TED2007
Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language
Murray Gell-Mann keelte põlvnemisest
Filmed:
Readability: 3.6
944,446 views
Auväärt Murray Gell-Mann, olles rääkinud TED2007 konverentsil füüsikapeensustest, annab kiire ülevaate veel ühest oma kirglikust huvist: meie nüüdisaja keelte ühise esivanema otsimisest.
Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe. Full bio
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
Well, I'm involved in other things, besides physics.
0
1000
4000
Ma tegelen lisaks füüsikale ka muude asjadega.
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
1
5000
2000
Õigupoolest, praegu, enamjaolt just teiste asjadega.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
2
7000
4000
Üks neist asjadest on kaugeleulatuvad sugulussidemed inimkeelte vahel.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
3
12000
4000
Nimelt, professionaalsed ajaloolise keele uurijad Ameerika Ühendriikides
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
4
16000
3000
ja Lääne-Euroopas üritavad enamasti eemale hoida
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
5
19000
4000
mistahes kaugeleulatuvatest sidemetest; suurtest grupeeringutest,
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
6
23000
3000
grupeeringutest, mis ulatuvad kaugele minevikku,
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
7
26000
3000
kaugemale kui meile teada-tuntud keelkonnad.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
8
29000
4000
Neile see ei meeldi; nad peavad seda veidrike pärusmaaks. Ma küll ei arva, et see nii oleks.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
9
33000
3000
On mõned suurepärased keeleuurijad, enamasti venelased,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
10
36000
4000
kes parasjagu töötavad selle kallal Santa Fe Instsituudis ja Moskvas,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
11
40000
4000
ja ma sooviks väga näha, kuhu see kõik viib.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
12
44000
3000
Kas see tõesti viib üheainsa eelkäijani,
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
13
47000
3000
umbes 20-25 000 aastat tagasi?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
14
50000
3000
Ja mis siis, kui me läheme sellest ühisest eelkäijast veelgi kaugemale,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
15
53000
4000
mil eeldatavasti oli olelusvõitlus mitmete keelte vahel?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
16
57000
3000
Kui ammu see oli? Kui vana on nüüdisaegne keel?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
17
61000
3000
Mitu kümmend tuhat aastat võib ta vana olla?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
18
64000
3000
Chris Anderson: On teil mingit aimdust või lootust, mis vastus sellele küsimusele võiks olla?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
19
67000
3000
Murray Gell-Mann: Noh, mina pakuksin, et nüüdisaegne keel peab olema vanem
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
20
70000
4000
kui koopamaalingud ja koopauuristused ning kooparaided
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
21
74000
5000
ja Lääne-Euroopa pehmesse savisse jäädvustunud jäljed tantsusammudest,
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
22
79000
6000
mis ulatuvad tagasi Aurignaatsia ajastusse, 35 000 või rohkem aastat tagasi.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
23
85000
3000
Ma ei usu, et nad suutsid teha kõiki neid asju, ent mitte omada nüüdisaegset keelt.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
24
88000
5000
Seega ma pakun, et tegelikult on keele algupära vähemalt nõnda vana või ehk vanemgi.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
25
93000
3000
Aga see ei tähenda, et kõik või paljud või enamus
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
26
96000
4000
tänapäeval uuritud keeltest ei pruugiks pärineda hoopis
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
27
100000
4000
palju varasemast ajaloost, ütleme näiteks 20 000 aastat tagasi
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
28
104000
3000
või midagi sinnakanti. Me kutsume seda "pudelikaelaks".
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
29
108000
1000
CA: Philip Anderson'il võis tõesti olla õigus, et
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
30
109000
3000
ehk tead just sina kõigest rohkem kui ei keegi teine.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
31
112000
2000
Ühesõnaga, on olnud meeldiv. Tänud teile, Murray Gell-Mann.
02:06
(Applause)
32
114000
4000
(Aplaus)
Reviewed by Kristina Mois
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Murray Gell-Mann - PhysicistMurray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe.
Why you should listen
He's been called "the man with five brains" -- and Murray Gell-Mann has the resume to prove it. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, he is an accomplished physicist who's earned numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees for his work with subatomic particles, including the groundbreaking theory that the nucleus of an atom comprises 100 or so fundamental building blocks called quarks.
Gell-Mann's influence extends well beyond his field: He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves on the board of the Wildlife Conservation Society and is a director of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gell-Mann, a professor emeritus of Caltech, now heads the evolution of human languages program at the Santa Fe Institute, which he cofounded in 1984.
A prolific writer -- he's penned scores of academic papers and several books, including The Quark and the Jaguar -- Gell-Mann is also the subject of the popular science biography Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics.
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com