01 what cn we learn about the earliest human lan.pdf.docVIP

First Proofs Monday, February 04 2008 1 5 What can we learn about the earliest human language by comparing languages known today? Lyle Campbell University of Canterbury, NZ 7 1 Introduction Looking back from modern languages, what can we find out about the earliest human language? The goal of this paper is to determine what, if anything, can be learned about the earliest human language(s) from evidence extant in modern and older attested languages. It evaluates attempts arrive at the origins of language through such comparisons. The main finding is negative: because of so much change over such a long time, nothing of the original language(s) survives in modern languages in any form that could be usefully compared across-linguistically to give any indication of the lexical or structural content of the original language(s). 2 Methodological issues A number of linguists have attempted to find deep genetic relationships, so-called ‘macrofamilies’, and some go even further, attempting to trace all human languages back to a single origin. ‘Global etymologies’ have been presented as evidence for ‘Proto-World’ (see Bengtson and Ruhlen 1994a, 1994b, Ruhlen 1987, 1994a, 1994b). Ruhlen’s homepage, ‘Proto-World’?1 is receiving considerable attention, and therefore it is important to scrutinize it carefully. I argue (see also Bender 1993, Hock 1993, Picard 1998, Rosenfelder 1999, Salmons 1992a, 1992b, Trask 1996:391–6, McWhorter 2001:287–303)  79  Is this correct date? First Proofs Monday, February 04 2008 80 Origin and Evolution of Languages that such a scrutiny reveals that claims about global etymologies are mistaken and cannot teach us anything about the origins of human language. Both friends and foes acknowledge that the principal method employed in global etymologies is ‘mass [or multilateral] comparison’ (cf. Ruhlen 1987:258). Ruhlen (1992:178) says, ‘John Bengtson and I, operating in a Greenbergian tradition of multilateral comparison, have proposed some thirty