Origin of language Wikipedia. The first language in the human species has been the topic of scholarly discussions for several centuries. There is no consensus on the origin or age of human language. The topic is difficult to study because of the lack of direct evidence. Consequently, scholars wishing to study the origins of language must draw inferences from other kinds of evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition, and comparisons between human language and systems of communication existing among animals particularly other primates. Many argue that the origins of language probably relate closely to the origins of modern human behavior, but there is little agreement about the implications and directionality of this connection. This shortage of empirical evidence has led many scholars to regard the entire topic as unsuitable for serious study. In 1. 86. 6, the Linguistic Society of Paris banned any existing or future debates on the subject, a prohibition which remained influential across much of the western world until late in the twentieth century. Today, there are various hypotheses about how, why, when, and where language might have emerged. Despite this, there is scarcely more agreement today than a hundred years ago, when Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection provoked a rash of armchair speculation on the topic. Since the early 1. If youve ever wondered how a photographer managed to capture the exact moment of an incredible end zone reception or the instant a bird takes flight, the answer. Archives and past articles from the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly. ALIENS. Intelligent races who are not EARTH HUMANS. The term as such is never used for nonintelligent species, however unearthly, though in TECHJARGON these may be. The Reality Warper trope as used in popular culture. Ever heard of the Superpower Lottery Well, kid, you just won the grand prize. You know those pesky laws. On December 7, 1993, as a Long Island Rail Road train pulled into the Merillon Avenue station in Garden City, New York, a passenger, identified as Colin Ferguson. Elected governments are false fronts coordinated by a global shadow government. Long Island Serial Killer Theories Of Emotion' title='Long Island Serial Killer Theories Of Emotion' />ApproacheseditOne can sub divide approaches to the origin of language according to some underlying assumptions 5Continuity theories build on the idea that language exhibits so much complexity that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form therefore it must have evolved from earlier pre linguistic systems among our primate ancestors. Discontinuity theories take the opposite approachthat language, as a unique trait which cannot be compared to anything found among non humans, must have appeared fairly suddenly during the course of human evolution. Some theories see language mostly as an innate facultylargely genetically encoded. Other theories regard language as a mainly cultural systemlearned through social interaction. Noam Chomsky, a prominent proponent of discontinuity theory, argues that a single chance mutation occurred in one individual in the order of 1. A majority of linguistic scholars as of 2. Among those who see language as mostly innate, somenotably Steven Pinker7avoid speculating about specific precursors in nonhuman primates, stressing simply that the language faculty must have evolved in the usual gradual way. Others in this intellectual campnotably Ib Ulbk5hold that language evolved not from primate communication but from primate cognition, which is significantly more complex. Those who see language as a socially learned tool of communication, such as Michael Tomasello, see it developing from the cognitively controlled aspects of primate communication, these being mostly gestural as opposed to vocal. Where vocal precursors are concerned, many continuity theorists envisage language evolving from early human capacities for song. Transcending the continuity versus discontinuity divide, some scholars view the emergence of language as the consequence of some kind of social transformation1. Ritualspeech coevolution theory exemplifies this approach. Scholars in this intellectual camp point to the fact that even chimpanzees and bonobos have latent symbolic capacities that they rarelyif everuse in the wild. Objecting to the sudden mutation idea, these authors argue that even if a chance mutation were to install a language organ in an evolving bipedal primate, it would be adaptively useless under all known primate social conditions. A very specific social structureone capable of upholding unusually high levels of public accountability and trustmust have evolved before or concurrently with language to make reliance on cheap signals words an evolutionarily stable strategy. Because the emergence of language lies so far back in human prehistory, the relevant developments have left no direct historical traces neither can comparable processes be observed today. Despite this, the emergence of new sign languages in modern timesNicaraguan Sign Language, for examplemay potentially offer insights into the developmental stages and creative processes necessarily involved. Another approach inspects early human fossils, looking for traces of physical adaptation to language use. In some cases, when the DNA of extinct humans can be recovered, the presence or absence of genes considered to be language relevant FOXP2, for examplemay prove informative. Another approach, this time archaeological, involves invoking symbolic behavior such as repeated ritual activity that may leave an archaeological tracesuch as mining and modifying ochre pigments for body paintingwhile developing theoretical arguments to justify inferences from symbolism in general to language in particular. The time range for the evolution of language andor its anatomical prerequisites extends, at least in principle, from the phylogenetic divergence of Homo 2. Pan 5 to 6 million years ago to the emergence of full behavioral modernity some 1. Few dispute that Australopithecus probably lacked vocal communication significantly more sophisticated than that of great apes in general,3. Homo some 2. 5 million years ago. Some scholars assume the development of primitive language like systems proto language as early as Homo habilis, while others place the development of symbolic communication only with Homo erectus 1. Homo heidelbergensis 0. Homo sapiens, currently estimated at less than 2. Using statistical methods to estimate the time required to achieve the current spread and diversity in modern languages, Johanna Nicholsa linguist at the University of California, Berkeleyargued in 1. A further study by Q. D. Atkinson1. 2 suggests that successive population bottlenecks occurred as our African ancestors migrated to other areas, leading to a decrease in genetic and phenotypic diversity. Atkinson argues that these bottlenecks also affected culture and language, suggesting that the further away a particular language is from Africa, the fewer phonemes it contains. By way of evidence, Atkinson claims that todays African languages tend to have relatively large numbers of phonemes, whereas languages from areas in Oceania the last place to which humans migrated, have relatively few. Relying heavily on Atkinsons work, a subsequent study has explored the rate at which phonemes develop naturally, comparing this rate to some of Africas oldest languages. The results suggest that language first evolved around 3. Homo sapiens evolved. Estimates of this kind are not universally accepted, but jointly considering genetic, archaeological, palaeontological and much other evidence indicates that language probably emerged somewhere in sub Saharan Africa during the Middle Stone Age, roughly contemporaneous with the speciation of Homo sapiens. Language origin hypotheseseditEarly speculationseditI cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and mans own instinctive cries. Free Virtual Tour Software Download. Charles Darwin, 1. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex3.