From Grunts to Grammar
the Evolution of Language
By Jeanne Miller
People and our ancestors, have always had a way to communicate, not necessarily with others, but with themselves. Communication hasn't always just been language, it is drawings and other ways to send a message over. Words can have different meanings because of their begging and end or their placement,
ex: "The crocodile ate the men" or "the men ate the crocodile", both are 2different sayings with the same words. Just like Laitman says, "Molds of fossil brains and brain cavities have shown that the brains of our ancestors gradually changed both in size and complexity".
The first real evidence of actual speech comes from the homo habilis but about 2.5 million years ago the whole speech began, not complex, but the first basic words.What allows us to speak is our larynx, this is the "voice box". In animals it is found relatively high up allowing them to breath and swallow at the same time, because our over time got lower, we can't do that, but instead we can breathe through both our mouth and nose, and have the ability of speaking. Our ancestors most probably started breathing with their mouth allowing more air in/out while running.
"The larynx disengaged from the back door of the nasal cavity," says Laitman. "This disengagement would have radically changed the way our ancestors breathed,swallowed and made sounds."
Paleoanthropologist, scientists studying our ancestors and humans through fossils and bone can figure out the complexity of language managed by looking at the larynx.
How do little kids learn to speak?
Some may call it acting, other call it imitation. By imitating what they see around and the noises they hear, they can slowly produce sounds and understand them.
How did it come to communication in the first place?
We predict that due to the complexity of tools and the procedures for them to be made, our ancestors might have started communicating together so that others would learn how to create the weir tools. Communication doesn't only include language, it is formed of gesture and speech, it is more likely that this communication started with gestures, and then when we realized we could understand each other, it went to a new level. Not only this, communication might have started from the fact that homos migrated and needed to know where they are going, why they are going, and all their roles, were they the doctor, the ruler etc.?
So basically, what we can predict from all our evidence, is that language,as it is now, was the same about 35,000-40,000 years ago. But after all, we might never known how it really started, our predictions are the only things we have.
the Evolution of Language
By Jeanne Miller
People and our ancestors, have always had a way to communicate, not necessarily with others, but with themselves. Communication hasn't always just been language, it is drawings and other ways to send a message over. Words can have different meanings because of their begging and end or their placement,ex: "The crocodile ate the men" or "the men ate the crocodile", both are 2different sayings with the same words. Just like Laitman says, "Molds of fossil brains and brain cavities have shown that the brains of our ancestors gradually changed both in size and complexity".
The first real evidence of actual speech comes from the homo habilis but about 2.5 million years ago the whole speech began, not complex, but the first basic words.What allows us to speak is our larynx, this is the "voice box". In animals it is found relatively high up allowing them to breath and swallow at the same time, because our over time got lower, we can't do that, but instead we can breathe through both our mouth and nose, and have the ability of speaking. Our ancestors most probably started breathing with their mouth allowing more air in/out while running.
"The larynx disengaged from the back door of the nasal cavity," says Laitman. "This disengagement would have radically changed the way our ancestors breathed,swallowed and made sounds."Paleoanthropologist, scientists studying our ancestors and humans through fossils and bone can figure out the complexity of language managed by looking at the larynx.
How do little kids learn to speak?
Some may call it acting, other call it imitation. By imitating what they see around and the noises they hear, they can slowly produce sounds and understand them.
How did it come to communication in the first place?
We predict that due to the complexity of tools and the procedures for them to be made, our ancestors might have started communicating together so that others would learn how to create the weir tools. Communication doesn't only include language, it is formed of gesture and speech, it is more likely that this communication started with gestures, and then when we realized we could understand each other, it went to a new level. Not only this, communication might have started from the fact that homos migrated and needed to know where they are going, why they are going, and all their roles, were they the doctor, the ruler etc.?
So basically, what we can predict from all our evidence, is that language,as it is now, was the same about 35,000-40,000 years ago. But after all, we might never known how it really started, our predictions are the only things we have.
Miller, Jeanne. "From Grunts to Grammar." Odyssey:Adventures in Science Oct. 2009: 34-36. Print.
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