ABOUT THE SPEAKER
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.

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.

More profile about the speaker
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com
TED2007

Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language

Murray Gell-Mann: sobre los antepasados del lenguaje

Filmed:
944,446 views

Después de hablar en TED2007 sobre la elegancia de la física, el increíble Murray Gell-Mann da una breve visión general de otra de sus pasiones: la búsqueda del antepasado común de las lenguas modernas.
- 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

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
Well, I'm involvedinvolucrado in other things, besidesademás physicsfísica.
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Bueno, me dedico a más cosas aparte de la física.
00:17
In facthecho, mostlyprincipalmente now in other things.
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En realidad, ahora me dedico más bien a otras.
00:19
One thing is distantdistante relationshipsrelaciones amongentre humanhumano languagesidiomas.
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Una de ellas son las relaciones lejanas entre las lenguas humanas.
00:24
And the professionalprofesional, historicalhistórico linguistslingüistas in the U.S.
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Los lingüistas históricos profesionales de Estados Unidos
00:28
and in Westernoccidental EuropeEuropa mostlyprincipalmente try to staypermanecer away
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y de Europa Occidental evitan, en la medida de lo posible,
00:31
from any long-distancelarga distancia relationshipsrelaciones, biggrande groupingsagrupaciones,
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las relaciones lejanas, los grandes grupos,
00:35
groupingsagrupaciones that go back a long time,
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los grupos que se remontan mucho en el tiempo,
00:38
longermás than the familiarfamiliar familiesfamilias.
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más allá de las familias que son familiares.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crankmanivela. I don't think it's crankmanivela.
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No les gusta, les parece excéntrico. A mí no me parece.
00:45
And there are some brilliantbrillante linguistslingüistas, mostlyprincipalmente RussiansRusos,
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Hay algunos lingüistas geniales, sobre todo rusos,
00:48
who are workingtrabajando on that, at SantaSanta FeFe InstituteInstituto and in MoscowMoscú,
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dedicándose a ello en el Instituto Santa Fe y en Moscú,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leadsconduce.
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y me encantaría ver dónde nos lleva esto.
00:56
Does it really leaddirigir to a singlesoltero ancestorantepasado
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¿Nos lleva realmente a un antepasado único,
00:59
some 20, 25,000 yearsaños agohace?
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de hace 20 o 25.000 años?
01:02
And what if we go back beyondmás allá that singlesoltero ancestorantepasado,
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¿Y si nos remontamos más allá de ese antepasado único,
01:05
when there was presumablypresumiblemente a competitioncompetencia amongentre manymuchos languagesidiomas?
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cuándo es de suponer que muchas lenguas compitieran entre sí?
01:09
How farlejos back does that go? How farlejos back does modernmoderno languageidioma go?
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¿Hasta cuándo se remonta eso? ¿Hasta cuándo se remonta el lenguaje moderno?
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How manymuchos tensdecenas of thousandsmiles of yearsaños does it go back?
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¿Cuántas decenas de miles de años?
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ChrisChris AndersonAnderson: Do you have a hunchcorazonada or a hopeesperanza for what the answerresponder to that is?
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Chris Anderson: ¿Tiene alguna corazonada o esperanza sobre la respuesta?
01:19
MurrayMurray Gell-MannGell-Mann: Well, I would guessadivinar that modernmoderno languageidioma mustdebe be oldermayor
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Murray Gell-Mann: yo diría que el lenguaje moderno tiene que ser anterior
01:22
than the cavecueva paintingspinturas and cavecueva engravingsgrabados and cavecueva sculpturesesculturas
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a las pinturas, relieves y esculturas rupestres
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and dancebaile stepspasos in the softsuave clayarcilla in the cavescuevas in Westernoccidental EuropeEuropa,
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y anterior a las pisadas de baile en el barro en las cuevas de Europa Occidental
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in the AurignacianAuriñaciense PeriodPeríodo some 35,000 yearsaños agohace, or earliermás temprano.
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durante el período Auriñaciense, hace 35.000 años, o antes.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't alsoademás have a modernmoderno languageidioma.
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Me cuesta creer que hicieran todo aquello y que no tuvieran un lenguaje moderno.
01:40
So, I would guessadivinar that the actualreal originorigen goesva back at leastmenos that farlejos and maybe furtherpromover.
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Así que yo diría que el verdadero origen es así de antiguo o incluso más.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or manymuchos, or mostmás
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Pero eso no implica que todas, o muchas, o la mayoría
01:48
of today'shoy attestedatestiguado languagesidiomas couldn'tno pudo descenddescender perhapsquizás
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de las lenguas reconocidas de hoy en día no puedan proceder
01:52
from one that's much youngermas joven than that, like say 20,000 yearsaños,
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de una misma, mucho más joven aún, 20.000 años, por ejemplo,
01:56
or something of that kindtipo. It's what we call a bottleneckembotellamiento.
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o algo así. Es lo que se llama un cuello de botella.
02:00
CACalifornia: Well, PhilipFelipe AndersonAnderson maymayo have been right.
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CA: Bueno, puede que Philip Anderson tuviera razón.
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You maymayo just know more about everything than anyonenadie.
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Es posible que de cualquier tema sepa usted más que nadie.
02:04
So, it's been an honorhonor. Thank you MurrayMurray Gell-MannGell-Mann.
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Ha sido un honor. Gracias, Murray Gell-Mann.
02:06
(ApplauseAplausos)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Lucia Balsa Prados
Reviewed by Sebastian Betti

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
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.

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.

More profile about the speaker
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com