truth dancer wrote:Great topic!
Thanks.
So Shades, what is your theory on the origin of language?
I agree with the mainstream view, that language originated when our distant ancestors first imitated the sounds and animals around them. For example, the "S" sound came about as we tried to imitate the sound of the wind, "K" came about when our stone tools struck other surfaces, and "Z" and "G" came about respectively when we simultaneously vibrated our vocal cords when making those two sounds. Et cetera.
I am so NOT an expert but it seems there are some experts who believe language spontaneously arose in several (or a few), different parts of the world, other who think there is a common, "first," language.
What do you think?
I think it depends on whether there was one or multiple migrations out of Africa. Anatomically modern humans have been around for about 200,000 years, but only left Africa about 125,000 years ago. In my opinion, it's inconceivable that we could've spent 75,000 years without any language at all. Therefore, if language spontaneously arose in multiple parts of the world, then all those parts of the world were in Africa, and all of them more than 125,000 years ago.
(As an aside, scientists recently discovered that Neanderthals had a robust hyoid bone, thus perfectly capable of supporting vocal cords. Therefore, if they didn't have languages as intricate as ours, they almost certainly had the capacity to have them.)