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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.
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That is, 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.