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Linguistic(语言学的) Puzzles
How did language begin? What was the world's first language? Do all languages come from one
original language? 1 .
In the 4th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote this account: Psamtik I，an Egyptian
King, wanted to find out what the oldest language in the world was. 2 .He told his servant to find
two newborn babies.When the servant had found them, the king gave them to a shepherd (牧羊人)
and said, “Keep these babies with the goats.Take care of them, but do not talk to them.Listen to any
words that they say.” The king wanted to find out what language the children would speak if they were
left alone.He said, “The first words they speak will come from the original language of the world.”
3 . He told the king who asked his scholars about this word.They told him that the Phiygians,
who lived in an area which is now Turkey, called bread “becos”. The king said, “Then Phiygian is the
oldest language.” Today we know that the king's conclusion was wrong.We don't know why the children
said “becos”.
4 . Scholars discovered that many European and southern Asian languages belonged to the same
“family” and that they started from the same parent language, ProtoIndoEuropean.Linguists think that it
had split into several different languages, including Greek and Sanskrit, between 2000 and 1000 BC.
Other languages, such as English and Spanish, developed from later splits.
5 . Two questions that interest linguists are: How does language change? Why does language
change? If you like solving mysteries, historical linguistics may be the job for you.
A. Nowadays, we study the origin of language more scientifically
B. He was talking about this problem with his scholars when he had an idea
C. The King was very kind to his servant and his servant remained royal to him
D. Linguists are the scholars who are very interested in categorizing the language families
E. People have been trying to find the answers to these questions for more than 2000 years
F. One day, while the babies were babbling to each other, the shepherd heard them say “becos”
G. Linguists have classified many language families, and they are still trying to categorize others