What is the origin of langauge?

Question

How was a general venacular of any given language agreed upon?

Answer 1

Language developed out of a need to communicate. As hominids spread around the globe and became adventurous and separated by time and space from each other, different languages developed among the various hominid groups. Isolation by space and time allowed these languages to become more diverse until the various languages in humans developed into the roots of modern languages
The general vernacular actually seems to have developed from multiple repetitions of a common term, such as John's son eventually becoming the last name Johnson.

Answer 2

One of the earliest accounts of the origin of languages is in the Hebrew Bible, in the book of Genesis (dated to the early 1st millennium BC). Genesis 2:19-20 has God giving Adam the task of assigning names to all the animals and plants he had in Eden (see nomothete).

The key biblical narrative of the origin of the observed linguistic variety is the story that God punished human presumption in building the Tower of Babel (see confusion of tongues) (Genesis 11:1-9). Additionally, Genesis 10:5 tells how, before Babel, the descendants of Japhet spoke multiple languages. It has been suggested that this is due to the narrative style of Genesis, in which an event was explained following its introduction into the narrative.[1]

Most mythologies do not credit humans with the invention of language, but know of a language of the gods (or, language of God), predating human language. Mystical languages used to communicate with animals or spirits, such as the language of the birds are also common, and were of particular interest during the Renaissance.

History contains a number of anecdotes about people who attempted to discover the origin of language by experiment. The first such tale was told by Herodotus, who relates that Pharaoh "Psamtik" (probably Psammetichus I) caused two children to be raised by deaf-mutes; he would see what language they ended up speaking. When the children were brought before him, one of them said something that sounded to the pharaoh like bekos, the Phrygian word for bread. From this, Psamtik concluded that Phrygian was the first language. King James V of Scotland is said to have tried a similar experiment; his children were supposed to have ended up speaking Hebrew. Both the medieval monarch Frederick II and Akbar, a 16th century Mughal emperor of India are said to have tried a similar experiment; the children they tried these experiments with did not speak. [2] [3]

In 1866 the Linguistic Society of Paris banned discussion of the origin of language, deeming it to be an unanswerable problem.

Answer 3

dou you learn linguistics... it is all there. TRY: language change.

most linguists believe there is one grand structure for all languages in the world, they call this LANGUAGE UNIVERSALs.

it might not help, but you should read some of chomsky's

Answer 4

listen to a baby, that is probably the first language.