Linguists' Babel myth?
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Today's SMBC:
The mouseover text: "Really, if every country could be partitioned a couple times, it'd be really nice for science."
…which seems to indulge the fallacy that governmental boundaries == linguistic boundaries?
And the phrase "…let every phoneme dwell in some mouth" echoes the fallacy that "phonemes" are isolatable (and even physical) things, like beads on a string, rather than local aspects of the abstract system whereby a particular language organizes the lexical affinities of mouth noises.
Of course, the content is explicitly characterized as a myth, and the speaker is portrayed as a megachurch preacher of some kind. So we shouldn't expect science. And it's good to see words like lexicon and phoneme getting a day in the comics.
The aftercomic:
For some scientific, historical and politico-religious background, see
"Linguists boycott Kansas intelligent design hearings", 5/5/2005
"Chomsky testifies in Kansas", 5/6/2005
"Wrathful Dispersion Theory", 12/2/2005
"Creationist linguistics", 7/1/2007
"The science and theology of global language change", 12/30/2007
"Mailbag: The comparative theology of linguistic diversity", 12/31/2007
"The origin of speeches: Wrathful dispersion for real?", 12/31/2007
"Scientific Babelism", 4/1/2013
"Edenics", 11/1/2013
"We should not have brought a linguist", 2/5/2021
From that last post, a relevant xkcd:
As noted here and there in those posts, I've always found it interesting that there's so much more controversy about geological and genetic history than about linguistic history.
Stephen Goranson said,
September 8, 2022 @ 8:43 am
There is controversy aplenty, of course, about the relation of Bible and history, some which may touch on linguistics or at least text criticism.
Was there an Urtext of Torah? Or of Old Greek translation, for example.
One recent claim by Russell Gmirkin is that the first five books of Hebrew Bible "were composed in their entirety about 273-272 BCE" in Alexandria. Though It has defenders, I consider it bogus.
KeithB said,
September 8, 2022 @ 8:47 am
I have wondered whether there have been any young earth creationist linguists that have tried to piece together the "first language", or prove that all languages radiated from the middle east some 5000 years ago.
MattF said,
September 8, 2022 @ 9:38 am
SMBC uses a peculiar floating notched disk representation for the Deity, who appears fairly often in the comic. I have no idea what that is supposed to be, besides ‘thing to be prayed towards’.
Ted McClure said,
September 8, 2022 @ 10:48 am
MattF: My guess is that it is a medieval-style halo without a saint's head in front of it. Probably has a name.
[(myl) Not sure about the name, but here's a plausible example:
]
Coby said,
September 8, 2022 @ 11:10 am
It's the same fallacy as behind the name of the International Phonetic Alphabet, as if it had anything to do with nations (in any sense).
Philip Taylor said,
September 8, 2022 @ 11:26 am
The nearest match that Google Images finds is on this T-shirt, and of course the emoji on which it is based.
MattF said,
September 8, 2022 @ 1:42 pm
OED suggests ‘aureole’.
Viseguy said,
September 8, 2022 @ 6:47 pm
@MattF: Which raises the question, What is the best way to eat an aureole?
Viseguy said,
September 8, 2022 @ 6:51 pm
I should've @'ed Philip Taylor as well on that last comment.
Tim Leonard said,
September 8, 2022 @ 10:08 pm
MattF: Notice that the same representation is on the linguist's speech in the last frame. I think it denotes some characteristic of the speech, like emphasis, or in the deity's case, the presumably impressive acoustic effects available to an omnipotent speaker.
Philip Taylor said,
September 9, 2022 @ 2:33 am
Where do you see "[that] same representation", Tim ? I can see nothing like the halo / cookie emoji / aureole in the 4-frame "Tower of Babel" strip.
Rodger C said,
September 9, 2022 @ 2:44 pm
Shouldn't an aureole be eaten something like a lark?
Terry K. said,
September 9, 2022 @ 3:57 pm
@Philip Taylor
There's lines, coming out of the direction of God when he speaks, and in the fourth frame there are similar lines around the head of the linguist, and they do seem to represent a halo.
Philip Taylor said,
September 10, 2022 @ 1:46 am
Ah, yes, now I see what you mean — I was looking for something like the cookie emoji in the after-comic of the first strip, and failed to appreciate the probable significance of the radiating lines in the second.
Josh R. said,
September 11, 2022 @ 7:20 pm
Those lines are just indicating volume. You can see them in the first panel, when people are shouting to each other.
Andreas Johansson said,
September 12, 2022 @ 9:08 am
@KeithB:
Back in the day, there were serious-by-the-standards-of-their-day scholars who tried to prove all languages derive from Hebrew. And there's present-day wackos who try and prove that they're all derived from Basque or whatever. But I don't think I've encountered anyone doing so in an explicitly Young Earth Creationist context.
I realize with mild surprise that I can't recall hearing anyone objecting to comparative linguistics on the grounds that, say, Proto-Afroasiatic is supposed to have been spoken well before 4000 BC.