Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!rutgers!venus.sun.com!cs.utexas.edu!howland.erols.net!netcom.com!petrich
From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Re: Language Origin and Diffusion
Message-ID: <petrichE28yL0.742@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <seagoat.737.01F7AA9A@primenet.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 11:29:24 GMT
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Sender: petrich@netcom3.netcom.com

In article <seagoat.737.01F7AA9A@primenet.com>,
John A. Halloran <seagoat@primenet.com> wrote:

>In other words, stimulus diffusion would describe the process by which a 
>non-speaking population invented their own language instead of borrowing all 
>the details of an existing language.

	But one needs language to describe something, so a language-less 
population would be absolutely *stuck*.

	There is also the question of why only the idea of language
diffused all over the world from the Fertile Crescent, and *nothing* else.
And why it diffused *without exception*.

	Has there *ever* been a self-perpetuating human society that has
*not* had language? I mean by that one that does *not* get fresh members 
from outside.

	IMO, it's simpler to suppose that all "normal" populations of our 
species have had language for as long as our species has existed.
-- 
Loren Petrich				Happiness is a fast Macintosh
petrich@netcom.com			And a fast train
My home page: http://www.webcom.com/petrich/home.html
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