Reproduced with permission of Punch Ltd.
Darwin saw parallels between the evolution of species and of languages
Charles Darwin spotted it. In
These foundations for an entirely new field of research were largely ignored for almost a century. Language wasn't recognized as a heritable trait, subject to processes of natural selection. Instead, studies of biological and language evolution followed different trajectories, evidence of which is still reflected in the departmental structure of most universities. The divide is finally being bridged, even if a common terminology has taken a while ...
