One subfield of Linguistics is called Historical Linguistics and within that field is the study of Evolutionary Linguistics. This field is perhaps my favorite and arguably one of the most fascinating areas of study within the field of Linguistics. The focus of Evolutionary Linguistics is the origin of language in humans in regard to the human mind and brain, both physiologically and cognitively speaking. For the most part there are two main theories in the field as to how human beings developed language.

One theory, roughly, states that language is inherent to homo sapiens and that the first of our species came equipped with language and speech. To these linguists, homo sapien physiology was developed specifically for language. In other words, vocal tracts, mouths, teeth, tongues, as well as the brain itself all evolved in our species for the function of language. Not solely for language, mind, but with language and speech as a goal certainly. Many believe that these homo sapiens possessed a language that all other languages are born from, a mother language so to speak.

The other theory is that the first homo sapiens evolved adaptations, such as the shape of our mouths and throats, independently from language but that these adaptations allowed for the development of language. For example, human throats and mouths adapted to changing diets and these adaptations also allowed for the production of varied speech sounds. This argument claims that language then is not something inherent to homo sapiens but something born from human adaptability in an increasingly social world wherein all the tools for language development had already been provided from other evolutionary traits.

These explanations are really simplified so I apologize for that, I just wanted to provide a quick overview. One thing about this week’s lectures and readings that really stood out to me in regard to Evolutionary Linguistics was the journal on human DNA in comparison to chimpanzee DNA. When contemplating the origin of language in humans, one thing linguists do is observe the cognitive and physiological capabilities of our primate cousins to compare them with our own. This can allow us to theorize and better understand what makes homo sapiens so unique as a species. These theories are not the only ones that exist but the ones that I find to be the most interesting.

The origin of language is something we can only theorize about considering there exists no written record to analyze and no evidence of any language at all existing at that time. We can look at the physiology of humans and other primates to understand the evolution involved in spoken language. Another thing we can observe is the deeply rooted patterns within languages today and the language acquisition in children to better understand the inherent nature of language in the brain and how that reflects an origin somewhere very far in the past. The debate over exactly when the development of language happened in humans actually happened will remain unsolved.

If you’re interested in learning more, here’s a great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3-R3Ii35nY