TED2007
Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language
Murray Gell-Mann ar shinsearach teanga
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I ndiaidh dó labhairt ar chuannacht na fisice ag TED2007, tugann an saineolaí Murray Gell-Mann léargas gairid ar shuim as cuimse eile dá chuid: lorg an tsinsearaigh coitianta dár dteangacha reatha.
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.
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Bhuel, tá baint agam le rudaí eile seachas fisic
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
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I bhfirínne, in ábhair seachas fisic is mó faoi láthair.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
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Tá rud amháin faoi leith i dteangacha an chine daonna.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
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Déanann teangeolaithe gairmiúla, stairiúla sna SAM
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
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agus in Iarthar na hEorpa iarracht chun
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
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cianchaidrimh a sheachaint; grúpaí móra,
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
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grúpaí a théann i bhfad siar
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
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níos faide siar ná na teaghlaigh teanga cailiúla.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
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Cha dtaitníonn sé sin leo; síleann gur raiméis í. Ach, ní shílim gur amhlaidh atá.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
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Agus tá roinnt mhaith teangeolaithe iontacha, Rúisigh is mó,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
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atá ag déanamh staidéir air sin ag Institiúd Santa Fe agus i Moscó,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
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agus ba bhreá liom na torthaí a fheiceáil.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
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An dtéann sé i bhfad siar go sinsear amháin
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
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20,000 nó 25,000 bliain ó shin?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
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Agus cad é a tharlaíonn má théann muid níos faide siar roimh an tsinsir amháin sin,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
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nuair is dócha go raibh iomaíocht idir roinnt mhaith teangacha?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
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Cé chomh fada siar a théann sé sin? Cé chomh fada siar a théann teangacha an lae inniu?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
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Cá mhéad mílte bliain a théann sé siar?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
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Chris Anderson: An bhfuil cliú nó smaoineamh ar an fhreagra a bhfaighfear?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
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Murray Gell-Mann: Bhuel, mheasfainn go gcaithfidh teangacha an lae inniu a bheith níos sine
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
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ná na pictiúir agus an ghreanadóireacht agus na dealraimh a tchítear sna huaimheanna
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
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agus lorg coise ó rincí a fágadh i gcré bhog uaimheanna in Iarthar na hEorpa.
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
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sa Tréimhse Aragnaisiúnach timpeall 35,000 bliain ó shin, nó níos túisce.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
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Cha dtig liom a chreidbheáil go ndearna siad na rudaí seo go léir agus nach raibh cumas acu i dteanga nua-aimseartha.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
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Mar sin mheasfainn ar a laghad go dtéann na fréamhacha comh fada siar sin, agus b'fhéidr níos faide arís.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
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Ach, chan ionann é sin is a rá nach dtig leis na teangacha uilig,
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
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nó cuid mhaith acu, nó an chuid is mó acu, a bheith tagtha ó
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
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abraimis, 20,000 bliain ó shin,
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
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nó rud éigin cosúil leis sin. Tugaimid caolas teanga air sin.
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
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CA: Bhuel, b'fhéidir go raibh an ceart ag Philip Anderson.
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
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B'fhéidir go bhfuil níos mó eolais agatsa ar achan rud ná duine ar bith eile.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
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Mar sin, ónóir a bhí ann domhsa. Go raibh maith agat a Mhurray Gell-Mann.
02:06
(Applause)
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(Bualadh bos)
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