I have always been fascinated by the way language has evolved and how some words seem to be common across all languages like the words for mother and father in particular. Well researchers at Reading University recently identified that “I”, “we”, “two” and “three” are among the most ancient words, dating back at least 10 thousand years. The discovery first broke on BBC science.
The researchers found that that words that are used frequently change slowing through time so very common words that are used a lot such as “one”, “two” and “three” tend to be the oldest. However, the researchers only did the research as far as I can tell for the Indo-European languages. What about the Asian languages ?
I am developing an interest in the aboriginals of Taiwan in Asia. They appear to be a very ancient people and share some of the same DNA as the Maroi’s of New Zealand and the Hawaiian’s.
I checked out some comparative research on Wikipedia and found the same rules applied to the Proto-Austonesian languages i.e. the sounds for the numbers for “two” and “three” in particular sound very similar to our English ones. I borrowed the following table extract from Wikipedia to show what I mean.
| Proto- Austronesian |
Malay | Maori | Fijian | Hawaiian | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *(e)sa | satu | tahi, kotahi | dua | kahi | one |
| *duSa | dua | rua | rua | lua | two |
| *telu | tiga | toru | tolu | kolu | three |
Isn’t it amazing the way all the people of the world seem to share these common word sounds for these very common words?
About Danny Sheehan
Danny lives in Hong Kong but is originally from Australia. He is Married to Maggie and together they have two children with whom they enjoy sharing and enjoying an exciting life with daily. Danny's passions are freedom, adventure and discovery, mainly in nature and science but also spiritually. He is a great believer in living in the NOW.
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Amazing Discoveries