2006-10-14 14:05:00 · 7 answers · asked by my_a7lamy 3 in Education & Reference ➔ Other - Education
1] A related question concerns the possibility of linguistic monogenesis, a hypothesis that holds that there was one single protolanguage (the "Proto-World language") from which all other languages spoken by humans descend. These suggestions are viewed with extreme skepticism by mainstream linguists; they insist that phonetic laws must first be proposed that explain how these roots took their forms in the "daughter" languages, and in the absence of such explanation they reject the entire hypothesis. For these linguists, there may or may not have been such an original protolanguage; the intervening centuries of linguistic change have obscured any trails needed to recover it. Biologists do not yet agree on when or how language use first emerged among humans or their ancestors. Estimates of the time frame of its origin range from forty thousand years ago, during the time of Cro-Magnon man, to about two million years ago, during the time of Homo habilis.
2] The term Proto-World language refers to the hypothetical, most recent common ancestor of all the world's languages – an ancient proto-language from which are derived all modern languages, all language families, and all dead languages known from the past 6,000 years of recorded history. Note also that it would not necessarily be the first language spoken altogether, but only the latest common ancestor of all languages known today, and already may have looked back on a long evolution, and even may have existed alongside other languages of which no trace survived into historical times.
2006-10-14 23:44:00 · answer #1 · answered by peter_lobell 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There's no knowing. Since languages change over time, it would have changed beyond recognition.
It's also possible that there was no one language, but many.
It would also depend on what, exactly, the criteria for calling something a language would be. There were probably proto-languages, and things that are closer to languages as we now know them.
Any cut off in the borderline cases would be arbitrary.
Perhaps if you explained your question, someone could say something helpful.
2006-10-14 23:09:32 · answer #2 · answered by tehabwa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
sign language as used by many a tourist today
2006-10-14 21:13:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Grunt
2006-10-14 21:06:54 · answer #4 · answered by Janji 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hebrew??
2006-10-14 21:08:13 · answer #5 · answered by Georgia Girl 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Check these web sites
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/Languages/Languages_Hebrew_TO/Languages_HebHis_Jacobs/Languages_Hebrew_Theo.htm
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~thompsoc/Creole.html
2006-10-14 21:23:20 · answer #6 · answered by green star 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hebrew...it is spoken by God and his angels too...
Have fun!!
2006-10-14 21:09:49 · answer #7 · answered by heyheyhey 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋