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I wonder if geographical spread of language families would be a decent proxy for that. Though I guess that biases the record in favour of writing systems. Also
by kqr 3y ago
I wonder if geographical spread of language families would be a decent proxy for that. Though I guess that biases the record in favour of writing systems. Also wouldn't capture second languages which is how a lot of culture spreads. (I should know; English is not my first language.)
- ivan_gammel 3y agoI was thinking about something similar, but from a different angle. Language history can demonstrate connections between peoples, times and places. The words show what was important enough to be encoded: say, we have the word „computer“ and it means that very important technology has been developed. Looking at such words we can judge on what could be included on the timeline, which discoveries and inventions have been made. We may find for some words how old are they and what could be their origin. We may trace the words and language structures across continents and thousands of years and reason about technology and knowledge needed for such journey, what climate was there etc. This would create a very interesting map.