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

Marijs Gells-Manns: Volūdys prīškguojiejs

Filmed:
944,446 views

Piec runys TED2007 par fizikys eleganci apbreinojamais Marijs Gells-Manns dūd dreizu puorskotu par cytu sovu kaislu iņteresi: vysu myuslaiku volūdu kūpeiga prīškguojieja mekliešonu.
- 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 involved in other things, besides physics.
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Sūpluok fizikai es asmu īsasaistejs ari cytur.
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
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Eisteneibā, itūšaļt vaira taišni cytuos lītuos.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
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Vīna ir attuoluos attīceibys cylvāku volūdu vydā.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
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Profesionali viesturis volūdnīki ASV
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
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i Vokoru Eiropā pa lelam rauga turētīs par gobolu
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
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nu vyskaidom attuolom attīceibom; lelim grupiejumim,
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
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cīši vacim grupiejumim,
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
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vacuokim kai zynomuos volūdu saimis.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
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Jim tys napateik; Jī dūmoj, ka tei ir kaprize.
Es nadūmoju, ka tai ir kaprize.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
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Ir nazcik genialu volūdnīku, puorsvorā krīvu,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
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kurī pi tuo struodoj Santafe Iņstitutā i Moskovā.
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
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Es cīši grybātu redzēt, iz kureini tys nūvess.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
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Voi tys eistyn nūvess pī vīna prīškguojieja
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
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pyrma kaidu 20—25 tyukstūšu godu?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
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I ka nu mes ītu vēļ tuoļuok pyrma ituo kūpeiguo prīškguojieja,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
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kod, drūsai viņ, beja daudzu volūdu sovstarpeiga konkureņce?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
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Cik tuoli paguotnē tys īt?
Cik tuoli paguotnē īt myuslaiku volūda?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
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Cik daudzus dasmytus tyukstūšys godu tuoļā paguotnē tei īt?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
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Kriss Aņdersons: Jums ir nūjauta voi nūceja par tū,
kaids ir atsacejums?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
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Marijs Gells-Manns: Es pasaceitu miniejumu,
kai myuslaiku volūdom juobyut vacuokom
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
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kai olu zeimiejumi, olu graviejumi i olu skuļpturom,
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
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i daņču sūlim meikstajā muolā Vokoru Eiropys oluos
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
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Oriņakys periodā pyrma kaidu 35 000 godu voi seņuok.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
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Es naspātu nūticēt, ka jī spieja tū vysu dareit,
najādzūt myuslaiku volūdu.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
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Deļtuo es pīļaunu, kai patīsuo izceļsme ir vacuoka,
mozuokais tikpoš vaca, kas zyn i vacuoka.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
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Nu tys nanūzeimoj, ka vysys,
daudzys voi koč vairums
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
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nu myuslaiku zynuomuos volūdys
navarieja izaceļt, pīvadumam,
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
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nū vīnys, kurei ir daudz jaunuoka,
saceisim, 20 000 godu vaca
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
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voi liedzeigai. Tū mes saucam par šaurū vītu.
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
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K.A.: Filipam Aņdersonam varieja byut taisneiba.
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
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Var byut, jius par tū zynat vaira kai kurs cyts.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
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Deļtuo tys ir gūds. Paļdis jums, Marij Gell-Mann.
02:06
(Applause)
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(Publika plaukšynoj)
Translated by Kristaps Kadiķis
Reviewed by Edīte Husare

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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