高中英语 voa常速听力2012年08月合辑文本study-english-language-rooted-in-turkey素材.docVIP

高中英语 VOA常速听力2012年08月合辑（文本）Study-English-Language-Rooted-in-Turkey素材 The beginnings of the English language are rooted in Turkey, a new study suggests. The Indo-European language family - which includes English, French, Russian, Persian and even ancient Greek - is one of the world抯 largest language groups and extends from Iceland in the West to Sri Lanka in the East. The common origin of all those languages, scientists say, must be somewhere on the European continent. One hypothesis suggests it emerged 6,000 years ago from a semi-nomadic horse-riding people in the Russian Steppes north of the Caspian Sea. Another says it is much older and came from what is now Turkey, spreading as agriculture did between 8,000 and 9,500 years ago. Writing in Science, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand expresses support for the second theory. Quentin Atkinsons team worked in much the same way that evolutionary biologists do, using DNA to determine the origin of virus outbreaks. 揟hey use the DNA to reconstruct the family tree of the viruses. But rather than looking at viruses, we were looking at languages, he says. And rather than looking at DNA, we were looking at the words in the different languages.? People in Columbo, Sri Lanka, shown here making offerings to the Buddha, are part of the Indo-European language group which also includes English and Germanic languages. (Creative Commons Original Nomad) The study analyzes 200 cognates or words with shared meanings and similar sounds across 103 languages, including 20 that are now extinct. Atkinson says examining the similarities and differences helped establish family ties. 揊or example, in English and other Germanic languages, the word for water sounds something like the English word water, or wasser [in German], water [in Dutch], whereas in the romance languages descended from Latin, the word sounds quite different, something like agua [in Spanish] or acqua [in Italian]. According to Atkinson