Charles F. Hockett

And then we apply contemporary methods and we see how that story fails.

But we use it as a paradigmatic case of analysis, right? I don't remember if it was Steve or I, but I remember coming across this very interesting point that Hockett, Charles Hockett, the linguist, made at some point in the eighties.

I think it was the American Anthropological Association.

He's invited to give a talk.

So the fact that they were missing exactly those, that was extremely telling.

And when we found them, we could trace them to loanwords from Bantu languages, which were, again, agriculturalists.

All right, so you, without meaning to, you vindicated Hockett's idea, and it seems like this was a real force for linguistic change.

Are there any other factors like this sort of like large scale historical shifts that you think have changed language in fundamental ways?