The origins of language- (original) (raw)

Origins of Language: Blah, Blah, Yadda, Yadda

There are over 6000 languages in the world, different dialects within communities, pigins and creole languages, clicks and whistles, guttural and sweet, but how did this all begin? Who, what, how did we learn to speak so many languages? There are many theories. One of those theories suggests that the origin of language is monogenesis, some argue that perhaps the first language began with one of the most unlikely ancestors: Neanderthals. Is this possible? The focus of this paper is whether or not Neanderthals may have had the same capabilities for speech as modern humans.

Constraining the Time When Language Evolved

The Evolution of Language - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference (EVOLANG6), 2006

The precise timing of the emergence of language in human prehistory cannot be resolved. But the available evidence is sufficient to constrain it to some degree. This is a review and synthesis of the available evidence, leading to the conclusion that the time when speech in some form became important for our ancestors can be constrained to be not less than 400,000 years ago, thus excluding several popular theories involving a late transition to speech.

The Origins of Language: A Systematic Literature Review

Many theories have been proposed to explain the origins of human language. Although there is much literature that covers a wide variety of such theories, this systematic literature review will consolidate and evaluate the evidence available that suggests pre-adaptations to language in the hominid lineage. This was done by researching and reviewing relevant literature by experts in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, psychology, linguistics and neurobiology. The findings revealed there to be many hypotheses: some rather contrasting; others that reinforced one-another, but overall there seems to be a clear divide between the exaptation and adaptation viewpoints. The conclusion that can be drawn from this review is that pre-adaptations for language (of which there are numerous) periodically came into place throughout the evolution of the hominid line. Clearly language has undergone a long and complex evolutionary journey, one which relied heavily on various adaptations to reach its current stage. Persuasive theories on language as an exaptation surely fall by the wayside once we assess how the evidence supports language as an adaptation.