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My useless-thought-of-the day came from seeing some very early William Hartnell Dr Who last night. It struck me for the umpteenth time as wrongheaded that cave people (the Dr Who notion - I prefer labels like Homo sapiens neanderthalensis because it deceives me into believing I'm saying something intelligent, then I get the terms wrong or use outdated ones and do we really know that neanderthals actually lived in caves and the whole thing gets messy and I delete the blogpost), that cave people (just in case you forgot what we were talking about), that cave people (this is fun - I'm going to do it one more time) that cave people spoke in very simple quasi-sentences and the modern humans in complex sentences of a more varied nature. When speaking exactly the same language, the cave men and women (whether Neanderthal or Australopithecus or Lucy's great-grandparents) are speaking the identical language to the Dr and his companions. Same language in theory, but different dialects in practice.
This works in one way: if they were speaking different languages it's one way of indicating that. Except... Dr Who has a babel fish setup. Everyone understands each other because the TARDIS plays with minds quite ferociously.
There is a TARDIS or a babelfish or other cute trick in a significant amount of SF. I was going to argue it was a sixties thing and possibly linked to swinging or the Beatles (they knew about Lucy* before she was discovered and they made her science fictional viz. "Lucy in the sky with diamonds,") but then, there is Stargate.
This odd language differential is a standard spec fic way of dealing with things. A convention. Also, it's a very easy way out. And a very bad influence on the young. A kid I was tutoring once said he didn't need to learn languages - SF heroes didn't have to so he wouldn't. I include 'English' in 'languages,' since that's what I was teaching him.
It finally dawned on me what the problem was (I may not speak in simple quasi-sentences, but nevertheless I am slow). It's not that timelords and modern humans have such superior brains that they make a language more complex just by thinking superior thoughts. It's not that it would be undignified for the Doctor to use cavespeak. It's that there is absolutely no evidence for how very early languages were structured (especially that early) and that some writers are also promulgators of the zombie view of history.
Or perhaps they haven't actually thought it through and are just sticking to a trope, which is inconceivable (I saw The Princess Bride on Boxing Day - I intend to use 'inconceivable' much until it wears off.). Following a standard trope doesn't have to mean they have zombie ancestors, alas.
Why alas? Mainly because a line of writers with zombie ancestry would lead to some fabulous new literature. Tragically, George Orwell never wrote the Great Zombie Political Novel of the prehistoric. I greatly desire to see the 150,000 BP precursor to 1984. Cavespeak and BigHe and all.
*If you don't know who Lucy is, ask Amanda Pillar. She actually knows stuff. Although I'll bet she has met more potsherds than Lucys. Or you could google.
This works in one way: if they were speaking different languages it's one way of indicating that. Except... Dr Who has a babel fish setup. Everyone understands each other because the TARDIS plays with minds quite ferociously.
There is a TARDIS or a babelfish or other cute trick in a significant amount of SF. I was going to argue it was a sixties thing and possibly linked to swinging or the Beatles (they knew about Lucy* before she was discovered and they made her science fictional viz. "Lucy in the sky with diamonds,") but then, there is Stargate.
This odd language differential is a standard spec fic way of dealing with things. A convention. Also, it's a very easy way out. And a very bad influence on the young. A kid I was tutoring once said he didn't need to learn languages - SF heroes didn't have to so he wouldn't. I include 'English' in 'languages,' since that's what I was teaching him.
It finally dawned on me what the problem was (I may not speak in simple quasi-sentences, but nevertheless I am slow). It's not that timelords and modern humans have such superior brains that they make a language more complex just by thinking superior thoughts. It's not that it would be undignified for the Doctor to use cavespeak. It's that there is absolutely no evidence for how very early languages were structured (especially that early) and that some writers are also promulgators of the zombie view of history.
Or perhaps they haven't actually thought it through and are just sticking to a trope, which is inconceivable (I saw The Princess Bride on Boxing Day - I intend to use 'inconceivable' much until it wears off.). Following a standard trope doesn't have to mean they have zombie ancestors, alas.
Why alas? Mainly because a line of writers with zombie ancestry would lead to some fabulous new literature. Tragically, George Orwell never wrote the Great Zombie Political Novel of the prehistoric. I greatly desire to see the 150,000 BP precursor to 1984. Cavespeak and BigHe and all.
*If you don't know who Lucy is, ask Amanda Pillar. She actually knows stuff. Although I'll bet she has met more potsherds than Lucys. Or you could google.