Editing Origin of language (section)

{{Short description|Relationship between language and human evolution}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Redirects here|Evolution of language|development of languages over time|Evolution of languages}}
{{Linguistics|Topics}}
The '''origin of language''', its relationship with [[human evolution]], and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study the origins of language draw inferences from evidence such as the [[human evolution|fossil record]], [[Archaeological record|archaeological evidence]], and contemporary language diversity. They may also study [[language acquisition]] as well as comparisons between human [[language]] and systems of [[animal communication]] (particularly [[Great ape language|other primates]]).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shah |first=Sonia |date=20 September 2023 |title=The Animals Are Talking. What Does It Mean? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/20/magazine/animal-communication.html#permid=127890141 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20230921140922/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/20/magazine/animal-communication.html#permid=127890141 |archive-date=21 September 2023 |access-date=21 September 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Many argue for the close relation between the origins of language and the origins of [[behavioral modernity|modern human behavior]], but there is little agreement about the facts and implications of this connection.

The shortage of direct, [[empirical evidence]] has caused many scholars to regard the entire topic as unsuitable for serious study; in 1866, the [[Linguistic Society of Paris]] banned any existing or future debates on the subject, a prohibition which remained influential across much of the [[Western world]] until the late twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Żywiczyński |first1=Przemysław |last2=Wacewicz |first2=Slawomir |title=Statement of the Société de linguistique de Paris banning glottogenetic speculation. |date=August 2019 |doi=10.3726/b15805 |isbn=978-3-631-79394-7 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Statement-of-the-Societe-de-linguistique-de-Paris-banning-glottogenetic-speculation_fig1_338039384}}</ref> Various hypotheses have been developed on the emergence of language.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Tallerman |first1=Maggie |author-link1=Maggie Tallerman |title=The Oxford handbook of language evolution |last2=Gibson |first2=Kathleen Rita |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-954111-9}}</ref> While [[Charles Darwin]]'s [[theory of evolution]] by [[natural selection]] had provoked a surge of speculation on the origin of language over a century and a half ago, the speculations had not resulted in a scientific consensus by 1996.<ref>Müller, F. M. 1996 [1861]. The theoretical stage, and the origin of language. Lecture 9 from ''Lectures on the Science of Language''. Reprinted in R. Harris (ed.), ''The Origin of Language''. Bristol: [[Thoemmes Press]], pp. 7–41.</ref> Despite this, academic interest had returned to the topic by the early 1990s. [[Linguist]]s, [[archaeologist]]s, [[psychologist]]s, and [[anthropologist]]s have renewed the investigation into the origin of language with modern methods.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Christiansen |first1=Morten H |author-link1=Morten H. Christiansen |title=Language evolution |last2=Kirby |first2=Simon |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-924484-3 |editor-last=Christiansen |editor-first=Morten H. |pages=77–93 |chapter=Language evolution: the hardest problem in science? |editor-last2=Kirby |editor-first2=Simon}}</ref>