When you study psychology, you learn about areas of the brain like Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area which contribute to understanding, processing, and using language. After I learned about these parts of the brain, I started to wonder: how did language first start? Did humans always possess the ability to use language, which was why they were able to create an effective method of communicating? Or is it the other way around where humans created language as a means to survive first which led to the development of brain areas related to language? It’s similar to whether the chicken or the egg came first (which might seem silly), but it seemed like a topic that touches psychology, linguistics, and sociology, which sparked my interest.
First of all, language started through talking. Reading and writing didn’t exist until 5,000 years ago, according to Richard Futrell, associate professor of language science from the University of California, Irvine. This means that throughout most of history, humans have communicated through speaking. In this article, two theories are brought up hypothesizing how talking first started. The first is that talking started through different sounds derived from nature. These sounds then developed into words and eventually a language with a system. The second theory is that gestures were the start of speaking. Then, sounds followed those gestures, ultimately leading, once again, to words and a systematic language. In both of these cases, language was created and developed out of the necessity to communicate and survive, implying that brain areas utilized mainly for the purpose of using language developed later on.
Another theory from a similar aspect comes from linguist Noam Chomsky and evolutionary scientist Stephen Jay Gould. According to them, the parts of the brain that process language didn’t exist entirely in humans from the beginning but instead evolved as time passed. However, unlike the two theories mentioned before, Chomsky and Gould suggest that the development of language processing areas were created as a byproduct of a different evolutionary process. Perhaps a change in the brain’s physical structure led to such creation or brain areas originally intended for different functions ended up focusing on language.
While the details are fuzzy on how exactly language was created, through my research, I could see how most scientists see that the brain’s ability to use language effectively bloomed later. Personally, I feel like this also fits with how humans are the only animals that have as much of a complex, organized language as we do. As our own way of standing out in the world, we have created our own unique order.
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