Speaking of Words: Can We Reconstruct the First Language?

Speaking of Words: Can We Reconstruct the First Language?

Speaking of WordsBy MICHAEL FERBER         In earlier columns I tried to say something reasonable about what the oldest living language might be (there isn’t one), and how language in general got started (we don’t know, but it may have needed a genetic mutation or two).  In this column I’d like to consider a related question: Given the many thousands of languages spoken today, and records of hundreds of extinct ones, do we have enough evidence t…