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Re: Anthropology Matters. Fellow AM list members, Those of you interested in the anthropological aspects of linguistics may also be interested in two draft papers concerning the writing system of a Medieval manuscript, which has been revealed to be a form of proto-Romance, and written on the island of Ischia under the Crown of Naples, c. 1444. The language is a simplified form of spoken Latin, mixed with words from other languages of Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. The language was evidently a 'lingua franca' that evolved rapidly as a common form of communication in the Mediterranean between people from many places of origin, due to trade, slavery, imperial and political conquest, royal marriage, migration and the general exchange of information and ideas. It then evolved into the modern Romance languages during the Renaissance, when the political map became more fixed and populations became relatively culturally isolated. This demonstrates that humans are very effective and efficient at finding new ways to communicate when sociocultures have occasion to meet: i.e. necessity is the mother of invention. Thus, it enables memes to flow between cultures, so that ecological benefit is found through the sharing of commodities, material culture, information and ideas. Of course, there will be gene flow too. The papers can be freely downloaded from the preprint website LingBuzz: 1. Linguistic Missing Links: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003737 2. Linguistically Dating and Locating: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003808 Regards, G. E. Cheshire. University of Bristol. ************************************************************* * Anthropology-Matters Mailing List * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * * To join this list or to look at the archived previous * * messages visit: * * https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/Anthropology-Matters * * If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all * * those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: * * [log in to unmask] * * * * Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new * * CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com * * an international directory of anthropology researchers * To unsubscribe please click here: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=ANTHROPOLOGY-MATTERS&A=1 ***************************************************************