How languages evolve – Alex Gendler

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How languages evolve – Alex Gendler


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Over the course of human history, thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number. How did we end up with so many? And how do we keep track of them all? Alex Gendler explains how linguists group languages into language families,…

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34 Comments

  1. 🇹🇭 Thai: ไฟ (fai)
    🇬🇧 English: fire

    🇹🇭 Thai: แผน (pan)
    🇬🇧 English: plan

    🇹🇭 Thai: จด (jod)
    🇬🇧 English: jot (to note)

  2. The problem with an evolutionary explanation for language is this simple language fact: One must be taught language. Language could not have evolved from the grunts and groans of apes. Feral children prove that language must be taught. Children totally deprived of human contact in the first 5 years of life, at best, have only been able to pronounce a couple of words once reunited with humans. And they have never learned to speak sentences (That is those who were totally deprived of human contact in those formative years). Even if early man evolved and a few grunts eventually became words, that's a far cry from grammar; language is more than words, it's grammar. Even if people biologically evolved, there would be no language. The so-called first hominoid would only be able to grunt, and that's all they would have been able to share with offspring, and that would have continued ad-infinitium. Simply saying language evolved because we have language is no explanation. Therefore, my conclusion is, a higher power taught the first humans language.

  3. This video is entertaining but it does address the question -how do languages evolve. That is, what specifically causes language X1 to develop grammar G1, while C2 develops G2. And só on

  4. I'm rejuvenated by the insights in this content. A book with related content inspired new ways of thinking for me. "The Art of Meaningful Relationships in the 21st Century" by Leo Flint

  5. Yeah. Like Hindi and Bengali are SO similar. I am Bangladeshi and know Bengali. But when I was a kid all cartoons were in Hindi. So I had no choice but to watch them in Hindi. I learned Hindi just by watching a few cartoons. No one ever taught me anything. Now I can speak Hindi pretty fluently and its very helpful as I am came to India for 5 months

  6. So based on two facts; 1- People are lazy. 2- Reduction is the most probable action, here is a criteria for the original language:
    1- It must have more sounds than any other language, and it must be able to incorporate sounds from other languages.
    2- It must have words more than any other languages.
    3- Its grammar and structure can accommodate all forms of sentences.
    Find a language that meets those three conditions and announce it to the world.