2006-10-02 08:19:08 · 32 answers · asked by Dan 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Why is the English spoken in England slightly different from that spoken in US, and different from that spoken in India and different from that spoken in Singapore?
They come from the same source, right? But over time, new things were added, local accents taken into account, and I don;t think the tower of Babel was recent enough to account for that...
I think that to trace mankind back to origins in Africa, and when some of mankind left and migrated to the rest of the world takes us back a long time. Language was not as structured as it is now, so more likely to change.
Furthermore as the early humans encountered new situations, new animals, new plants... they developed new words, and depending on their 'lifestyle' the languages developed independently changed.
After thousands of years, the languages shared very little with their primitive roots, and became distinct.
Languages are alive, they gain strength as the societies speaking them develop, grow in size as new words are coined and change shape to suit the lifestyle... Or they die as the societies flounder and disappear.
2006-10-02 16:48:58 · answer #1 · answered by ekonomix 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The one word answer is evolution, but there are several forces that shape language.
In the case of hominids and global migration, location would likely be a dominant factor.
example: Aleuts have some 14 or so words for snow, but 1 for sand. it is hard for a!King from the Kalahari describe a snow cone.
Equally, there are cultural aspects to speech. A nomadic group that is dependent on horse or some other animal for transportation would develop different words and phrases that would be used in daily speech. Also, a matrilineal culture would put different emphasis on some words that would a patrilineal.
Then there is the impact of religion, natural phenomenon, major geographic features (mountains v flatlands;oceans v.forests, deserts, etc)
Laziness also plays into language. look for example, how words shorten and have become more informal in the past 50 years. in the US. This is not a new trend, and this is why latin is considered a dead language.
2006-10-02 15:42:30 · answer #2 · answered by hhabilis 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Language is a "living" thing in that it is constantly changing. Think about the Romance languages - all the languages that originally came from Latin (the Roman language): Romanian, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, French. Once they were all Latin, but after the fall of the Roman Empire, people in separate countries became more isolated and the language changed in different directions.
And think about English: it is spoken differently in the British Isles, Australia, India, Canada, America. We can still understand each other (well, most of the time, eh?) but both vocabulary and pronunciation differ. And consider Old English ("Beowulf"), Middle English (Chaucer), Shakespearean English and modern English. The English language has changed beyond recognition! Whenever people are isolated from one another, language differences evolve. There are hundreds of Chinese dialects, although there is only one written language. Given the immense passage of time from the first spoken language till today, it's no surprise that so many different languages exist.
2006-10-02 08:32:00 · answer #3 · answered by keepsondancing 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Some linguists and anthropologists think modern humans started spreading around the world about 50,000 years ago. As people moved away, small groups would remain behind. Each of these small groups created their own languages, often building on what they knew before. As some groups became more isolated (because of environmental boundaries, mainly, but also some cultural); some languages became very, very different.
So we end up with groups of very different languages (for example Japanese and French), but within these groups languages with slight variations (for example French and Spanish), that continue to change today.
Those people who immediately say "because God made it so" are being lazy. If you believe God set in motion the human race, and then watched as people spread over the earth, great. But please don't try to sum up every scientific/social question with "because of God." That's lazy.
2006-10-02 09:49:15 · answer #4 · answered by omnivore111 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Mitochondrial Eve study would have us trust that the beginning of the human race change into in Ethiopia. Fossils for early australopithecus creatures were got here across with the help of the international. that's critical to recreate the replace of land thousands from 5 million years in the past even as the human race branched off from something of the chimps and different primates. it really is plausible that one and each and every of the australopithecus species and homo habilis, and erectus, even with all of their toolmaking knowledge did not live on certain ice a lengthy time period. in worry-free words the most tropical or warmest places would enable habitation. the Ethiopia area would were such an section. possibilities are intense close kinfolk contributors to the people were spread, yet they migrated to Ethiopia and complete evolving into people there
2016-10-16 03:12:20 · answer #5 · answered by catharine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We lived in Africa thousands upon thousands of years ago. If you've tried reading Shakespeare, you know how much a language can change in just five hundred years. And if you've studied Chaucer, you'll know that just one thousand years ago English was completely different.
Now multiply that difference by, well, a heck of a lot, and voilà! You have all the languages in the world!
2006-10-04 05:07:43 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Language evolves all the time and so quickly too. Think of what you are sat behind now. Now look back 40 years, what terms that we use today would you not have recognized back then? Software , hard drive , random access memory, read only memory, compact disc c d rom etc etc, The English language itself is a cocktail of ancient unknown tongues plus Latin , Anglo Saxon , Norse,and Old French .
2006-10-02 08:36:06 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Its been proved that children can learn to communicate through sign language quicker than they can learn to speak.
Do you think it is possible that when man came out of Africa they only had the nouse to communicate in gestures and sign language. Once man had spread across the world and their abilities grew, they developed speech and language.
Therefore each country having its own language.
2006-10-03 04:28:26 · answer #8 · answered by kabie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because we came out of Africa a long time ago, and via a lot of different routes. Language changes very quickly, even today, so over thousands of years, it evolved differently in each area.
2006-10-02 08:23:09 · answer #9 · answered by The Lone Gunman 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Because language is constantly changing and evolving. For example, just think of the different words that have developed in America and the UK; faucet / tap, pavement / sidewalk, fall / autumn etc. And that's just after a few hundred years.
2006-10-02 08:30:10 · answer #10 · answered by Jude 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋