TED2007
Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language
Murray Gell-Mann over de voorouder van taal
Filmed:
Readability: 3.6
944,446 views
Na op TED2007 gesproken te hebben over de elegantie van natuurkunde, geeft de verbazingwekkende Murray Gell-Mann een snel overzicht van een andere passie: het vinden van de gemeenschappelijke voorouder van onze moderne talen.
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
Nou, ik ben nog bij meer onderwerpen betrokken dan natuurkunde.
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
1
5000
2000
Tegenwoordig zelfs meer bij andere dingen.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
2
7000
4000
Eén van die dingen is de verre verwantschap tussen menselijke talen.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
3
12000
4000
En de professionele, historische taalkundigen in de VS
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
4
16000
3000
en in West Europa proberen zich verre te houden
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
5
19000
4000
van lange afstand relaties, grote groeperingen,
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
6
23000
3000
groeperingen die ver terug gaan,
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
7
26000
3000
verder dan de bekende (taal)families.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
8
29000
4000
Daar houden ze niet van, ze denken dat het onzin is. Ik denk niet dat het onzin in.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
9
33000
3000
En er zijn enkele briljante taalkundigen, overwegend Russen,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
10
36000
4000
die hieraan werken in het Santa Fe Instituut en in Moscow,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
11
40000
4000
en ik ben erg benieuwd waar dat toe zal leiden.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
12
44000
3000
Zal het werkelijk leiden tot één enkele voorouder
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
13
47000
3000
van 20, 25.000 jaar geleden?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
14
50000
3000
En als we nog verder teruggaan dan die enkele voorouder,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
15
53000
4000
toen er waarschijnlijk een competitie was tussen talen?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
16
57000
3000
Hoe ver gaat dat terug? Hoe ver gaat de moderne taal terug?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
17
61000
3000
Hoe veel tienduizenden jaren gaat dat terug?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
18
64000
3000
Chris Anderson: Heeft u een idee wat het antwoord kan zijn?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
19
67000
3000
Murray Gell-Mann: Nou, ik denk dat de moderne taal ouder moet zijn
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
20
70000
4000
dan de grottekeningen en grotgravures en grotbeeldhouwwerken
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
21
74000
5000
en de danspassen in de zachte klei in de grotten van West Europa
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
22
79000
6000
in de Aurignacian periode, ongeveer 35.000 jaar geleden, of nog vroeger.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
23
85000
3000
Ik kan niet geloven dat ze al deze dingen konden doen zonder moderne taal.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
24
88000
5000
Dus ik denk dat de daadwerkelijke herkomst zo ver terug gaat, of nog verder.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
25
93000
3000
Maar dat betekent niet dat alle, of veel, of de meeste
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
26
96000
4000
van de hedendaagse talen niet misschien afgeleid zijn van
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
27
100000
4000
één taal, die veel jonger is, zeg 20.000 jaar,
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
28
104000
3000
of iets dergelijks. Dat is wat we een flessenhals noemen.
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
29
108000
1000
CA: Nou, Philip Anderson zou wel eens gelijk kunnen hebben.
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
30
109000
3000
U weet gewoon meer over wat dan ook dan wie dan ook.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
31
112000
2000
Het was een eer. Dank u, Murray Gell-Mann.
02:06
(Applause)
32
114000
4000
(Applaus)
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