Does anybody larp harder than linguists? At least Tolkien had

Linguistics becomes more of a science the more recent you get. You can craft a reasonable evolution of language based on observation, but anything past the level of Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic is pure hypothesis.

>>1877085
You're acting like that pic represents mainstream views in linguistics

>>1877085
I wonder what Neanderthal languages sound like.

>>1877085
Nobody has taken the OP image seriously since ever

>>1877844

A linguist would probably be happy to "reconstruct" it for you.

They seriously can't help themselves.

>>1877844
I've heard that they weren't able to speak.

>>1877880
Thats bullshit, they should be able to speak since they can choke.

>>1877880
considering primates today with brains less sophisticated than homonids two million years ago use basic forms of abstract communication(including gorillas who if taught language by humans can and will combine multiple abstractions into new meanings), and that these homonids were developing complicated, multi-component tools at the time, it's fairly safe to hypothesize that homonids have had language capabilities for at least couple million years.

>>1877085
What I want to know is how the fuck did someone think this would make sense.

There is some evidence for this theory.

Linguistics generally is quite robust. Not that the ill-educated teenagers on here would appreciate that.

>>1879802
We don't even have enough evidence for the Altaic group and we have no records old enough to lend credibility to this theory.

>>1879870
They have no 'records' for PIE either, but it's pretty well understood.

>>1879876
Because we have old enough records of Greek, Latin and Sanskrit (among others) to reconstruct it.

To reconstruct Nostratic we would need records of PIE and Proto-Afro Asiatic and Proto-Dravidian.

File: BoreanLanguageTree.png (581KB, 6018x2788px) Image search: [Google]

581KB, 6018x2788px

>>1877085
God bless linguists.

>>1877085
How do I start with linguistics

File: neanderthal speech abilities.png (392KB, 617x597px) Image search: [Google]

392KB, 617x597px

>>1877880
>>1877962
They would be able to speak, it is unclear whether or not they had language.