Re: The Tally-Ho! Theory of Language Origins

In article <1128442743.856291.121230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
kleinecke@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> rogerprince@xxxxxxxx wrote:
> > Perhaps writing, in a sense, preceded spoken language.
>
> ...
>
> > Evolution often makes new use of systems that have evolved for other
> > purposes.
>
> ...
>
> > Pure speculation, but traces of this route to language may be left in
> > the human genome, `a la the genes that still code for hens' teeth and
> > horses' toes.
>
> This has the potential for a great argument about intelligent design.
>
> The advocates for intelligent design might well have advanced speech as
> an example of something so complicated and so efficient that it could
> not possibly have evolved and therefore must have been handed to us as
> a whole by the alleged intelligent designer. It's a better example than
> any of the other examples I have seen.
>
> But, so far as I know, they have not done so.
>
> Maybe the reason is that we can PROVE that languages evolve.


That's an interestingly expansive claim. Perhaps you could substantiate
it by describing what you mean by "PROVE," and then cite some examples
for us.

T.H.
.

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