Fascinating about very old words. Maybe the Cro Magnon human used them 30,000 years ago?
Scientists at the University of Reading have discovered that 'I', 'we', 'who' and the numbers '1', '2' and '3' are amongst the oldest words, not only in English, but across all Indo-European languages. What's more, words like 'squeeze', 'guts', 'stick', 'throw' and 'dirty' look like they are heading for history's dustbin – along with a host of others. Read more
Listen to a BBC interview with Professor Mark Pagel of Reading University.
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