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

Translator: Janja Sterle Reviewer: Matej Divjak

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

Poleg fizike se ukvarjam še z drugimi stvarmi.

In fact, mostly now in other things.

V bistvu se trenutno ukvarjam predvsem z drugimi stvarmi.

One thing is distant relationships among human languages.

Ena stvar je daljna povezava med človeškimi jeziki.

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

Profesionalni zgodovinski jezikoslovci v ZDA

and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away

in Zahodni Evropi se večinoma poskušajo izogniti

from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,

vsakršnim daljnim povezavam; velikim skupinam,

groupings that go back a long time,

skupinam, ki izvirajo iz daljne preteklosti,

longer than the familiar families.

ki so bolj oddaljene kot znane družine.

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

To jim ni všeč; menijo, da je to noro. Jaz ne menim, da je noro.

And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,

Nekateri drugi sijajni jezikoslovci, predvsem Rusi,

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

pa preučujejo to temo na Inštitutu Santa Fe in v Moskvi.

and I would love to see where that leads.

Zelo me zanima, kaj bodo ugotovili.

Does it really lead to a single ancestor

Ali jeziki res izvirajo iz enega samega prednika

some 20, 25,000 years ago?

izpred 20 ali 25 000 let?

And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,

Kaj pa je bilo še pred tem edinim prednikom,

when there was presumably a competition among many languages?

ko naj bi številni jeziki tekmovali med seboj?

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

Koliko časa nazaj sega to? Koliko časa nazaj sega moderni jezik?

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

Koliko deset tisočev let sega to nazaj?

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

Chris Anderson: Imate kakšno idejo ali upanje, kako se glasi odgovor?

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

Murray Gell-Mann: Menim, da je moderni jezik starejši

than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures

kot jamske poslikave, jamske grafike, jamske skulpture

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

in plesni koraki v mehki glini v jamah Zahodne Evrope

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

iz aurignacienskega obdobja pred 35 000 leti, ali še prej.

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

Ne morem verjeti, da so naredili vse te stvari in da hkrati niso imeli modernega jezika.

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

Menim, da jezik v resnici izvira iz tega časa ali še od prej.

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

Toda to ne pomeni, da vsi ali veliko ali večina

of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps

danes potrjenih jezikov ne bi mogla izvirati

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

iz enega jezika, ki je veliko mlajši, na primer 20 000 let.

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

Temu pravimo ozko grlo.

CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.

CA: Philip Anderson je morda imel prav.

You may just know more about everything than anyone.

Morda res veste več o vsem kot kdorkoli drug.

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

Bilo nam je v čast. Hvala, Murray Gell-Mann.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)