who invented languages?

Question

i always wondered how languages where invented

Answer 1

Modern human language evolved about 100,000 years ago with the evolution of fully modern man in central Africa. As our final cognitive abilities clicked into place and our oral tract attained its current shape, complex language exploded out of the assortment of gestures and vocalizations that had passed as "communication" before. The two main features of human language that are not shared by any other animal are 1) the ability to talk about the distant past and to convey information about how to do things, and 2) the ability to talk about things that are not real--negative statements, possibility, probability, obligation, intention, the future--and to plan future events. The first allowed us to use language to pass information to the next generation, the second allowed us to use language to plan the future. Both of these things are fundamental to human language and are not shared by any other animal system.

EDIT: Actually, there are virtually no linguists who believe that language had multiple origins. Indeed, the vast majority of linguists, while admitting that the evidence for a monogenetic origin for languages is circumstantial, would be absolutely shocked if any hard evidence for multiple origins for language ever came to light. The earliest Homo sapiens sapiens started out in a single strain of mitochondrial DNA in central Africa. Just as there were not multiple origins for modern humans, there were not multiple origins for modern human language.

Answer 2

There is no such thing as 'invention' of a language. The only invented languages are Esperanto, a 70 years old sign language in Africa and elvish!

Answer 3

You've got some really good answers to your questions. But I just wanted to add that it is impossible to prove whether modern languages all came from one language, or if they stemmed from different languages. As someone else has noted, in the beginning we all just lived in tribes in Africa. But we didn't live in one tribe in Africa, so did different tribes develop different languages independantly of each other, or was it just one language through out? Either way language is unpredictable like the sea. It shifts, merges, breaks away, etc.etc.etc. And even though language and the human kind cannot exist separately from each other in reality we cannot control its evolution. No matter how many words, for example, the French Academy invents in order to eliminate the borrowed words like "e-mail" or "parking", in the end the French language will still completely incorporate them into its vocabulary.

Answer 4

started with grunts and groans. Then pointing and sounds. Then sounds were developed to convey a particular meaning. Everyone lived in the continent of Africa in the beginning so the language we spoke was generally the same. different tribes developed their own dialect eventually.

People spread around the globe and the development of language continued to the point where we started writing and reading.

A story that might interest you is the story of 'the tower of babel' in the bible. you can google it.

Answer 5

Awesome question! I imagine it would depend upon who you ask. A linguist would probably tell you that the first proto-language can be traced back to the Indus region, but I could be wrong about that. A religious person would point out the story of the Tower of Babel. My personal opinion is that it came from necessity. That as our brains developed and we became more sophisticated we found sounds worked better than pointing and we agreed upon certain sounds for certain things. It just grew from there. Was there one place where it developed and spread from? Probably not. I would suspect it sprang up in various locations and conglomerated as these various tribes met and shared.

Answer 6

As everyone has said they evolve and are not invented
For example the British and American versions of English are slowly becoming separate languages even though they were the same less than a few centuries ago

Answer 7

Very good question, I have pondered over this question for many years.

A good read on the subject is the book by Lyn Davies, entitled " A is for Ox" A short history of the alphabet, published by the Folio Society in London.

This book gives many answers to questions on how language first started, and makes very interesting reading.

The Folio Society address is;
44, Eagle Street, London, WC1R 4FS.

Hope this helps.

Answer 8

Human beings.
And should I say discovered in one aspect :)
actually they all started from sound forms being repeatedly used in the same way for the same objects. Then the semantics came into being and then the notations (visual ones). Then came creativity in using and creating a whole set of words and phrases and alphabet to form a language.

Answer 9

The only language to have been "invented" is Esperanto.
All other languages evolved, and are still evolving.

Answer 10

Why might want to 40 nameless authors of similar distinct backgrounds, in somewhat distinct languages from 3 continents that contact, in a era of besides the undeniable fact that many years, worry to position in writing sixty six books of a fantasy? because they believed it. a similar as Zoroastrianism, or Hinduism, human beings can trust something.