We Go Way Back

Some years ago, I became fascinated with a book on a hypothetical “mother tongue” of all languages. The book was by Dr. Merritt Ruhlen, a linguistics professor; the book was The Origin of Language(1994), and it purported to demonstrate that there are commonalities among many more languages--even commonalities between, say, Indo-European languages and American Indian languages and Asian languages. Ruhlen’s work is based on that of his mentor, the linguistic taxonomist Dr. Joseph Greenberg, and is also informed by his collaboration with population geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford.
Most American linguists do not accept the proposition that there is an original mother tongue--though I have to ask, why not? If, as genetic studies are now indicating, all human beings derive from a band of about 2,000 early humans, and if that band existed as a single or closely related group of bands, well, then, surely if they spoke at all, they spoke the same language. There is something deeply appealing about the notion that indeed we are all of the same family. However, I know that “deeply appealing” does not necessarily mean “true.”

This proto-language has a name, Nostratic (loosely derived from Latin, “our” tongue), and if you Google it you will find a wealth of highbrow argument on the Web about it. One link: http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/nostratic.htm
But there is so much more out there. Take a half hour and poke around!
http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elltankw/history/nostratic.htm
The following website has a lot about IndoEuropean without the Nostratic additions.
http://www.danshort.com/ie/

More later on some of the arguments for a “world” language.