User:Anthony.Sebastian/Sebastian-Sandbox-

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Darwin on language

In February 1837—even before he sailed on the Beagle— Charles Darwin wrote to his sister Caroline, discussing the linguist Sir John Herschel’s idea that modern languages were descended from a common ancestor. If this were really the case, it cast doubt on the Biblical chronology of the world: “[E]veryone has yet thought that the six thousand odd years has been the right period but Sir J. thinks that a far greater number must have passed since the Chinese [and] the Caucasian languages separated from one stock” [1- Darwin Correspondence Project (1837) Letter 346].

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