From Grunts to Grammer

There is one question that still troubles scientists and that is when we started to use complex language. Language is constantly changing and even today its s going through its own little evolution. It is obvious that language is the product of the need for socialization. So we can roughly conclude that the first traces of language appeared over the first camp fire, and slowly evolved from grunts to complex sentences. Dr. Jeffrey Laitman was the first one to conclude that homo Habilis, the earliest human might have been communicating because there is evidence that parts of the brain that were required for speech were present in them. For speech we need a larynx also known as voice box to make sounds and sometime in the past our voice box went lower in our throat so that we could make sounds but for the animals it stayed high up. Some scientist assumed that our voice box subsided when we needed more air to hunt prey. In the past we hunted by using persistent hunting and it is when they chase a animal until it can’t run and gives up. The extra need for air made our voice box lower so that we can breathe through both our nose and mouth. One suggestion to when we started speaking was when we first started to use primitive tools; we needed communication in order to pass on the craft of making tools. Along with migration comes the need to cross the seas and that when scientists think that we started to use more complex language because to make a boat required greater skills. The problem is that we have no solid evidence so we can’t say for sure when it started.

"From grunts to grammar: the evolution of language ." Odyssey: adventure in science Oct. 2009: n. 

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