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In the biblical story
of the Tower of Babel,
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all of humanity once spoke
a single language
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until they suddenly split
into many groups
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unable to understand each other.
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We don't really know if
such an original language ever existed,
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but we do know that the thousands
of languages existing today
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can be traced back
to a much smaller number.
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So how did we end up with so many?
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In the early days of human migration,
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the world was much less populated.
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Groups of people that shared
a single language and culture
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often split into smaller tribes,
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going separate ways in search
of fresh game and fertile land.
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As they migrated and
settled in new places,
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they became isolated from one another
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and developed in different ways.
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Centuries of living
in different conditions,
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eating different food
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and encountering different neighbors
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turned similar dialects with
varied pronunciation and vocabulary
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into radically different languages,
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continuing to divide as populations
grew and spread out further.
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Like genealogists, modern linguists
try to map this process
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by tracing multiple languages
back as far as they can
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to their common ancestor,
or protolanguage.
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A group of all languages related
in this way is called a language family,
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which can contain
many branches and sub-families.
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So how do we determine whether
languages are related in the first place?
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Similar sounding words don't tell us much.
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They could be false cognates
or just directly borrowed terms
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rather than derived from a common root.
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Grammar and syntax are
a more reliable guide,
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as well as basic vocabulary,
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such as pronouns,
numbers or kinship terms,
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that's less likely to be borrowed.
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By systematically comparing these features
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and looking for regular
patterns of sound changes
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and correspondences between languages,
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linguists can determine relationships,
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trace specific steps in their evolution
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and even reconstruct earlier languages
with no written records.
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Linguistics can even reveal
other important historical clues,
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such as determining the geographic origins
and lifestyles of ancient peoples
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based on which of their words were native,
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and which were borrowed.
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There are two main problems linguists face
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when constructing
these language family trees.
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One is that there is
no clear way of deciding
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where the branches
at the bottom should end, that is,
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which dialects should be considered
separate languages or vice versa.
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Chinese is classified as a single language,
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but its dialects vary to the point
of being mutually unintelligible,
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while speakers of Spanish and Portuguese
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can often understand each other.
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Languages actually spoken by living people
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do not exist in neatly divided categories,
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but tend to transition gradually,
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crossing borders and classifications.
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Often the difference between
languages and dialects
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is a matter of changing political
and national considerations,
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rather than any linguistic features.
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This is why the answer to,
"How many languages are there?"
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can be anywhere between 3,000 and 8,000,
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depending on who's counting.
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The other problem is that
the farther we move back in time
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towards the top of the tree,
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the less evidence we have
about the languages there.
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The current division
of major language families
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represents the limit at which
relationships can be established
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with reasonable certainty,
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meaning that languages
of different families
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are presumed not to be related
on any level.
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But this may change.
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While many proposals
for higher level relationships --
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or super families -- are speculative,
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some have been widely accepted
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and others are being considered,
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especially for native languages
with small speaker populations
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that have not been extensively studied.
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We may never be able to determine
how language came about,
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or whether all human languages
did in fact have a common ancestor
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scattered through the babel of migration.
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But the next time you hear
a foreign language, pay attention.
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It may not be as foreign as you think.