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Mysterious Language Adventure: What Are the Surprising Connections of the Dené–Caucasian Language Family?
In the vast ocean of linguistics, the Dené–Caucasian language family proposal has aroused interest and debate. The functional claims of this language family cover a variety of language groups in the northern hemisphere, including Sino-Tibetan, Yenisei and Brushaski languages in Asia, Na-Dené languages in North America, and Wasco languages from Europe (including Basque) and North Caucasus languages. While this broad inter-language connection has generated a lot of attention, academic reception has been lukewarm. Professional linguists are almost universally skeptical of other parts of this language family, tending to believe that the claim so far lacks reliable evidence.
Hypothesis and History
The history of the Dené–Caucasian hypothesis began in the 20th century, when some scholars such as Alfredo Trombetti and Edward Sapir had proposed similar language classifications. Although these early classifications failed to gain widespread acceptance, they laid the foundation for subsequent research. For example, Morris Swadesh brought all members into a large family called "Basque-Dennean", conceptually combining Basque and Navajo for the first time. Language makes a geographical connection.
Swadesh mentioned in his research that this large family may include "Pask, Georgian, Uralic, Altaic, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and a few other languages."
In the 1980s, Sergei Starostin used more rigorous linguistic methods to establish the relationship between Caucasian, Yenisei and Sino-Tibetan languages on a more solid basis for the first time. Subsequently, other scholars such as John D. Bengtson and Vitaly V. Shevoroshkin also expanded and revised this hypothesis to further explore the differences between these languages. connections between.
Academic concerns and doubts
Although many scholars have invested in research on this hypothesis, the Dené–Caucasian language family still faces criticism. The academic community has pointed out the over-reliance on Starostin and Nikolayev's reconstruction of certain languages, and the phonological reconstruction of Caucasian languages is full of uncertainty. The many complex sound correspondences make it extremely challenging to tie these languages together.
There is a variety of criticism and uncertainty within the academic community regarding reconstruction efforts in various languages, especially the use of Proto-Sino-Tibetan.
Family tree proposal
Based on modified linguistic chronology, Starokin and colleagues proposed a Dené–Caucasian family tree theory and provided rough estimates for the divergence times between different languages. Bergentson conducted a new analysis of the correlation between Basque, Caucasian and Brushaski, believing that "they may form a larger macro-Caucasian language family."
Future research directions
Scholars' research on the Dené–Caucasian language family is not yet over. As multilingual exploration and comparative methods advance, possible connections between different language groups have emerged, and perhaps more potential relationships can be discovered. For example, the relationship between Yenisey and Brushaski proposed by George van Driem may provide new perspectives for our understanding of language development.
The diversity and interconnection of languages is like a picture scroll, waiting for us to explore and interpret.
In this mysterious language adventure, can we truly uncover the amazing connections between the Dené–Caucasian language families and further understand the evolution and diffusion process of language?
