Page 44 - Encyclopedia Of World History

394 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

people who understand each other and dividing them
Communication— from those who speak another language.Yet anyone can

learn any language, for there is no genetic predisposition
Overview for specific languages.
For centuries, people have known that some languages
he term “communication” includes all the ways in resemble one another: French, Spanish, and Italian are
Twhich living beings convey information to one Romance languages, while Russian, Polish, and Czech
another. Plants and animals communicate by smell, are Slavic. It was also known that languages change over
sight, and sound. Human beings, with a limited sense of time, and that the Romance languages, for instance, all
smell, communicate by sight and sound in far more evolved from Latin. Beyond these obvious resemblances
complex ways than any other creatures. Not only have are more subtle affinities that only trained linguists can
humans developed elaborate languages and gestures for identify. In 1786 Sir William Jones, a judge in India,
face-to-face communication, they have also invented described the resemblances between Sanskrit, the ancient
media such as writing and mechanical or electrical sys- language of India, on the one hand, and Greek and Latin,
tems that transcend the constraints of time and space. on the other. He even asserted: “no philologer could
Human communication systems have had profound examine them all three, without believing them to have
implications for world history. Language is the most sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no
important way in which humans have overcome their longer exists” (Ruhlen 1994, 27). Linguists later proved
bodies’ limitations through culture, allowing them to Jones right by identifying Indo-Eurpoean as the ancestor
spread into all the Earth’s environments. But language, of most languages of Europe and India. Identifying affini-
writing, and other media have divided humans into rival ties between seemingly distant languages and trying to
groups and led to conflicts and the exercise of power by reconstruct their common ancestors is the ongoing task
some people over others. For the past 5,000 years, of historical linguistics.
improvements in communication have been closely tied For over a century, linguists concentrated on demon-
to changes in technology, from simple artifacts to elabo- strating that the languages of Europe, Persia, and India
rate equipment and complex networks.Advances in tech- form a great family called Indo-European. They also
nology have increased the efficiency of communication in identified Semitic (Arabic and Hebrew), Bantu (the lan-
fundamental ways. Language has allowed humans to guages of central and southern Africa), Altaic (in central
express complex ideas. Writing permitted communica- and northern Asia), Austronesian (in Southeast Asia and
tion at a distance and through time. Paper and printing Polynesia), and other language families. Using painstak-
diffused information widely, while the mass media has ing techniques, they reconstructed the vocabulary of the
combined widespread with instantaneous diffusion.The long-vanished languages. Beyond that, they dared not go,
Internet seems destined to offer the advantages of all ear- for there seemed to be no resemblances between differ-
lier media, with the potential for transforming civilization ent language families.
in unforeseen ways. Recently, however, bolder linguists have advanced the
hypothesis that entire language families that seem unre-
Language lated actually belong to superfamilies and descend from
Speech is the original and only universal means of com- a common ancestral tongue spoken tens of thousands of
munication. All children learn to talk—except the deaf, years ago.The boldest of all have advanced the idea that
who learn to sign—for language ability is innate in all the languages spoken in the world descend from a sin-
human beings.The six thousand languages spoken in the gle original language—the “Mother Tongue”—spoken in
world today carry culture and provide identity, uniting Africa about 100,000 years ago.