neanderthalensis ____________________________________ Homo sapiens c o o k i n g ? a few words ? primitive syntax (?) complex phonology | | | | | | | |

clear speech production Development of Language within genus Homo Thousands of years ago (logarithmic scale) 800 400 200 100 50 25 | | | | | | _________________ Homo heidelbergensis _________________________________________ Homo neanderthalensis H o m o s a p i e n s a few words p r i m i t i v e s y n t a x (?) clear speech production complex grammar | | | | | |

Further observations Further complexities in phonology (beyond simple syllable structure) may only have developed after 100 kya And after the spread of some Homo sapiens out of Africa In that case, such further developments – complex phonology and complex grammar – may have developed in different places independently We therefore have both monogenesis and polygenesis Monogenesis of early proto-language In East Africa Simple syllable structure Relatively small vocabulary Simple grammar Polygenesis for complex phonology and grammar

Ways of expanding the phonological system Multiple (non-identical) syllables Oceania, subsaharan Africa Tones Southeast Asia Consonant proliferation by means of “gutteral” features Glottalization and pharyngealization Caucasus region Afro-asiatic Combination of strategies Eurasiatic

Ways the grammatical system has been expanded Syntax only (no morphology) Southeast Asia Agglutination – suffixes only Northern Eurasia Very complex morphology (“polysynthesis”) North America Combination of strategies Eurasiatic, Afroasiatic

Implications The fact that different strategies were adopted in different regions reinforces the suggestion that these strategies were adopted fairly recently – after the diaspora of Homo sapiens out of Africa

Methodology for recent (since 100 kya) developments There is no help from paleontology There is no historical record, until a few thousand years ago Comparative Linguistics A new set of techniques developed specifically for language Started in 1776 (the traditional accepted date) Speech of Sir William Jones to the Asiatic Society, Calcutta Works from the present, goes back in time Reconstruction of earlier forms Based on systematic phonoligical correspondences

Sir William Jones, 1786 “The Sanscrit Language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. There is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might be added to the same family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia.”

‘two’ and ‘three’ in English, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit duo dúo dva THREE three tres treîs tráyas

Words and their phonological components toy boy t- o b- -y Vo Fr Vl Ap Cl Lb Ba Sv

Words and their phonological components do to d- u t- -w Vd – Voiced Ap – Apical Cl – Closed Lb – Labial Vo – Vocalic Hi – High Ba – Back Sv – Semivocalic Vd Ap Sv Cl Vo Ba Lb Hi

“Wheel” PIE *kwekw-lo-m ‘wheel’ From the sound kwekwe made by a chariot wheel Skt cakra- Borrowed into English as chakra Gk küklo- Borrowed into English as cycle Germanic: Gothic hal- Old English hweogol Modern English wheel

From *kwe-kwe-lo to cakra (Skt) and wheel (Engl) kwe-kwe- ‘sound of chariot wheel’ *kwe-kwe-lo k e k e r o k w e k o l c e k r o x w e x o l c a k r a h w e o g o l h w e e l

CUP and its relatives PIE *keu-p- Sanskrit kūpa ‘hole, pit, cavity’ Greek kupe ‘hole, hollow’ kupellon ‘cup, goblet, beaker’ Latin cūpa ‘tub, vat, cask’ cupellus ‘cup’ Late Latin cuppa Fr. coupe, Sp copa, It. coppa Old English cuppe (borrowed from Late Latin) English cup German kopf ‘head’

HEAD and relatives Lat caput ‘head’ PIE *kap- (related to *keu-p-) With suffix *-ut- for ‘head’ Lat caput ‘head’ It. capo Fr chef Borrowed into Middle Engl > Mod Engl - chief Later borrowing into Mod Engl - chef English borrowings from other Latin forms: capital, capitol, capillary, chapter, captain

Joseph Greenberg (1915-2001) Language typology Multilateral comparison’ The Languages of Africa, 1963 Language in the Americas, 1987 All native American languages can be classified into three large families Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Family, 2000-2001 Also did important work on Indo-Pacific (1971) Australian

World etymologies – survivals from proto-sapiens I – very old words for family members mama papa (t)ata ‘father, elder brother, father’s brother, grandfather’ (k)aka “elder brother, mother’s brother, grandfather’ (n)ana (j)aja

World etymologies II Ruhlen & Bengtson, Global Etymologies (they give 27) BU(N)KA ‘knee, to bend’ (English bow, elbow) ČUN(G)A ‘nose; to smell’ (English snout, sniff) K’OLO ‘hole’ (English hole) KUAN ‘dog’ (English hound) KU(N) ‘who?’ (English who, when; Latin quis) KUNA ‘woman’ (English queen; Sanskrit gnā ‘goddess’) MALIQ’A ‘to suck(le), nurse; breast’ (English milk) MANO ‘man’ (English man; Sanskrit mánu) POKO ‘arm’ (English bough) TIK ‘finger; one’ (English toe, Latin dig(-itus) ‘finger’) http://merrittruhlen.com/files/Global.pdf

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