RP394 Humanity's First Words

 RP394 Humanity's First Words

The origin of language is a puzzle that has baffled theorists for hundreds of years. How did early humans go from producing animal-like howls and grunts to expressing abstract ideas and passing on complex skills? So far there has been no universally agreed upon conclusion, and the puzzle has been called "the hardest problem in science."
There are two main approaches to tackling the problem. The first assumes that language gradually evolved from preexisting systems used by our primate ancestors, such as mating calls or warning signals. The second is that language suddenly came out of nowhere, caused by a random mutation that reorganized the brain and emerged almost perfectly formed in a very short period of time.
Some scientists suggest that a basic form of language existed with early humans such as Homo ergaster (1.8 million years ago). This basic language was somewhere between a primate form of communication and modern language. It was probably mainly made up of commands and suggestions and also depended heavily on gestures.
Studies of chimpanzees have suggested that the emergence of language is linked to our ability to trust each other within a community. Chimps use a variety of sounds and calls to signal different meanings, but they also try to use these signals to deceive their fellows. Therefore, any sound whose meaning could be easily faked is often ignored and treated as a deception. It is only in a community in which the members trust each other enough to allow signals that express things other than involuntary natural or emotional reactions that language can flourish.
However, a phenomenon in Nicaragua has lent credibility to the theory that language may have appeared relatively suddenly. In 1980, an institute for the deaf was created in Nicaragua. The school focused on lip-reading, but the children, when allowed to play together, began creating their own basic sign language. The next generation of children built on this basic language, and it became more and more complex. This suggested that humans have a kind of innate grammar, and that it was possibly a mutation in the brain of early humans that gave rise to this remarkable ability to form sophisticated languages from scratch.