What’s the Newest Language?

This nonfiction was primitively published connected September 27, 2021.

When the world’s languages get unneurotic for ceremonial dinners, who sits astatine the kids’ table? While Arabic and Chinese settee heavy into their seats, burdened by the value of millennia, which languages are inactive outside, connected the plaything set, savoring the summertime nighttime earlier Tamil tells them erstwhile much to get inside? Put little nonsensically, what is the newest language? For this week’s Giz Asks, we reached retired to a fig of experts to find out.

Ben Macaulay

Recent PhD successful linguistics from The Graduate Center, CUNY, present based successful Malmö, Sweden. His probe focuses connected prosody, intonation, and endangered connection documentation. He has previously contributed to Gizmodo.

Even excluding conlangs (deliberately constructed languages similar Esperanto oregon Klingon), caller languages signifier organically each the time, often successful 1 of 2 situations. The archetypal is erstwhile a deaf kid is raised successful an all-hearing environment. In this situation, a signed connection called a ‘homesign’ develops betwixt the kid and proceeding members of the community. These homesigns whitethorn not beryllium arsenic grammatically analyzable oregon unchangeable arsenic established motion languages, but tin go so. A precise well-documented lawsuit is Nicaraguan Sign Language, which has its root successful a radical of deaf students who entered schoolhouse unneurotic successful 1980 and immoderate of the structures of the homesigns they had developed. NSL is present utilized by thousands of people, including its archetypal users, who are apt inactive alive. Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language is besides little than a period old, and developed successful the Negev portion of Israel, which has a precocious incidence of deafness. This connection is utilized by some deaf and proceeding radical successful the community.

The different concern that leads to caller languages forming organically is having twins. When twins (or siblings adjacent successful age) walk a batch of clip unneurotic they often make what’s called ‘autonomous languages’. Unlike homesigns, these languages bash not mostly get the accidental to make and stabilize, arsenic the children who usage them usually integrate into the connection situation of their family/community. One of the longer-surviving autonomous languages was spoken by June and Jennifer Gibbons, a brace of twins calved successful 1963 and raised successful Wales. The twins were the lone Black members of their assemblage and were ostracized by their peers. While the twins did besides talk English, arsenic they became progressively socially isolated they stopped speaking to astir radical altogether, speaking lone to each different successful their language. They reportedly had a pact to proceed lone speaking their autonomous connection until 1 duplicate had died. Despite institutionalization and repeated attempts to abstracted the twins and integrate them into English-speaking society, their pact was held until Jennifer Gibbons’ decease successful 1993, upon which June began speaking English again. While their communicative has seen sum successful amusement and existent transgression media, their autonomous connection has not seen immoderate linguistic description.

Aside from these de novo languages, determination are besides cases wherever ‘standardized’ forms of languages are created and imposed by governments. For example, the languages we cognize arsenic ‘Italian’ and ‘German’ are spoken successful areas that were not ever politically oregon linguistically unified. While based loosely connected existing dialects of Italic and Germanic languages, the Italian oregon German you mightiness larn successful a textbook is simply a signifier that is successful immoderate consciousness ‘constructed’ and imposed connected areas with existing determination languages, a concern called ‘diglossia’. A caller illustration is Bahasa Indonesia, which gained wide usage successful Indonesia successful 1945. This connection is Malayic, similar galore determination languages of Indonesia, and determination is inactive diglossia betwixt Bahasa Indonesia and the determination Malayic languages today.

Other languages are mostly intolerable to categorize arsenic ‘new’ vs. ‘old’ fixed that each languages acquisition gradual changes implicit the people of generations, and frankincense it is hard to prime 1 constituent successful clip arsenic their ‘origin.’ One often-cited ‘new language’ is Afrikaans, which diverged importantly from Dutch starting successful the 18th century. But each dialects diverge, and the enactment wherever capable divergence has occurred to warrant calling 1 assortment a ‘new language’ is unclear. Sometimes this enactment is cited arsenic erstwhile the 2 varieties nary longer are ‘mutually intelligible’, though Dutch/Afrikaans speakers tin inactive recognize each different to immoderate extent. Then determination are cases similar Danish, which Norwegian/Swedish speakers conflict to understand, but whose speakers tin easy recognize Norwegian/Swedish. Given the accelerated changes Danish has undergone adjacent successful the past 100 years, possibly modern Danish is besides a ‘new’ language. If you’re looking for a ‘new language’ you tin get a textbook for, your champion bets are astir apt Indonesian, Afrikaans and Danish.

Jessica Rett

Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Linguistics, UCLA

In a way, trying to place the newest connection is similar trying to place the newest animal—they’re perpetually evolving, and precisely demarcate 1 iteration from another. Add to that the information that connection is simply a societal improvement and the task becomes adjacent harder.

That said, 2 examples bash travel to mind.

The archetypal involves constructed languages, oregon conlags. These impact monolithic linguistic nerds getting unneurotic and inventing caller languages. One fashionable caller illustration would beryllium the Na’vi language, created by a USC linguist named Paul Frommer for the movie Avatar. Klingon is different example. The radical who bash this are massive, monolithic dorks, and they truly get into it. The languages are precise complete.

But for amended oregon worse, determination are a fewer less-than-ideal situations successful which caller languages person sprung up connected their own, and this brings maine to my 2nd example: Nicaraguan Sign Language (Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua).

Basically, beingness for deaf children successful Nicaragua astir the mediate of the past period was not ideal—there was nary community, nary shared language, and you were typically kept astatine home. You mightiness make a benignant of slapdash bid of signs with your contiguous family, but you would person nary mode of communicating extracurricular it.

That changed successful the precocious ‘70s and aboriginal ‘80s with the Sandinista revolution. The Sandinistas prioritized deaf acquisition for deaf children, and started busing deaf children into recently founded deaf schools. And these children—who’d been denied connection their full lives—spontaneously created NSL. Pretty quickly, the connection went from a benignant of pidgin oregon babe connection into a fully-fledged language. It’s 1 of the astir fascinating stories successful linguistic history.

Jacob Aziz

PhD student, Linguistics, UCLA

Trying to place the ‘age’ of a connection is simply a hard task due to the fact that astir languages germinate naturally, and truthful you tin spell backmost and backmost and backmost and ticker the connection alteration small by small without pinpointing an nonstop commencement date. For example, modern English came from Old English, which came from Proto-Germanic, which came from Proto-Indo-European, and truthful on.

But each erstwhile successful a while, a connection does look to travel astir astatine a precise peculiar infinitesimal successful time. One specified benignant of connection that does this is simply a constructed language; that is, a connection that was intentionally created. We spot constructed languages successful the media each the time, and astir of the ones we are acquainted with are modern and truthful easy dateable: Klingon was created successful the ‘80s for 1 of the Star Trek films, and Dothraki was created much precocious for Game of Thrones. Since anyone tin make their ain connection astatine immoderate clip (in fact, determination is simply a ample assemblage of ‘conlangers’), caller constructed languages are calved each the time. But, if we privation to talk solely astir earthy languages, determination are a fewer different examples of languages being ‘born.’

A interaction connection is 1 that is calved done interaction betwixt 2 oregon much languages. Languages travel into interaction each the time, and we tin spot the effect adjacent successful English, which has tons of words borrowed from different words: taco from Spanish, tsunami from Japanese, and coffee, yet from Arabic. In modern English, interaction has resulted mostly successful idiosyncratic words being borrowed, but sometimes the languages successful interaction each marque specified important contributions, not lone successful vocabulary but besides successful grammar, that the resulting connection is unrecognizable to speakers of the root languages. An illustration is Michif, a Mixed Language spoken by immoderate Métis radical successful Western Canada and North Dakota. Michif is mixed successful that its nouns and their operation travel chiefly from French, portion its verbs and their operation travel chiefly from Cree. When specified a connection is born, we tin estimation its clip root somewhat straightforwardly if the mixing of the 2 languages is good documented; for Michif, it apt developed its diagnostic French/Cree divided sometime successful the aboriginal 1800s, placing it amongst the world’s ‘newest’ languages…

…if we wanted to place the connection that came astir about precocious without being intentionally constructed and without evolving from different languages, Nicaraguan Sign Language champion fits the bill, to my knowledge.

Elaine Gold

Executive Director of the Canadian Language Museum

Conlangers look to beryllium creating caller languages each the time, but not each of them instrumentality basal and spread. I’m going to enactment my ballot successful for Toki Pona, which is caller and seems to beryllium growing. It was created by Canadian linguist Sona Lang successful 2001 and past was expanded successful her 2014 publication Toki Pona: The Language of Good. The Toki Pona dictionary was released this past July.

A conlanger is idiosyncratic who creates a conlanguage—that is, a constructed language, a connection created for a circumstantial purpose. The astir wide utilized conlanguage is astir apt Esperanto, a connection created successful 1887 to facilitate connection betwixt speakers from astir the world. Many conlanguages are created arsenic portion of an imaginary world, specified arsenic the Klingon connection developed for Star Trek, and Elvish, 1 of the galore languages created by J. R. R. Tolkien. These languages disagree from earthy languages which make organically implicit centuries from the interactions betwixt a large galore speakers.

Toki Pona is champion described by the creator Sonja Lang: ‘Toki Pona is simply a quality connection I invented successful 2001. It was my effort to recognize the meaning of beingness successful 120 words. There are present thousands of speakers and 137 indispensable words.’ So not lone is Toki Pona arguably the newest language, but it is apt the connection with the smallest vocabulary. It is simply a connection that forces changeless creativity, to explicit your meaning with the simplest of tools. We tin deliberation of it arsenic the other of English, which has by acold the largest vocabulary of immoderate connection successful the world.

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