HOW IT ALL STARTED
It can’t be proved that language is as old as humans, but it is definitely true that language and human society are inseparable. Where there are humans, there is language. There are several theories on the origin of language but none of them is more true than the next. What is true, however, is that at some point in their evolutionary development, humans acquired a more sophisticated brain which made language invention and learning possible.
There are theories which claim that language began when humans started naming objects, actions and phenomena after a recognizable sound associated with it in real life: crash became the word for thunder and the Chinook Indian word for heart is tun-tun.
There is another theory which says that the first words came from involuntary exclamations of dislike, hunger, pain, or pleasure, eventually leading to the expression of more developed ideas and emotions. In this case the first word would have been and involuntary ha-ha-ha sound. Such sounds began to be used to name the actions which caused them.
Still others claim that language may have developed from warning signals such as those used by animals. Perhaps language started with a warning to others, such as look out, or help to alert members of the tribe when some ferocious beast was approaching.
We will never know, in fact, how language started, but what we do know is that it is probably the most important feature that distinguishes us from animals and helps us communicate (or not!) with others.
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