We’ve already written about various different forms of animal communication – and we know that, while animals often communicate in relatively complex ways, they don’t use language as we do.
But when did people actually start to use language?
Shigeru Miyagawa, a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alongside Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall from the American Museum of Natural History have carried out genetic analyses that suggest that our ancestors became cognitively capable of language about 135,000 years ago.
Around that time, the human population started to split, with small groups of people heading off in different directions. Before that happened, there was one small, undivided population of humans. Gradually, as they diverged, the original language they spoke did too, until eventually thousands of languages were being spoken all over the world.
Around 100,000 years ago, we see people starting to express themselves with the drawings and symbols that are a precursor to writing, suggesting further development in language, and also that language enabled the emergence of modern human behaviour by allowing people to discuss things in abstract and conceptual ways using vocabulary and syntax, and to learn about things such as emerging technologies and complex social behaviours from one another.
Today we’re in another period of extremely rapid language development, with images like emojis increasingly communicating complex thoughts and reactions. How will this impact on our behaviour, and on human cultural development, in the future?
Photo Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/diverse-team-collaborating-around-a-table-with-charts-vasBHKO3GSs
