Editing Proto-Human language (section)

==Date and location==
The first concrete attempt to estimate the date of the hypothetical ancestor language was that of [[Alfredo Trombetti]], who concluded it was spoken between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago, or close to the first emergence of ''[[Homo sapiens]]''.<ref name="trombetti1922" />{{rp|315}}

It is uncertain or disputed whether the earliest members of ''Homo sapiens'' had fully developed language. Some scholars link the emergence of language proper (out of a [[proto-linguistic]] stage that may have lasted considerably longer) to the development of [[behavioral modernity]] toward the end of the [[Middle Paleolithic]] or at the beginning of the [[Upper Paleolithic]], roughly 50,000 years ago.{{fact|date=May 2025}}

Thus, in the opinion of [[Richard Klein (paleoanthropologist)|Richard Klein]], the ability to produce complex speech only developed some 50,000 years ago (with the appearance of modern humans or [[Cro-Magnon]]).{{fact|date=May 2025}}

[[Johanna Nichols]] (1998) argued that vocal languages must have begun diversifying in our 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>

In 2011, an article in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' proposed an African origin of modern human languages.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Quentin D. Atkinson|title=Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa|journal=Science| date=2011-04-15|volume=332|issue=6027|pages=346–349| doi =10.1126/science.1199295 |pmid=21493858|bibcode=2011Sci...332..346A|s2cid=42021647}}</ref> It was suggested that human language predates the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|out-of-Africa migrations]] of 50,000 to 70,000 years ago and that language might have been the essential cultural and cognitive innovation that facilitated human colonization of the globe.<ref>{{cite web | url =https://www.science.org/content/article/language-may-have-helped-early-humans-spread-out-africa |title=Language May Have Helped Early Humans Spread Out of Africa|work=Science|author=Michael Balter| date=2011-04-14| accessdate =2021-08-13}}</ref>

{{anchor|Phonemic diversity}}
In Perreault and Mathew (2012),<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Perreault | first1 = C. | last2 = Mathew | first2 = S. | year = 2012 | title = Dating the origin of language using phonemic diversity | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 7 | issue = 4| page = e35289 | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0035289 | pmid = 22558135 | pmc = 3338724 | bibcode = 2012PLoSO...735289P | doi-access = free }}</ref> an estimate of the time of the first emergence of human language was based on [[phonemic]] diversity.{{Clarification needed|reason=What is phonemic diversity or phoneme inventory? The linked Phoneme article does not mention these terms.|date=October 2024}} This is based on the assumption that phonemic diversity evolves much more slowly than grammar or vocabulary, slowly increasing over time (but reduced among small founding populations).
The largest phoneme inventories are found among [[African languages]], while the smallest inventories are found in South America and Oceania, some of the last regions of the globe to be settled.
The authors used data from the colonization of Southeast Asia to estimate the rate of increase in phonemic diversity.
Applying this rate to African languages, Perreault and Mathew (2012) arrived at an estimated age of 150,000 to 350,000 years, compatible with the emergence and early dispersal of ''H. sapiens''.
The validity of this approach has been criticized as flawed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hunley |first1=Keith |last2=Bowern |first2=Claire |last3=Healy |first3=Meghan |title=Rejection of a serial founder effects model of genetic and linguistic coevolution |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B |volume=279 |issue=1736 |pages=2281–2288 |date=2 January 2012 |pmc=3321699 |pmid=22298843 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2011.2296 }}<br>{{cite journal |last1=Bowern |first1=Claire |title=Out of Africa? The logic of phoneme inventories and founder effects |journal=Linguistic Typology |date=November 2011 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=207–216 |doi=10.1515/lity.2011.015 |s2cid=120276963 |issn=1613-415X|hdl=1885/28291 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>