世界祖語

**世界祖語**（せかいそご、）または**人類祖語**（じんるいそご、）とは世界の全語族の最も近い共通祖先として想定される言語。

## 世界の語族の比較
アメリカの言語学者メリット・ルーレンは、試みとして多くの単語について、世界中の言語における似た音・語義の形の存在に基づいて、その祖語を追跡している。

ベングトソンとルーレンら(1994年)は27の「世界語源」を確認した。下の表(ルーレン(1994)による)はこれらの形からいくつかを挙げたものである。

(Vは不明母音の意。）

これらの対応に基づき、ルーレン(1994b:105)は以下の語根を祖語として挙げている。

***ku** = 誰
***ma** = 何
***pal** = 2
***akʷa** = 水
***tik** =  指
***kanV** = 腕
***boko** = 腕
***buŋku** = 膝
***sum** = 髪
***putV** = 女性器
***čuna** = 鼻・におい

## 文献

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* Bengtson, John D. 2007.  "On fossil dinosaurs and fossil words."
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* Gell-Mann, Murray and Merritt Ruhlen. 2003. ["The origin and evolution of syntax."](http://www.nostratic.ru/books/(254)gell-ruhlen-syntax.pdf) (Also: [HTML version](https://web.archive.org/web/20090521045829/http://www.nostratic.ru/books/(254)gell-ruhlen-syntax.pdf).)
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* Greenberg, Joseph H. 1987. *Language in the Americas.* Stanford: Stanford University Press.
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* Ruhlen, Merritt. 1994a. *On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy*, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Ruhlen, Merritt. 1994b. *The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue.* New York: John Wiley and Sons.
* Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1986. *Course in General Linguistics*, translated by Roy Harris. Chicago: Open Court. (English translation of 1972 edition of *Cours de linguistique générale*, originally published in 1916.)
* Trombetti, Alfredo. 1905. *L'unità d'origine del linguaggio.* Bologna: Luigi Beltrami.
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* Wells, Spencer. 2007. *Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project.* Washington, D.C.: National Geographic.
* White, Tim D., B. Asfaw, D. DeGusta, H. Gilbert, G.D. Richards, G. Suwa, and F.C. Howell. 2003. "Pleistocene ''Homo sapiens'' from Middle Awash, Ethiopia." *Nature* 423:742–747.

## 関連項目
*言語の起源