Well, I'm involved in other things, besides physics. In fact, mostly now in other things.
其實,除咗物理之外 我都有涉獵其他領域 最近我嘅大部分時間都喺度做其他事
One thing is distant relationships among human languages. And the professional, historical linguists in the U.S. and in Western Europe mostly try to stay away from any long-distance relationships, big groupings, groupings that go back a long time, longer than the familiar families. They don't like that. They think it's crank. I don't think it's crank. And there are some brilliant linguists, mostly Russians, who are working on that, at Santa Fe Institute and in Moscow, and I would love to see where that leads.
其中一件就係關於 人類語言之間嘅疏遠關係 美國同西歐嘅專業嘅歷史語言學家 都唔鍾意將語言之間嘅關係睇得好疏遠 又或者將佢哋歸類成語系 而呢啲語系又耐過我哋熟識嘅語族 佢哋唔鍾意噉睇,佢哋覺得好怪 但我就唔認同嘞 一啲好叻嘅語言學家 其中大多數係俄羅斯人 就喺莫斯科聖塔菲研究院研究哩個課題 我一路都好想知哩個研究發展到邊
Does it really lead to a single ancestor some 20, 25,000 years ago? And what if we go back beyond that single ancestor, when there was presumably a competition among many languages? How far back does that go? How far back does modern language go? How many tens of thousands of years does it go back?
現代語言會唔會真係 由一個二萬或者二萬五千年前 共同原始語言開始? 又或者,如果我們繼續追溯到 哩個原始語言之前 又會唔會好多種語言喺度互相競爭? 如果真嘅話,會係幾耐之前呢? 近代語言又可以追溯到幾多萬年前?
Chris Anderson: Do you have a hunch or a hope for what the answer to that is?
Chris Anderson︰你有冇預感或者希望 這個問題嘅答案會係咩呢?
Murray Gell-Mann: Well, I would guess that modern language must be older than the cave paintings and cave engravings and cave sculptures and dance steps in the soft clay in the caves in Western Europe, in the Aurignacian Period some 35,000 years ago, or earlier. I can't believe they did all those things and didn't also have a modern language. So, I would guess that the actual origin goes back at least that far and maybe further.
講者︰嗯,我估現代語言 會比山洞嘅壁畫、雕刻、雕塑 或者西歐山洞軟泥上嘅舞步更加古老 大概係三萬五千年前嘅歐里納克時期 或者更早 我好難相信山洞嘅呢啲作品 可以喺冇現代語言嘅情況下出現 所以我會估現代語言嘅真實起源 至少可以追溯到嗰個時候,甚至更遠
But that doesn't mean that all, or many, or most of today's attested languages couldn't descend perhaps from one that's much younger than that, like say 20,000 years, or something of that kind. It's what we call a bottleneck.
但哩個並唔代表所有、好多 或者大部分今日確認嘅語言 唔係起源於更加後生嘅語族 譬如二萬年前左右 哩個就係我哋所謂嘅樽頸
CA: Well, Philip Anderson may have been right. You may just know more about everything than anyone. So, it's been an honor. Thank you Murray Gell-Mann. (Applause)
Chris Anderson︰ 好啦,講者可能真係啱嘅 你真係喺每一件事 都比任何人知道更加多 所以好榮幸可以請到你過嚟,多謝你 (掌聲)