🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Jan.18.22.30.55.1993.10130@pilot.njin.net>, hubey@pilot.njin.net (Hubey) writes:
|> 
|> I think personal pronouns were an innovation in language and could
|> and probably did get borrowed. They're probably short for 'this_man', 
|> 'this_woman', 'that_man', etc... I think you give too much credit
|> to primitive man busy chasing lizards to sit around inventing
|> pronouns as if he did not have anything else to do.

Stone age man spent more time sitting around the camp fire talking than anything
else.  It turns out that hunter-gatherer economics requires *less* intensive
effort than anything since.  A hunter had *far* more spare time than *we* do.

And, *third* *person* pronouns may well have originated as you say - many times
over (for instance from Latin to Romance).  First and second person pronouns
are far more fundamental - their lack would indicate a lack of the concept
of 'self' and 'other'.  This perception is *fundamental* to consciousness itself,
it is central to human experience.

|> Man, when did camels get domesticated ? Horses ? Cattle? When did
|> they get out of the stone age?  What condition were the
|> American Indians in around 1500 CE? How about Australian
|> aborigines ?

What has domestication to do with anything?  A hunter-gatherer invaraibly has
a better natural vocabulary than a farmer or rancher.

Talk to an Australian aborigine sometime - you will be surprised at thier
sophistication!

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