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The Origin of Language Through Evolution

Sheyar Dara Abdulkadir

The Evolution Theory

Charles DarwinThe theory of evolution was initially proposed byCharles Darwin in his book The Origin of species in 1859.Evolution is the changeIn the heritable features of biological population over successive generations.

evolution The Mechanisms of

The main mechanisms of evolution are :1- natural selection2- mutations Natural selections effects have been observed and mentioned by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace . Alfred Wallace, the co- founder of natural selection

The Evolution of human beings

The origin of language

1- Language prerequisites2- Hypotheses

Language prerequisites

Brain

Vocal tract

Human brain has evolved and got bigger throughout thousands and millions of years.

Homo habilis, lived between 2.1 to 1.5 million years agoHomo Erectus, lived 1.9 million years agoHomo Habilis and Homo Erectus are believedTo be the first humans to be capable of Linguistic tasks through the development of their Brains

The Vocal Tract

One of the many organs of speech which humans use to produce sounds is the resonance chamber which contains the pharynx, larynx, oral cavity, nasal cavity...etc. The resonance chamber helps to amplify and increase the intensity of the sound.

Homo Neanderthals larynx were high. Enabling him to breath and eat but the sound capabilities were restricted.However, later on during their evolution, humans larynx descended to the throat in Homo Sapiens.This allowed humans to have the ability to produce wide range of sounds.

Our descendants LanguageHomo Heidelbergensis. Lived between 200,00 and 600,000 years ago.Homo Heidlnergensis :Since that Homo Heidlbergensis was a close relative of Homo Ergaster ( who is thought to be the first hominid to vocalize), Homo Heidelbergensis is believed to be the first hominid to make controlled vocalization.Homo Heidlbergensis developed a more sophisticated culture so he probably developed a language similar to symbolic language.

Homo Neanderthalensis. Lived around 600,000 years ago.

Homo Neanderthalensis:

Based on computer simulations, Neanderthals are thought to be in level two of the three stages of syntax. Showing that they had more evolved language than proto Indian language but not as quite as complex as modern human language.

Homo Sapiens. Appeared approximately200,000 years ago

Homo Sapiens:

Archeologists discovery that modern humans used red ochers in their caves suggests that they used symbolic language in their rituals and they spread it when they migrated to other places on earth. So Homo sapiens culture affected their language.

The Hypotheses

The Gestural Hypothesis

Suggests that gestures combined with tongue movement produced some kind of language.

The Neural Hypothesis

Suggests that language resulted from a gradual increase in the human intelligence, by an increase of the neural system.

The Vocalization Hypothesis

Suggests that language evolved from small set of common used calls and sounds shared by the hominids.

Mother-Child interaction hypothesis Suggests that language began with an interaction between the mother and the baby when human started to carry their babies.