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Grammar Traces Language Roots

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the ancestral-tongues dept.

mlewan writes "Researchers use grammar to trace relations between Papuan languages. What is interesting is not that much that they use grammar features to do this, but that they seem to have given up using vocabulary as a help."

1 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Makes sense. by HugePedlar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even in England, different regions use different words and pronunciations (which could count as different words). But we all use the same grammar. It's easy to change the sounds of a sentence, but to change the structure requires hefty evolution, and hence a separation of culture.

    --
    Argh.