40 research outputs found
The origin of language tracing the evolution of the mother tongue
No full textJust as archaeologists study fossils and ancient artifacts for clues about mankind's origins, linguistic researchers today are sifting through word roots and grammatical conventions and coming up with some startling revelations about our beginnings. In The Origin of Language noted linguist Merritt Ruhlen takes you on a fascinating journey of discovery back through nearly 100,000 years of human history and prehistory in pursuit of the language from which all modern tongues derive. Requiring no prior familiarity with linguistics, The Origin of Language is the first book to explain, in laymen's terms, the controversial process by which linguists are tracing the development of the vast range of human speech, sweeping aside many traditional assumptions about the spread of language and the roots of the human family. In addition to acquainting you with the manner in which such diverse languages as English and Chinese can be compared, DrRuhlen introduces you to the brilliant mavericks whose linguistic theories are at last gaining worldwide acceptance. He also discusses the exciting new work being done in genetics and archaeology that corroborates much of the controversial linguistic evidence. But more than simply describing his and his colleague's theories, Dr. Ruhlen invites you to share in the joys of discovery. He arms you with the linguist's basic tool kit and lets you work through the evidence for yourself and draw your own conclusions. You'll classify languages and language families, trace language family trees, and even reconstruct some of the basic vocabulary used by our most distant ancestors. Also, based on clues provided by your research, you'll plot the land and sea routes most likely taken by early humans in their diaspora out of Africa and to the four corners of the worldWhile The Origin of Language is an incomparable introduction to some of the most exciting linguistic research now being conducted by researchers around the globe, it is also much more. It is an inspiring invitation to join the quest for our human roots and to hear the echoes of the Mother Tongu
Merritt Ruhlen, L'origine des langues (sur les traces de la langue mère), préface d'André Langaney ; traduit de l'anglais par Pierre Bancel, 1996
No full textTaverdet Gérard. Merritt Ruhlen, L'origine des langues (sur les traces de la langue mère), préface d'André Langaney ; traduit de l'anglais par Pierre Bancel, 1996. In: Nouvelle revue d'onomastique, n°29-30, 1997. pp. 289-290
Merritt Ruhlen, L'origine des langues (sur les traces de la langue mère), préface d'André Langaney ; traduit de l'anglais par Pierre Bancel, 1996
No full textTaverdet Gérard. Merritt Ruhlen, L'origine des langues (sur les traces de la langue mère), préface d'André Langaney ; traduit de l'anglais par Pierre Bancel, 1996. In: Nouvelle revue d'onomastique, n°29-30, 1997. pp. 289-290
Des formes phonétiques aux proto-formes de la langue originelle. Analyse méthodologique et évaluation des limites
No full textInternational audienceThe aim of our study is, basically, based on the study leaded by Merritt Ruhlen on world-languages-classification (classification presented in Ruh94). Proving that the methodology used by Merritt Ruhlen as well as the plenty amount of data used for the alike Greenberg's comparative method might have been a factor of constraint wouldn't be possible without the constitution of a probabilistic estimation. The application of this on Ruhlen's data allows us to highlight the fact that the demonstration leaded by Ruhlen among this book is probabilistically invalidated. We show that a drawing lots of the phonetic forms of the lexico-semantic referents gives the same results than him
Des formes phonétiques aux proto-formes de la langue originelle. Analyse méthodologique et évaluation des limites
No full textInternational audienceThe aim of our study is, basically, based on the study leaded by Merritt Ruhlen on world-languages-classification (classification presented in Ruh94). Proving that the methodology used by Merritt Ruhlen as well as the plenty amount of data used for the alike Greenberg's comparative method might have been a factor of constraint wouldn't be possible without the constitution of a probabilistic estimation. The application of this on Ruhlen's data allows us to highlight the fact that the demonstration leaded by Ruhlen among this book is probabilistically invalidated. We show that a drawing lots of the phonetic forms of the lexico-semantic referents gives the same results than him
