The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) project is a historical-comparative linguistics research project hosted by the Santa Fe Institute. It aims to provide a detailed genealogical classification of the world's languages.Mark Pagel, Quentin D. Atkinson, Andreea S. Calude, Andrew Meade. Ultraconserved words point to deep language ancestry across Eurasia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2013, 110 (21) 8471-8476;
The project was founded in 2001 by Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann when he partnered with Sergei Starostin and Merritt Ruhlen to map out the evolutionary tree of human languages. Initial funding was provided by the Santa Fe Institute and the MacArthur Foundation."Evolution of Human Languages": current state of affairs (March 2014). It is currently led by Russian linguist Georgiy Starostin, the son of Sergei Starostin.Woodward, Richard B. "The Man Who Loved Languages: A Scholar with the Ability and Audacity to Rebuild the Tower of Babel Died a Year Ago, but His Controversial Project Lives on." The American Scholar 75, no. 4 (2006): 44-57. Accessed December 27, 2020.
Many of the project's members belong to the Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics, including Georgiy Starostin and Ilia Peiros.Evolution of Human Languages - The Participants. Other project members include Vaclav Blazek, John D. Bengtson, Edward Vajda, and other linguists.
Overview The Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) is an international project – of which Georgiy Starostin inherited his father's membership – on "the linguistic prehistory of humanity" coordinated by the Santa Fe Institute. The project distinguishes about 6,000 languages currently spoken around the world, and aims to provide a detailed classification similar to the accepted classification of biological species.
Their idea is that "all representatives of the species Homo sapiens presumably share a common origin, [so] it would be natural to suppose – although this is a goal yet to be achieved – that all human languages also go back to some common source. Most existing classifications, however, do not go beyond some 300-400 language families that are relatively easy to discern. This restriction has natural reasons: languages must have been spoken and constantly evolving for at least 40,000 years (and quite probably more), while any two languages separated from a common source inevitably lose almost all superficially common features after some 6,000-7,000 years"."Evolution of Human Languages - An Introduction" at Santafe.edu, retrieved 25 October 2007. New link, see here. Accessed Oct 27, 2009.
The is an international etymological database project that is part of the Evolution of Human Languages project. It is coordinated by the of the Russian State University for the Humanities.The Tower of Babel project. at Starling.rinet.ru, retrieved 25 October 2007.
Global Lexicostatistical Database
In 2011, the (GLD) was launched as part of the EHL project. The database uses the Unified Transcription System (UTS), designed specifically for the database.Unified Transcription System (UTS) for the Global Lexicostatical Database.
110-word list
The Global Lexicostatistical Database includes basic word lists of 110 items each for many of the world's languages.Starostin, George (ed.) 2011-2019. The Global Lexicostatistical Database. Moscow: Higher School of Economics, & Santa Fe: Santa Fe Institute. Accessed on 2020-12-26. The 110-word list is a modified 100-item Swadesh list consisting of the original 100 Swadesh list items, in addition to the following 10 additional words from the Swadesh–Yakhontov list:
far heavy near salt short snake thin wind worm year
The 110-word expanded Swadesh list by Kassian et al. (2010) is as follows.Kassian, Alexei, George Starostin, Anna Dybo, Vasiliy Chernov. 2010. The Swadesh wordlist. An attempt at semantic specification. Journal of Language Relationship 4: 46–89. (PDF)
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! no. !! English !! Russian |- | 1 || all || все |- | 2 || ashes || зола |- | 3 || bark || кора |- | 4 || belly || живот |- | 5 || big, large || большой |- | 6 || bird || птица |- | 7 || to bite || кусать |- | 8 || black || черный |- | 9 || blood || кровь |- | 10 || bone || кость |- | 11 || breast || грудь |- | 12 || to burn (trans.) || жечь, сжечь |- | 13 || cloud || облако |- | 14 || cold || холодный |- | 15 || to come || приходить |- | 16 || to die || умирать |- | 17 || dog || собака |- | 18 || to drink || пить |- | 19 || dry || сухой |- | 20 || ear || ухо |- | 21 || earth || земля |- | 22 || to eat || есть |- | 23 || egg || яйцо |- | 24 || eye || глаз |- | 25 || fat || жир |- | 26 || feather || перо |- | 27 || fire || огонь |- | 28 || fish || рыба |- | 29 || to fly || лететь, летать |- | 30 || foot || нога |- | 31 || full || полный |- | 32 || to give || давать |- | 33 || to go || идти |- | 34 || good || хороший |- | 35 || green || зеленый |- | 36 || hair || волосы |- | 37 || hand || рука |- | 38 || head || голова |- | 39 || to hear || слышать |- | 40 || heart || сердце |- | 41 || horn || рог |- | 42a || I || я |- | 42b || me || меня |- | 43 || to kill || убивать |- | 44 || knee || колено |- | 45 || to know || знать |- | 46 || leaf || лист |- | 47 || to lie || лежать |- | 48 || liver || печень |- | 49 || long || длинный |- | 50 || louse || вошь |- | 51 || man (male) || мужчина |- | 52 || man (person) || человек |- | 53 || many, a lot of || много |- | 54 || meat || мясо |- | 55 || moon || луна |- | 56 || mountain || гора |- | 57 || mouth || рот |- | 58 || nail || ноготь |- | 59 || name || имя |- | 61 || new || новый |- | 62 || night || ночь |- | 63 || nose || нос |- | 64 || not || не |- | 65 || one || один |- | 66 || rain || дождь |- | 67 || red || красный |- | 68 || road || дорога |- | 69 || root || корень |- | 70a || round (3D) || круглый |- | 70b || round (2D) || круглый |- | 71 || sand || песок |- | 72 || to say || сказать |- | 73 || to see || видеть |- | 74 || seed || семя |- | 75 || to sit || сидеть |- | 76 || skin || кожа |- | 77 || to sleep || спать |- | 78 || small, little || маленький |- | 79 || smoke || дым |- | 80 || to stand || стоять |- | 81 || star || звезда |- | 82 || stone || камень |- | 83 || sun || солнце |- | 84 || to swim || плыть, плавать |- | 85 || tail || хвост |- | 86 || that || тот |- | 87 || this || этот |- | 88 || tongue || язык |- | 89 || tooth || зуб |- | 90 || tree || дерево |- | 91 || two || два |- | 92 || warm || теплый |- | 93 || water || вода |- | 94a || we (incl.) || мы (incl.) |- | 94b || we (incl.) || мы (incl.) |- | 94c–d || we (excl.) || мы (excl.) |- | 95 || what || что |- | 96 || white || белый |- | 97 || who || кто |- | 98 || woman || женщина |- | 99 || yellow || желтый |- | 100a || you (thou) || ты |- | 100b || you (thou) || тебя |- | 101 || far || далеко |- | 102 || heavy || тяжелый |- | 103 || near || близко |- | 104 || salt || соль |- | 105 || short || короткий |- | 106 || snake || змея |- | 107a || thin (2D) || тонкий |- | 107b || thin (1D) || тонкий |- | 108 || wind || ветер |- | 109 || worm || червь |- | 110 || year || год
50-word list A 50-word list of "ultra-stable" items for lexicostatiscal use with the database was also proposed in 2010. The 50-word list is an abridged version of the 110-word list.Starostin, George. Preliminary lexicostatistics as a basis for language classification: A new approach. Journal of Language Relationship, No. 3 (2010). P. 79–116.
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! no. !! English !! Russian |- | 1 || we || мы |- | 2 || two || два |- | 3 || I || я |- | 4 || eye || глаз |- | 5 || thou || ты |- | 6 || who || кто |- | 7 || fire || огонь |- | 8 || tongue || язык |- | 9 || stone || камень |- | 10 || name || имя |- | 11 || hand || рука |- | 12 || what || что |- | 13 || die || умирать |- | 14 || heart || сердце |- | 15 || drink || пить |- | 16 || dog || собака |- | 17 || louse (head) || вошь |- | 18 || moon || луна |- | 19 || fingernail || ноготь |- | 20 || blood || кровь |- | 21 || one || один |- | 22 || tooth || зуб |- | 23 || new || новый |- | 24 || dry (e.g. of clothes) || сухой |- | 25 || eat || есть |- | 26 || tail || хвост |- | 27 || hair (of head) || волосы |- | 28 || water || вода |- | 29 || nose || нос |- | 30 || not || не |- | 31 || mouth || рот |- | 32 || ear || ухо |- | 33 || bird || птица |- | 34 || bone || кость |- | 35 || sun || солнце |- | 36 || smoke || дым |- | 37 || tree || дерево |- | 38 || ashes || зола |- | 39 || rain || дождь |- | 40 || star || звезда |- | 41 || leaf || лист |- | 42 || kill || убивать |- | 43 || foot || нога |- | 44 || horn || рог |- | 45 || hear || слышать |- | 46 || meat (as food) || мясо |- | 47 || egg || яйцо |- | 48 || black || черный |- | 49 || head || голова |- | 50 || night || ночь
See also Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics Cross-Linguistic Linked Data Genographic Project
References
External links The Tower of Babel: Evolution of Human Language Project by Georgiy Starostin The Global Lexicostatistical Database Santa Fe Institute homepage
Videos Murray Gell-Mann and the Evolution of Human Languages (Santa Fe Institute video) Murray Gell-Mann: Do all languages have a common ancestor? (TED talk in 2008)