# en/ted2020-276.xml.gz
# la/ted2020-276.xml.gz
(src)="1"> Well , I 'm involved in other things , besides physics .
(trg)="1"> Cetera praeter res physicam mihi placent .
(src)="2"> In fact , mostly now in other things .
(trg)="2"> pleraque nunc cetera .
(src)="3"> One thing is distant relationships among human languages .
(trg)="3"> Inter linguas cognatio est una ex his .
(src)="4"> And the professional , historical linguists in the U.S.
(trg)="4"> Ac docti linguistae historiales Civitatibus Foederatis
(src)="5"> and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away from any long-distance relationships , big groupings , groupings that go back a long time , longer than the familiar families .
(trg)="5"> Europaeique plerumque vitant cognationes diffusas familiasque magnas familias cascas , cascior quam familias suetas .
(src)="6.1"> They don 't like that .
(src)="6.2"> They think it 's crank .
(src)="6.3"> I don 't think it 's crank .
(trg)="6.1"> Monstrosas arbitrantur .
(trg)="6.2"> Immo ego haud monstrosas arbitror .
(src)="7"> And there are some brilliant linguists , mostly Russians , who are working on that , at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow , and I would love to see where that leads .
(trg)="7"> Perdocti linguistae , fere Russi , id petunt in instituto Sanctae Fidei et Moscua , et consummationem videre me iuvet .
(src)="8"> Does it really lead to a single ancestor some 20 , 25,000 years ago ?
(trg)="8"> Accedetne ad matrem solam XX aut XXV milium abhinc annos ?
(src)="9"> And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor , when there was presumably a competition among many languages ?
(trg)="9"> Si etiam matrem solam excedemus , dum fortasse multae linguae se certent ?
(src)="10.1"> How far back does that go ?
(src)="10.2"> How far back does modern language go ?
(trg)="10.1"> Quo usque tandem continuat ?
(trg)="10.2"> Quo tempore lingua moderna continuat ?
(src)="11"> How many tens of thousands of years does it go back ?
(trg)="11"> Quot milium annorum continuat ?
(src)="12"> Chris Anderson : Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is ?
(trg)="12"> Chris Anderson : Coniecturamne aut spes responsi habes ?
(src)="13"> Murray Gell-Mann : Well , I would guess that modern language must be older than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe , in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago , or earlier .
(trg)="13"> Orator : Ut mihi videtur , lingua moderna vetustior quam picturae inscriptaque simulacrique in speluncis et vestigia saltatione in creta in spelunca Europae Occidentalis aetate Aurignacia XXXV millium abhinc annos , fortasse antehac .
(src)="14"> I can 't believe they did all those things and didn 't also have a modern language .
(trg)="14"> Homines omnia fecisse sed lingua moderna caruisse non credo .
(src)="15"> So , I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further .
(trg)="15"> Ergo mater vera saltim huc continuat et fortasse latior .
(src)="16.1"> But that doesn 't mean that all , or many , or most of today 's attested languages couldn 't descend perhaps from one that 's much younger than that , like say 20,000 years , or something of that kind .
(src)="16.2"> It 's what we call a bottleneck .
(trg)="16.1"> Immo non sequitur id quod omnes , aut multae aut plurimae , linguarum modernarum venire propriore quae XX millium abhinc annos nata est possunt .
(trg)="16.2"> Angustiae appellantur .
(src)="17"> CA : Well , Philip Anderson may have been right .
(trg)="17"> CA : Philippus Anderson recte fortasse dixit .
(src)="18"> You may just know more about everything than anyone .
(trg)="18"> Plura conctorum quam cuncti tu scias .
(src)="19.1"> So , it 's been an honor .
(src)="19.2"> Thank you Murray Gell-Mann .
(trg)="19.1"> Honor apud nos .
(trg)="19.2"> Murraius Gell-Mann , gratias tibi .
(src)="20"> ( Applause )
(trg)="20"> ( plausus )