I agree with the previous commenter. The data itself is fascinating and beautiful. Why ruin it with a cheesy “tree” illustration, which adds no information — and in fact, *subtracts* information by making it harder to read and understand the relationships among the data? I highly recommend this article on Edward Tufte’s website on the topic: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001TV
This language tree was an excellent read. I wonder what electromagnetic communication deviation system caused the original language splits, and how it can be taken from the human mental/social circuit.
Vishnuvyas. You might find the tree in this paper useful. It’s an older paper by Gray and Atkinson, the ones who did the paper on Indian expansion Kambiz has just posted:
William Bunker wondered, “what electromagnetic communication deviation system caused the original language split?” My guess would be that, like species, as the original language spread out different regions lost contact with each other. The languages formed a cline, then broke into dialects and eventually became different languages.
What the f..k is this s..t?! Where the hell is the Macedonian language, huh?! Why nobody put my language in this group? Or in any group at ALL! Sorry but this tree is NOT true the whole
Giviet, this kind of language and tone is not welcomed here. I have edited your commented to ‘remove’ the inappropriate words. You have been banned from commenting any further on this site.
I am informing everyone that anyone else who chooses to comment in this tone will be permanently banned without warning.
I don’t know where Singhalese is. And quite frankly I’m sick of hosting these sorts of questions. You’re not the first to ask, but you will be the last.
Is this a comprehensive language tree? No it is not, you should know that before posting. It is a nice cartoon illustration that comes from Gamkrelidze and Ivanov’s, “The Early History of Indo-European Languages” which was printed in Scientific American in March 1990. If you have any questions why X language isn’t included in the tree, people should try and contact the people who made the tree.
Erin. I’m pretty sure Singhalese is a branch of Indic. The tree doesn’t group the Indic languages into subfamilies so you’ll have to follow that up yourself.
17 Comments
February 5, 2008 at 6:46 pm · Edit
Probably this is because I have a computer science background, but this could possibly be one of the most unreadable visualization of a language tree!
February 5, 2008 at 7:38 pm · Edit
I agree with the previous commenter. The data itself is fascinating and beautiful. Why ruin it with a cheesy “tree” illustration, which adds no information — and in fact, *subtracts* information by making it harder to read and understand the relationships among the data? I highly recommend this article on Edward Tufte’s website on the topic: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001TV
Cheers,
Ari
February 5, 2008 at 9:05 pm · Edit
This language tree was an excellent read. I wonder what electromagnetic communication deviation system caused the original language splits, and how it can be taken from the human mental/social circuit.
February 5, 2008 at 9:55 pm · Edit
Vishnuvyas. You might find the tree in this paper useful. It’s an older paper by Gray and Atkinson, the ones who did the paper on Indian expansion Kambiz has just posted:
February 6, 2008 at 4:32 am · Edit
[...] Visto en Anthropology.net. [...]
February 6, 2008 at 5:55 am · Edit
I want to see the WHOLE TREE!
February 6, 2008 at 9:25 pm · Edit
William Bunker wondered, “what electromagnetic communication deviation system caused the original language split?” My guess would be that, like species, as the original language spread out different regions lost contact with each other. The languages formed a cline, then broke into dialects and eventually became different languages.
February 7, 2008 at 7:10 am · Edit
Wow, fantastic presentation combined with a wealth of information.
September 6, 2008 at 4:21 am · Edit
[...] Visto en Anthropology.net. [...]
October 28, 2008 at 3:26 am · Edit
What the f..k is this s..t?! Where the hell is the Macedonian language, huh?! Why nobody put my language in this group? Or in any group at ALL! Sorry but this tree is NOT true the whole
October 28, 2008 at 8:21 am · Edit
Giviet, this kind of language and tone is not welcomed here. I have edited your commented to ‘remove’ the inappropriate words. You have been banned from commenting any further on this site.
I am informing everyone that anyone else who chooses to comment in this tone will be permanently banned without warning.
November 7, 2008 at 9:20 am · Edit
where’s singhalese?
November 7, 2008 at 10:57 am · Edit
I don’t know where Singhalese is. And quite frankly I’m sick of hosting these sorts of questions. You’re not the first to ask, but you will be the last.
Is this a comprehensive language tree? No it is not, you should know that before posting. It is a nice cartoon illustration that comes from Gamkrelidze and Ivanov’s, “The Early History of Indo-European Languages” which was printed in Scientific American in March 1990. If you have any questions why X language isn’t included in the tree, people should try and contact the people who made the tree.
November 7, 2008 at 1:20 pm · Edit
Erin. I’m pretty sure Singhalese is a branch of Indic. The tree doesn’t group the Indic languages into subfamilies so you’ll have to follow that up yourself.
May 10, 2009 at 11:10 am · Edit
this tree is has been made by a jerk of linguistic. where is the Albanian, one of the oldest language of Europe?
May 11, 2009 at 11:25 pm · Edit
Getoverit.
June 20, 2009 at 2:36 pm · Edit
This tree is totally wrong.I didnt see the Illyrian language, which is one of the oldest IE languages.