Editing Origin of language (section)

== Approaches ==
Attempts to explain the origin of language take a variety of forms:<ref name="Ulbæk1998">{{Cite book |last=Ulbæk |first=Ib |title=Approaches to the evolution of language: social and cognitive base |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-63964-4 |editor-last=Hurford |editor-first=James R. |pages=30–43 |chapter=The origin of language and cognition |editor-last2=Studdert-Kennedy |editor-first2=Michael |editor-last3=Knight |editor-first3=Chris}}</ref>
* "Continuity theories" build on the idea that language exhibits so much complexity that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form; therefore it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among humans' primate ancestors.
* "Discontinuity theories" take the opposite approach, stating that language, as a unique trait that cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans, must have appeared fairly suddenly during the course of [[human evolution]].
* Some theories consider language mostly as an innate faculty—largely genetically encoded.
* Other theories regard language as a mainly [[cultural]] system that is learned through social interaction.

Most linguistic scholars {{as of | 2024 | lc=on}} favor continuity-based theories, but they vary in how they hypothesize language development.{{cn|date=November 2024}}<!-- Pinker's book is from 1994, can't be a source for "as of 2024" --> Some among those who consider language as mostly innate avoid speculating about specific precursors in nonhuman primates, stressing simply that the language faculty must have evolved gradually.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pinker |first=Steven |title=The Language Instinct |publisher=W. Morrow & Co. |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-688-12141-9 |location=New York}}</ref>

Those who consider language as learned socially, such as [[Michael Tomasello]], consider it developing from the cognitively controlled aspects of primate communication, mostly gestural rather than vocal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tomasello |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Tomasello |title=Communicating meaning: the evolution and development of language |publisher=L. Erlbaum |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-8058-2118-5 |editor-last=Velichkovskiĭ |editor-first=B. M. |location=Mahwah, NJ |chapter=The cultural roots of language |editor-last2=Rumbaugh |editor-first2=Duane M.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pika |first1=Simone |last2=Mitani |first2=John |year=2006 |title=Referential gestural communication in wild chimpanzees (''Pan troglodytes'') |journal=Current Biology |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=R191–R192 |bibcode=2006CBio...16.R191P |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2006.02.037 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=16546066 |s2cid=2273018 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Where vocal precursors are concerned, many continuity theorists envisage language as evolving from early human capacities for song.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dunn |first1=M. |last2=Greenhill |first2=S. J. |last3=Levinson |first3=S. C. |last4=Gray |first4=R. D. |date=May 2011 |title=Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order universals |journal=Nature |volume=473 |issue=7345 |pages=79–82 |bibcode=2011Natur.473...79D |doi=10.1038/nature09923 |pmid=21490599 |s2cid=1588797 |hdl-access=free |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-3B19-B}}</ref><ref>''[[The Economist]]'', "[http://www.economist.com/node/18557572?story_id=18557572 The evolution of language: Babel or babble?]", 16 April 2011, pp. 85–86.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Ian |url=http://www.music.org/pdf/summit/2014medium.pdf |title=The Prehistory of Language |last2=Woodruff |first2=Ghofur Eliot |date=23 April 2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-156287-7 |editor-last=Botha |editor-first=Rudolf P. |pages=77–98 |chapter=Music as a Communicative medium |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545872.003.0005 |editor-last2=Knight |editor-first2=Chris |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36tLTfV_hLcC&pg=PA77}}</ref><ref name="Vaneechoutte2014">{{Cite journal |last=Vaneechoutte |first=Mario |year=2014 |title=The Origin of Articulate Language Revisited: The Potential of a Semi-Aquatic Past of Human Ancestors to Explain the Origin of Human Musicality and Articulate Language |url=http://users.ugent.be/~mvaneech/Vaneechoutte.%202014.%20The%20origin%20of%20articulate%20language.pdf |journal=Human Evolution |volume=29 |pages=1–33}}</ref>

[[Noam Chomsky]], a proponent of discontinuity theory, argues that a single change occurred in humans before leaving Africa, coincident with the Great Leap approximately 100,000 years ago, in which a common language faculty developed in a group of humans and their descendants. Chomsky bases his argument on the observation that any human baby of any culture can be raised in a different culture and will completely assimilate the language and behaviour of the new culture in which they were raised. This implies that no major change to the human language faculty has occurred since they left Africa.<ref>How Could Language Have Evolved,  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001934</ref>

Transcending the continuity-versus-discontinuity divide, some scholars view the emergence of language as the consequence of some kind of social transformation<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Knight |first1=Chris |url=http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/Knight-Power-Social-Conditions1.pdf |title=The Oxford handbook of language evolution |last2=Power |first2=Camilla |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-954111-9 |editor-last=Tallerman |editor-first=Maggie |pages=346–349 |chapter=Social conditions for the evolutionary emergence of language |editor-last2=Gibson |editor-first2=Kathleen R.}}</ref> that, by generating unprecedented levels of public trust, liberated a genetic potential for linguistic creativity that had previously lain dormant.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rappaport |first=Roy |title=Ritual and religion in the making of humanity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-521-29690-8}}</ref><ref name="Knight2008">{{Cite journal |last=Knight |first=C. |year=2008 |title='Honest fakes' and language origins |url=http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/JCS_Knight_CRC.pdf |journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies |volume=15 |issue=10–11 |pages=236–248}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Chris |url=http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/The-Origins-of-Symbolic-Culture.pdf |title=Homo Novus: a human without illusion |publisher=Springer |year=2010 |isbn=978-3-642-12141-8 |editor-last=Frey |editor-first=Ulrich J. |location=Berlin |pages=193–211 |chapter=The origins of symbolic culture |editor-last2=Störmer |editor-first2=Charlotte |editor-last3=Willführ |editor-first3=Kai P.}}</ref> "Ritual/speech coevolution theory" exemplifies this approach.<ref name="Knight1998">{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Chris |url=http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/knight_ritual_speech_coevolution.pdf |title=Approaches to the evolution of language: social and cognitive base |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-63964-4 |editor-last=Hurford |editor-first=James R. |pages=68–91 |chapter=Ritual/speech coevolution: a solution to the problem of deception |editor-last2=Studdert-Kennedy |editor-first2=Michael |editor-last3=Knight |editor-first3=Chris}}</ref><ref name="Knight2006">{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Chris |url=http://www.chrisknight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/knight-springer-online-fulltext.pdf |title=The evolution of language: proceedings of the 6th international conference (EVOLANG6), Rome, Italy, 12–15 April 200 |publisher=World Scientific |year=2006 |isbn=978-981-256-656-0 |editor-last=Cangelosi |editor-first=Angelo |pages=168–175 |chapter=Language co-evolved with the rule of law |editor-last2=Smith |editor-first2=Andrew D. M. |editor-last3=Kenny Smith}}</ref> Scholars in this intellectual camp point to the fact that even [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzees]] and [[bonobo]]s have latent symbolic capacities that they rarely—if ever—use in the wild.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Savage-Rumbaugh |first1=Sue |title=Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and human |last2=McDonald |first2=Kelly |publisher=Clarendon |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-19-852175-4 |editor-last=Byrne |editor-first=Richard W. |location=Oxford |pages=224–237 |chapter=Deception and social manipulation in symbol-using apes |editor-last2=Whiten |editor-first2=Andrew}}</ref> Objecting to the sudden mutation idea, these authors argue that even if a chance mutation were to install a language organ in an evolving bipedal primate, it would be adaptively useless under all known primate social conditions. A very specific social structure – one capable of upholding unusually high levels of public accountability and trust – must have evolved before or concurrently with language to make reliance on "cheap signals" (e.g. words) an [[evolutionarily stable strategy]].

Since the emergence of language lies so far back in [[human prehistory]], the relevant developments have left no direct historical traces, and comparable processes cannot be observed today. Despite this, the emergence of new sign languages in modern times—[[Nicaraguan Sign Language]], for example—may offer insights into the developmental stages and creative processes necessarily involved.<ref>Kegl, J., A. Senghas and M. Coppola (1998). Creation through Contact: Sign language emergence and sign language change in Nicaragua. In M. DeGraff (ed.), ''Language Creation and Change: Creolization, Diachrony and Development''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.</ref> Another approach inspects early human fossils, looking for traces of physical adaptation to language use.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lieberman |first1=P. |last2=Crelin |first2=E. S. |year=1971 |title=On the speech of Neandertal Man |journal=Linguistic Inquiry |volume=2 |pages=203–222}}</ref><ref name="Arensburg1989">{{Cite journal |last1=Arensburg |first1=B. |last2=Tillier |first2=A. M. |last3=Vandermeersch |first3=B. |last4=Duday |first4=H. |last5=Schepartz |first5=L. A. |last6=Rak |first6=Y. |year=1989 |title=A Middle Palaeolithic human hyoid bone |journal=Nature |volume=338 |issue=6218 |pages=758–760 |bibcode=1989Natur.338..758A |doi=10.1038/338758a0 |pmid=2716823 |s2cid=4309147}}</ref> In some cases, when the [[DNA]] of extinct humans can be recovered, the presence or absence of genes considered to be language-relevant—[[FOXP2]], for example—may prove informative.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Diller |first1=Karl C. |title=The cradle of language |last2=Cann |first2=Rebecca L. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-954586-5 |editor-last=Botha |editor-first=Rudolf P. |pages=135–149 |chapter=Evidence Against a Genetic-Based Revolution in Language 50,000 Years Ago |editor-last2=Knight |editor-first2=Chris}}</ref> Another approach, this time archaeological, involves invoking [[symbolic behavior]] (such as repeated ritual activity) that may leave an archaeological trace—such as mining and modifying ochre pigments for [[body-painting]]—while developing theoretical arguments to justify inferences from [[symbol]]ism in general to language in particular.<ref name="Henshilwood2009">{{Cite book |last1=Henshilwood |first1=Christopher Stuart |title=The cradle of language |last2=Dubreuil |first2=Benoît |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-954586-5 |editor-last=Botha |editor-first=Rudolf P. |pages=41–61 |chapter=Reading the Artefacts: Gleaning Language Skills From the Middle Stone Age in Southern Africa |editor-last2=Knight |editor-first2=Chris}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Chris |title=The cradle of language |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-954586-5 |editor-last=Rudolf P Botha |pages=281–303 |chapter=Language, Ochre, and the Rule of Law |editor-last2=Chris Knight}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Watts |first=Ian |title=The cradle of language |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-954586-5 |editor-last=Botha |editor-first=Rudolf P. |pages=62–92 |chapter=Red Ochre, Body Painting, and Language: Interpreting the Blombos Ochre |editor-last2=Knight |editor-first2=Chris}}</ref>

The time range for the evolution of language or its anatomical prerequisites extends, at least in principle, from the phylogenetic divergence of ''[[Homo]]'' from ''[[Pan (genus)|Pan]]'' to the emergence of full [[behavioral modernity]] some 50,000–150,000 years ago. Few dispute that ''[[Australopithecus]]'' probably lacked vocal communication significantly more sophisticated than that of [[great ape]]s in general,<ref name="Arcadi2000">{{Cite journal |last=Arcadi |first=A. C. |date=August 2000 |title=Vocal responsiveness in male wild chimpanzees: implications for the evolution of language |journal=Journal of Human Evolution |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=205–223 |bibcode=2000JHumE..39..205A |doi=10.1006/jhev.2000.0415 |pmid=10968929 |s2cid=7403772 |doi-access=free}}</ref> but scholarly opinions vary as to the developments since the appearance of ''[[Homo]]'' some 2.5 million years ago. Some scholars assume the development of primitive language-like systems (''proto-language'') as early as ''[[Homo habilis]]'', while others place the development of [[symbolic communication]] only with ''[[Homo erectus]]'' (1.8 million years ago) or with ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' (0.6 million years ago) and the development of language proper with ''[[Homo sapiens]]'', currently estimated at less than 200,000 years ago.

Using statistical methods to estimate the time required to achieve the current spread and diversity in modern languages, [[Johanna Nichols]]—a linguist at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]—argued in 1998 that vocal languages must have begun diversifying in the human species at least 100,000 years ago.<ref>Johanna Nichols, 1998. The origin and dispersal of languages: Linguistic evidence. In Nina Jablonski and Leslie C. Aiello, eds., ''The Origin and Diversification of Language'', pp. 127–70. (Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, 24.) San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.</ref> Estimates of this kind are not universally accepted, but jointly considering [[Genetics|genetic]], [[Archaeology|archaeological]], [[Paleontology|palaeontological]], and much other evidence indicates that language likely emerged somewhere in [[sub-Saharan Africa]] during the [[Middle Stone Age]], roughly contemporaneous with the speciation of ''[[Homo sapiens]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Botha |first1=Rudolf P. |title=The cradle of language |last2=Knight |first2=Chris |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-954586-5}}</ref>