Early Origins of Human Language

Throughout human evolution, the beginnings of language are viewed as a defining moment for the future of human history. But the development of language did not happen in the span of a moment, it was a long process that started with our ancient ancestors. The most common idea is that human language developed from a mix of biological and cultural factors. There are two main ideas in the early origins of language, the beginning of bipedalism which lead to the use of more advanced tool-making processes. 

                                                                

The emergence of bipedalism is suggested to be the beginning of the language through gestures. Corballis (2009) states that because early hominins were walking on their feet, their hands were free to begin sharing information visually. But, as Corballis also states, as the genus Homo emerged, a need fro more vocal communication grew. Vocal communication began with grunting or hooting, and eventually became the language we use today. 

It is also believed that tool-making lead to the development and teaching of language (Morgan, 2015). Morgan et al. state that the environment that early human ancestors occupied was a challenging one and that meant they required communication that could quickly share information. Therefore, many believe there was a relationship between tool-making and thinking that could be helped by the use of language (Morgan, 2015). Morgan et al. found that the best way of teaching language is through tool-making that helped with hunting. This is strong evidence for the need for cultural and social groups in the development and spread of language. 

I find the early origins of language so interesting because it can tell us so much about what got our species to the point that we are today. And the aspects of culture and sociality related to this development are fascinating. Humans have come so far is such a relatively short time period and the beginning of language is only a stepping stone in that development.

References

Corballis, M. C. (2009). The Evolution of Language. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156: 19-43. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04423.x

Morgan, T. J. H., Uomini, N. T., Rendell, L. E., Chouinard-Thuly, L., Street, S. E., Lewis, H. Cross, C. P., Evans, C., Kearney, R., de la Torre, I., Whiten, A., and Laland, K. N. (2015). Experimental evidence for the co-evolution of hominin tool-making teaching and language. Nature Communications [Electronic Edition]. Retrieved from" http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7029