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Re: Hobbits spoke Indonesian!

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Friday, October 29, 2004, 10:22
Quoting Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>:

> Joe wrote: > > Rodlox wrote: > > > > > according to recent archeological discoveries, it is now known that > > > Hobbits existed in Indonesia...so, which language do you think they'd > > > have known? :) > > > > > 'Hobbits', you mean? > > > > Well, if the local legends are true, they had their own, 'murmuring' > > language. How likely that is, I don't know. > > > Hmm. If, as is proposed, the isolated island environment led to their > miniaturization, the perhaps their language also got miniaturized :-))) > > This is a fascinating and remarkable find, if true. There must have been > some contact, somewhere along the way, with Papuan/Australian peoples (who > reached their modern locations at least 30-40,000 years ago). Maybe these > "Hobbits" were a group that stayed behind during one or another migration, > then became reduced in size and (apparently) skeletally different due to > isolated environment +some bad gene(s) +interbreeding +poor nutrition over > the millennia. In that case, their language would have been Papuanoid or > Australoid.
They're supposedly erectids, so they presumably had spent the better part of forever in Indonesia when the ancestors of the Papuans and Australians came there. Andreas

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Rodlox <rodlox@...>