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

Translator: Leif B. Hammer Reviewer: Martin Hassel

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

Vel, jeg er involvert i andre ting enn fysikk.

In fact, mostly now in other things.

Nå er det faktisk mest andre ting.

One thing is distant relationships among human languages.

En ting er fjerne forbindelser mellom menneskepråk.

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

De profesjonelle språkforskerene i USA

and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away

og i Vest-Europa prøver å holde seg unna

from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,

disse langdistanse forholdene; store samlinger,

groupings that go back a long time,

samlinger som går langt tilbake i tid,

longer than the familiar families.

lenger enn kjente språkfamilier.

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

De tenker ikke slik; de tror det er for drøyt. Jeg tror ikke det er for drøyt.

And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,

Og det er noen briljante språkforskere, mest russere,

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

som jobber på Santa Fe Instituttet og i Moskva,

and I would love to see where that leads.

og jeg vil gjerne se hva det leder til.

Does it really lead to a single ancestor

Kommer det til å lede til en enkelt stamfar

some 20, 25,000 years ago?

for sånn 20-25,000 år tilbake?

And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,

Og hva om det går tilbake før den stamfaren,

when there was presumably a competition among many languages?

der det sikkert var konkurranse mellom forskjellige språk?

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

Hvor langt tilbake går det? Hvor langt tilbake går det moderne språk?

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

Hvor mange titusener av år tilbake?

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

Chris Anderson: Har du en tanke eller et håp om hva svaret kan være?

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

Murray Gell-Mann: Vel, jeg antar at det moderne språk er eldre

than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures

enn hulemalerier, graveringer, skulpturer,

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

og den myke leiren i Vest-Europeiske huler

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

under den Aurignacianske perioden for 35,000 år siden, eller tidligere.

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

Jeg kan ikke tro at de gjorde alle de tingene og ikke hadde et moderne språk.

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

Så jeg antar at det går tilbake, kanskje enda lengre.

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

Men det betyr ikke at alle, eller mange, eller de fleste

of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps

av dagens språk ikke kunne stamme

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

fra et yngre enn det for omtrent 20,000 år,

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

eller noe slikt. Det er det vi kaller en flaskehals.

CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.

CA: Vell, Phillip Anderson kan ha hatt rett.

You may just know more about everything than anyone.

Du kan kansje mer om alt enn noen andre.

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

Så det har vært en ære. Takk til Murray Gell-Mann.

(Applause)

(Applaus)