Michael Campbell

In this talk we will first take a look at how all current language families evolved from a single human near-extinction event, hypothetically tracking the development of 30 language families via key vocabulary, then following up with key tendencies in sound-to-meaning mappings across many of these families. These core concepts can assist language learners make the jump to learning languages more successfully in far-off language families with ease by developing key awareness strategies. This talk is a culmination of a life time of knowledge acquisition, from learning languages from all corners of the earth. My polyglot journey started with learning half a dozen Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages, followed by another half a dozen Sinitic languages early in my career. I have since gone on to learn most East and Southeast Asian languages including half a dozen indigenous Formosan languages, with a push in recent years learning several Celtic, Baltic, Mongol, Tungusic, Uralic, Turkic, Dravidian, Philippine, Polynesian, Indo-Aryan, Semitic, Bantu, and Caucasian languages, in addition to Greek and Armenian. #memory #languagefamilies #etymology #reflexes #phonaesthemes