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

Prevodilac: Stevan Radanovic Lektor: Ivana Korom

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

Pa, bavim se i drugim stvarima, pored fizike.

In fact, mostly now in other things.

Zapravo, trenutno se uglavnom bavim drugim stvarima.

One thing is distant relationships among human languages.

Jedna od njih su daleke veze između ljudskih jezika.

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

Profesionalni, istorijski lingvisti u SAD

and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away

i Zapadnoj Evropi se uglavnom ne bave

from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,

tim "vezama na daljinu", velikim grupisanjima,

groupings that go back a long time,

grupisanjima koja se protežu dugo unazad,

longer than the familiar families.

dalje od poznatih familija.

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

Ne sviđa im se to; misle da je neozbiljno. Ne slažem se sa njima.

And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,

Neki brilijantni lingvisti, uglavnom Rusi,

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

rade na tome na Santa Fe Institutu i u Moskvi,

and I would love to see where that leads.

i voleo bih da vidim gde ta istraživanja vode.

Does it really lead to a single ancestor

Da li će zaista ukazati na jedinstvenog pretka

some 20, 25,000 years ago?

koji je postojao pre nekih 20, 25 hiljada godina?

And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,

I šta ako "pogledamo" pre tog jedinstvenog pretka,

when there was presumably a competition among many languages?

gde pretpostavljamo da se mnogo jezika "takmičilo"?

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

Koliko dugo to traje? Koliko dugo postoji moderan jezik?

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

Koliko mnogo desetina hiljada godina?

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

Kris Anderson: Imate li neku pretpostavku ili nadu vezano za odgovor na to pitanje?

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

Mari Gel-Man: Pa, pretpostavljam da moderni jezik mora biti stariji

than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures

od pećinskih crteža, pećinskih gravura i pećinskih skulptura,

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

i plesnih koraka u mekoj glini u pećinama Zapadne Evrope

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

u Orinjasijen periodu, pre nekih 35 hiljada godina, ili čak ranije.

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

Ne verujem da su radili sve te stvari, a da nisu imali moderan jezik.

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

Stoga pretpostavljam da potiče iz tog vremena zapravo, a možda i iz nekog ranijeg.

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

To ne znači da svi, ili mnogi, ili većina

of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps

jezika za koje danas znamo nisu mogli nastati

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

od nekog koji je mnogo mlađi od toga, npr. 20 hiljada godina,

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

ili nešto slično. To je ono što zovemo "usko grlo".

CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.

Kris Anderson: Filip Anderson je izgleda bio u pravu.

You may just know more about everything than anyone.

Vi možda zaista znate o bilo čemu više od bilo koga.

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

Bila nam je čast. Hvala Vam, Mari Gel-Mane.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)