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

翻译人员: 剑Nan Lu 校对人员: Zachary Lin Zhao

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

哦，我除了物理，还参与了些其他事情。

In fact, mostly now in other things.

事实上，现在大多数精力都在那些其他事上

One thing is distant relationships among human languages.

其中有一件事是人类语言间的远程联系

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

这也是一直以来大多数在美国

and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away

乃至在西欧的职业历史语言学家所极力避讳的

from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,

一种长距离的联系；大族群间的，

groupings that go back a long time,

可以追溯到很久以前的族群，

longer than the familiar families.

久远到超出熟悉的家族范畴。

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

他们不喜欢这些; 他们觉得这是怪诞的。我不这么认为，

And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,

有些非常杰出的语言学家，其中很多来自于俄罗斯，

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

在圣菲研究所和在莫斯科进行这个方面的研究工作。

and I would love to see where that leads.

我一直期待着他们的研究进展。

Does it really lead to a single ancestor

他们的研究是否会指向一个单一的

some 20, 25,000 years ago?

在2万到2万5千年前的祖先级语言？

And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,

如果再继续追溯道这个单一的祖先之前，

when there was presumably a competition among many languages?

又或许是个多种语言纷争的年代？

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

那究竟是多久之前? 现代语言又可以追根到多久之前？

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

这到底是多少万年之前事呢?

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

克里斯 安德森：你对这个答案是否有任何的推测和期寄？

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

穆雷盖尔：恩，我猜想现代语言一定很古老。

than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures

比洞穴壁画，洞穴雕刻和洞穴雕刻更早，

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

在西欧洞穴中发现的软泥上的舞步痕迹所处

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

的3万5千年前奥瑞纳(译者:一种旧石器时代文化)时期以前，或者更早。

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

我很难相信他们创造了那么多东西却没有拥有现代语言。

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

所以我猜想真正的语言起源是来自那个时期或者这之前。

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

但是这也不表明所有的或者大多数

of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps

现今得到确认的语言不是源自

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

一个更年轻的，可能是2万年前的源头，

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

或者诸如此类的来源。这也就是我们所谓的瓶颈。

CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.

哇哦，菲利普 安德森或许是对的。

You may just know more about everything than anyone.

你或许在每件事上都比别人懂得多。

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

所以非常荣幸。谢谢你穆雷盖尔。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）