When did the Romans capture Gaul? Was it BC or AD? Also, I'm asking myself how languages evolve from their ancient forms to more modern forms, and since we're talking Romans, when did Latin become all the other ones? Was it incremental or gradual? I'm thinking that the evolution of language is a good model for the evolution of cognition, and that we can learn things from it.
In the same way we can fully understand Modern English like Shakespeare, and have trouble with Middle and Old English, I'd imagine we're having trouble communicating with chimpanzees. Any ideas?
