LANGUAGE Part 2. ITS ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION

“I can’t 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 man’s own instinctive cries.”                - Charles Darwin (1871, The Descent of Man).

The origin of language is difficult to ascertain, because of the absence of objective and direct evidence. Therefore, only reasonable guesses could be offered about the origin of language, in the form of theories and school of thoughts.

Over millenniums, many linguists, philosophers, paleoanthropologists, psychologists, evolutionary biologists have been trying to figure out the mystery of language and its evolution. This is a too vast of a difficult and confusing topic for a non-linguist like myself to understand and to make sense out of it. Therefore, I believe it is best if this topic is left to the experts to discuss. 

I shall only give my thinking about the opinions that make sense and appeal to me. I am a proponent of and believe in the “Nativist School of Thought” that the human brain, in the course of Darwinian Evolution, only after developing and reaching appropriate size, volume, organizations, functions and complexity, have created language, together with necessary voice producing complex anatomical organs. Only humans have developed the mental ability for cognition and the anatomical ability to communicate with consonants. Animal communications are completely with vowels like grunts, howls, shrieks.

Nativist school of thought makes more sense to me for two reasons. First reason is that just like our primitive ancestors, a newborn child is not able to talk, until after his/her brain development is completed and their voice box is fully developed. The other reason is that fossil records and paleoanthropology studies have shown that our primitive ancient ancestors (hominid) brain’s size was initially not fully developed. It was not larger than a big apes’ brain, weighing around 600 grams.  The modern human brain is 1300 – 1400 grams and 15 cm in diameter. In comparison, a newborn infant brain weighs around 350 – 400 grams. Brain size in modern human beings is continuing to evolve.

I also believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution and language acquisition. To me, the theory of evolution is theory of everything. Every living creature, during the course of evolution, are evolved as a consequence of natural selectin from some earlier forms. Speech also had to evolve from previously existing forms -like in various natural sounds, the voices of other animals and birds, in the living environment of our hunter – gatherer ancient ancestors. Environmental and living conditions, food resources are driving force and engines behind any evolutionary changes, whether through the genetic mutations or by adaptive changes, in order to create a variant for natural selection of the survival of the fittest.

Being social creatures, it is believed that our primitive ancestors (homonids) initially used signs and gestures (body language) and imitated the natural sound of animals and birds, in their environment, to communicate with each other. Over astrological times and continuing evolutionary changes and  natural selection, human brain development continue to evolve and, only then did ancient people acquire the mental ability to think and to reason. After that, they were able to create their own simple proto-language, by symbolic reasoning and metaphors that certain sounds, should always present certain meaning and certain actions. It is believed that Homo sapiens have created and mastered their own tribal proto-language some 50 – to – 150 thousand years ago.

Human languages are dynamic, they have been continuously evolving and changing since then. Scientific studies have shown that all languages of the world, about 7,000 of them, are based on similar universal principles that they are all emerged spontaneously out of necessities in different human societies. The design of every language is based on two components: Words and Grammar. A word is an arbitrary association between a sound and the meaning. Grammar is the system that specifies how vocabulary units could be combined to form meaningful sentences in regard to time and place.

Language is not only a simple cultural and communication tool. It has given human beings an overwhelming power and opportunities for creations, records keeping, teaching, arts, literature, science and technology and advancements for the better future of humanity.