Murray Gell-Mann: Do all languages have a common ancestor?

Translator: Martina Corral Aller Reviewer: Adrián Levices Casal

Well, I'm involved in other things, besides physics.

Ben, ademais da física, estou enleado noutras cousas.

In fact, mostly now in other things.

De feito, agora estou principalmente noutras cousas.

One thing is distant relationships among human languages.

Unha delas é a relación distante entre as diferentes linguas humanas.

And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.

Os profesionais, lingüistas históricos nos EEUU

and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away

e en Europa Occidental, tentan de maneira especial manterse lonxe

from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,

de calquera relación afastada no tempo, das grandes agrupacións,

groupings that go back a long time,

agrupacións que se remontan moito no tempo,

longer than the familiar families.

moito máis cás familias familiares.

They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.

Eles non gustan disto, cren que son excentricidades. Eu non.

And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,

E hai algúns lingüistas brillantes, a maioría rusos,

who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,

que están a traballar nisto no Instituto de Santa Fe e en Moscú,

and I would love to see where that leads.

e a min encantaríame ver a onde os leva.

Does it really lead to a single ancestor

Lévanos realmente a un único antepasado

some 20, 25,000 years ago?

de hai uns 20 ou 25 000 anos?

And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,

E que pasa se imos máis alá de este antepasado único,

when there was presumably a competition among many languages?

cando imaxino que había unha competición entre moitas linguaxes?

How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?

Como de lonxe se remonta isto? Ata onde se remontan as linguas modernas?

How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?

Cantas decenas de miles de anos?

Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?

Vostede ten o presentimento ou a esperanza de cal é a resposta?

Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older

Ben, supoño que as linguas modernas deben ser máis antigas

than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures

cás pinturas, os gravados e as esculturas das cavernas

and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,

e as pisadas de baile na lama das cavernas de Europa Occidental,

in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.

no período Auriñacense hai uns 35 000 anos ou máis.

I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.

Eu non podo crer que fixeran todas esas cousas e non tiveran xa unha linguaxe moderna.

So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.

Así que eu diría que a verdadeira orixe se remonta polo menos ata ese momento e, se cadra, máis.

But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most

Pero isto non significa que todas, ou moitas, ou a maioría

of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps

das linguas que se coñecen na actualidade non proveñan

from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,

dunha moito máis nova ca iso, como de hai 20 000 anos,

or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.

ou algo polo estilo. É o que chamamos unha conxestión.

CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.

Ben, pode que Philip Anderson tivese razón.

You may just know more about everything than anyone.

Vostede debe saber máis de todo que ninguén.

So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.

Así que, foi todo un honor. Grazas Murray Gell-Mann.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)