From Grunt To Grammar: The Evolution Of Language

From Grunt To Grammar: The Evolution Of Language
By:Jeanne Miller
October 2009
Odyssey magazine: Adventures in science
pg 34-36

Language provides for humans to express their thoughts and feelings. The questions are when was the brain ready and developed enough to understand grammar. And when was the voice box/larynx able to sound out all the different words. 

The skulls of the brains and the brain hollows show how the brains of our ancestors changed and developed over time in size and complexity. Comparing the brains of early human and us, they are not that different. Some parts of the brain in homo Habilis Show speech. So maybe even two and a half million years ago our ancestors started communicating threw speech.  

The larynx plays a big role in speech, just like the brain. The larynx holds the vocal cords that allow us to make sounds. To animals, making sounds is pretty limited because their larynx is high in the throat. However over the years our larynx started going down. "The larynx disengaged from the back door of the nasal cavity" said Laitman. This detachment changed the way we eat, breath and make sounds. Having a large space above their larynx allowed them to breath easily threw their mouth. Also sounds made by the vocal cord could be modified. 

Trying to know when language started is a hard task. That is because there is no direct evidence to prove it. Speech can’t be found underground like bones and skulls. Researchers have to interpret archaeological in terms of weather language would be necessary to produce them". For example stone tools. Some stone tools require more and some less communication to make them. Communication is not only talking, its is gestures and speech. Even if we can’t know the right date when language started, we can still write down our own thoughts and ideas. We can take prehistory time events, and draw a conclusion. For example when Homo sapiens spread into the whole world. We don't know if that needed a little or a lot of communication. Much of their journey could have been along the water. The would need water craft to pass it for example a boat. Making boats takes a lot of communication and speech. So that means that is is clear that by 35,000 or 40,000 years ago, Homo sapiens were using fire. 

Even if we never find out when speech started, there is no reason to give up. We know ourselves and our abilities. We also have monkey still around. But what happened in the past will be revealed slowly during the years. We have gone so far with our communication. From grunts to grammar, all the way to twitter. But what interests us is how it all started. 

Miller, Jeanne. "From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of Language ." Odyssey :Adventures in Science