"Truth is stranger than fiction" goes the old saying - and this blog seeks to make available to all as many stories and anectdotes as possible that highlight the strange, interesting and, sometimes, funny lives of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people down the ages, as well as share some difficult-to believe tidbits of information. Enjoy!!!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The oldest language still in use
The oldest language still in use in the world is the language employed by the Indian mahout - the professional elephant driver and keeper. In addressing the elephant the mahout uses neither Hindi nor Arabic nor Persian. Instead, he employs the tongue of the caveman - with which the latter first tamed an elephant 50,000 years ago. This survival - one of the most astounding in history - of a language of the caveman era furnishes some basis for the traditional and famous elephant memory, since the animal still refuses to understand any other tongue.