New languages often evolve quickly, in a sudden burst of new words coined as groups of people strive to describe the world around them, says an international team of researchers.Scientists debate the evolution of language in a way that parallels arguments in biological evolution. Do most changes come about slowly and gradually or rapidly within relatively short spans of time?To answer this question, the researchers studied sets of basic vocabulary from 490 different languages in Europe, Asia and Africa. Quentin Atkinson from the U.K.'s University of Oxford and colleagues reported their findings in the journal Science.
They used the same kind of computer program biologists use to create family trees to track the appearance of related words and so trace the evolution of new languages from older ones."We compared things like the words for body parts, words about kinship, colours and other basic words," says researcher Simon Greenhill, a PhD candidate from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.The results showed many of the novel words that make up new languages appear in an initial burst over a relatively short period of time.
"We're probably talking generations," said Greenhill, "maybe around 100 years."
Several factors might account for the tendency of new languages to evolve this way, the researchers say. For example, the changes might reflect the need of one emerging group of people to differentiate itself from another.
"Some people might exaggerate the differences between their languages to reinforce their groups," said Greenhill.
In other cases, small groups of people who become isolated might develop new ways of speaking based on the vocal quirks of their founders, he said.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/02/01/tech-language.html#ixzz11aaC5dmX
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