Discussion 6

[Unitha Cherry]

 Hebrew is a Semitic language and belongs to the Canaanite group of languages, but its language family is the branch of Northwest Semitic languages. Its predecessors appear to be other Canaanite languages along with Amharic languages. On the language database Ethnologue it is also listed as being Afro-asiatic which would be its primary language family. The Kevin Morehouse article he talked about how the different families of languages tell you which may be similar and informs you of the relationships between them.  Additionally, understanding language family can help with mastery. It may make it easier to grasp certain language concepts if you understand where the language came from. For the article about origin of the family of languages being in Anatolia I thought it was interesting that a biologist was even entering the conversation. I thought it almost arrogant that the biologists thought that they had solved a long-standing problem when experts in the study of language had been working on a solution for years. I have recently been exposed to some of the statically methods they may have used but I do think that consideration needs to be made for the evidence that contradicts the biologists claims. I found the argument that the language had to be spread through fighting before the spread of agriculture from Anatolia. The evidence of words for wheeled vehicles makes the most sense for me because how would a language develop a word for something they don’t have. I also thought it was interesting that the words that are used to track language development and spread are the same words that are used for body parts, familial relations and pronouns because they then become cognates and you can track them to a parent language.