I received this answer to a question I posted to Piotr. He seems to
have a problem with the origins of language. So do I.

Is there any discussion?

Gerry

11-10-03 01:44, Geraldine Reinhardt wrote:

>
> Hi Piotr,
>
> I've spent a brief time searching the Cybalist files and can't seem

to

> discover any answer to an important question.
>
> Do all language families show a word similarity, one with each

other?

> Or are there some families that still haven't been show to unite

into

> ONE MEGA FAMILY.

No-one knows, actually, and it's possible we'll never know. Some
people
just assume that there MUST have been a language ancestral to all
known
languages, or even a single original ancestor of all human languages,
known or unknown. Guessing, however, is no substitute for knowledge.
There's no good evidence either way, and the safest policy from a
linguist's point of view is not to accept any relationship hypothesis
that can't be demonstrated (while keeping an open mind in case new
evidence comes to light). What we call "language families" are the
largest genetic groupings that can be safely established at present.
I
suppose some of them can be combined in the future -- e.g. if
"Nostratic", "Austric" etc. turn out to be bona fide families -- but
for
the time being such groupings remain controversial.

Piotr