Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)

From: Jacques Guy (jguy_at_alphalink.com.au)
Date: 03/07/05 

Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 19:57:27 +1000

phippsmartin@hotmail.com wrote:
 
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
 
> > Related languages, by definition, had a common ancestor language.
>
> Wrong.

> You are implying that languages always diffuse outward from a
> "source" language. Why couldn't, to use your own argument, people
> develop their own languages independently?

Right. Thus we developed jumbo jets on the model of birds.
And so therefore, jumbo jets are related to birds.

I also have a toy that flies by flapping its wings.
It's related to birds, obviously. It's rubber-band
driven. So it's related to the hevea tree.
 
> Languages can be related in different ways of course. Korean and
> Japanese share similar grammar but they are also both related to
> Chinese as a result of Chinese scholars having travelled to these
> countries and taught the Chinese language.

Seriously now, you are confusing two aspects of language change:
filiation and imitation.

I am fond of imitating inspecteur Clouseau (a beûmp?)
but that does make me a relative of Peter Sellers.
When I was a teenager lots of us dressed like Elvis
Presley. That did not make us relatives of his, nor
did it make us relatives of one another.

Same with languages. Korean has imitated ("borrowed")
lots of Chinese words, Japanese had borrowed ("imitated")
lots of Chinese words, Vietnamese ditto. That does make
them relatives of one another anymore than my schoolmates
imitating the King, and the girls Brigitte Bardot.

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