Editing Proto-Human language (section)

==History of the idea==
The first serious scientific attempt to establish the reality of monogenesis was that of [[Alfredo Trombetti]], in his book ''L'unità d'origine del linguaggio'' (1905).<ref name="ruhlen1994a">{{cite book |last1=Ruhlen |first1=Meritt |title=The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue |date=1994 |publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford}}</ref>{{rp|263}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trombetti |first1=Alfredo |title=L'unità d'origine del linguaggio |date=1905 |language=it |publisher=Luigi Beltrami |location=Bologna}}</ref> Trombetti estimated that the common ancestor of existing languages had been spoken between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago (not long after the appearance of [[anatomically modern humans]]).<ref name="trombetti1922">{{cite book |last1=Trombetti |first1=Alfredo |title=Elementi di glottologia |date=1922–1923 |publisher=Zanichelli |location=Bologna |language=it }}</ref>{{rp|315}}

Monogenesis was dismissed by many linguists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the doctrine of the [[Polygenism|polygenesis]] of the human races [[polygenesis (linguistics)|and their languages]] was popularized.<ref name="sassure">{{Cite book|title=Cours de linguistique générale|last=de Saussure|first=Ferdinand|publisher=Open Court.|year=1986|location=Chicago|language=fr|trans-title=Course in General Linguistics|orig-year=1916|translator-last=Harris|translator-first=Roy}}</ref>{{rp|190}}

The best-known supporter of monogenesis in America in the mid-20th century was [[Morris Swadesh]]. He pioneered two important methods for investigating deep relationships between languages, [[lexicostatistics]] and [[glottochronology]].<ref name="ruhlen1994a" />{{rp|215}}

In the second half of the 20th century, [[Joseph Greenberg]] produced a series of large-scale classifications of the world's languages. These were and are controversial but widely discussed. Although Greenberg did not produce an explicit argument for monogenesis, all of his classification work was geared toward this end. As he stated: "The ultimate goal is a comprehensive classification of what is very likely a single language family."<ref name="greenberg1987">{{cite book |last1=Greenberg |first1=Joseph H. |title=Language in the Americas |date=1987 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford}}</ref>{{rp|337}}

Notable American advocates of linguistic monogenesis include [[Merritt Ruhlen]], [[John Bengtson]], and [[Harold C. Fleming|Harold Fleming]].{{fact|date=May 2025}}