Re: Hobbits spoke Indonesian!

On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 05:14, Chris Bates 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?  :)
>
> The common tongue of course! No... they did find some simple tools with
> them and are suggested that despite their brain size (grapefruit sized
> apparently) they did use tools. But language is another matter, and I'm
> not sure language on our level is possible with a brain the size of a
> monkey's.
This is inaccurate.  The brain size is approx. 380 cc, chimp-sized.  However,
it is the brain of a homo erectus derivation.  Which implies it has had
several hundred thousand years worth of homo erectus tool use and the
subsequent brain development.  Not forgetting, the need to manage vastly more
complex social structures than would have been common to australopithecines.

And they were three feet high, give or take a few inches.  At slighly less
than six feet we have a brain about 1300 cc.  I would estimate that with a
brain about a third of our size, and a body about half, they had enough spare
capacity to manage language more complex than the chimpanzees have been shown
capable of mastering  - consider that a chimp needs that 380+ cc to manage
society, and life jumping through trees, and so forth, and the Hobbits no
longer had to consider jumping through trees ... that would've freed up about
60 cc, at least, for language use.

> Some language perhaps, but I wouldn't expect anything as
> complex as a natural language that's spoken by homo sapiens if I
> travelled back in time. :)
--
Wesley Parish
* * *
Clinersterton beademung - in all of love.  RIP James Blish
* * *
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."