John McWhorter

The kuh dropped off because the first sound in a word might drop off like you say, what's that, instead of what's that.

All dropped off.

And so that means that in those languages now, instead of what, where, when, why, it's ut, air, and I. Like that.

They're not as clear.

They're not as learnable.

They're all screwed up.

That kind of thing happens every bit as much as things that help make things clearer in language.

And nobody minds, because by the time a child grows up with it and realizes that there's something off about it, it's too late to learn anything else.

And so I feel like language changes may be random-er than creature change.

I think they are.

Yes.

But context takes care of so much, and so we just suffer.

The music for it is... That's Proto-Indo-European.

It's in what is now Ukraine.

Okay.

I wake up with it daily.

You are correct about Proto-Indo-European.

We'll never know exactly, but no doubt it was shot through with probably words and grammar of other languages.

My best guess would be languages spoken today in the Caucasus Mountains, for one.

Certainly, there's no reason why not, because the people were always conquering each other and mating and mixing together.