The Story of the Human Language Part One

Just a note: My blogs haven't been letting me space paragraphs lately. Sorry!! I don't know what the problem is, but it's really bugging me. I just finished listening to the first 12 lectures on The Story of Human Language. I really enjoyed them!. They are great to listen to while I clean the house or chauffer the kids in the car. Here are a few random things I learned:

1. A human language is always slowly morphing into another one.


2. Sounds often change to become more like the ones before or after them. Vowels shift around in the mouth, consonants soften, and the ends of words tend to fall off.


3. The first language has now morphed into 6,000 languages worldwide.


4. In language an expression that began as a colorful one (peach keen!) dillutes into normality or disappears altogether and is replaced by a new colorful expression.


5. Semantics shift over time. For example, silly originally meant "blessed," but over centuries the meaning gradually drifted until it eventually came to mean "silly."


6. Languages of the Indo-European family are spoken throughout most of Europe, as well as in India and Iran. According to linguists, the language most likely began in the southern steppes of modern Russia in about 4,000 B.C. Linguists assume it did not begin in the Mediterranean because there are no common words for "palm tree" or "vine". They probably did not originate in Europe either because there is no common word for "oak".

So there are a few of the facts I learned about language. I just received an e-mail notification from the library, that Part Two has arrived and I am looking forward to learning more.