Dying languages…

Over 6,000 languages are currently spoken worldwide, but a substantial minority — well over 5% — are in danger of dying out. It is perhaps surprising that this fraction is no higher, as most models have so far predicted that a minority language will be doomed to extinction once contacts with speakers of the majority language reach a certain level. Statistical physicists Jean-Marc Luck from Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France and Anita Mehta from the University of Oxford, UK have described, using mathematical modelling, two mechanisms through which this doomsday scenario does not occur, i.e. several languages come to coexist in the same area. This work is now published in EPJ B. (1)

Languages being born.

Languages getting extinct.

Languages dying. Spoken by very few.

These few will soon seize to be.

And their logos will be drifted away by the winds of existence.

Does that matter to anyone?

Will the universe cry?

Listen.

There is nothing to listen.

Old mummy… Silent voices…

The sound of a vocal tract from a 3,000-year-old mummy has been recreated using CT scans, a 3D-printer, and a voice synthesizer. Details of this achievement—such as it is—were published in Scientific Reports. (1)

Old voices.

Lost voices.

Meaning nothing now.

Frightening isn’t it?

Why don’t we understand those voices?

Why do we need to?

Lost humans.

Void of anything.

Except of the things they can lose…

The forest is silent now.

Full of skeletons.

And in that deafening silence.

You can hear nothing at all.

Nothing but yourself speaking…

Understanding language. Word by word…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

The capacity for language is distinctly human. It allows us to communicate, learn things, create culture, and think better. Because of its complexity, scientists have long struggled to understand the neurobiology of language.

In the classical view, there are two major language areas in the left half of our brain. Broca’s area (in the frontal lobe) is responsible for the production of language (speaking and writing), while Wernicke’s area (in the temporal lobe) supports the comprehension of language (listening and reading). A large fibre tract (the arcuate fasciculus) connects these two ‘perisylvian’ areas (around the Sylvian fissure, the split which divides the two lobes).

“The classical view is largely wrong,” says Hagoort. Language is infinitely more complex than speaking or understanding single words, which is what the classical model was based on. While words are among the elementary ‘building blocks’ of language, we also need ‘operations’ to combine words into structured sentences, such as ‘the editor of the newspaper loved the article’. To understand and interpret such an utterance, knowing the speech sounds (or letters) and meaning of the individual words is not enough. For instance, we also need information about the context (who is the speaker?), the intonation (is the tone cynical?), and knowledge of the world (what does an editor do?). (1)

We believe thinking is complex.

And even when it is not, we make it be so.

The meaning of words depends on their context.

But going backwards, what was the first context of them all?

Go back and see within the darkness.

And you will see one word.

Uttered within perfect silence.

This is the substrate of it all.

(Silence)

Are you brave enough to listen to yourself?

Jupiter’s new moons. Silent foundations…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

The public many times is called to name some newly discovered planets, as happened in the case of Jupiter a few years ago. (1)

We believe we can escape the past, but we cannot.

Jupiter’s moons will always have names based on Greek mythology.

Because they used to.

Everything we do, speak and write, are based on things we used to do, speak and write.

Go back in the beginning.

At a time when we couldn’t speak or write.

And you will be astounded to discover that everything you speak about are based on silence…

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