Draft:Languages

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This world map shows the locations amongst the locals of the French language. Credit: Jonatan argento.

There are "approximately 3,000–6,000 languages that are spoken by humans today".[1]

Linguistics

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This script was found on the temple walls of Tanjore Bragadeeshwara. It is very different from the present Tamil script. Credit: Symphoney Symphoney.

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language.[2][3][4][5] Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context.[6]

"Although linguistics is the scientific study of language, a number of other intellectual disciplines are relevant to language and intersect with it. Semiotics, for example, is the general study of signs and symbols both within language and without. Literary theorists study the use of language in literature. Linguistics additionally draws on and informs work from such diverse fields as acoustics, anthropology, biology, computer science, human anatomy, informatics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and speech-language pathology."[6]

Theoretical languages

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Def. "[a] form of communication using words either spoken or gestured with the hands and structured with grammar, often with a writing system"[7] is called a language.

"Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication."[1]

If there is at least one human or hominin language, why are there more than one?

Dominant languages

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The Wikipedia dominant language by country is indicated by different colors. Credit: Leonst & Sehrg.

Def. a "[l]anguage spoken by the dominant social group, or language that is seen as the main language of a country"[8] is called a dominant language.

Language families

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Main article: Language families

Def. "[a] set of languages which have evolved from a common ancestor"[9] is called a language family.

Luwian

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File:Luwian hieroglyphic stone.jpg
This stone with script written in Luwian was found in an irrigation ditch in the Anatolia region of Turkey. Credit: James Osborne and Michele Massa.{{fairuse}}
File:Türkmen-Karahöyük archaeological mound.jpg
Full view shows the archaeological mound at Türkmen-Karahöyük. Credit: James Osborne and the University of Chicago.{{fairuse}}

Luwiya is the name of the region in which the Luwians lived, as Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws.[10]

Several other Anatolian languages – particularly Carian, Lycian, Lydian and Milyan (also known as Lycian B or Lycian II) – are now usually identified as related to Luwian – and as mutually connected more closely than other constituents of the Anatolian branch.[11]

Luwic or Luwian (in the broad sense of the term), is one of three major sub-branches of Anatolian, alongside Hittite and Palaic.[11]

Luwian was among the languages spoken during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC by groups in central and western Anatolia and northern Syria.[12] Beginning in the 14th century BC, Luwian-speakers came to constitute the majority in the Hittite capital Hattusa.[13] It appears that by the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire ca. 1180 BC, the Hittite king and royal family were fully bilingual in Luwian, and long after the extinction of the Hittite language, Luwian continued to be spoken in the Neo-Hittite states of Syria, such as Milid and Carchemish, as well as in the central Anatolian kingdom of Tabal that flourished in the 8th century BC.[14]

The earliest Indo-Europeans in northwest Anatolia were the horse-riders who came to this region from the north and founded Demircihöyük (Eskisehir Province) in Phrygia c. 3000 BC, were allegedly ancestors of the Luwians who inhabited Troy II, and spread widely in the Anatolian peninsula.[15]

"Türkmen-Karahöyük [is] a large Bronze and Iron Age mounded settlement [see second image down on the right] occupied between about 3,500 and 100 BC."[16]

"A local farmer [...] had found a big stone [in the first image on the right] with strange inscriptions while dredging a nearby irrigation canal the previous winter."[16]

"My colleague Michele Massa and I rushed straight there, and we could see it still sticking out of the water, so we jumped right down into the canal up to our waists wading around."[17]

"Right away it was clear it was ancient, and we recognized the script it was written in: Luwian, the language used in the Bronze and Iron ages in the area."[17]

"The survey team immediately identified a special hieroglyphic marking that symbolised the message came from a king."[16]

"The inscription boasted of defeating Phrygia, the kingdom ruled by King Midas, famous from the mythical story where he developed a golden touch."[16]

The "city covered 300 acres, making it one of the largest in Bronze and Iron Age Turkey."[17]

"We had no idea about this kingdom. In a flash, we had profound new information on the Iron Age Middle East."[17]

"Inside this mound are going to be palaces, monuments, houses. This was a marvelous, incredibly lucky find but it’s just the beginning."[17]

Hypotheses

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Main article: Hypotheses
  1. Each of today's languages contains a synonym for dominant group.
  2. Ultimately, there is only one hominin language.

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Language". San Francisco, California: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. June 20, 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  2. ↑ Adrian Akmajian; ‎Richard A. Demers; ‎Ann K. Farmer (2010). Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication. ISBN 0-262-51370-6. https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0262513706. 
  3. ↑ André Martinet; Tr. Elisabeth Palmer (Studies in General Linguistics, vol. i.) (1960). Elements of General Linguistics. London: Faber. p. 15. 
  4. ↑ Michael A.; K. Halliday; Jonathan Webster (2006). On Language and Linguistics. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. vii. ISBN 0-8264-8824-2. 
  5. ↑ Joseph Greenberg (1948). "Linguistics and ethnology". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 4: 140–7. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Linguistics". San Francisco, California: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. June 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  7. ↑ "language, In: Wiktionary". San Francisco, California: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. June 6, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  8. ↑ Sheldon Shaeffer (2007). "Advocacy Kit for Promoting Multilingual Education: Including the Excluded" (PDF). Prakanong, Bangkok, Thailand: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education. ISBN 92-9223-110-3. Retrieved 2012-08-29.
  9. ↑ "language family, In: Wiktionary". San Francisco, California: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. June 6, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  10. ↑ Law number 21 of the Code of the Nesilim says, "If anyone steal a slave of a Luwian from the land of Luwia, and lead him here to the land of Hatti, and his master discover him, he shall take his slave only."
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Anna Bauer, 2014, Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase in Hieroglyphic Luwian, Leiden, Brill NV, pp. 9–10.
  12. ↑ Melchert 2003.
  13. ↑ Yakubovich 2010:307
  14. ↑ Melchert 2003, pp. 147-51
  15. ↑ Christoph Bachhuber (2013), James Mellaart and the Luwians: A Culture-(Pre)history,
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Rob Waugh (24 February 2020). "Lost ancient kingdom uncovered in Turkey after farmer finds stone with strange inscriptions". United Kingdom: Yahoo News. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 James Osborne (24 February 2020). "Lost ancient kingdom uncovered in Turkey after farmer finds stone with strange inscriptions". United Kingdom: Yahoo News. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
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{{Dominant group}}{{Humanities resources}}{{Linguistics resources}}{{Semantics resources}}{{Terminology resources}}

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