6. Do All Languages Derive from a Single Common Ancestor?

This is about the origin of languages and how scientists work to find out how and where speech started. We all know the story about the Tower of Babel and how different languages are predicted to have originated from there, but how? The author presents a video that explains that as people spread out after the event at Babel, they each developed their unique languages. Different environments and ways of living affected the newly formed groups and made them develop new words for the new things they discovered. The video also explains how scientists analyze all languages and try to trace them back to their origins to form a language family. This diagram shows the languages that are connected to others and the common ancestor of all of them. The way scientists do this is by analyzing mainly grammar and syntax, since similar sounding words can be false cognates or borrowed terms which aren't very reliable. An example given is, in English, the words "father, foot, far and five." When translated to Ancient Greek they become "pater, podos, per and pente." Not very similar sounding, are they? But look at how in English, they all start with "p" and in Ancient Greek "f". By doing this with each and every language while testing numerous words, scientists are able to find patterns and trace similar languages back to the primitive ones. The author explains how a proto-language is one that is an ancestor language and that there are lots of them. She also states how languages don't leave physical artifacts behind like cooking utensils or hunting weapons and "that writing was only invented somewhere between 50,000 and 300,000 years later."
Gretchen McCulloch, author of this article, does a great job explaining how languages are studied and related. Her introduction was extremely well worded and able to catch the reader's attention even though it was a single sentence (a question really). Throughout her essay, she presents two videos, one from TED Talk and the other from a guy who studies how languages work. Both videos do an exceptional  job at explaining the origin and the evolution of languages and make it clear for the readers what the author is trying to teach/explain. A picture used to show how the word "tea" is pronounced around the globe gives the audience an idea of how language really does have a common ancestor. Her word choice was good and she was able to explain a complicated topic in a simple and brief manner. Even though the essay itself isn't very long, Gretchen is able to convey her message (mostly because of the videos she used) which was probably her main objective.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/08/21/origin_of_languages_tower_of_babel_proto_languages_and_the_brothers_grimm.html