The *ORIGINS* of English

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The *ORIGINS* of English

Postby Taro Toporific » Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:21 pm

This is the biggest news in the world of linguistics of the past few years---a real breakthrough using hi-powered math and computer models (rather than useless old farts like me sitting in armchairs and smoking pipes of nasty herbs). Since some of you out there are teaching English... Be warned: everything you learned in school is now suspect.
Image . Turkey birthplace of Indo-European languages: study
CBC / Wed, 26 Nov 2003 19:16:40
....The first words of Indo-European languages may have been spoken around 8,000 years ago in what is now Turkey...
...The languages originated thousands of years ago but there are two competing theories on how.
One theory suggests nomadic Kurgan horsemen from the steppes of Asia...
Others say the origin is farming communities in Anatolia, now in Turkey.
Psychologists Russell Gray and Quentin Atkinson of the University of Auckland built a language tree based on the principles of genetic evolution.
The idea is words, like genes, survive according to their fitness...calibrated and cross-referenced branches of the language tree against known historical events.
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More : in the latest Nature Magazine.
Read the original research: |Article|Gray, R. D. & Atkinson, Q. D. Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin. Nature, 426, 435 - 439, doi:10.1038/nature02029 (2003).
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Postby Big Booger » Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:42 pm

Is it ORIGINS, or ORGANS? Just kidding :D

So why do we speak Engrish, instead of Turkeyish? :wink:
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Postby gaijinzilla » Thu Nov 27, 2003 2:52 pm

Unfortunately all this will not have any impact on my students mastering basic English :shakeh:
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Postby devicenull » Thu Nov 27, 2003 3:33 pm

gaijinzilla wrote:Unfortunately all this will not have any impact on my students mastering basic English :shakeh:


no, but you can talk about it to confuse them more than they already are :P
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Postby cliffy » Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:38 am

Yep English is a bastard of a language, no clear parentage with lots of claimants. :lol: :lol: 8)
Reality is only for people with no imagination
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Postby devicenull » Sun Nov 30, 2003 1:35 pm

cliffy wrote:Yep English is a bastard of a language, no clear parentage with lots of claimants. :lol: :lol: 8)

mostly germanic however...
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Postby FeLingHi » Tue Dec 16, 2003 9:15 am

We had turkey at our hacienda for Thanksgiving.

Coincidence? I think not.
F L H

Take a bow to yur highness.
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