One thing that I have been thinking about recently is the origin of language as a whole. Humans have the innate ability to quickly learn languages at young ages, but how did language evolve? Why did language evolve rather than complex grunts and growls? Today, I hope to use my current knowledge on the subject to propose a theory of my own.
Humans have a very large brain to body ratio. Many animals have larger brains, but that brain needs to focus on keeping a larger body alive. Our brain to body ratio is perfect, because there is enough of the brain sustaining life functions, but a large part of the cerebrum is focused on intelligence. Obviously, this part of the brain is what makes the human race so intelligent compared to other earth species. However, a small part of the brain called the Broca's area is used for language comprehension and production, although some parts overlap.
This article has provided new information on the fact that language appeared much earlier than previously recognized. Ultraconserved words, which are words that appear very often and sound similar in many languages not necessarily from the same family, appeared around 15,000 years ago in an area of hunter-gatherers in Asia. For example, man, mother, to hear, what, and not are predictable enough, but it also has some words that are more surprising, but also make sense when thought about, such as ashes, to flow, and worm.
Based on this information, I think that the earliest language came around when very early humans attempted to describe things for the first time. Humans may have needed to adequately explain something rather than just know it exists. Other animals in the wild can see a river and understand that it is moving, but humans developed the ability to put a certain phrase to it. It is very interesting to understand how the brain comprehends language, and how the language function possibly evolved in humans.
Here is a list of ultraconserved words identified by linguists.
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