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Language Mysteries | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6151 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 49 14 April 2008 at 9:34am | IP Logged | ||
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What are the great unsolved language riddles or mysteries ? At number one, I'd place the origins of the Basque language, Euskara. What others would you add ?
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 49 14 April 2008 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Other mysteries - at least to me:
- What was Proto-Indo-European like, exactly? - What was PIE's precursor? How did they differ? - How did human language originate? When? Where? How have the grammars changed over time? What about conceptualizations of time? How did the elaborate tense systems of the Indo-European languages, or the systems for conveying emotional nuances and formality levels in Japanese and Korean come about? - Exactly when did the different language families branch off? - Where do the language isolates (like Basque and Sumerian...) fit in? - Deciphering various unknown or partly unknown languages, such as Linear A. - Did anyone write earlier than the Sumerians? Did the Sumerians write anything novel-like/epic before "The Epic of Gilgamesh"? - Will the existence of language super-families ever be widely accepted? How useful are they, conceptually? To what degree do they make sense? - How many more ancient documents will turn up? What will they reveal about the ancient world? Edit: removed Finnish from the list of language isolates. I have no idea why my I made that particular odd lapse, since I've read quite a bit about Finnish. Edited by Volte on 15 April 2008 at 5:31am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stewart Edwards Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6153 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 3 of 49 14 April 2008 at 10:21am | IP Logged | ||
Aparently it is written in ancient Near East records, I think he translated the Cunieform. Interesting theory. Edited by Stewart Edwards on 14 April 2008 at 10:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6151 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 4 of 49 14 April 2008 at 10:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I should've also added Linear A, as mentioned by Volte, and the Phaistos disk,
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| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6958 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 5 of 49 14 April 2008 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Volte, as you probably know it is simply impossible to determine the exact periods/dates you're asking for, even if we had a time machine.
However, I'm very interested in the sound and grammar of those ancient languages that we still can't decipher too, like Etruscan, Eteocretan, Pictish and many more. Edited by Zorndyke on 14 April 2008 at 10:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 49 14 April 2008 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Exactly - which is why it's a mystery. I know there are some vague figures, and worded it accordingly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6244 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 7 of 49 14 April 2008 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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finnish ain't isolated. Edited by bushwick on 14 April 2008 at 1:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 49 14 April 2008 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Like Bushwick I wouldn't characterize Finnish as an isolate, - but there is one question that is somewhat mysterious about this language: for how long has Finnish (or rather its predecessors) been spoken in Finland? I saw during my last visit some quite extravagant claims in the National Museum of Helsinki about the age of the Finnish people and their language, - something like the Finns being there since the last ice age. I'm a bit sceptical, but what is the current scientific stance on this question - and are there any proofs?
It is also somewhat irritating to know that several of the extinct languages mentioned above were known to people who just didn't care to write anything that could make it possible to learn about them. For instance it is said that the Roman emperor Claudius knew at least some Etruscan, - but all knowledge about the language died with him. The big question concerning the Basque language is of course whether it has any connection with the Caucasian languages, as it has often been claimed. During my first visit to Tbilisi in 1988 I discussed this with our guide, who was a language student at the local university. She claimed that her teachers generally assumed such a connection, but we didn't go into details about the foundations for this belief. ANd even if there once was a connection, the two areas have been isolated from each other for maybe 3000 years or more (since the Indoeuropean invasions started),- it can't be easy to prove any connection after such a long separation. But all is not gloom and despair and a saddening feeling of loss - at least the Mayan manuscripts can apparently now be read, and that is nothing less than a sensation. Edited by Iversen on 14 April 2008 at 1:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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