The Ancestral language was, of course, the creation of the Ancestral culture, that prehistoric but in no way primitive civilization which lies at the root of mankind’s modern family tree. It displays, for the most part, the characteristics of any earthy language, but the unique circumstances of its development no doubt explain many of its more unusual features.
First and foremost, the Ancestral language was a work of art that, like music or dance, consciously and/or unconsciously expressed its native habitat — the seas, beaches, rivers, jungles, grasslands, and mountains of prehistoric South Asia. I believe this fact may explain, for example, Ancestral’s extraordinarily large consonant inventory, which enabled its creators to capture (within the limits of the human vocal range) many of this environment’s unique sounds.
Second, the Ancestral language developed in isolation, without any apparent influence from any other human language. I believe this fact explains Ancestral’s high degree of regularity. Fortunately for us, this makes Ancestral a relatively easy language to learn.
Last but not least, at the time South Asia was very much a hunter-gatherer’s paradise, not without its dangers but with few day-to-day challenges. I believe this fact explains Ancestral’s semantic preoccupation with the natural cycles of evolution, growth, and decay, as expressed in its characteristic vocalic patterns.
All this is not to say that Ancestral was a static creation, fixed and unchanging. My initial attempts at the internal reconstruction of Pre-Ancestral suggest, for example, that it at one time had cardinal three vowels, not five. Like any other natural language, Ancestral evolved over time in response to its speakers’ ever-changing circumstances. And thereby hangs a tale.
