dieseltaylor Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Interesting article from New Scientist on language - and why there are so many languages. The Linguistic Diversity Index goes : If everyone has their own language the figure is one and if there was only one language worldwide that would be zero. So - USA an LDI = 0.319 364 languages[ 176 indigenous] Population 310 million North Korea LDI = 1 Population 24 million Papua New Guinea LDI = 0.990 830 languages - all indigenous Population 7 million Rather interestingly genetic make-up and language have a common effect. As people left Africa they only took a small-subset of the gene pool which narrowed every time peoples moved further on. Similarly phonemes* if little used would get left behind. So the language with the highest number is in Africa, Taa, has 110, and the ones with lowest numbers are further away in South America and Oceania. A papuan tribe has 11 phonemes *In a language or dialect, a phoneme (from the Greek: φώνημα, phōnēma, "a sound uttered") is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances.[1] Wikipedia The article is interesting in many ways but I will keep it brief and just the odd bits. This is fun: In English I walked the dog [tense shows its a past action] Mandarin The verb does not change but a word may be added to show it was past Yagua[peruvian] they choose one of five verb endings depending on whether the walk was hours days weeks months or years ago!!! And this is cute: People in warm climates use more vowels. I won't spoil it by the theory why : ) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 If North Korea is monocultural, why is their rating 1 instead of 0? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 As people left Africa they only took a small-subset of the gene pool which narrowed every time peoples moved further on. Interesting. I hadn't thought of that before, but I can see how it would work. I would expect some of the diversity to be made up by mutation though. Plus natural and sexual selection are operating on each of the populations to eliminate some genes and provide opportunities for others to flourish. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 Affen - points for paying attention : ) Should have been language 1 LDI= 0 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 I'd also point out that Papua New Guinea has non-idigenous languages as well. English, for one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LemoN Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 You got a link to the article? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228421.200-power-of-babel-why-one-language-isnt-enough.html ALONGSIDE almost every creation myth about the origin of the Earth or the genesis of humankind, you'll find another story about the diversity of language. In the Old Testament, "confounding the one language" is God's punishment on humans for building the Tower of Babel. In Greek mythology, Hermes divides language to spite his father Zeus. The Wa-Sania people of east Africa put it down to a jabbering madness brought on by famine, while the Iroquois story tells of a god who directed his people to disperse across the world. Creation myths are just myths, of course, but the question of linguistic diversity is a genuine problem. If Americans and the British are two peoples divided by a common language, then the whole world is one united by the mutual incomprehension of nearly 7000. Language is perhaps the defining feature of our species, and yet also the most divisive. Why is ... And then you pay or log-in! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LemoN Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Cheers mate! Although I'm not really interested in religious creation myths, they are quite amusing to read. It's sad that it's a register only website, as I'm very interested in anything scientific, especially astronomy, physics and history. Guess I'll have to stick to my usual sources. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 PHYSORG is great and covers much much more than physics http://www.physorg.com/breaking-news/ *Physorg.com is proud to announce Medical Xpress, a new division of Physorg.com, which will cover all medical research advances and health news at http://medicalxpress.com. The separation will allow Physorg.com to focus on other sci-tech research, while Medical Xpress will focus on the latest in medicine and health. Our hope is to further expand the content on both sites and improve the overall quality and experience for our readers. We hope to make the division of news as painless as possible. PhysOrg.com visitors will still find daily medical content on its home page, while readers only interested in medical stories may now go directly to Medical Xpress. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Schultz Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 But how does Klingon fit into this?? - 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 But how does Klingon fit into this?? Why should it? Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted December 17, 2011 Author Share Posted December 17, 2011 On a similar note - but in reverse. A single change that becomes more common. Researchers with the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute led the study and estimate that the mutation arose in the Middle East some 13,600 years ago. Only a mutation seen in cystic fibrosis that arose between 11,000 and 52,000 years ago is believed to be older. The investigators described the mutation in people of Arabic, Turkish and Jewish ancestry. It causes a rare, inherited vitamin B12 deficiency called Imerslund-Gräsbeck Syndrome (IGS). The researchers say that although the mutation is found in vastly different ethnic populations, it originated in a single, prehistoric individual and was passed down to that individual's descendents. This is unusual because such "founder mutations" usually are restricted to specific ethnic groups or relatively isolated populations. The findings were published recently in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases. http://www.rdmag.com/News/2011/12/Life-Science-Genetics-Genomics-Scientists-discover-second-oldest-gene-mutation/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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