No one knows for certain the exact date or even an accurate time frame when humans started talking, scientists do however, have many theories on how we became a talking species. How animals communicate is much simpler and less complicated than humans, animals only know how to make a certain range of sounds some more than others, while the average adult knows more than 20,000 words let alone sounds. We humans are the only animals we know of that express their thoughts in full sentences. Us being able to speak allows us to recognize past, present, and future tenses. But how did we get to where we are today in a verbal sense? 

Theory One: 

Some researchers theorize that people communicated through simple sounds and gestures, we can assume they mimicked the sounds of other animals or even nature. (The way most animals communicate is symbolic in the sense of using sound to stand in for actions).  A gesture could be pointing to redirect the attention of someone who they are communicating with or even clapping to gain the attention of others. Some examples could be: two people are out hunting deer, and they have a sound specifically for alerting each other that there’s deer (or any animal really) in sight but before they get to it a storm picks up. It is very windy then eventually it starts to rain and the deer gets scared off. Now the two people know when a storm is about to pick up and can make a gesture or sound so they know when to find shelter. They might even be able to mimic the whooshing sound of the strong wind flowing through the trees and any other greenery.  This theory supports the assumption that language is an evolutionary adaptation (a population undergoes a change in process over time to better survive). Another example is the way turtles carry their homes on their back. Turtles are very slow-moving creatures specifically on land so it is very convenient that they carry their shelter with them so whenever there’s a threat they don’t have to try to escape any predators that are way faster than them. The same can be said about us humans being able to speak. The fact that humans can make a wide range of sounds leads us to another question – why? Well, researchers can’t say for sure either but many say for survival reasons, like the turtle. Some reasons could be hunting, farming, defense from the elements, social interaction, and so on. Being able to talk gave us humans a big survival advantage and some assume we were always meant to talk it just took time. Unlike modern babies, early humans didn’t have someone to teach them the correct way to conjugate their verbs or to capitalize proper nouns.

 Theory Two:

Some scientists believe our first form of communication was with our hands. They assume people started off gesturing with their bodies and facial features then eventually started adding sounds to gestures. We can also assume their body language and facial expressions were expressed intensely to further get their “point across”. Researchers can back this up with the many different forms of sign language we currently use (how one word can be signed in many different ways and the meaning of a sign could be changed in different cultures). They theorize that there were different villages with a majority of deaf people or people born with a type of speech disability. We can make the assumption that people switched to talking because it is a more convenient way of communicating. You don’t have to be in the presence of someone you’re speaking to verbally unlike signing so it would make sense if this was the case and people decided to switch. 

Theory Three:

Scientists say that fossil and genetic data suggest that humanity can be traced back to modern Homo Sapiens (people who would look like me and you today), who lived around 300,000 years ago. This theory suggests that the evolution of the brain is the reason why we can talk in full structured sentences now (however the earliest documentation of written communication is said to be traced back around 5,000 years ago). This conclusion can be backed up by evidence of symbolic behavior in these early modern humans taking the form of engravings on red-ochre. Scientists know the Homo Habilis (another early human species) invented the first tools 2.3 million years ago – this led some to believe that the cognitive function of the Homo Habilis were much more advanced than their predecessors, the Australopithecus. According to research, the temporal, parietal, and, occipital lobes of the brain were physically connected for the first time with the Homo Habilis. This area of the brain is also widely known now as the Wernicks area and its main function for us now is language production. Researchers Chomsky and Goud hypothesized that languages may have evolved simply because the structure of the brain evolved. They theorized that our brains become longer and our cognitive functions increased. Scientists now show us it is likely that there were neural structures in place that allowed language to evolve meaning it was likely exapted (a shift in the function of a trait during evolution). However, this doesn’t confirm or deny any theories including this one.

Thank you for reading Canes!