ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe.

Why you should listen

He's been called "the man with five brains" -- and Murray Gell-Mann has the resume to prove it. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, he is an accomplished physicist who's earned numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees for his work with subatomic particles, including the groundbreaking theory that the nucleus of an atom comprises 100 or so fundamental building blocks called quarks.

Gell-Mann's influence extends well beyond his field: He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves on the board of the Wildlife Conservation Society and is a director of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gell-Mann, a professor emeritus of Caltech, now heads the evolution of human languages program at the Santa Fe Institute, which he cofounded in 1984.

A prolific writer -- he's penned scores of academic papers and several books, including The Quark and the Jaguar -- Gell-Mann is also the subject of the popular science biography Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics.

More profile about the speaker
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com
TED2007

Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language

Ang ninuno ng wika ni Murray Gell-Mann

Filmed:
944,446 views

Matapos magbigay ng talumpati tungkol sa kagilasan sa pisika, ang kamangha-manghang Murray Gell-Mann ay naghahandog ng pangkalahatang-ideya ng isa pang interes: ang paghahanap ng karaniwang ninuno ng ating mga makabagong wika.
- Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
Well, I'm involved in other things, besides physics.
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May iba akong pinagkakaabahalan, bukod sa pisika.
00:17
In fact, mostly now in other things.
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Sa katunayan, ngayon mas madalas sa ibang bagay.
00:19
One thing is distant relationships among human languages.
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Isa dito ang malawak na ugnayan ng iba't ibang wika ng mga tao.
00:24
And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S.
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At lumalayo sa mga malayuang relasyon ang halos lahat ng mga propesyonal
00:28
and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away
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at ng mga pangkasaysayang dalubwika sa Estados Unidos at sa Kanlurang Europa;
00:31
from any long-distance relationships, big groupings,
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malaking pagpangkat, mga pagpapangkat
00:35
groupings that go back a long time,
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na matagal nang namamalagi,
00:38
longer than the familiar families.
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mas matagal pa sa mga kilalang pamilya.
00:41
They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank.
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Ayaw nila yun; sa tingin nila himaling ito. Sa tingin ko, hindi.
00:45
And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians,
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At may mga napakatalinong mga dalubwika, karamihang mga Ruso,
00:48
who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow,
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na nagtatrabaho sa Santa Fe Institute at sa Moscow,
00:52
and I would love to see where that leads.
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at gusto kong makita kung saan makararating ito.
00:56
Does it really lead to a single ancestor
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Makararating ba talaga ito sa isang ninuno
00:59
some 20, 25,000 years ago?
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ilang mga 20, 25,000 na taong nakaraan?
01:02
And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor,
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At paano kung bumalik tayo sa nakaraan na higit pa sa ninuno na ito,
01:05
when there was presumably a competition among many languages?
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noong siguro mayroong kompetisyon sa gitna ng mga wika?
01:09
How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go?
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Gaano kalayo pa sa nakaraan ba yun? Gaano kalayo ang pinanggalingan ng makabagong wika?
01:13
How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
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Ilang nakaraang libu-libong taon?
01:16
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
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Chris Anderson: Mayroon ka bang kutob o di kaya inaasahang sagot dito?
01:19
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older
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Murray Gell-Mann: Sa palagay ko dapat mas nakatatanda ang makabagong wika
01:22
than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures
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kaysa sa mga larawan, mga ukit at mga lilok sa kuweba
01:26
and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe,
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at mga yapak ng sayaw sa malambot na luwad sa mga kuweba ng Kanlurang Europa
01:31
in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier.
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noong panahong Aurignacian mga 35,000 na taong nakaraan, or mas maaga.
01:37
I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language.
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Di ko mapaniwalaan na ginawa nila yun lahat tapos wala ring makabagong wika.
01:40
So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
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Ang hula ko, ang tunay na simula ay mga ganun nga o mas maaga pa.
01:45
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most
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Ngunit hindi nito ibig sabihin na di puwedeng manggaling
01:48
of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps
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ang lahat, o karamihan ng mga napatunayan na mga wika
01:52
from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years,
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mula sa isang mas bago, ng siguro mga 20,000 na taong nakaraan,
01:56
or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
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o parang ganun. Ang tawag natin dito ay ang pagbo-bottleneck (biglang pagsikip ng daloy).
02:00
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right.
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CA: Maaaring tama si Philip Anderson.
02:01
You may just know more about everything than anyone.
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Maaaring mas maraming kang alam sa lahat kaysa kanino.
02:04
So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann.
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Naging isang karangalan ito. Maraming salamat Ginoong Murray Gell-Mann.
02:06
(Applause)
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(Palakpakan)
Translated by chris s
Reviewed by Schubert Malbas

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist
Murray Gell-Mann brings visibility to a crucial aspect of our existence that we can't actually see: elemental particles. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for introducing quarks, one of two fundamental ingredients for all matter in the universe.

Why you should listen

He's been called "the man with five brains" -- and Murray Gell-Mann has the resume to prove it. In addition to being a Nobel laureate, he is an accomplished physicist who's earned numerous awards, medals and honorary degrees for his work with subatomic particles, including the groundbreaking theory that the nucleus of an atom comprises 100 or so fundamental building blocks called quarks.

Gell-Mann's influence extends well beyond his field: He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves on the board of the Wildlife Conservation Society and is a director of Encyclopedia Britannica. Gell-Mann, a professor emeritus of Caltech, now heads the evolution of human languages program at the Santa Fe Institute, which he cofounded in 1984.

A prolific writer -- he's penned scores of academic papers and several books, including The Quark and the Jaguar -- Gell-Mann is also the subject of the popular science biography Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics.

More profile about the speaker
Murray Gell-Mann | Speaker | TED.com