{"id":708,"date":"2017-02-13T14:07:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T14:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/?p=708"},"modified":"2017-05-01T11:37:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T11:37:00","slug":"do-you-speak-pie-your-ancestors-probably-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/2017\/02\/13\/do-you-speak-pie-your-ancestors-probably-did\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you speak PIE? Your ancestors probably did!"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a good chance \u2013 make that a really good chance \u2013 that one of your ancestors spoke the ancient language known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE). According to New Scientist<\/a><\/em>, many modern\u00a0languages, such as English, Farsi, and Swedish, are thought to originate from the PIE. Other PIE \u201cdescendant\u201d languages include Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Sanskrit, and Spanish.<\/p>\n

PIE is believed to have originated between 6000 \u2013 3500 BC\u00a0and was spoken as a single language during the Neolithic Age. It has evolved into over 400 modern languages. For a more<\/em> complete list, see the language tree at the end this article.<\/p>\n

Researchers have worked extensively to trace the ancient language from daughter languages. But no one was able to \u201clisten\u201d to how PIE sounded, until now.<\/p>\n

Phys.org\u00a0<\/em>recently published an article, “Time travelling to the mother tongue<\/a>,” that described how researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford were able to demonstrate how words sounded in PIE.<\/p>\n

Statistical Shape-Shifting<\/h2>\n

The researchers developed a sound-based statistical analysis method to move back through the family tree of languages that stem from PIE. They aim to simulate how certain words would have sounded when they were spoken thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cSounds have shape,\u201d stated Professor John Aston, University of Cambridge. \u201cAs a word is uttered it vibrates air, and the shape of this soundwave can be measured and turned into a series of numbers. Once we have these stats, and the stats of another spoken word, we can start asking how similar they are and what it would take to shift from one to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shape of the soundwave that is created can be measured, resulting in numerical data. This data is transformed into spectrograms<\/a>: 3-dimensional representations of the sound waves, showing power (amplitude) plotted against time and frequency.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

MATLAB spectrogram of spoken word. Image credit: The University of Cambridge.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

The team examined the shape of the spectrogram in one language to the shape of the spectrograph of the same word in another, or earlier, language. They can shift from one shape to another by a series of small changes in the spectrograms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe primarily used MATLAB <\/a>for most of the audio pre-processing of the spectrograms,\u201d Aston added. \u201cIt’s more than an averaging process, it’s a continuum from one sound to the other. At each stage, we can turn the shape back into sound to hear how the word has changed.”<\/p>\n

<\/a>

A visual representation of the shift in the shape of the spectrograph for the same word from one language to another. Image credit: The University of Cambridge.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Linguistics and Acoustic-Phonetic Expertise<\/h2>\n

This project required a multi-discipline approach. Professor Aston led the team of statisticians in Cambridge. The linguistic expertise was provided by Professor John Coleman\u2019s group at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n

For the acoustic-phonetic analysis, they focused on words for numbers, since they have the\u00a0same meaning in all languages. In this soundwave<\/a>, you can hear the change from the PIE pronunciation of \u201cseptm\u201d to the current English for \u201cseven\u201d which holds the same meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve explicitly focused on reproducing sound changes and etymologies that the established analyses already suggest, rather than seeking to overturn them,\u201d stated Professor Coleman.<\/p>\n

The team is able to use the same methodology to predict how our languages will sound in the future, with some limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just extrapolate linearly, you\u2019ll reach a point at which the sound change hits the limit of what is a humanly reasonable sound,\u201d according to Coleman. \u201cThis has happened in some languages in the past with certain vowel sounds. But if you asked me what English will sound like in 300 years, my educated guess is that it will be hardly any different from today!\u201d<\/p>\n

Statistics to show (and hear!) to roots of modern language<\/h2>\n

This research is yet another great example of the omnipresent nature of mathematics. With the evolution of computational capabilities, statistical analysis is helping unlock many of our world\u2019s mysteries.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my point of view, it\u2019s amazing that we can turn exciting yet highly abstract statistical theory into something that really helps explain the roots of modern language,\u201d concludes Aston.<\/p>\n

If you would like to listen to more audio demonstrations of words from the Proto-Indo-European language, visit this page from the University of Oxford\u2019s Phonetics Laboratory<\/a>, or follow them on Twitter @sounds_ancient.<\/p>\n

Here is a partial list of the more than 400 modern languages that is believed to have evolved from PIE:<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Mapped evolution of the Proto-Indo-European language into modern languages.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n

There\u2019s a good chance \u2013 make that a really good chance \u2013 that one of your ancestors spoke the ancient language known as Proto-Indo-European (PIE). According to New Scientist, many modern\u00a0languages,… read more >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":825,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/headlines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}