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

譯者: Haishuo Lee 審譯者: Feiman Luk

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

唔，除了物理以外我還關心其他事物

In fact, mostly now in other things.

事實上，現在我一般都專注在其他事物上。

One thing is distant relationships among human languages.

其中一樣是人類語言間的遠親關係

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

專業學者，在美國與西歐的歷史語言學家

and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away

大多都不想碰這個學科,

from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,

那些關於任何遠親關係的學科；

groupings that go back a long time,

可以追溯到久遠之前、比目前已知的族系都來得久遠的語言分類

longer than the familiar families.

可以追溯到久遠之前、比目前已知的族系都來得久遠的語言分類

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

他們不喜歡這樣，覺得那是個怪念頭，但我就不太認同

And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,

在那些很聰明的語言學家之中，大多是俄羅斯人

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

他們在莫斯科（Moscow）的聖塔菲（Santa Fe）學院研究這個課題

and I would love to see where that leads.

我想看看結果會是如何

Does it really lead to a single ancestor

我們口中的語言真的會被導回兩萬、或兩萬五千年前

some 20, 25,000 years ago?

的同一個始祖嗎？

And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,

那如果我們再往那個共祖往前推又會怎樣？

when there was presumably a competition among many languages?

那時大概會是許多語言之間的競爭吧！

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

那是在多久之前呢？近代的語言可追溯到多久以前？

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

是在幾萬年前？

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

克里斯‧安德森：你的直覺能帶給你找出這個問題的答案嗎？

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

莫瑞：唔，我猜比起洞穴中的圖畫、銘刻、雕塑

than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures

或是西歐洞穴中軟泥上的舞步, 那是在歐里納克（譯按：舊石器時代晚期〕時期，約莫三萬五千年前，或甚至更早

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

或是西歐洞穴中軟泥上的舞步, 那是在歐里納克（譯按：舊石器時代晚期〕時期，約莫三萬五千年前，甚至更早

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

近代的語言一定比它們都更為古老

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

我不相信他們會在沒有近代語言之下建立出這一切

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

所以我會猜，真正的起源必定至少有那麼早，甚至是更早

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

但這並不表示所有、許多、或者大部分在今日通過測試的語言

of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps

但這並不表示所有、許多、或者大部分在今日通過測試的語言

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

是源於較為初期的語言，像是兩萬年前，或接近那個時期的

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

這是我們所謂的瓶頸。

CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.

克里斯：嗯，菲利浦‧安德森可能是對的

You may just know more about everything than anyone.

對於萬物，你比任何人都有更深的認識

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

所以這是我們的榮幸，謝謝您

(Applause)

（掌聲）