Give this fire to that old man.

[Henry M]

Linguists identify 15,000-year-old ‘ultraconserved words’

The traditional view is that words can’t survive for more than 8,000
to 9,000 years. Evolution, linguistic “weathering” and the adoption of
replacements from other languages eventually drive ancient words to
extinction, just like the dinosaurs of the Jurassic era.

A new study, however, suggests that’s not always true.

A team of researchers has come up with a list of two dozen
“ultraconserved words” that have survived 150 centuries. It includes
some predictable entries: “mother,” “not,” “what,” “to hear” and
“man.” It also contains surprises: “to flow,” “ashes” and “worm.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/linguists-identify-15000-year-old-ultraconserved-words/2013/05/06/a02e3a14-b427-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html

It would be interesting, and perhaps even informative, to determine
the frequency of the use of ultraconserved words by particular
authors.

Yours truly,
٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶
Henry Musikar, CISSP
http://astore.amazon.com/tdcoccamsaxe-20