At the top of the list are I and we , which apparently date back tens of thousands of years. I don’t know about the way the researchers came to their conclusion—computer analysis of “the rate of change of words in English and the languages that share a common heritage”—but, humans being communal creatures, I and we seems to make a lot of sense.
The scientists argue that one , two , three , and five are only slightly older. Maybe we had to first figure out how many I s and We s there actually were.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…
The Possibility of Possibility
"Might could” is a Southern expression meaning “maybe I could” or “I might be able to,” conveying…
The False Promise of No Contact
Around the time nineteen-year-old Alice began cutting ties with her family, she announced on social media that…
