Why do none of the native southern african languages have their own alphabet?

[SaucePlz]

Well, obviously not a written alphabet.

Due to the way history has unfolded, some don't even have their spoken language anymore. Things come and go as they are needed/used.

 

[deweyzeph]

The wheel was only invented once throughout human history. The technology spread via cultural diffusion

There is no way to prove or disprove that. In any case, I've always found it absurd that in the 200 000 odd years that anatomically modern Homo Sapiens have roamed this earth the wheel was only supposedly "invented" a few thousand years ago.

 

[Polymathic]

There is no way to prove or disprove that. In any case, I've always found it absurd that in the 200 000 odd years that anatomically modern Homo Sapiens have roamed this earth the wheel was only supposedly "invented" a few thousand years ago.

Yeah boggles the mind but the wheel seems to prove that common sense isn't as common as we like to think it is

 

[dusi]

There was an ancient tribe called the Bokoni who settled in Mpumalanga and built stone structures and were agricultural innovators, the remnants of their stone structures can still be found today. Unfortunately they were wiped out by the militant Swazi and Zulu kingdoms and their land was expropriated and their culture was lost. Who knows, maybe they had developed writing and mathematics, there are numerous stone sun calendars that can be found in the area, so it appears they did have an understanding of celestial movements. But that knowledge has been erased from history.

 

[jibo82]

A long standing civilisation is needed to bring a written language into use. Southern Africa does not have that - a savage place with people moving around, but not settling. Compare that to Egypt, China and the countries around the mediterranean which have long settled histories. A very bloody history, but the written language got around.

Ok the multi-quote feature doesn't seem to be working so i will respond individually to each post.

Pretty much all the native groups\tribes in Southern Africa lived in nomadic hunter\gatherer societies so this is very possible. This also begs the question if the predisposition of the people inclines them that way. Being at the Southern most tip of the continent one would assume that they would have been spared from more militant aggressive nations. The native population of Southern Africa was also spread more sparsely. This makes me wonder how it is possible there were no long standing civilizations. It is very well possible that there were long standing societies but they never progressed because they were not inclined that way.

 

[jibo82]

There was an ancient tribe called the Bokoni who settled in Mpumalanga and built stone structures and were agricultural innovators, the remnants of their stone structures can still be found today. Unfortunately they were wiped out by the militant Swazi and Zulu kingdoms and their land was expropriated and their culture was lost. Who knows, maybe they had developed writing and mathematics, there are numerous stone sun calendars that can be found in the area, so it appears they did have an understanding of celestial movements. But that knowledge has been erased from history.

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More advanced civilizations being replaced by more primitive warring tribes... I will do some research on that. There doesn't seem to be much on them. Maybe it was a tribe with a lone genius, lol.

 

[jibo82]

Southern Africa was on the verge of it IMO. The evidence is very clear with the likes of Great Zimbabwe, which was put up around 1200AD.

Great Zimbabwe: 1200AD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Zimbabwe#Decline

Broch of Mousa: 100BC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broch_of_Mousa

I suspect the reason why Southern Africa was behind a lot of other places is simply due to climate. The weather in Southern Africa is comparatively mild. The summers are hot, but not Egypt hot, and the winters are cold, but not northern Europe cold. They didn't need to rely as much on technology to survive as much as other places did, hence they didn't have as much of a need to develop written language. As the saying goes: necessity is the mother of invention.

Storing food for a winter for example is one of those things that would drive the development of a written language.

Anyone wanting to claim cultural superiority or inferiority because of this would be pretty stupid as this is a purely environmental explanation.

Its one explanation but its not the only explanation.

Even if the environment necessitated invention there is no guarantee that the group of people affected would have adapted. Many groups of people have gone the way of the Dodo because of their inability to adapt or survive environmental conditions.

 

[jibo82]

Simpleton

I love that, I can't even be angry. I'm not insecure about my intellect level so doesn't even offend me.

I'd love to know of a culture who's language and writing has not been influenced in anyway by some invading force.

I was not trying to insult you, I was just being matter of fact.

 

[jibo82]

Everyone had a holiday home
I also painted with a very very broad brush, there are way too many various cultures to make the statement I made accurate for all of them.

Climate and resources availability are tied to one another, so it's a mixture of both, with climate obviously being the driving force. I don't think we can really know with certainty, but interesting to discuss nonetheless.

As I said in an earlier response, we can't say definitely that the groups in question would have adapted to harsher conditions, it is very possible that they could have failed to adapt and innovate and died out.

 

[jibo82]

The wheel was only invented once throughout human history. The technology spread via cultural diffusion

Nope, different groups could have developed the same technology in isolation.

 

[jibo82]

Necessity is the mother of invention. No need for a wheel, no need to invent it.

Assuming that there exists the predisposition for such invention.

 

[SaucePlz]

As I said in an earlier response, we can't say definitely that the groups in question would have adapted to harsher conditions, it is very possible that they could have failed to adapt and innovate and died out.

Of course. This entire thread is speculation, there are very few things from that far back that we can talk about with absolute certainty. For all we know, there could have been writing systems, but they didn't bother developing the technology they wrote with, e.g. if they wrote on large leaves, the chances of us finding those leaves in tact are minute.

Assuming that there exists the disposition for such invention.

If there isn't the disposition for invention, they are not Homo Sapiens. And accordingly would be replaced or destroyed by us.

 

[jibo82]

It’s human nature to want to reduce everything to one variable for our convenience.

You seem to assume that there weren’t groups of people who were wiped out because on a failure to adapt to their environment.

 

[Polymathic]

Nope, different groups could have developed the same technology in isolation.

But they didn't.

 

[jibo82]

But they didn't.

Google the term “multiple discoveries”. You are welcome

 

[dusi]

It’s human nature to want to reduce everything to one variable for our convenience.

You seem to assume that there weren’t groups of people who were wiped out because on a failure to adapt to their environment.

Not being able to adapt to the environment doesn't seem plausible at all, ever heard of the cradle of mankind where early humans originated from? Well that's just North of Johannesburg. It's safe to say humans have been roaming and surviving in Southern Africa for thousands of years. What's more plausible is over time many different cultures were wiped out or displaced because of intertribal warfare.

 

[Polymathic]

Google the term “multiple discoveries”. You are welcome

I was speaking specifically about the wheel

 

[SaucePlz]

It’s human nature to want to reduce everything to one variable for our convenience.

You seem to assume that there weren’t groups of people who were wiped out because on a failure to adapt to their environment.

Of course there were groups of people completely wiped out, not sure what gave you the impression I didn't think that. The neanderthals, the denisovans, Homo erectus and Homo naledi being some of those that either failed to adapt or were replaced by better adapted people.

 

[azbob]

I was speaking specifically about the wheel

We can’t know for sure. The wheel was invented before records were kept.

 

[etienne_marais]

^^ I'm scared to ask what Bulgarian Pleasure wheels are