9 February 2006
Paradise
Finally reading up on the "lost world" discovered in Papua New Guinea. One point, that I'm sure the language blogs will be discussing, is the relationship of this discovery to the large number of languages in that country. I think I first read about this in Guns, Germs, and Steel where the author was contrasting the disparate tribes and languages in New Guinea with the relative homogeneity of China. New Guinea's landscape is dense and mountainous and therefore difficult to traverse. Societies formed and seldom mixed because of this, and it promoted the development of distinct groups and cultures. In areas where there are no people, there are probably many more lost worlds to be found.
[ posted by sstrader on
9 February 2006 at 12:00:24 PM in Language & Literature
]
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