Quote Originally Posted by NeAvO View Post
I mean ages ago, humans were around in groups hunting animals ect, then next thing you know we have all created languages from English to Chinese.
How did it start ?
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Actually, nobody knows exactly how language started, as such. Why people started communicating symbolically and such are still mysterious to linguistic anthropologists. There are plenty of theories, and the origins of communication (not language) is a lot easier to figure out simply because we have so many non-human examples around to study. It's easier to compare and make sophisticated guesses about why non-linguistic communication came to be. That's easy enough.

The creation of language is natural process. When you have a specific sound that means 'tiger', people can react and warn others of the threat much quicker. People are smart, and they figure this kind of stuff out. As for what sounds get assigned to what object or concept, that's pure chance and agreement amongst a group.
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This is pretty accurate for how non-linguistic communication comes about and for parts of linguistic communication. The difference is in the symbolism associated with sound combinations meaning something specific. Agreement on symbolic language is necessary for languages to actually come about, but non-linguistic communication is pretty much universal (I shriek and point at the tiger, you know what I mean, but if I say, "why, look at the tiger," if you don't speak my language, you won't have any clue what I'm saying).

as the ice ages raged the earth, little vegitation wasn't covered in snow so Human beings had to addapt their FEEDING habits to teh climate: They began Hunting for meat. In order to Succesfully hunt down a couple of Deer it was nececairy for people to Team up and hunt in packs and to COMMUNICATE while doing so.
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Actually, this theory doesn't work too well. It used to be a largely considered theory, but the fact is that language very, very probably was around long before the most recent ice ages. Also, the majority of places inhabited by humans were temperate, not covered in icy glaciers and snow fields. Of course, the ice ages had an affect on the climate around the world, but there were certainly plenty of human-inhabited places that were not covered in snow. It makes just as much sense to say that language developed as an adaptation to gathering plants... if you have a set of words for various plants, you can know which ones are good, bad, etc. You can also go tell someone else to gather some for you.

Originally posted by 'SKA'

This started with simple Tongues, Pronounciations that would indicate I.E. Deer, Spears, Bow and Arrow, ATTACK! and such things that were vital and of great importance to Communicate about while Hunting.
Hunting and warfare are not the only reasons why people communicate, remember. In fact, a lot of communication that occurs during hunting and such is silent. It's not language. If I signal to another hunter that a deer is on the other side of a bush, I'm a lot less likely to scare it away then if I shout, "Hey Joe, there's a deer behind that bush!" None of the things listed are important for communication while hunting. You could just as easily draw a picture of it, point in the direction of where it is, keep your own tools, and never have to say a word.

I have no idea when grammar and such started making its way into how people communicated with each other. I do know that they're different depending on roots, and that all languages have grammar. A lot of the modern confusion with spelling and such comes from languages inter-mixing. You end up with franken-languages that are just hard to figure out unless you're born into it, and sometimes even difficult if you are.

I love languages. ^_^