The words we use for body parts may be among the oldest words of all, because our bodies are very important to us, common among us, and have always been with us. Linguist Dr. Erica Brozovsky (previously at Neatorama) tells us about some of those early words for body parts and how they know where they came from. The second part of that sentence is the more interesting part.
See, the spread and evolution of spoken language is like a historic timeline of its own that runs in parallel to the history of the written word or the artifacts of human civilization. If we can make an accurate map and timeline of how language was adapted to different cultures (and we've made a lot of progress), we can fill in many of the blanks in the historical record. "For example, since several languages as disparate as Sanskrit, Greek, and Dutch have similar words for wheel, it stands to reason that the Proto Indo European people had wheeled vehicles." That's mind-blowing, and raises my already-high regard for the study of linguistics even higher. There's way more to the study of languages than just the ancient roots of words.
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