Languages

[Angrboda]

 

[Anomalocaris]

Language - linguistic origin.  Where did languages come from?  Only been around (recorded) for a few thousand years, but I daresay the atheist is hard-pressed to come up with a theory which would explain where and how so many distinct languages came about in such a short period of time.  I seem to remember a computer model study which plotted recorded (Indo-European) languages "evolved" and spread.  The model plot seemed to show that the language plot had an origin (before spreading out over time) in Turkey - but they didn't really grasp the significance of that (being conducted at a secular university).  It took some theist researchers to realize that the location depicted in the computer model appeared to line up to to location many bible scholars placed to be near the Tower of Babel.  I'll have to see if I can dig that up.

There is a legitimate field of linguistic study called glottochronology.     It analyzes how the rate of change in basic and derived vocabulary, and grammatical structure, is affected by time, influence of nearby languages and prevailing social conditions, and uses that to estimate how long ago different languages may have diverged from eachother in development.     I think no one except young earth creationist morons thinks all lunaguages diverged only a few thousand years ago.

Atheists are not hard pressed.   Linguists believe some of languages spoken today diverged from others at least 60-70,000 years ago, some may have diverged as early as 200,000 years ago.

[tjdisc]

Language - linguistic origin.  Where did languages come from?  Only been around (recorded) for a few thousand years, but I daresay the atheist is hard-pressed to come up with a theory which would explain where and how so many distinct languages came about in such a short period of time.  I seem to remember a computer model study which plotted recorded (Indo-European) languages "evolved" and spread.  The model plot seemed to show that the language plot had an origin (before spreading out over time) in Turkey - but they didn't really grasp the significance of that (being conducted at a secular university).  It took some theist researchers to realize that the location depicted in the computer model appeared to line up to to location many bible scholars placed to be near the Tower of Babel.  I'll have to see if I can dig that up.

There is a legitimate field of linguistic study called glottochronology.     It analyzes how the rate of change in basic and derived vocabulary, and grammatical structure, is affected by time, influence of nearby languages and prevailing social conditions, and uses that to estimate how long ago different languages may have diverged from eachother in development.     I think no one except young earth creationist morons thinks all lunaguages diverged only a few thousand years ago.

Atheists are not hard pressed.   Linguists believe some of languages spoken today diverged from others at least 60-70,000 years ago, some may have diverged as early as 200,000 years ago.

They "believe" - that's neat, kinda like me "believing" in invisible sky fairies.  But they're a little short of physical proof past a few thousand years don't ya think?

[Ahriman]

   

What dialect is that?

[Neo-Scholastic]

I studied French and Biblical Hebrew. The first is all vowels. The second is all consonants.

[Ahriman]

I studied French and Biblical Hebrew.

I think French sounds like Japanese in that it just "flows", both languages have a very natural sound.

[Astreja]

I've had formal classes in French, Irish Gaelic, Mandarin, Icelandic and Latin. I'm planning to study Attic Greek either in the summer or fall.

On my own I've picked up bits and pieces of Esperanto, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and German.

[Anomalocaris]

There is a legitimate field of linguistic study called glottochronology.     It analyzes how the rate of change in basic and derived vocabulary, and grammatical structure, is affected by time, influence of nearby languages and prevailing social conditions, and uses that to estimate how long ago different languages may have diverged from eachother in development.     I think no one except young earth creationist morons thinks all lunaguages diverged only a few thousand years ago.

Atheists are not hard pressed.   Linguists believe some of languages spoken today diverged from others at least 60-70,000 years ago, some may have diverged as early as 200,000 years ago.

They "believe" - that's neat, kinda like me "believing" in invisible sky fairies.  But they're a little short of physical proof past a few thousand years don't ya think?

no, the fact that they are already muturally unintelligible a few thousand years ago is well attested.

you see, what serious research believe and what they likes you “believe” are totally different,   you believe what you want to believe, researchers deduce the most likely scenario give available evidence and believe that.  

get it?  you kind of belief is always worthless.  researcher’s kind of believe is usually the most reliable view of events currently available.

your kind of belief is a zero and can never be more than zero. researcher’s belief, especially if it is widely held in th professional field, is at least 6-7， sometimes very close to a perfect 10.

[Fake Messiah]

but I daresay the atheist is hard-pressed to come up with a theory which would explain where and how so many distinct languages came about in such a short period of time.

Atheist? So any explanation on any topic that is not taken from the Bible as an explanation, but let's say is based on observation, is to you automatically atheist.

[Ahriman]

I will be focusing on Mandarin and Swahili from now on. Cantonese is easier to speak than Mandarin, but the former uses more complex characters than the latter in its reading/writing system, and I want to learn how to read and write Chinese the easiest way possible, not to mention Mandarin is a lot more popular than Cantonese. Swahili has piqued my interest because it's said to be a relatively simple language, and who knows, maybe if I ever end up in Africa I can get on the natives' good side and score myself a cute African chick.