hollis (they/them) currently studying classics and archaeology.
fun fact about languages: a linguist who was studying aboriginal languages of Australia finally managed to track down a native speaker of the Mbabaram language in the 60s for his research. they talked a bit and he started by asking for the Mbabaram word for basic nouns. They went back and forth before he asked for the word for “dog” The man replied “dog” They had a bit of a “who’s on first” moment before realizing that, by complete coincidence, Mbabaram and English both have the exact same word for dog.
This blog has the full story and explanation, extracted from Dixon’s “Searching for Aboriginal Languages: Memoirs of a Field Worker”:
There’s a bit of minor distortion in the story here (way, way less than normally happens!), but the indigenous Australian dude (Albert Bennett) who they’d tracked down actually decided to start with the word “dog” because he thought it was a funny coincidence:
“He [Albert] didn’t remember any Barbaram language, but who’d want it anyway? What good was it?… Finally he volunteered a word.
“You know what we call ‘dog’?” he asked. I waited anxiously. “We call it dog.” My heart sank… [pp. 105-107]”
It freaked Dixon out a bit because it was so different from the Australian languages they’d already looked at, ones from an area far away from here. There’s a full explanation as to how the word “dog” developed. And also how those languages that look so different from the outside are related to Mbarbaram.
ty for the correction!