Proto-World and the Origin of Language

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  • čas přidán 10. 01. 2017
  • In which I take seven minutes to say "we don't know squat."
    I have yet to make that video about why animals can't talk. That or I did but forgot to update this bit in the description.
    Nativlang's video on reconstructions of Proto-World: • Tower of Babel vs Ling...
    Intro song: • Kadenza - Flight of th...
    Outro song: • Fruits Of Her Labour f...

Komentáře • 2,3K

  • @sethapex9670
    @sethapex9670 Před 7 lety +2973

    They have made 3D models of chimpanzee vocal tracts and shown that they can produce practically all the same sounds as us. They just lack the mental capacity. So it's likely that mental capacity for language was a later evolved trait.

    • @Xidnaf
      @Xidnaf  Před 7 lety +891

      I'd heard about this. You might be right, but what you're talking about was from one very recent study, and even the results of it seem to still be up for some interpretation, At the very least they seem to lack the necessary detailed motor control in their mouthes, which I figured I'd lump in with "physical ability." As opposed to, for instance, parrots, which can be trained to mimic human sounds relatively easily.

    • @Ludix147
      @Ludix147 Před 7 lety +133

      Xidnaf mental abilities also are physical abilities. it gets really confusing if you try to find out what exactly they lack.

    • @PicklePickle7
      @PicklePickle7 Před 7 lety +12

      +Xindaf you are back!

    • @PicklePickle7
      @PicklePickle7 Před 7 lety +9

      +Xindaf I'd love to believe that there did exist a common language for all the world's languages :P and I though linguists called it BOREAN

    • @sharperguy
      @sharperguy Před 7 lety +48

      I imagine the process could have been like this: Simple sounds for emotional expression -> pre-humans able to use greater number of sounds can express greater number of things, increasing with time -> intelligence increasing results in development of basic grammar -> use of language makes intelligence itself more useful by transmitting new technology and concepts intergenerationally -> increasing intelligence leads to further complexity of grammer. Basically at some point there was a feedback loop where language and intelligence both complimented and accelerated the growth of the other.

  • @ChoiceSnarf
    @ChoiceSnarf Před 5 lety +1507

    There's 3 words that we know for a fact prove the proto-world language:
    Ouch
    Yeouch
    Gneurshk

  • @rjjr7064
    @rjjr7064 Před 2 lety +362

    Dolphins can communicate extremely well. They can comprehend abstract thoughts such as "red ball" or "blue ball" without seeing a ball at all. I've heard that they even develope certain languages within their pods.

    • @alqaadi9858
      @alqaadi9858 Před 2 lety +3

      @UTubeFekUrself and they’re a darn good swimmers

    • @egg9605
      @egg9605 Před 2 lety +20

      @@alqaadi9858 And they are good at being cute....and evil

    • @nenya
      @nenya Před 2 lety +2

      I was waiting for that

    • @sarahd4147
      @sarahd4147 Před rokem +12

      @@egg9605just like us humans! just goes to show how consciousness and intelligence can give life forms the ability to make morally good and bad choices.

    • @theliam3786
      @theliam3786 Před 10 měsíci +1

      They probably won’t get nearly as complex of a language as us considering how barbaric they are compared to us with the largest being known to rip shark livers out and swim away

  • @Dracopol
    @Dracopol Před 6 lety +3162

    There's an ancient Greek legend about a king in Greece and a king in Phrygia arguing about whose language was the first. Back and forth they argued. Then the Phrygian king proposed an experiment of taking two newborn twins and isolating them in the forest with a mute shepherd, to see what language they would speak first. The babies grew, and the mute shepherd tended his sheep and fed the babies sheep milk. Day after day the kings observed the babies from a window, but they didn't say anything, until one day, one baby made a noise...
    "Baaaaaaaaaa!"
    "Hey, that's not a Greek word!"
    "It's not a Phrygian word either. There must be a language older than yours or mine..."
    :-)

    • @parthiancapitalist2733
      @parthiancapitalist2733 Před 6 lety +99

      Dracopol wow is this an actual story?

    • @Dracopol
      @Dracopol Před 6 lety +421

      It's a legend, but it's actually a variant of a legend about an Egyptian pharaoh making such an experiment with babies, and they cry out, "Bekos!" which is the Phrygian word for bread. Just a legend.
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psamtik_I#Discovering_the_origin_of_language

    • @shadow_of_thoth
      @shadow_of_thoth Před 5 lety +232

      I am always amazed by the ancient Greek understanding of the universe, even though they had no way to really discover anything. They just thought it was somewhat obvious, which is fascinating. The legend you explain here clearly understands divergent change over time (multilinear evolution) in terms of language, but they just assume it is obvious that this happens. It seems to suggest the reason that the baby is saying "Baaaaaa!" is because the "language" of sheep came before the language of humans, in the way that sheep are more simple, and complexity builds over time. Obviously, we know now that there is no such hierarchy of nature as Aristotle argued, where humans are the pinnacle of creation, but given what they knew then, it's ridiculously accurate.
      The pre-Socratic philosopher known as Anaximander of Miletus believed that humans had to have come from other animals (in fact, he thought we came from fish, because human embryos look like fish), because our period of nurture is too long compared to other animals, and the first humans would have died if humans had always been humans. He thought nurturing had to have progressively become longer over time. It just blows my mind that someone in 600 B.C.E. came up with this, even despite the flaws with it. He thought that the first humans were just overdeveloped fish babies that weren't hatched at the usual time and had to free themselves from the parent fish as fully grown adults. Still a better explanation than creationism though.

    • @norgepalm7315
      @norgepalm7315 Před 5 lety +62

      @@shadow_of_thoth "they had no way of discovering anything"
      Literally any person plucked from that society would be smarter than YOU.

    • @shadow_of_thoth
      @shadow_of_thoth Před 5 lety +92

      @@norgepalm7315 Would you like to explain to everyone how the ancient Greeks would have gone about discovering quantum mechanics or population genetics, you dimwit?
      Also, you misquoted me. I did not say, "they had no way of discovering anything." I said, "they had no way to really discover anything." You'd think someone on a linguistics video would have enough cognitive function to pick up on subtle connotations without taking things too literally.

  • @NativLang
    @NativLang Před 7 lety +777

    Welcome back! Such a good topic, especially when you one-up me and go even FURTHER back in time. ;)
    I think you have at least a half-dozen more gems buried in here. One interesting thought, as those charlatan long-rangers use the term, the reconstructed Proto-World would be our latest common ancestor, splitting "language origins" into two separate issues: "origin of [modern] languages" and "the origin of language". To borrow a Xidnafism, "MADNESS!"

    • @Xidnaf
      @Xidnaf  Před 7 lety +95

      :) Thanks! I thought about covering Greenberg and the rest, but figured that there was enough other stuff to talk about I could just link to your video and call it a day :P

    • @prim16
      @prim16 Před 7 lety +35

      Hey NativLang, Xidnaf! You guys should do a collaboration video sometime! Two of my favorite linguists on CZcams working together is just a mental euphoria.

    • @mep6302
      @mep6302 Před 6 lety +4

      NativLang I'm your sub :)

    • @karaqakkzl
      @karaqakkzl Před 3 lety +8

      I realized dat all languages called their mother start by an "m" like mother ,have an 'm' like eomma (Korean) or similar to "m" like "n","ny","ng" like anana (inuit). Except for okaa-san in Japanese

    • @karaqakkzl
      @karaqakkzl Před 3 lety +5

      @@Xidnaf And weird at all that all languages call father dat having a "b" like bố in Vietnamese, "f" like fù in Mandarin, "d" like dad in American English or "p" in pitr in Sanskrit. Except oto-san in Japanese which is... Y u call ur dad as a car,btw.

  • @willimations277
    @willimations277 Před 7 lety +464

    Oh my God, gather round the children, a monumental event! Xidnaf actually released a video

  • @backwardsbandit8094
    @backwardsbandit8094 Před 2 lety +85

    Having increased intelligence seems to promote a natural desire to communicate things in greater detail. My best guess is that language evolved somewhat in tandem with our general intelligence. Tribes with both increased intelligence and the ability to articulate would have a much easier time organizing hunts, gatherings, alliances, communicating that theres danger nearby etc etc whereas those with weaker communication abilities would struggle far more at doing any of those things. My best guess is that language originated with just codes, like a short low grunt was understood by locals as someone saying "rock" and then eventually a short low grunt followed by a slightly higher pitched short grunt would mean "sharp rock" as they developed the intelligence to specify which rock they were referring to.

  • @greensprite6067
    @greensprite6067 Před 4 lety +38

    My theory is that when humans first started talking, no one really spoke an entire language, everyone only spoke several words, however the words used heavily differed from group to group and region to region, but as time went on though people from one group met people from other groups and discovered the words each other were using, later many series of words got unified and became bigger and bigger

  • @JossieMimo
    @JossieMimo Před 7 lety +124

    X-xidnaf? *raises from wheelchair, takes oxygen mask off* I-is it really you?

  • @Scuppetta1998IT
    @Scuppetta1998IT Před 7 lety +483

    6:30 R.I.P. United Kingdom and Iceland lol

    • @JossieMimo
      @JossieMimo Před 7 lety +61

      Same to the entire caribbean.

    • @worstedwoolens
      @worstedwoolens Před 7 lety +12

      ☣Scuppetta1998☠ dat sulawesi tho

    • @ryanwalsh9414
      @ryanwalsh9414 Před 7 lety +64

      However there is a New Zealand, Usually the first to be left out.

    • @logosloki
      @logosloki Před 7 lety +24

      It was weird seeing New Zealand but not other, smaller islands.

    • @julia_ruby
      @julia_ruby Před 7 lety +3

      logosloki lol, like Tassie?

  • @BrettPlayzGamez
    @BrettPlayzGamez Před 5 lety +28

    Ooh: I have food
    Ee: There's a predator
    Oooh: There's other people over there
    Ah: Can you hand me that?
    Aah: Take this
    Ting: Help me with this
    Tang: Be quiet
    Walla Walla: We're going to fight
    Bing: Stay low
    Bang: Stay here

  • @editsonimovie8681
    @editsonimovie8681 Před 4 lety +27

    I think it did exist cause
    1: humans have a part of our brain dedicated to launguage
    2: human anatomy has existed exactly like this for 150k years-ish
    3: we only started migrating out of where we were all started 50k-ish years ago,
    4:conclusion, we had 100k-ish years to develop launguage before splitting
    apart, and I’d say we could do it cause those humans had a launguage part of thier brain and it existing at all is clear evedencw of this
    (I made this theory up on my own, sorry if I got something wrong but I do know everything about what I said before 4 was right)

    • @pseudonymousbeing987
      @pseudonymousbeing987 Před 2 lety +6

      That's logical. What do you think of the problem that even say 150k years ago all the little groups of the first humans would have been close, but still distinct geographically?
      The proto language still had to spread through this small initial group for it to be ubiquitous.
      So did one group develop more of a language than others and it simply slowly and without resistance spread within the still relatively small lands of humans by the various methods it could have? Or was there multiple unique seedling languages in competition even then and one may have finally win out? Language might be a sort of freak accident, a step that happen very rarely/uniquely in evolution. But then again the second option, which is more in the vein of convergent evolution, makes sense for language. Since language feels like a very natural adaptation that would happen multiple times.
      So the question comes down to, is language so natural that it would evolve individually multiple times in a short timeframe, or is too complicated to quickly initially evolve multiple times.

    • @Arzamol5
      @Arzamol5 Před 2 lety +5

      ​@@pseudonymousbeing987 Here's a thought, what if one or two groups kind of started making a quasi-language, with "words" for water, or lion, and what have you. Then bits and pieces of it leaked out into nearby groups, who each expanded on those bits to make their own quasi-languages in accordance with their needs, which then had bits spread to even more groups, and so on until what you had was a a ton of quasi-languages spread out around many groups. At that point, as groups start slowly combining into distinct societies, their language too would combine into distinct full languages. Maybe just the act of becoming a complex society necessitates that your barebones protolanguages evolve into something much more fleshed out, and so they do.

    • @leonake4194
      @leonake4194 Před 2 lety +5

      That neurologic argument actually favors the posibility that humanity did not inventend language at all bu rather learned it from someone else (was sort of tamed). Dogs have a specific part of their brains as well dedicated to human language that they evolved from continuated interaction with our species. So it would make some sense that we actually learned the first language or languages from an older hominid. Kinda of like ancient aliens but without the alien part nor the conspiracy. This would neither be a first as for example many of the more primitive tools we have are known to not be human inventions

    • @brandonporter6223
      @brandonporter6223 Před 2 lety +2

      @@leonake4194 Even if homo-sapiens at the time didn't learn language from older human species, its likely the first language was spoken by something other than us. Who knows, maybe homo-erectus had some kind of primitive language long before our species descended from them. Its possible language is older than humanity itself (humanity as in our species of humans).

    • @Julia-nl3gq
      @Julia-nl3gq Před 3 měsíci

      But it's not right, because we didn't 'all start' in the same place. We are not all from Africa, nor apes. We are created by God. Languages come from the Tower of Babel.

  • @Astronomy487
    @Astronomy487 Před 7 lety +74

    5:05
    according to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a Hee should be able to fly

    • @SgtZaqq
      @SgtZaqq Před 7 lety +36

      Xidnaf's video, but every time he says "language" he speaks faster.

    • @miaumiau679
      @miaumiau679 Před 7 lety

      Zaqq lmao

    • @robdoghd
      @robdoghd Před 7 lety

      Now THERE'S a good meme

    • @Astronomy487
      @Astronomy487 Před 7 lety

      BlueUmbrella!
      tiz you

    • @lennyboi2283
      @lennyboi2283 Před 7 lety +4

      Astronomy487 Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The Hee, of course, flies anyway, because Hees don't care what humans think it's impossible.

  • @LimeyLassen
    @LimeyLassen Před 7 lety +126

    Most animals were already able to convey emotional meaning through vocalization, if not complex semantic meaning. The most interesting idea to me is that the proto-human language is music. Music communicates emotions much too effectively to be a purposeless spandrel.

    • @julia_ruby
      @julia_ruby Před 7 lety +4

      Limey Lassen yeah, I really liked the idea that language evolved from music too.

    • @THEalfalfa1
      @THEalfalfa1 Před 2 lety +1

      you’d be interested in the book ‘this is your brain on music,’ it goes into how music and language are really intimately connected!!

    • @jumefoc
      @jumefoc Před 2 lety +10

      I once picked up from a linguistics student in some comment section that language may have evolved from boredom so we simply started telling each other stories, but they couldnt point me to any resources

    • @paralyzerfingereleven
      @paralyzerfingereleven Před 2 lety

      @@jumefoc most of this shits so ancient its just using your imagination anyway

    • @tamiltoenglishvideos1106
      @tamiltoenglishvideos1106 Před 2 lety +12

      @@jumefoc In my native language, Tamil, music is considered part of the language. Tamil (lit. Self expression) is divided into three parts, Iyal (Prose/Speech), Isai (Music) and Aattam (Drama/Sign language).
      While, the word Tamil in modern contexts usually refer to Iyalttamil (written/spoken self expression), other forms of self expression aren't considered inferior or anything.
      But it must be said, prose and speech is more efficient and precise though in expressing oneself.

  • @thetherrannative
    @thetherrannative Před 4 lety +218

    Don't worry. We'll know for sure when time travel becomes available to linguists.

    • @minxmeat5460
      @minxmeat5460 Před 2 lety +11

      Honestly they should be the first to get access

    • @MrKillerbunny55
      @MrKillerbunny55 Před 2 lety +8

      Time traveling linguists:*peaking out of bush at entrance of cave*
      Caveman 1: Wassup, can a loc come up in your cave?
      Caveman 2: Man fuck you, I'll see you at food hunt.
      Caveman 1: Ah, neanderthal don't hate me cause I'm beautiful unga bunga
      Maybe if you got rid of that yee yee ass hair cut you get some bitches on your dick.
      Oh, better yet, Maybe Tanisha'll call your dog-ass if she ever stop fucking with that trepanning surgeon or shaman she fucking with,
      Oooggaaaa
      Caveman 2: Booga?!

    •  Před 2 lety +10

      _'when'_ time travel becomes available...?? the _'first'_ to get access...??
      what do we want? --- TIME TRAVEL!
      when do we want it? --- IT DOESN'T MATTER!

    • @jfrfilms6697
      @jfrfilms6697 Před 2 lety +2

      And then some Hindu nationalist will teach the first ever cavemen Sanskrit and be able to claim that Sanskrit was the mother language

    • @thetherrannative
      @thetherrannative Před 2 lety +2

      @@jfrfilms6697 Man, that one sure came out of left field.

  • @TK-rd3yn
    @TK-rd3yn Před 6 lety +411

    I know the word "mama" is at lest the same in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Quechua. "Baba/papa" is a least the same in English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Malay, and Zulu. For this reason I believe in a limited Proto-world language.
    What do you all think?

    • @Iaszund
      @Iaszund Před 5 lety +4

      Džudžan yea

    • @valeryasteel4167
      @valeryasteel4167 Před 5 lety +88

      @Džudžan Worked in kindergarten + read a lot about children's development...can confirm. It's the easiest simplest sounds to pronounce.
      TBH I do wonder if there's a language in which its the other way around lol

    • @inventorofmachines
      @inventorofmachines Před 5 lety +197

      Nope. M and P sounds are easier for children to articulate (the parts of the mouth that make those sounds develop first). And because of the positive reinforcement they get, they say it more and more. Various languages have independently developed those words with same or similar meaning.
      BTW that is why there is often a simple word for older sibling but not for younger sibling (they don't exist at the time of the development of child). In my language, older brother = dada, older sister = didi, younger brother = Bhai (complicated) and younger sister = baini.

    • @TK-rd3yn
      @TK-rd3yn Před 4 lety +3

      Amiya Vatsa oh cool! Thank you!

    • @doublecircus
      @doublecircus Před 3 lety +5

      Arabic too

  • @dinonid1234
    @dinonid1234 Před 7 lety +167

    He's back.... after so long... praise 2017...

  • @tristanroberts
    @tristanroberts Před 7 lety +55

    With noche/noite and ocho/oito, you so nearly showed the right thing. It's actually that Spanish corresponds to Portuguese in those cases which in turn derive from earlier Latin . By the time western vulgar Latin has diverged, this has become (cf. French nuit, huit) and then, in Spanish, became when it follows a vowel.
    Mucho/muito seems to be a bit different because they derive from Latin multus with a not a and the development parallel to is specific to Western Iberian (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Extremaduran, Leonese etc.). French and Catalan both preserve the Latin . In both old spanish and old portuguese, a has appeared (hence the parallel development) but the reason for this is unclear; an equivalent process does not take place in the phonologically identical tumultus. It's also worth noting that Extremaduran is odd here in that it actually has munchu instead of the expected *muichu

  • @orsonzedd
    @orsonzedd Před 7 lety +24

    I've always been of the mind that the ability to use language proficiently is the combination of several independent characteristics that evolved bit by bit into how we communicate today, and that other animals have pieces of what we have, but not the totality and complexity. Heck some kinds of communication, like symbolism, might be very ancient indeed if other animals have the capacity to understand symbols. Some very simple parts of language might be incredibly basic to multicellular life in general, like maybe symbolism is just advanced pattern recognition.

    • @swedneck
      @swedneck Před 2 lety +1

      Feels weird to reply to a 5 year old comment, but hey!
      Yeah, what seems BY FAR most likely to me is that human communication became more complex as our brains did the same, and that the first major form was body language, as that seems to be the most fundamental way humans communicate even today, and what we have managed to get dogs to instinctively understand.
      Then from there it would make sense that basic body language gave rise to simple signs, and i would hazard that proper vocal language might have kicked off around that point.

  • @stumbling
    @stumbling Před 7 lety +90

    I once was out for a walk in the woodlands and thought, "What if I lived before there was any culture at all? How would I interpret things?" After a good while trying, I managed to clear my mind completely and view things as if I were the first person ever to experience them. It is incredibly difficult to stay in that state of mind, your brain automatically wants to throw a bunch whatever culture you've absorbed all over every thought you have. I had to recentre myself a few times but had some interesting thoughts and even came up with a word for water, "!na", almost like a sort of suckling noise, which is where it came from because I was thirsty at the time. So I wonder if the first words evolved in a similar way to this, more like sounds associated with an action, creature or thing?

    • @MrChickennugget360
      @MrChickennugget360 Před 2 lety +10

      in all likelihood thinking and speaking have so- co evolved as to be inseparable.

    • @runningsandwich
      @runningsandwich Před 2 lety +8

      One of the oldest feminine goddesses, Inana is associated with water

    • @reecetaylor2626
      @reecetaylor2626 Před 2 lety +1

      Our species didn't exist before language. Language evolved with us, not after

    • @FlatlandsSurvivor
      @FlatlandsSurvivor Před 2 lety +8

      Imitating natural noises to communicate the idea of what it sounds like seems a natural starting point. Like how the Egyptian word for cat is essentially a meow

    • @steffankirkham1277
      @steffankirkham1277 Před 2 lety

      This is some psycho babble bullshit.

  • @atkakukac
    @atkakukac Před 7 lety +25

    Such a great video! Subscribed!
    As a Hungarian I would love to express my appreciation for consistently leaving a tiny blank hole for us in the middle of Europe! It means a lot!

  • @rileysmith9105
    @rileysmith9105 Před 7 lety +736

    Yay your back

  • @nbksrbija1039
    @nbksrbija1039 Před 7 lety +309

    DAMMIT you wrote "Tounge" and not tongue, Kidnap

    • @columbus8myhw
      @columbus8myhw Před 6 lety +39

      You're gonna do _what_ to him now?

    • @thumbsup5524
      @thumbsup5524 Před 6 lety +18

      columbus8myhw kidnap is kinda like xidnaf so he is making fun of him

    • @nilNell
      @nilNell Před 5 lety +5

      jgsregrate or auto correct.

    • @gaeshows1938
      @gaeshows1938 Před 3 lety +3

      try tongue, but hole

    • @shinigami8078
      @shinigami8078 Před 3 lety +1

      Actually tongue evolved from tungōn - proto Germanic. Does any German know why tongue was called tungōn, does that have any meaning or is it just a random word.
      Surprisingly tungōn தொங்கு(tongu) means to hang in Tamizh, like the tongue hangs from the mouth.

  • @wedrownysowianin9387
    @wedrownysowianin9387 Před 2 lety +9

    Some family terms like "Ma" and "Pa" for mother and father seem to be common in completely unrelated languages. Baby babbling could be the closest thing to "proto-world".

    • @mestergandhi1261
      @mestergandhi1261 Před 7 měsíci

      You are close my friend .... and hingarian is the answer .... a baby says double somthing to prove that he knows what it is .... like papa, mama and first only oooo , aaaa .....just sounds , but when he start know things adds other letters .... watch Kiss Dénes .... hungarian is the mother language

  • @hentehoo27
    @hentehoo27 Před 7 lety +223

    Nice video! Since there are already videos about the _Proto-Indo-European language_, I'd like to see a video series about the *Proto-Uralic language* and its descendants.

    • @civil6844
      @civil6844 Před 7 lety +28

      Hente Hoo And afro-asiatic, hardly gets any love

    • @dingdingdingding5544
      @dingdingdingding5544 Před 7 lety +8

      Hente Hoo I'd personally love to learn about the differences between Finnish and the surrounding Uralic people's since I can't seem to find many resources on it.

    • @jurekszczurek2896
      @jurekszczurek2896 Před 7 lety

      Torille.

    • @ilikeceral3
      @ilikeceral3 Před 7 lety +1

      Hente Hoo or Proto American languages

    • @SoulDelSol
      @SoulDelSol Před 7 lety

      Hente Hoo look up youtube Native Lang

  • @NameExplain
    @NameExplain Před 7 lety +605

    If there was one original language, what would you name it?

    • @wbx9126
      @wbx9126 Před 6 lety +251

      Humanian/Humanish/Humanese

    • @coomchamp991
      @coomchamp991 Před 6 lety +202

      I should just pull a Khmer and call it "Origin", "World" or "Human". But I do like the sound of "Proto" Rather than "Proto-World", "Proto-Humans", or "Proto-Sapiens". Proto... Just sounds interesting.

    • @parthiancapitalist2733
      @parthiancapitalist2733 Před 6 lety +86

      Whatever they called themselves

    • @wanderingrandomer
      @wanderingrandomer Před 6 lety +110

      I'd call it 'Sapien'

    • @snailevangelist
      @snailevangelist Před 6 lety +46

      We could use the reconstructed word for proto-indo-european, *Hoi(H)nos, meaning one. One language to form them all.

  • @markradewagen5075
    @markradewagen5075 Před 7 lety

    I really enjoy these video's you've done. They have a stream-of-consciousness quality to them I like.

  • @michaelmurillo1878
    @michaelmurillo1878 Před 2 lety

    Impressed by the visualization in this video. You did a really good job explaining fairly complicated concepts using simple drawings! Really cool!

  • @SG-oc4et
    @SG-oc4et Před 7 lety +28

    I love how this video was more about the things we don't know, than the things we do. Really got me thinking, thanks!

  • @johnmatthews2227
    @johnmatthews2227 Před 7 lety +16

    when you like a channel so much so you skip all your other subscriptions to watch his first video in months.
    great new video!

  • @ossummiserorum3203
    @ossummiserorum3203 Před 7 lety

    This is one is one of my favorite channels. I truly appreciate your videos.

  • @QWE2623
    @QWE2623 Před 7 lety

    I just found this channel from this episode on my feed. I really really like this stuff!! I marathoned every video on the channel already. great work xidnaf!

  • @rzeka
    @rzeka Před 7 lety +11

    Dude you're so good at making these videos. Everything you say gets your point across clearly and concisely.

  • @pepsdeps
    @pepsdeps Před 7 lety +214

    I feel like proto-world must have used all or some basic plosives. For example, some of the first sounds human babies do are "papa, tata, kaka" and stuff like that, and besides, the polynesian culture is one of the most ancient, originally from prehistoric Asia, and after going around conquering islands, because of the ocean, their language family rarely came into contact with other language families, so, in my opinion, if proto-world is a thing, then it is likely that polynesian languages would be the thing most resembling it, and polynesian languages have some very simple sounds, so my guess would be that proto-world phonetical inventory might have been similar, like say, only unvoiced plosives and a set of two (or at most three) nasal consonants, and a simple set of consonants as well, like "A, I, U" and maybe "E and O"

    • @grace-hm9ij
      @grace-hm9ij Před 5 lety +24

      Peps Deps that was all one sentence

    • @adammessina6182
      @adammessina6182 Před 3 lety +1

      Wow 😯

    • @pepsdeps
      @pepsdeps Před 3 lety +20

      @@grace-hm9ij sorry I am instense and don't know when to stop

    • @argentinanaoma1247
      @argentinanaoma1247 Před 3 lety +40

      Also, Austronesian languages have that language feature where they repeat syllables? I think it is called reduplication. For example, araw means day, araw-araw means everyday. It kinda reminds me of toddlers' language before they learn to speak a language. Those double syllables like papa, dada, mama. Is this just a coincidence?

    • @edomeindertsma6669
      @edomeindertsma6669 Před 3 lety +1

      That's written as two sentences, but when spoken it would be more.

  • @MerkhVision
    @MerkhVision Před 2 lety

    I love the way u use easy to understand symbology like colors and shapes to demonstrate complex topics! It’s a great learning tool and the way you use it seems pretty unique!

  • @avnnig
    @avnnig Před 7 lety

    Delighted to see you back after such a long time !!!

  • @yaboibobby7776
    @yaboibobby7776 Před 7 lety +25

    What!?!? Xidnaf is back? Thanks for uploading, I had just found out about Proto World a couple days ago, and you posted this...

  • @foxyrocks777
    @foxyrocks777 Před 7 lety +51

    Britain and Ireland don't appreciate being left off the globe xidnaf :(

  • @ObjectsInMotion
    @ObjectsInMotion Před 7 lety +4

    I literally had "Fruits of her Labour" open in another tab when I watched this video. Good taste in music Xidnaf.

  • @hanbanaroda
    @hanbanaroda Před 7 lety

    Great, you are back! :-) Looking forward to watch all your new videos;-)

  • @AWSMcube
    @AWSMcube Před 7 lety +53

    YES XIDNAF RETURNS

  • @Grokford
    @Grokford Před 7 lety +32

    The Portuguese word for night noite does actually make the /tʃ/ sound. It may be an exception in the development of Portuguese but words ending in -te make that sound. Otherwise a great video glad to see you back.

    • @tenderman3555
      @tenderman3555 Před 2 lety +7

      "Te" is pronounced as a "ch" in *most Brazilian dialects* (it didn't medieval (and also doesn't in European Portuguese and many Brazilian dialects), the language modern Portuguese's orthography is based in). It it pronounced like a "ch" in these dialects because of a (somewhat recent) palatalization process (a type of sound shift in languages).

    • @dionyzus2909
      @dionyzus2909 Před 2 lety +1

      It depends on the region

  • @agoose1018
    @agoose1018 Před 7 lety

    OMG YES YOU ARE BACK I MISSED YOUR VIDEOS SO MUCH THEY ARE SO GOOOOOOOD

  • @Kimooia
    @Kimooia Před 7 lety +1

    I'm so happyyyy you're back!!!

  • @esven9263
    @esven9263 Před 7 lety +2

    Glad to see you're back. Love your videos as always.

  • @essennagerry
    @essennagerry Před 7 lety +3

    YES NEW XIDNAF VIDEO! Xidnaf, I love, love, love (not only your content, but) your animations! Please keep doing them your style, they're so creative, thought-provoking and funny! I really enjoy them!
    Also, I bet IF there was a Proto-World and it had words, there were two types of words in it - nouns and verbs. I think that simply because I feel like they're so easy to come up with as a concept. Maybe it had adjectives too and maybe that was all the types of words it had. It's indeed interesting to think about!

  • @genessab
    @genessab Před 6 lety

    Wow so I just read every comment and wow, you are really eloquent and kind and take everyone seriously, you're just seriously an awesome person 😅

  • @02Atton20
    @02Atton20 Před 7 lety

    I'm so glad to see you back! Hope college is going well!

  • @bauxsedai1495
    @bauxsedai1495 Před 7 lety +3

    Missed your work, nice to have you back. 🙂

  • @TheKingReto
    @TheKingReto Před 7 lety +46

    Question: What is the thing on "your" head? Is it a bowlcut? A hat? A helmet? I NEED TO KNOW!

  • @nilesmouser6670
    @nilesmouser6670 Před 2 lety

    Great "We have no idea" presentation. Love these kinds of speculations. Keep it up :-D

  • @rosecortes6152
    @rosecortes6152 Před 7 lety

    man, before i even finish the video, i want to say how impressed i am with visual components of the video. maybe i've just been watching pretty lame videos recently, but honestly the visuals really help to illustrate and clarify what you're talking about. idk, i just think you did a really stand up job, man. 👍

  • @edoboss101
    @edoboss101 Před 7 lety +13

    Dude. Finally.
    Nice video tough, I've been wondering too whether there was a proto-language of proto-languages

    • @parthiancapitalist2733
      @parthiancapitalist2733 Před 6 lety

      Edoboss101 I definitely think most proto languages are related to others. Indo European and Uralic. Basque and Dene-Caucasian, etc. I highly doubt everything was isolate until 6000 years ago, and I highly doubt the related languages to proto languages were totally replaced, because both are less likely

    • @christianlingurar7085
      @christianlingurar7085 Před 5 lety

      scnr: yes, it was. it's called grunting. ;-)

  • @deraj00
    @deraj00 Před 7 lety +5

    Yes! Xidnaf is back; this is exactly what I need after the crap week I've had.

  • @Soaches
    @Soaches Před 4 lety

    Thank you for dumbing down language history to the point where I can understand it!
    Really helped me study.

  • @user-ci2vz3my6n
    @user-ci2vz3my6n Před 7 lety

    nice to see you're back!

  • @GoodJobCasey
    @GoodJobCasey Před 7 lety +5

    I was just telling my dad about this channel yesterday but how it's been dead for a year. good timing.

  • @mephostopheles3752
    @mephostopheles3752 Před 7 lety +15

    Never clicked so fast in my life. It's been too long, Xidnaf. Welcome back.

  • @babooshcat4129
    @babooshcat4129 Před 2 lety

    This left with more questions than it answered... love it, never thought of all that

  • @samuelbaquero6313
    @samuelbaquero6313 Před rokem

    Wow I'm amazed at how much details with meaning there are in your drawings and graphic representations... and how much I actually understood from that. You seem to be a visual learner or a synesthete, as am I lol.

  • @fireball-yj8fl
    @fireball-yj8fl Před 7 lety +3

    Yay you're alive! Also thank you for getting me interested in linguistics!

  • @GaviLazan
    @GaviLazan Před 7 lety +18

    New video notification.
    At work.
    Don't care!

  • @Endercreeps
    @Endercreeps Před 7 lety

    YOU'RE BACK!

  • @edwnx0
    @edwnx0 Před 6 lety +64

    humans did first communicate by singing. this is why songs can make you feel a certain way even if you don't understand the lyrics. you can tell if a song is sad, cheerful, aggressive, etc. there was a documentary that i watched many years ago that talked about this. i forgot the name but it was about music from a neurological standpoint.

    • @egaoegao8117
      @egaoegao8117 Před 4 lety +21

      You cannot be so sure, your theory is simply one of many suggestions

    • @grandexandi
      @grandexandi Před 4 lety +6

      LOL pseudo science through the roof

    • @taodivinity1556
      @taodivinity1556 Před 2 lety

      You're using irrelevant information to back up your idea.

  • @bistro4
    @bistro4 Před 7 lety +4

    I like the idea that language came from when we first descended from the trees and started roaming the plains of Africa, where we started experimenting with new kinds of food, one being the hallucinogenic mushroom that grows readily in animal dung (psilocybe cubensis). The state of synesthesia that resulted was what was necessary to make the neural connection between noises made with the mouth and pictures in the imagination. We may have discovered even greater forms of mental technology had the plains not dried out.

  • @TimNurTV
    @TimNurTV Před 7 lety +134

    What was up with the 8 month hiatus

    • @dannyboy5086
      @dannyboy5086 Před 7 lety +50

      Tim Nur He's been focussing on college. And he moved. It's on his "super secret" channel. But shhh, don't tell anyone.

    • @YaamFel
      @YaamFel Před 7 lety +4

      Danny Boy didnt he drop out?

    • @MegaBallPowerBall
      @MegaBallPowerBall Před 7 lety +3

      RedstonerProductions He got kicked out.

    • @YaamFel
      @YaamFel Před 7 lety +1

      ***** yea thats whaat i meant

    • @radioactivated
      @radioactivated Před 7 lety +17

      college?

  • @marco.nascimento
    @marco.nascimento Před 7 lety

    Hey, your channel is so great!! You should really make videos more frequently, cheers from Brazil. Excelente conteúdo, continue assim. Abraços. :)

  • @ArmidaMusic
    @ArmidaMusic Před 7 lety

    GODDAMNIT! YOU'RE FINALLY BACK

  • @daniellbondad6670
    @daniellbondad6670 Před 7 lety +4

    You are back!This video seems to have the best drawings.

    • @daniellbondad6670
      @daniellbondad6670 Před 7 lety

      It is very likely that languages evolved seperately and independently of each other.
      Side note:Some linguists think that some very basic words in Proto-Austronesian,match those of Proto-Indo-European,suggesting a contact between the two or the contact of the two;with a third party.Who knows?

    • @rodrigodealencar323
      @rodrigodealencar323 Před 7 lety

      "Some linguists think that some very basic words in Proto-Austronesian,match those of Proto-Indo-European"
      Got a quote or a reference on that? I'm curious now.

    • @daniellbondad6670
      @daniellbondad6670 Před 7 lety

      +Rodrigo de Alencar Think ''fir''e(a''poy'').Wat''er(tub''ig).
      I will give you the source later.I'm about to go to school.

    • @daniellbondad6670
      @daniellbondad6670 Před 7 lety

      +Rodrigo de Alencar books.google.com.ph/books?id=afOjDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=Tagalog+D+to+R+rule&source=bl&ots=y4w9ROaYS1&sig=WAtOgy1JHpw7rCfskhVZJho4B2s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqhdCap4HOAhVBnpQKHbG1BP44FBDoAQgeMAE#v=onepage&q=Tagalog%20D%20to%20R%20rule&f=false
      Page 16 of it.
      Granted,Tagalog borrowed some words from Sanskrit,an Indo-European language.

    • @daniellbondad6670
      @daniellbondad6670 Před 7 lety

      +Michal Zušťák Let us not focus on how exactly these languages popped up for now.
      Point is that obviously,humans can't communicate around the world back then to make language a fashion trend,like we do in the internet today.
      The world is vast.Humans can't develop a language together.

  • @angrypineapple399
    @angrypineapple399 Před 7 lety +7

    YOU'RE BACK WE'VE ALL DEARLY MISSED YOU

  • @Schmetterwurm
    @Schmetterwurm Před 7 lety +2

    What a fascinating question! Thank you for exploring it. You're right, there's just these three posibilities, I guess :)
    There were two things that came to my mind when I was watching this. Sadly, I don't have any time these days, so I cannot check them.
    (1) I once watched a documentary about some apes in a jungle. The hopping, middle-sized, screeching kind. They said that these apes have different warning calls for different threats. And not only do they warn in a different way of different animals, they also add things at the end to state more information. So they would basically shout, "jaguar - maybe", or "snakes - many".
    (2) When I was watching videos about apes that use sign languages, some researcher remarked that apes mostly produce vowel sounds, and that their mouth is unfit to do anything else. That person also said that they had tried to invent a language that they could speak with the apes, but that it didn't work out because they could not understand it in the end. There was just not enough structure to the words and in between them. And I seem to recall that this researcher wondered if that was one of the huge evolutional steps in the development of our languages: That we developped the ability to produce consonants. I don't know if that came from the lab where Kanzi is trained, but he was the ape that I was learning about he most.
    They're both old memories. If anyone finds them interesting enough to see if it's right, I wish they'd leave a reply so that I don't waste any more time than necessary... But if memory does serve me right, and if those things were true, then I think some basic way of conveying information through sounds should be older than our species :)

  • @Sanorace
    @Sanorace Před 4 lety

    Oh I did not expect that wave of nostalgia from your outro song.

  • @whoeveriam0iam14222
    @whoeveriam0iam14222 Před 7 lety +8

    8 long months the world had to survive without Xidnaf. and here he is again!

  • @kyazarshadala8114
    @kyazarshadala8114 Před 7 lety +66

    2:49 dolphins can talk to each other with clicks and whistles

    • @craftah
      @craftah Před 4 lety +12

      But people speak differently. Cats also communicate with their sounds

    • @karaqakkzl
      @karaqakkzl Před 3 lety +2

      @@craftah bird communicate by whistle, make human to develop Sylbo in Canary Islands

    • @danielmase6722
      @danielmase6722 Před 3 lety +3

      @@craftah dolphins can communicate complex ideas to each other. There’s a lot of researchers who think they might actually use language, we just don’t have enough data yet to prove if they do or not.

    • @craftah
      @craftah Před 3 lety +1

      @@danielmase6722 thats interesting

    • @semdefesas2188
      @semdefesas2188 Před 3 lety

      Xhosa

  • @delve_
    @delve_ Před 7 lety

    Nice to see ya back, Xiddy.

  • @L00PdeL00P
    @L00PdeL00P Před 5 lety

    I sincerely really love tge little stick figure graphics. It gets the point across and it's easily definable.

  • @elsasslotharingen7507
    @elsasslotharingen7507 Před 7 lety +4

    XIDNAF! My week just gets better and better.

  • @Ne0dax
    @Ne0dax Před 7 lety +39

    See you soon in 8 months! :D

    • @julia_ruby
      @julia_ruby Před 7 lety +3

      Ne0dax please be wrong. If he disappears for that long again after only one video I will seriously die. 😨 😭 😂

  • @gayvideos3808
    @gayvideos3808 Před 7 lety +2

    I've read several linguistic articles that state that musical ability, aka the ability to differentiate between notes, keys, tones, octaves, etc, may have developed in humans before language did. It's certainly plausible, as non-lyric singing doesn't require as much thinking capacity as spoken language does.

  • @miaumiau679
    @miaumiau679 Před 7 lety

    yayyy you are back

  • @6ThreeSided9
    @6ThreeSided9 Před 7 lety +9

    While the concept of "Linguistic Genetics" is both fascinating and very useful, the use of the word "genetics" makes it confusing, especially in the context of describing human biological evolution and how it impacted the evolution of language. I think linguists would benefit from taking a cue from sociology, and how they handled the concept of sociological evolution through the use of "memes" instead of "genes" and "memetics" instead of "genetics". I think "Linguetics" has a nice ring to it!

  • @Azeria
    @Azeria Před 7 lety +41

    HOLY SHIT XIDNAF

  • @shabankullolli1499
    @shabankullolli1499 Před 4 lety

    Damn, boy, you slay with these videos.

  • @Ruminations09
    @Ruminations09 Před 7 lety

    Hey, a new video!
    Can't wait until the next video comes in 2018!

  • @GrayCatbird1
    @GrayCatbird1 Před 2 lety +3

    I like that idea that language could have come out of nursery rhyme types of songs. It’s not unheard of something having a different function before it becomes used for something more complex and it’s a fascinating idea.

  • @tobiasrud
    @tobiasrud Před 7 lety +9

    INDEED THIS YEAR IS MAGICAL!! XIDNAF UPLOADED A NEW VIDEO!!!

  • @eQualizeri
    @eQualizeri Před 2 lety

    I really like the visualization of the languages and their similarities. Very good thoughts.

  • @CSDragon
    @CSDragon Před 7 lety

    You're back! Again!

  • @GBart
    @GBart Před 2 lety +22

    I've heard chimps give each other unique names in the wild. I think it makes sense that it would start there and combine with gestures and grunts until words like "here" and "no" and "give" were invented out of necessity, possibly by different individuals, or maybe by one particularly intelligent individual who ate a bunch of psychedelic mushrooms.

    • @avivastudios2311
      @avivastudios2311 Před 4 měsíci

      😂 And then we started getting good at hunting by giving specific directions.

  • @tapyrr1488
    @tapyrr1488 Před 7 lety +3

    YOU'RE ALIVE!

  • @freakystyle1996
    @freakystyle1996 Před 7 lety

    It blew my mind, I love it!

  • @hernansibajab.7266
    @hernansibajab.7266 Před 3 lety

    Thank you! Simple but enough to answer my question.

  • @Speireata4
    @Speireata4 Před 7 lety +4

    I once read a very interesting, and in my opinion convincing description of how some humans might have established words for things. The idea was as follows:
    Animals make certain noises for when they are attacked by a predator and so on, and obviously early humans have done the same. Now imagine a fireplace with some people around. One of them thinks he is seeing a tiger. He is scared and warns the others about it using whatever noise or gesture nature dictates him. They all run away, but for some reason or other, the one giving the warning falls down and can't get away. He is scared, but suddenly he realizes that there is no tiger. He was fooled by his eyes. But then he realizes that all the other people are gone and he can take all the food for himself. Obviously, next time when he is sitting around the fire with the others again, he remembers what happened and that the results were good for him. So this time, he uses the "there's a tiger!"-cry again to scare the others away so he can eat the food. This is the first step towards a real language: using the cry/gesture/whatever not because nature dictates it, but intentionally and to reach an aim.
    Of course the trick works and so he uses it again and again until sooner or later the other people realize they have been tricked. Next time around the fire and the first one tries his trick again, but nobody reacts. So his "predator noise" is useless to him. He tries some more times, but by then they know the truth, so he stops using it. Some weeks or months pass by. Then one day when they were out hunting, the first one sees an actual, real tiger in the distance. He knows, he has to warn the others, but does not know, how. But he is a smart human and remembers what he had done some while ago. He hopes that the others will remember, too. So he goes to the others and makes the noise. At first they are confused, because there is no fireplace and so no food to get for the first one. So they don't know why he should make the noise to warn them of a predator. But then the first one points out the tiger and the others see it, too and react properly.
    Only then the second step to a language is made: noises meaning the same thing in different contexts.
    The original was longer and I am not sure whether I retold everything correctly, but it gives you an idea on how spontaneous noises slowly and over time became words.

    • @avivastudios2311
      @avivastudios2311 Před 4 měsíci

      The beginning of language was lying. That actually... makes sense. Because telling a lie introduces a concept that is unique to humans: displacement. Talking about things that aren't actually happening.

  • @xkmi5996
    @xkmi5996 Před 7 lety +38

    Holy Crap! A wild Xidnaf video appears!

    • @xkmi5996
      @xkmi5996 Před 7 lety +1

      lykury And it's such a rare encounter, as well! It's almost, like, rarer than a shiny at this point.

    • @prim16
      @prim16 Před 7 lety

      It's rarer than Pokérus.

    • @alexwang982
      @alexwang982 Před 7 lety

      It is like a shiny spinda with the same pattern

  • @VictorCaioRamos
    @VictorCaioRamos Před 7 lety

    Videos that raise questions instead of giving answers are awesome. Yeah, this was a "we don't know anything about anything" video, and that's amazing! Maybe you can inspire someone to go do some search in that field and discover new answers? Maybe all you can do is make your viewers more confused? But anyway, it's not everyday that we see a video on CZcams that makes us think, so good job with that! And nice to see you back! :D

  • @anaswasfisabir
    @anaswasfisabir Před 4 lety

    really liked the video, didnt expect it because of the graphics, but really good video

  • @mustafataylan3574
    @mustafataylan3574 Před 7 lety +52

    Why do you use MLP fan songs all the time?

    • @okliam
      @okliam Před 7 lety +22

      Because Horse

    • @Xidnaf
      @Xidnaf  Před 7 lety +86

      honestly it's all i listen to

    • @mustafataylan3574
      @mustafataylan3574 Před 7 lety +6

      Xidnaf People say i have a pretty good music taste...

    • @TheEnderknight
      @TheEnderknight Před 7 lety +8

      what was the 8 month hiatus for.

    • @SnoFitzroy
      @SnoFitzroy Před 7 lety

      TheEnderknight it was more like a year

  • @Adam-wm2ys
    @Adam-wm2ys Před 7 lety +69

    Wut I just discovered your channel today and subscribed, few hours later you upload first new video in 10 months. Am I secretly Jesus?

    • @pilyglot3037
      @pilyglot3037 Před 7 lety +3

      Hmm... somebody who goes by Adam keeps sending me spam and claims to be the Messiah... You're not him, are you? :-P

    • @prim16
      @prim16 Před 7 lety

      Thank you Adam, you've resurrected Xidnaf!

    • @alexwang982
      @alexwang982 Před 7 lety

      Adam who is juses

    • @michaelkaminski1166
      @michaelkaminski1166 Před 5 lety +1

      Do it again!

  • @212superdude212
    @212superdude212 Před 2 lety

    i love that i can have a completely random thought and ask google and instantly get a video that gives a sufficent answer to appease my curiosity

  • @diecosta1
    @diecosta1 Před 7 lety

    I'm glad you are alive