Before Babel: Speculations on the Origins of Linguistic Diversity
Before Babel: Speculations on the Origins of Linguistic Diversity
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DOI：
10.1017/s0959774300000238
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发表时间：
1991-04
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
C. Renfrew
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Renfrew
历史语言学的最新研究表明，语言的群体或“家族”可以被归类为更大的语言单位或“宏家族”，其中一些起源社区已经被证明。例如，亚非语系，包括闪米特语、柏柏尔语、古埃及语以及北非和东非的许多语言，被语言学家广泛接受。更有争议的是诺斯特拉语大家族（包括印欧语系、阿尔泰语系、乌拉尔语系等）。史前考古学的存在，这样大的语言单位的影响进行检查。有人建议，农业扩散的过程可能占这些macrofamilies的广泛分布。
Recent research in historical linguistics suggests that groups or ‘families’ of languages may be classed together into larger language units or ‘macrofamilies’, for which some community of origin has been argued. The Afro-Asiatic macrofamily, for instance, which includes the Semitic and Berber languages as well as Ancient Egyptian and many languages of North and East Africa, is widely accepted among linguists. More controversial is the Nostratic macrofamily (including the Indo-European, the Altaic, the Uralic languages, etc.). The implications for prehistoric archaeology of the existence of such large linguistic units is examined. It is suggested that processes of agricultural dispersal may account for the widespread distribution of some of these macrofamilies.