Origin of language

[onesteptwostep]

This is one of the more deeper theories I've been twiddling around with.

Language today is acquired through education or imitation of guardians or peers around you. But let's say before all this, how did the first speakers develop their sense of speech? According to wiki the origin of language is one of the hardest problems to solve scientifically. (the wiki is a great page to read btw, leads to interesting pages like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_deprivation_experiments)

I think language developed as an expression of awe, at first. Let's say you saw a sunrise after a bitter trek coupled with starvation. It would arrest you at first and you express this feeling with some kind of sound. This sound would be repeated by groups until it was known collectively that it was something special and sacred. Basically the first word uttered later developed into a recognizable word which happens to be an abstract noun. Later, when the first humanoids realized it was a collective that they'd agreed on, they would start to agree on other words. The stronger groups would win out in territorial fights, allowing for the growth and continual use of the language.

In addition I also think it's possible that there's a connection between religion and the origin of language as well. It might have not been a sunrise or something felt, but a sense of transcendence? I have no idea, but I think it's possible that it might be somehow. Adam's call (by God) in the garden was a sense of speech, after all. It could be a metaphor for something, dunno.

 

[Black Rose]

Hominids are pack animals. Wolves learn to hunt and to socialize. But hominids have a unique feature that other pack animals do not have. Self awareness. (ego). I believe that humans developed egos from looking into each other eyes. No other animal stars directly into each others eyes the way humans do. Other animals cannot hug each other the way humans can. When you hug you must look directly into their eyes. And secondly you must be standing up. When a child is born the mother looks directly into the eyes and she also look directly into the eyes of the father. This is only possibly for an animal that has an erect posture. Some animals like cats do watch their pray and they do watch how the adults learn to hunt. But they do not have hands. This limits what they can learn because when you have hands you can pick things up. A likely scenario is that hominids learned how to play games in a more advanced way than other animals learn how to play. When hominids play they do so by showing emotion at the sequence of events in the way they perform their actions. In affect what happens is that they act out a story and it is from what they remember and what they imagine in their dreams. In your dreams events happen that mixes up a creative story line. And so when you tell that story you act out what happens. You look into their eyes when they act out their story and you feel the emotions that they produce from their vocalization. The emotions follow the acting and then you remember the story. So when you have a child you tell them a story with your emotions on your face. The yips and yawls are random yet they exude a story. They represent the modifiers of nouns and verbs. In its essence language is the order of operations of algebraic equations representing the flow of time (a story). Abstraction is simply a collection of stories represented by a new label.

the chocolate story((sentence 1(sentence 2(sentience 3))))

sentence 1(lets eat(the chocolate(in the box(sentence 2))))

sentence 2(the chocolate(is in(the dinning room(sentence 3))))

sentence 3(please(got get it(so we can(eat it together))))

question 1(mommy(can you tell me(the chocolate story)(again)(question 2)))

question 2(where did we(eat the chocolate))

mommy answers(in the dinning room(I did it because I love you(mommy smiles)))

https://youtu.be/sxcsKE1SS4Y

 

[onesteptwostep]

I would have to say humans aren't the only species who have self-awareness; elephants have them too, for one. I think some orca or dolphin group have them too, can't remember at the moment. Emotions are generally recognizable in many mammals from what I remember.

I don't think parenting was the driving factor in the development of speech though, if that's what you're going for; or love, if you want to go deeper. The actual reason might be connected, but I don't think it was a main component in the development.

@the vid: I can't believe I actually remember that commercial. Being a 90's kid is weird >_>

 

[Cherry Cola]

people need to stop saying humans have this or that which no other animals do, it's pretty much never correct and it doesn't make sense

plenty of animals have self awareness, it's a matter of degree

if you want to make it uniquely human call it highly sophisticated metacognition or something

 

[Black Rose]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

With what I said about humans being pack animals. Packs compete for territory when they hunt. If we were to go by the parenting model then a tribe where children learn better means that the best parents raise children who are most likely to be the leaders. And them being the best leaders understand the groups dynamics and select the best hunters. This is how wolf pack operate. But also because human have greater dexterity they also have greater social intelligence. Wolf packs have at most 30 individuals. Elephants have 144 individuals per group. Humans have 300 individuals. When your group reaches a certain size you split off into new groups. I would say that group selection would mean that one group would carry the most intelligent of that group and the other would carry the ones bellow average. And what I mean by intelligent is the socially intelligent. If you are socially smart you join the group which you work best with.

Human Grammar I think is complex because of our theory of mind and our family relationships are huge. The Grammar of other animals like chimps is small because they lack cognitive empathy which comes from the number of people in your family. Grammar reflects the capacity to teach someone what you know. Humans are the masters of teaching offspring.

Speech and language for communication​

https://youtu.be/0x2_kWRB8-A

Self-domesticated ape theory​

https://youtu.be/tVB0hLsZEj4

https://youtu.be/_6479QAJuz8

https://youtu.be/IzgWJGZqqmY

https://youtu.be/0jFGNQScRNY

 

[Black Rose]

people need to stop saying humans have this or that which no other animals do, it's pretty much never correct and it doesn't make sense

plenty of animals have self awareness, it's a matter of degree

if you want to make it uniquely human call it highly sophisticated metacognition or something

When I say ego I mean the Freudian Ego.
Only humans have Freudian Egos.

cogito ergo sum

I am not dumb enough to say animals lack self awareness in the phenomenological sense.

Ego represents self awareness of the ego itself.

 

[Yellow]

I just read a book called "Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language" about a year ago. It was a really fun read.

Anyway, it's quite possible that language came from song. All people (especially mothers) have an instinct to sing or hum to their infants, and infants grow up responding very positively to the songs of their mothers. We then use those songs, tunes, etc, to connect with and link our brain waves with others.

We have our crazy old bird-like languages too.

So I think it's plausible that language originated from song. Melodic sounds intended to convey emotions and warnings. These would have developed hand in hand the evolution of our increased brain complexity. Just observing our brain structure and function, it is logical to deduce that our ancestral hominina had language, or proto-language. It's possible that our near-spiritual connection with music came from them, and that the development of complex language arrived just before or just after the emergence of Homo sapiens.

 

[onesteptwostep]

Okay, that makes sense I guess. Infants would cry out to their mothers and the mother would sooth them.

I looked up the book on amazon and apparently the mothers would use voice to calm the baby down when they were let down on the ground to be independent.

There must be a fuller explanation though, since the development of speech couldn't have just magically formed from woo-soothing.

Furthermore the development of grammatical syntax is interesting too.. like how did Korean or Japanese end up with a subject-object-verb order (SOV) while English became subject-verb-object (SVO). Interestingly enough "Biblical Hebrew" has verb-subject-object order... (VSO) same with hieroglyphic Egyptian.

 

[Thurlor]

I remember hearing a theory that language developed as a means of constructing thoughts and was later adapted for communication with others.