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Title: The Origin of Language : Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue by Merritt Ruhlen ISBN: 0-471-15963-8 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: August, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.7 (23 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Ruhlen's position is not untenable but IS dubious
Comment: Ruhlen's approach to historical linguistics is an extreme manifestation of the use of mass comparison across language families to arrive at family trees which could not be demonstrated using the more clearly reliable traditional comparative methods - because the posited time-depths are too great. Using those methods, we can reconstruct forms and families only a little earlier than the earliest written records. Greenberg and the Nostraticists, reviving some of the 'glottochronological' notions of the 1950s, represent a more moderate version of Ruhlen's view. Some of their proposals have been generally accepted (eg, Greenberg's on Africa). But Ringe and others have argued persuasively (with statistics) that in general their methods are unreliable, because - given enough time - chance similarities are very likely and are indistinguishable from genuine cognates when traditional methods are unavailable. This would apply even more strongly to Ruhlen. He acknowledges that his position is very controversial; but readers should be aware that his book has not succeeded in persuading more than a few linguists that he is right in thinking that we can date or identify 'Proto-World' (the universal ancestor language), still less reconstruct any of it. It is not even regarded as certain (though it is perhaps probable) that there WAS just one Proto-World. Ruhlen's position is not wholly untenable, but beware of regarding it as the best currently available; the consensus is that it is dubious.
Even if Ruhlen should have a case, this would NOT support those who posit links between apparently unrelated languages on the basis of a few unsystematic instances of similar words for similar concepts, eg, very roughly similar words for 'god', 'father' etc around the world, wrongly seen as showing that all languages derive from Sanskrit, Latvian or Hungarian, or that two isolated languages such as Zuni and Japanese are in fact linked (all these examples are from actual proposals).
BTW: most linguistics programs will happily accept a student who knows as many as three languages. Even monoglots can study the subject with profit, learning about more languages as they go.
Rating: 4
Summary: Enjoyable Read
Comment: I am by no means an expert on languages or the history of languages. I picked up this book on a whim awhile back. After reading the reviews on here, I can understand why the author warned the reader that his view is controversial.
Basically Ruhlen gives you a list of about 10-15 words from 10 or so different languages. Basic words like "hand" or "head" or "water," words that would've been around for awhile. He lets the reader group the words accordingly while he would give a few pointers on how words change over time and what one sound would tend to change to. He starts with the Indo-European languages and proceeds to do the same with Native American, African, and Asian languages as well. Eventually we find out that all the languages have come from a single mother tongue. We also find out that his theory coinsides considerably with current genetic theories on the spread of humans. It was very interesting and fun to do, and Ruhlen never talks down to the reader.
That said, there were some problems. He kept referring to "Indo-Europeanists" who, according to him, dismiss his theories in-hand without even looking at them. I find this hard to believe. Sometimes it seemed to me that he all but called them racists. Then again, after reading some of the quotes from those who disagree with his theory, it all seems a bit petty, like someone who disagreed with a person's theory personally attacked that person.
All in all, it is a good book to read to get a different take on the story of language. If you're really interested after this, you probably need to get a book that has the "traditional" viewpoint of linguists.
Rating: 1
Summary: response to larry west
Comment: West claims that historical linguistics in the 20th Century was largely misguided. This is, of course, a matter of opinion. But his claim would be rejected by the vast majority of contemporary historical linguists, who see their work as building on 20th Century achievements. Even Greenberg's supporters mostly regard Ruhlen's position as badly overstated. And in the mainstream proper Ruhlen is simply not taken seriously; see Trask's review below. My own review was widely perceived as too generous.
Can West explain why he regards historical linguistics in the 20th Century as largely misguided?
West also claims that genetic evidence mostly confirms Greenberg's thesis. This is an oversimplification/overstatement in that - although the most recent findings do suggest closer links between genetic and linguistic histories than is necessarily to be expected (see McMahon & McMahon in the current issue of TPS) - one cannot assume that linguistic relationships will correspond with genetic relationships between groups of speakers. And even if Greenberg's ideas came to be accepted (and if anything current linguistic thought is heading the opposite way), that would not necessarily afford much comfort to Ruhlenites, whose position, as noted, is more extreme.
Ringe and other such researchers do work with the oldest known forms; but in order to examine greater time-depths and wider coverage through mass comparison one must often also work with more recent data. For many language families, this is actually necessary, because older forms are not available or not representative and any reconstructed forms are uncertain. Mass comparison is, of course, used chiefly in just such cases, where there is simply not enough early data to perform proper comparative analyses involving systematic correspondences; where this latter IS possible, one can be much more confident of identifying cognates. This is why it is also used in seeking deep-time relationships between language families - IF the reconstructed proto-forms are regarded as sufficiently well established. West's criticism of Ringe is thus off-target.
Actually, during the 20th Century the methods which West criticises were much more typical of the amateur fringe than of real historical linguists, although very few amateurs paid enough attention to the statistical issues. Ringe's work is itself innovative in some respects.
We are not embarrassed by the fact that we cannot explain ALL the observed patterns of linguistic evolution. We will continue to study these matters, working with our collleagues in human genetics and other disciplines (Ringe has done just this; see Sykes' 1998 book). But we are not called upon to explain alleged relationships for which there is no good evidence.
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Title: Genes, Peoples, and Languages by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Mark Seielstad ISBN: 0520228731 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 07 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes by Steve Olson ISBN: 0618091572 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 15 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth by J. P. Mallory ISBN: 0500276161 Publisher: Thames & Hudson Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco Cavalli-Sforza, Sarah Thorne, Heather Mimnaugh ISBN: 0201442310 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes ISBN: 0393323145 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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