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#LanguageEvolution

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nemo™ 🇺🇦

Is it cultural appropriation when drag slang & AAVE words enter the mainstream? 🤔 Babbel's article dives into the complex relationship between language, subcultures, and power dynamics. Explore the evolution & potential pitfalls of adopting slang from marginalized communities. 💬 #CulturalAppropriation #AAVE #DragSlang #LanguageEvolution #culture

🔗 babbel.com/en/magazine/cultura

Babbel MagazineIs It Cultural Appropriation To Use Drag Slang And AAVE?So you want to describe your weekend as 'lit,' but where do drag slang and AAVE words come from (and should you be using them at all)?
Weekend Stories

The #ProtoIndoEuropean (#PIE) #language, the reconstructed ancestor of the #IndoEuropean family, is a key discovery in historical linguistics. Spoken thousands of years ago, PIE gave rise to languages like #English, #Hindi, #Greek, and #Russian. These languages, integral to many cultures today, reflect PIE's legacy in #HumanMigration, #CulturalExchange, and #LanguageEvolution. Here’s a brief exploration:

🌍 fabriziomusacchio.com/weekend_

#WeekendStories#histodons
michael

1-FEB-2024
The evolution of sign languages globally revealed through computational analyses

eurekalert.org/news-releases/1

It's always struck me as unfortunate that there isn't a universal sign language.

EurekAlert!The evolution of sign languages globally revealed through computational analyses<p>A computational analysis has highlighted the poorly understood relationships and elusive histories of modern sign languages worldwide, revealing two major sign language families shaped by geopolitical forces and relevant signing communities. The findings show that the computational methods applied – which have been useful in understanding spoken languages – can be extended to the study of sign languages; as such, they offer promise for addressing the disparities in our understanding of other marginalized and diverse languages and communities. Language – a defining feature of human existence – is constantly changing and evolving. Throughout the world and across time, variations in language often reflect the histories of the communities that share them. Recent advances in computational phylogenetics have been used to detect more nuanced evolutionary relationships among the vocabularies and grammatical properties of different spoken language groups, revealing otherwise obscured histories. Like spoken languages, sign languages are naturally occurring and used worldwide. However, as is often the case for marginalized, understudied languages, the evolution and of sign languages within the communities that use them is far less understood compared to their spoken alternatives. One of the main challenges in this space is the dynamic iconicity of the fluid visual-gestural movements upon which sign languages are built. As a result, linguistic documentation is often insufficiently limited to static images or narrative descriptions.</p> <p> </p> <p>To address this gap, Natasha Abner and colleagues applied computational phylogenetic methods to study family structure among 19 contemporary sign languages used worldwide. Abner <em>et al.</em> gathered video dictionary entries of core vocabulary from each sign language and developed a database of coded sign forms. Each sign was individually coded based on basic phonetic parameters of the sign form. Phylogenetic analysis of this dataset revealed two independent sign language families – European and Asian – as well as an articulated family tree for each. The authors discovered no evidence of long-term contact between European and Asian sign languages. Notably, however, the findings demonstrated a closer relationship between the Western European sign languages and British and New Zealand sign languages than has been previously assumed. Moreover, Abner <em>et al.</em> show that their Western European sign language family tree reflects the broad influence of French sign language and the geopolitical history of nations that established deaf education schools during the 18<sup>th</sup> century. Two distinct subfamilies of Asian sign languages were also identified.</p>
#science#linguistics#languageEvolution
Hari Tulsidas

Orangutans can control their vocalizations in a way that was thought to be unique to humans. A new study shows that orangutans can produce two different types of sounds at the same time, such as a whistle and a grunt. This ability is similar to how humans produce speech sounds, and it could shed light on the evolution of human language.

#Orangutans #Speech #LanguageEvolution neurosciencenews.com/orangutan

Michael Pleyer

This came out last month but I thought I'd take the opportunity to boost it here.
Stefan Hartmann, Ryan Lepic and I published a paper on Compositionality in Different Modalities: A View from Usage-Based Linguistics in the International Journal of Primatology
link.springer.com/article/10.1
We discuss concepts of #compositionality in spoken and signed languages and what their implications are for #LanguageEvolution and analyses of compositionality in #AnimalCommunication #OpenAccess

SpringerLinkCompositionality in Different Modalities: A View from Usage-Based Linguistics - International Journal of PrimatologyThe field of linguistics concerns itself with understanding the human capacity for language. Compositionality is a key notion in this research tradition. Compositionality refers to the notion that the meaning of a complex linguistic unit is a function of the meanings of its constituent parts. However, the question as to whether compositionality is a defining feature of human language is a matter of debate: usage-based and constructionist approaches emphasize the pervasive role of idiomaticity in language, and argue that strict compositionality is the exception rather than the rule. We review the major discussion points on compositionality from a usage-based point of view, taking both spoken and signed languages into account. In addition, we discuss theories that aim at accounting for the emergence of compositional language through processes of cultural transmission as well as the debate of whether animal communication systems exhibit compositionality. We argue for a view that emphasizes the analyzability of complex linguistic units, providing a template for accounting for the multimodal nature of human language.
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