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Human Language Revisited · Elves and Adam · Back to Picq · Off the Bat

I am now reading La Plus Belle Histoire du langage, where the journalist Cécile Lestienne inteverviews the experts Pascal Picq (palaeoanthropology), Laurent Sagart (linguistics - my "own" field from the university studies, though I am much into a transdisciplinary approach, an essayist rather than an academic), and Ghislaine Dehaene (paediatrics).

It is from 2008. I had previously read Les origines du langage in an edition from 2006.

In the part where Cécile Lestienne interviews Pascal Picq, he does seem to have sth to add to the previous work, meaning, I am very glad my guardian angels were preventing me from writing a post about how Picq doesn't answer challenges. I simply hadn't met his yet.

So, I am preparing a follow up by borrowing (done) the book from 2008 and intending to reread his contribution and the other ones as well.

As one preliminary, I can state already that lots of his conclusions are based on the long time spans. And overall evolutionary world view.

Homo Erectus / Homo Ergaster must have had some kind of language "500 000 years ago" (agreed), but as to a fully human one, he won't agree to that since, it is so long ago and the "species" known to have it - Homo sapiens sapiens and arguably (on his view too, which I welcome) Neanderthals - were not yet around. So, it may have on his view have been on the "me Tarzan, you Jane" stage. Supposing there was one.

(Checked, yes, he attributes 500 000 BP to Ergaster, and if I was unsure, it's because I had read somewhere Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals diverged around that time, which doesn't mean they were either of them already around).

I obviously do not agree language has to have had a development, nor on the time scale. Carbon dates of 70 000 BP - 40 000 BP (or 35 000 BP) are preflood, and carbon dates younger than that post-Flood. 500 000 BP is not a carbon date, and it is obtained by a method where even relative direction of compared dates is lacking, where anything from 4 million to 1/2 million, anything from 100 000 years to 100 000 000 years ago can point to diverse depth and coolnesses of the water quickly cooling lava during the Flood, which was 2957 BC whatever fancy date the Argon measures point to.

So, I will differ from him in saying, Ergaster had a fully human language. Descending as he did from Adam and a somewhat distant cousin to the Cro-Magnon race (with Neanderthal and Denisovan admixture) which was aboard the Ark in 8 persons, 4 men and 4 women.

Apart from this preliminary, I will write no more right now, but read the book and re-read his portion of it, before continuing.

Hans Georg Lundahl
St. Maur
Holy Guardian Angels
2.X.2019