The First Language | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

Littlestone Nov 23, 2005 21:19:33

Following on from what Ishmael and Peter said under the Gog and Magog thread it reminded me that not only may we share a common pantheon of gods but also, perhaps, a common language.

I remember watching an Inuit film last year (it was called something like The Runner) and I kept thinking, "Damn, that Inuit language sounds so like Japanese." It certainly sounded like Japanese but none of the words made any sense. It was a really good film but as I watched it I kept thinking, "Come on, say a word that's the same in both Inuit and Japanese." I'd nearly given up when some two-thirds of the way through the film the Inuit actor said ani - which means 'elder brother' in both languages, and I remembered some research I'd heard a couple of years ago on 'The First Language'. Just Googled 'First Language' and there's quite a good link here at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2120glang.html

Perhaps, as we understand more about our first language and the gods around when it was spoken, the more we'll understand about the things we discuss on these pages :-)

cropredy Nov 23, 2005 21:37:48

Replying to Littlestone

Yorkshire

PeterH Nov 23, 2005 21:40:28

Replying to Littlestone

Fascinating stuff and I just hope that one day students of historic linguistics might sit around the same table as DNA scientists analysing the distribution of human genetics. Then we really might begin to understand our origins and how we colonised the world. Spencer Wells, author of "The Journey of Man" spends some time in the last chapter of that book telling how languages are vanishing at an alarming rate. I guess that by the 22nd century, everyone will speak the same version of Pidgin-Textese. r u ok gr8

From the First Language to the Last Language - everything moves in a great circle and the end is the beginning

tiompan Nov 24, 2005 13:49:35

Replying to Littlestone

"I remember watching an Inuit film last year (it was called something like The Runner) and I kept thinking, "Damn, that Inuit language sounds so like Japanese." It certainly sounded like Japanese but none of the words made any sense. It was a really good film but as I watched it I kept thinking, "Come on, say a word that's the same in both Inuit and Japanese." I'd nearly given up when some two-thirds of the way through the film the Inuit actor said ani - which means 'elder brother' in both languages "
The film was Atarnajut , it has been suggested that the Inuit and Siberians were the original paleolithic peoples of Southern Europe who moved North when the climate got too warm for them.