Re: glossogenesis (was: Indo-European question)

On Sat, 23 Jun 2001 Nik Taylor wrote:
> Tommie L Powell wrote:
> > Tribalization changed that: Since each member of a tribe
> > spent his whole life speaking only with other members of
> > his tribe, each tribe could develop a language of its own.
> > And such a language could be wonderfully complex,
> > because its speakers didn't have to talk with people whose
> > linguistic tricks were slightly different (but different enough
> > to create confusion if one tried to express a thought in a
> > fairly complex manner).
>
> The formation of tribes wouldn't change matters, I believe.
> People can have complex languages even while dealing with
> other people speaking very different languages.  The only
> change tribalization would make to language is that it might
> cause what had been simple pidgins for inter-band
> communication into full-scale creoles, and causing the
> formation of sprachbunds.
>
Those terms -- pidgins, creoles, sprachbunds -- can't apply
in this context, because they can't arise until after language
becomes substantially differentiated between groups.  Before
tribalization, no band -- no seasonally migrating group of from
50 to 150 people -- could have spoken much differently from
any other nearby band, since each band had to communicate
with each other such band at various food sources where
their separate annual migratory circuits overlapped. Only
tribalization -- alliances among a set of bands to exclude
non-member bands from exploiting food sources within the
territory claimed by the tribe -- could create language
boundaries (so that each tribe could develop a distinct
language of its own).  A single band couldn't have ever
created a distinct language, because (before tribalization)
it was continually meeting up with (and communicating
with, and intermarrying with) other bands that spoke slightly
differently (and which had to speak slightly differently because
each of those other bands was likewise continually meeting up
with -- and communicating with, and intermarrying with --
still other bands that spoke slightly differently from them).

-- Tommie

Replies