The Proto-Human Language

[Smaug]

The Proto-Human language (also Proto-Sapiens, Proto-World) is the hypothetical most recent common ancestor of all the world's languages.

The concept of "Proto-Human" presupposes monogenesis of all recorded spoken human languages. It does not presuppose monogenesis of these languages with unrecorded languages, such as those of the Paleolithic or hypothetical Neanderthal languages. Advocates of linguistic polygenesis do not accept the notion of a fully developed Proto-Human language and consider the world's language families independent developments of a proto-linguistic form of communication used by archaic Homo sapiens.

Many linguists believe all human languages derived from a single tongue spoken in East Africa. If the assumption of a "Proto-Human" language is accepted, its date may be set anywhere between 200,000 years ago (the age of Homo sapiens) and 50,000 years ago (the age of behavioral modernity).

Reconstruction:

Comparative linguistics, sometimes called historical linguistics, is often used in
attempts to link languages that have similar cognates, phonology, and grammatical structures together. These languages which are grouped together are called language families, and are said to be linked genetically.

A fairly large number of words have been tentatively traced back to the ancestor language, based on the occurrence of similar sound-and-meaning forms in languages across the globe.

Some reconstructed words:

ku = 'who'
ma = 'what'
pal = 'two'
akwa = 'water'
tik = 'finger'
kanV = 'arm'
boko = 'arm'
buŋku = 'knee'
sum = 'hair'
putV = 'vulva'
čuna = 'nose, smell'

Plausible Genetic Chronology:




This A-L mnemonic is used in the following diagram. D, E, F & G are seen to be relatives and may be lumped into a "Nostratic superphylum.''

Nahali (shown here as an isolated, 13th, phylum "N ?'') is an ancient language of Central India, sometimes conjectured to be related to any of language families C, D, H, or I.

[Anusiya]

Some reconstructed words:

ku = 'who'
ma = 'what'
pal = 'two'
akwa = 'water'
tik = 'finger'
kanV = 'arm'
boko = 'arm'
buŋku = 'knee'
sum = 'hair'
putV = 'vulva'
čuna = 'nose, smell'

"kuma-pal-akwa-tik-kanv-boko-bunku-sum-putva-cuna-SOLOOOO??!"

[Smaug]

Hahahah! Dude! That was good!

And maybe the early Humans looked like Jabba haha

[Benacer]

Basque linked to Chinese and Amerind languages? Odd, but makes some sense if you take it as the predominant group before IE expansion.

[Smaug]

Basque linked to Chinese and Amerind languages? Odd, but makes some sense if you take it as the predominant group before IE expansion.

Yes, IE is really wide spread, and it was it's expansion throughout Eurasia that shall have pushed the other language families to the fringes of the continent, causing isolation of peoples that were once together.

[Comte Arnau]

I agree with the idea of a Proto-human language, the big picture seems to more or less coincide with the genetic/historical spread. But obviously some relationships wll have to be refined, and whole extinct families of languages taken into account. Relating Basque with Chinese is too far-fetched, even if I agree on Basque belonging to a very early spread on Europe.

[Smaug]

I agree with the idea of a Proto-human language, the big picture seems to more or less coincide with the genetic/historical spread. But obviously some relationships wll have to be refined, and whole extinct families of languages taken into account. Relating Basque with Chinese is too far-fetched, even if I agree on Basque belonging to a very early spread on Europe.

I understand your point, this is part of the Dené-Caucasian hypothesis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dené–Caucasian

I don't belive in an early relation between Chinese and Basque, maybe a very ancient one. I personally believe that there's a connection between the languages of the Vasconi family (which includes Basque) and the Caucasian Kartveli languages, like Georgian.

The Iberians that inhabited the Pre-Celtic Iberia were probably from Caucasus, and then mixed with the Celts giving rise to the Celtiberians. Those who didn't mix gave origin to the Basque people. There's even a region in Georgia called Iberia.

[The Exiled King]

This is extremely interesting!

[Comte Arnau]

I don't belive in an early relation between Chinese and Basque, maybe a very ancient one. I personally believe that there's a connection between the PIE languages of the Vasconi falimy (which includes Basque) and the Caucasian Kartveli languages, like Georgian.

If they have ever been related, it must have been at a really early stage, as descendants of a family more than 20,000 years old. Basque is not that old in my opinion, they just have happened to survive isolated thanks to their geographical situation.

The Iberians that inhabited the Pre-Celtic Iberia were probably from Caucasus, and then mixed with the Celts giving rise to the Celtiberians. Those who didn't mixed gave origin to the Basque people. There's even a region in Georgia called Iberia.

The Celtiberians were Celts. Influenced by Iberians and using Iberian script, but linguistically Celtic.

Iberians, which I also believe to be linguistically related to Basques, might have actually been an Eastern Vasconic group spreading along the East of Iberia in relatively recent times (about 800 BC). That'd mean that they could have displaced previous cultures from there, such as the Urnfield one, which is thought by many to be Proto-Celtic.

[Smaug]

If they have ever been related, it must have been at a really early stage, as descendants of a family more than 20,000 years old. Basque is not that old in my opinion, they just have happened to survive isolated thanks to their geographical situation.

Basque is a survival from Pre-IE times, so it is really old. It was already there before the Celts arrived.

The Celtiberians were Celts. Influenced by Iberians and using Iberian script, but linguistically Celtic.

Iberians, which I also believe to be linguistically related to Basques, might have actually been an Eastern Vasconic group spreading along the East of Iberia in relatively recent times (about 800 BC). That'd mean that they could have displaced previous cultures from there, such as the Urnfield one, which is thought by many to be Proto-Celtic.

Celtiberians are actually a mix of Celtic and Iberians, and the Iberians themselves are a Pre-IE people. Some believe the Vasconic peoples were spread throughout Western Europe, reaching to the British Isles. These peoples mixed with the Celts, what means they were assimilated