EPFL scientists have produced a series of maps showing historical migration events, including the migration of mountain farmers native to Upper Valais who began to settle in German-speaking Switzerland in the 13th century, by applying methods from population genetics—but using linguistic data rather than genes. The map shows the relative influence of Upper Valais morphosyntactic…
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A world-first study warns 1,500 endangered languages could no longer be spoken by the end of this century. The study, led by The Australian National University (ANU), identified predictors that put endangered languages at high risk. Credit: Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, UNESCO Co-author Professor Lindell Bromham said that of the world’s 7,000 recognized languages, around…
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The origin and early dispersal of Transeurasian languages, including, among others, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic, is among the most disputed issues of Asian prehistory. Although many of the commonalities between these languages are due to borrowing, recent studies have shown a reliable core of evidence supporting the classification of Transeurasian as a genealogical…
The diversity of human languages can be likened to branches on a tree. If you’re reading this in English, you’re on a branch that traces back to a common ancestor with Scots, which traces back to a more distant ancestor that split off into German and Dutch. Moving further in, there’s the European branch that…
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A new linguistic study sheds light on the nature of languages spoken before the written period, using computational modeling to reconstruct the grammar of the 6500-7000 year-old Proto-Indo-European language, which is the ancestor of most languages of Eurasia, including English and Hindi. The model employed makes it possible to observe evolutionary trends in language over…
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Language distinguishes us humans; we learn it through experience and social interactions. Especially in the first year of life, human vocalizations change dramatically, becoming more and more language-like. In our closest relatives, non-human primates, language development was previously thought to be largely predetermined and completed within the first few weeks after birth. In a behavioral…
Language is one of our species’ most important skills, as it has enabled us to occupy nearly every corner of the planet. Among other things, language allows indigenous societies to use the biodiversity that surrounds them as a “living pharmacy” and to describe the medicinal properties of plants. Linguists estimate that there are nearly 7,400…
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The ‘missing link’ that helped our ancestors to begin communicating with each other through language may have been iconic sounds, rather than charades-like gestures — giving rise to the unique human power to coin new words describing the world around us, a new study reveals. Credit: Pedro Saura It was widely believed that, in order…
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For a long time, historical linguists have been using the comparative method to reconstruct earlier states of languages that are not attested in written sources. The method consists of the detailed comparison of words in the related descendant languages and allows linguists to infer the ancient pronunciation of words which were never recorded in any…
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Multi-disciplinary researchers at The University of Manchester have helped develop a powerful physics-based tool to map the pace of language development and human innovation over thousands of years – even stretching into pre-history before records were kept. Global ‘hot ‘and ‘cold’ spots [Credit: Martin Sanchez/Unsplash] Tobias Galla, a professor in theoretical physics, and Dr Ricardo…
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