Re: Sign language

Den 1. mai. 2008 kl. 15.15 skreiv Campbell Nilsen:
> Call me a bit odd, but it seems to me that sign language might be a
> good candidate for Proto-World. If you come up with a language,
> your friends are going to have an easier time learning stylized
> gestures than arbitrary combinations of phonemes.
You're not odd. This has been proposed before. Before we started
using signals that needed learning instead of intuitive signals that
are understandable to everybody - and the first steps in this
direction were probably taken millions of years ago - our
communication was a mixture of different signals, but mainly calls,
facial expressions and gestures. Inventing new gestures in addition
to the intuitive ones isn't a bigger leap than inventing new calls in
addition to the intuitive ones, I think, and possibly smaller. When
we started walking on our hind legs, our hands were free to use for
many things, like tools etc., and why not gestures?

LEF

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