Evolution of Human Languages

The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) project is a historical-comparative linguistics research project hosted by the Santa Fe Institute.[1][2] It aims to provide a detailed genealogical classification of the world's languages.[3]

The project was founded in 2001 by Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann when he partnered with Sergei Starostin and Merritt Ruhlen to map out the evolutionary tree of human languages. Initial funding was provided by the Santa Fe Institute and the MacArthur Foundation.[4] It is currently led by Russian linguist Georgiy Starostin, the son of Sergei Starostin.[5]

Many of the project's members belong to the Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics, including Georgiy Starostin and Ilia Peiros.[6] Other project members include Vaclav Blazek, John D. Bengtson, Edward Vajda, and other linguists.

Overview

The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) is an international project – of which Georgiy Starostin inherited his father's membership – on "the linguistic prehistory of humanity" coordinated by the Santa Fe Institute. The project distinguishes about 6,000 languages currently spoken around the world, and aims to provide a detailed classification similar to the accepted classification of biological species.

Their idea is that "all representatives of the species Homo sapiens presumably share a common origin, [so] it would be natural to suppose – although this is a goal yet to be achieved – that all human languages also go back to some common source. Most existing classifications, however, do not go beyond some 300-400 language families that are relatively easy to discern. This restriction has natural reasons: languages must have been spoken and constantly evolving for at least 40,000 years (and quite probably more), while any two languages separated from a common source inevitably lose almost all superficially common features after some 6,000-7,000 years".[7]

The Tower of Babel [ru] is an international etymological database project that is part of the Evolution of Human Languages project. It is coordinated by the Center of Comparative Linguistics [ru] of the Russian State University for the Humanities.[8]

Global Lexicostatistical Database

See also: ASJP list and Swadesh list

In 2011, the Global Lexicostatistical Database [ru] (GLD) was launched as part of the EHL project. The database uses the Unified Transcription System (UTS), designed specifically for the database.[9]

110-word list

See also: Wiktionary:Appendix:Russian Swadesh list

The Global Lexicostatistical Database includes basic word lists of 110 items each for many of the world's languages.[10] The 110-word list is a modified 100-item Swadesh list consisting of the original 100 Swadesh list items, in addition to the following 10 additional words from the Swadesh–Yakhontov list:

  1. far
  2. heavy
  3. near
  4. salt
  5. short
  6. snake
  7. thin
  8. wind
  9. worm
  10. year

The 110-word expanded Swadesh list by Kassian et al. (2010) is as follows.[11]

no. English Russian
1 all все
2 ashes зола
3 bark кора
4 belly живот
5 big, large большой
6 bird птица
7 to bite кусать
8 black черный
9 blood кровь
10 bone кость
11 breast грудь
12 to burn (trans.) жечь, сжечь
13 cloud облако
14 cold холодный
15 to come приходить
16 to die умирать
17 dog собака
18 to drink пить
19 dry сухой
20 ear ухо
21 earth земля
22 to eat есть
23 egg яйцо
24 eye глаз
25 fat жир
26 feather перо
27 fire огонь
28 fish рыба
29 to fly лететь, летать
30 foot нога
31 full полный
32 to give давать
33 to go идти
34 good хороший
35 green зеленый
36 hair волосы
37 hand рука
38 head голова
39 to hear слышать
40 heart сердце
41 horn рог
42a I я
42b me меня
43 to kill убивать
44 knee колено
45 to know знать
46 leaf лист
47 to lie лежать
48 liver печень
49 long длинный
50 louse вошь
51 man (male) мужчина
52 man (person) человек
53 many, a lot of много
54 meat мясо
55 moon луна
56 mountain гора
57 mouth рот
58 nail ноготь
59 name имя
61 new новый
62 night ночь
63 nose нос
64 not не
65 one один
66 rain дождь
67 red красный
68 road дорога
69 root корень
70a round (3D) круглый
70b round (2D) круглый
71 sand песок
72 to say сказать
73 to see видеть
74 seed семя
75 to sit сидеть
76 skin кожа
77 to sleep спать
78 small, little маленький
79 smoke дым
80 to stand стоять
81 star звезда
82 stone камень
83 sun солнце
84 to swim плыть, плавать
85 tail хвост
86 that тот
87 this этот
88 tongue язык
89 tooth зуб
90 tree дерево
91 two два
92 warm теплый
93 water вода
94a we (incl.) мы (incl.)
94b we (incl.) мы (incl.)
94c–d we (excl.) мы (excl.)
95 what что
96 white белый
97 who кто
98 woman женщина
99 yellow желтый
100a you (thou) ты
100b you (thou) тебя
101 far далеко
102 heavy тяжелый
103 near близко
104 salt соль
105 short короткий
106 snake змея
107a thin (2D) тонкий
107b thin (1D) тонкий
108 wind ветер
109 worm червь
110 year год

50-word list

A 50-word list of "ultra-stable" items for lexicostatiscal use with the database was also proposed in 2010. The 50-word list is an abridged version of the 110-word list.[12]

no. English Russian
1 we мы
2 two два
3 I я
4 eye глаз
5 thou ты
6 who кто
7 fire огонь
8 tongue язык
9 stone камень
10 name имя
11 hand рука
12 what что
13 die умирать
14 heart сердце
15 drink пить
16 dog собака
17 louse (head) вошь
18 moon луна
19 fingernail ноготь
20 blood кровь
21 one один
22 tooth зуб
23 new новый
24 dry (e.g. of clothes) сухой
25 eat есть
26 tail хвост
27 hair (of head) волосы
28 water вода
29 nose нос
30 not не
31 mouth рот
32 ear ухо
33 bird птица
34 bone кость
35 sun солнце
36 smoke дым
37 tree дерево
38 ashes зола
39 rain дождь
40 star звезда
41 leaf лист
42 kill убивать
43 foot нога
44 horn рог
45 hear слышать
46 meat (as food) мясо
47 egg яйцо
48 black черный
49 head голова
50 night ночь

See also

References

  1. ^ "Evolution of Human Languages: An international project on the linguistic prehistory of humanity". ehl.santafe.edu. Santa Fe Institute. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  2. ^ Velasquez-Manoff, Moises (July 20, 2007). "Linguists seek a time when we spoke as one". USA Today. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  3. ^ Mark Pagel, Quentin D. Atkinson, Andreea S. Calude, Andrew Meade. Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2013, 110 (21) 8471-8476; doi:10.1073/pnas.1218726110
  4. ^ "Evolution of Human Languages": current state of affairs (March 2014).
  5. ^ Woodward, Richard B. "The Man Who Loved Languages: A Scholar with the Ability and Audacity to Rebuild the Tower of Babel Died a Year Ago, but His Controversial Project Lives on." The American Scholar 75, no. 4 (2006): 44-57. Accessed December 27, 2020.
  6. ^ Evolution of Human Languages - The Participants.
  7. ^ "Evolution of Human Languages - An Introduction" at Santafe.edu, retrieved 25 October 2007. New link, see here. Accessed Oct 27, 2009.
  8. ^ The Tower of Babel project. at Starling.rinet.ru, retrieved 25 October 2007.
  9. ^ Unified Transcription System (UTS) for the Global Lexicostatical Database.
  10. ^ Starostin, George (ed.) 2011-2019. The Global Lexicostatistical Database. Moscow: Higher School of Economics, & Santa Fe: Santa Fe Institute. Accessed on 2020-12-26.
  11. ^ Kassian, Alexei, George Starostin, Anna Dybo, Vasiliy Chernov. 2010. The Swadesh wordlist. An attempt at semantic specification. Journal of Language Relationship 4: 46–89. (PDF)
  12. ^ Starostin, George. Preliminary lexicostatistics as a basis for language classification: A new approach. Journal of Language Relationship, No. 3 (2010). P. 79–116.

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