LINGUISTICS

Can we find the first language? 🥇

Language has to come from somewhere, right? That would mean a first language existed, right? Linguists debate how and if we would be able to find this language, because it seems as if there are no written records. Here are some ways that we might go about it and some reasons why we might find it extremely difficult to find this mystery first language.

💡 Things to consider

• Language groups and isolates: Most languages in the world belong to a language family. Language families are groups of languages that descend from the same language. For example, English belongs to the Germanic family and Italian belongs to the Romance family – both of these belong to the bigger Indo-European family. However, there are languages which don’t belong to any family, called language isolates. These include languages such as Basque, Zuni and Ainu. The main theory for the existence of these languages is that they are the last remaining languages from now-extinct families. Another theory is that these languages developed in isolation from other languages. This makes it harder to work backwards and figure out how all languages are related.

  

  As with many things in Linguistics, we may never know!

• Reconstructions: Language reconstruction is the establishing of the features of unrecorded languages, using the data from modern languages and older attested versions of these languages. There are two types of language reconstruction. Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in one language to make inferences about earlier stages of the language. Comparative reconstruction, which is the more common type of reconstruction, compares two or more languages from the same language family by extrapolating backwards to find words. Proto Indo-European (PIE) was reconstructed by the comparative method, looking at Indo-European languages and examining words with the same meaning and how they changed, both written and spoken. For example, the PIE word for father has been reconstructed as ph₂tḗr. This also allowed linguists to predicate how the language would sound. However, even if we did eventually reconstruct the first language, we would probably only be able to find a couple of basic words, since even PIE lacks many constructed words.

  

  Linguists after trying to reconstruct the first language (if this even exists!)

• Limitations: Linguists still don’t know how language evolved and there are multiple theories. This makes it extremely difficult to even begin to conceptualise the first language. Language potentially originated in multiple places at once, meaning that there isn’t one ‘first’ language. There is often insufficient evidence and records of most languages, making it extremely hard to work far enough back in time to find the very first language. We don’t know exactly when language started either; linguists can only assume, from records of evolutionary changes, that it originated somewhere between 2 million to 50,000 years ago. Linguists also debate what constitutes a language: is it sounds, is it the grammar behind it or is it something else? When does language become a language?

🔎 Find out more

• What’s the World’s Oldest Language?

MFL

Marcel Marceau: Mime Extraordinaire 🎩

With their painted faces, striped shirts, and larger-than-life facial expressions, mime artists are an iconic symbol of French culture today. Perhaps the most famous mime artist of all time, Marcel Marceau was the crème de la crème of the art form, with a career that spanned six decades. But despite his impressive performance career, Marcel Marceau was more than just a ‘master of silence’…

Born in 1923 in Strasbourg to a Jewish family, Marcel Marceau was a French actor and mime artist catapulted to worldwide fame by his stage persona ‘Bip the Clown’, which he presented on stage for the first time in 1947. Marceau’s life work was silent acting; he once declared ‘La parole n’est pas necessaire pour exprimer ce qu’on a sur le cœur’ [Words aren’t necessary to express what’s in our hearts] and referred to mime as ‘l’art du silence’. However, mime was also a useful skill for Marceau during the French resistance in World War II. Recruited to the war effort by his cousin, Marceau was tasked with moving Jewish children from a French orphanage to the Swiss border, where they could escape to safety. Not only did Marceau put the children at ease with his mime performances in the orphanage, but his performance skills also saved their lives. He would mime in situations where talking was dangerous, and he posed as a boy scout leader when they reached the Swiss border, to avoid arousing suspicion with such a large group of children. All told, Marceau saved at least 70 Jewish children during the Second World War.

Marceau’s own father was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. This undoubtedly coloured his performance as ‘Bip the Clown’ with pathos, but it also strengthened his desire to spread hope through his artistry. When accepting the Raoul Wallenberg Medal in 2002, Marceau said, ‘Destiny permitted me to live. This is why I have to bring hope to people who struggle in the world’.

💡 Things to consider

• The History of Mime: Though we now associate mime with Paris and iconic artists like Marcel Marceau, it originated in Ancient Greece and Rome, and was heavily influenced by the Italian Commedia dell’arte and Japanese Noh theatre. The practice of mime has been included in the ‘Inventaire du patrimoine culturel immatériel’ in France since 2017. However, can we really say that mime is ‘French’ if it originated from elsewhere? How is Marceau’s mime different from the Italian and Japanese artists that came before him?

  

  Japanese Noh Theatre

• Art as a source of hope: As we have seen, Marceau felt it was his duty to bring hope to people through his performances. In times of political and personal struggle, why does performance art provide a sense of optimism? Is this sense of optimism unique to performance art, or can it also be found in other art forms?

• Marceau’s legacy: Marceau took mime all over the world. He set up the Marceau Foundation to promote the art of mime in the US in 1956, he influenced Michael Jackson’s dance moves (!), and he set up the École Nationale de Mimodrama in Paris in 1978. When he died, his possessions were auctioned off, and are now kept in the Bibliothèque National de France or are owned by the charity Un Musée pour le Mime, set up by a group of Marceau’s former students. The presence of Marceau lives on in the objects and global influence he left behind. So, can an iconic artist like Marceau ever really die?

🔎 Find out more

• Marcel Marceau INA Biography 

🍒 The cherry on top

• 🏋️‍♀️ Philosophy of Exercise: Have you ever (finally) mustered up the energy to go for a run, only to think halfway through: WTH am I doing?! This podcast delves into the philosophical underpinnings of exercise, examining its evolution from Plato's days as an athlete to the contemporary isolation experienced during a solitary bench press session. Great if you’re into Philosophy or Sports!

• ⚡️ Physics Misconceptions: Think you're a physics wiz? This website tackles common misconceptions about things like electricity, force, and motion. Test your knowledge and brush up on some basic physics concepts – a great resource for anyone interested in Physics!

• 🧑‍🎨 Maths and Van Gogh: Is Maths truly everywhere? Even in the most unexpected of places? If you are interested in Art or Maths, this TED Talk explores the intersection between both, looking at one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, Starry Night.

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 2nd-5th April - Cambridge Colleges Free Tours

• 3rd April - Christ’s College Cambridge Personal Statements Webinar

• 3rd April - QMUL Study Skills at University Webinar

• 3rd April - QMUL Biomedical Engineering Taster Course

• 4th April - St John’s College Cambridge Archaeology Masterclass

• 4th April - St John’s College Cambridge Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Masterclass

• 4th April - St John’s College Cambridge English Masterclass

• 4th April - QMUL Robotics Engineering Taster Course

• 5th April - St John’s College Cambridge Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion Masterclass

• 5th April - St John’s College Cambridge Biological Natural Sciences Masterclass

• 5th April - St John’s College Cambridge Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Masterclass

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