8 ms·

Neanderthalese: A Constructed Language for the 42nd Millennium BC

54 points by KhoomeiK 7y ago

Gys 7y ago
Unfortunately without audio examples...
- guiriduro 7y ago
  Ugh.
  - ithkuil 7y ago
    > [..] syllables that either were or weren't “voiced and/or nasal”, [..] If you add them up, you'll find there were barely five thousand combinations (and “ug” wasn't one of them).
_nalply 7y ago
Looks somewhat like Vietnamese.
- grenoire 7y ago
  In terms of the diacritics used or the actual grammatical structure?
  - _nalply 7y ago
    This, too, but mainly that one word has one syllable.
dwohnitmok 7y ago
I have a debt to http://jbr.me.uk/futurese.html http://jbr.me.uk/futurese.html for kick-starting (ironically enough for an article speculating on the future of English) an armchair interest in historical linguistics.
JoeAltmaier 7y ago
Interesting concept. Btw a bit of spin, presenting them as about the same as modern Homo Sapiens. They killed and ate their neighbors when times were tough; they had a very hard time mastering crafts more complex than 'break a rock'.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  > They killed and ate their neighbors when times were tough So have modern humans.
- mistrial9 7y ago
  reference, please
  - nocut12 7y ago
    https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/climate-change-may-have-driven-a-band-of-neanderthals-to-cannibalism/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/climate-change-may-h... Certainly not unheard of for modern humans though...
- nocut12 7y ago
  As far as technology, modern humans weren't really too different at the time (in Europe at least). And of course, modern humans and neanderthals were similar enough that we were willing/able to interbreed, which certainly says something. I do think people overstate how similar we were though -- we don't have any super clear examples of neanderthal artwork (people make arguments, but this stuff isn't exactly Chauvet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Art). To me, this seems to indicate that their brains might have worked pretty differently.
  - benj111 7y ago
    "we were willing/able to interbreed, which certainly says something" Does it? Men like to spread their seed, and I'm not sure what the rules were regarding giving women a choice in the matter. I'm guessing rape wasn't in their vocabulary though.

54 points by KhoomeiK 7y ago

Gys 7y ago

Unfortunately without audio examples...

guiriduro 7y ago
Ugh.
- ithkuil 7y ago
  > [..] syllables that either were or weren't “voiced and/or nasal”, [..] If you add them up, you'll find there were barely five thousand combinations (and “ug” wasn't one of them).

_nalply 7y ago

Looks somewhat like Vietnamese.

grenoire 7y ago
In terms of the diacritics used or the actual grammatical structure?
- _nalply 7y ago
  This, too, but mainly that one word has one syllable.

dwohnitmok 7y ago

I have a debt to http://jbr.me.uk/futurese.html http://jbr.me.uk/futurese.html for kick-starting (ironically enough for an article speculating on the future of English) an armchair interest in historical linguistics.

JoeAltmaier 7y ago

Interesting concept. Btw a bit of spin, presenting them as about the same as modern Homo Sapiens. They killed and ate their neighbors when times were tough; they had a very hard time mastering crafts more complex than 'break a rock'.

PhasmaFelis 7y ago
> They killed and ate their neighbors when times were tough So have modern humans.
mistrial9 7y ago
reference, please
- nocut12 7y ago
  https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/climate-change-may-have-driven-a-band-of-neanderthals-to-cannibalism/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/climate-change-may-h... Certainly not unheard of for modern humans though...
nocut12 7y ago
As far as technology, modern humans weren't really too different at the time (in Europe at least). And of course, modern humans and neanderthals were similar enough that we were willing/able to interbreed, which certainly says something. I do think people overstate how similar we were though -- we don't have any super clear examples of neanderthal artwork (people make arguments, but this stuff isn't exactly Chauvet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Art). To me, this seems to indicate that their brains might have worked pretty differently.
- benj111 7y ago
  "we were willing/able to interbreed, which certainly says something" Does it? Men like to spread their seed, and I'm not sure what the rules were regarding giving women a choice in the matter. I'm guessing rape wasn't in their vocabulary though.