where did language originate from?

Answer 1

This is a massive question with no certain answers. I should know, as I have a postgraduate degree in evolutionary linguistics and am currently engaged in research in the area.
There are several different issues involved, such as whether language started off vocal (produced by the mouth) or manual (with the hands). Did it evolve originally for communication or did it originally have more to do with structuring internal thought?

Another strand of research, related to my own, deals with the role of language in social organisation: vocal sounds might begin as a means of identifying kin. There's also Robin Dunbar's point about the importance of gossip: by telling each other who did what to whom we strengthen our social networks and also, vitally, identify those individuals who we can't trust. This aids the maintenance of cooperative behaviour.

There are more esoteric issues involved: was early language an externalisation of some sort of internal (proto-)concept (so did our ancestors have an internal concept of 'food' that they developed a word for?) or did vocalisations just become associated with particular contexts, thus developing some sort of very broad meaning that later got broken down into words?

I've described this all a bit superficially, but I think you get the general idea. We're closer to having some sort of answer than we were, but there's a long way to go: research into the origin and evolution of language is an astoundingly new field. Much work before the 20th-century was either based on establishing the language of Adam, or was just not especially fruitful and given to wild claims. So there was a massive hiatus until pretty much the end of the 20th century.

Oh, but if you just mean, "Where in the world did language originate?" as in "Where did the first users of human language live?" then I suppose the best guess would be Africa, given that that's where human beings themselves seem to have originated. It's also rather more intuitively likely that we developed language before spreading out over the world, as opposed to developing it independently in different places. But the latter possibility is not completely implausible.

Edit:
I like your answer, Taivo, and I think your main points are sound, but I do think you imply that the answer is more certain than it is. There is a very great deal that we don't know, and there is much dispute. It is by no means universally accepted by evolutionary linguists, for example, that language evolved directly out of 'primate audio-gestural signalling systems'. But I agree that this is a particularly likely origin.

Answer 2

If this could be answered on Y! it would save hundreds of researchers lots of time!

No-one knows for sure - rhw main ideas are as someone said for necessity but others think it was just a random genetic and physiological co-incidence that was then seen as desirable and so kept through procreation. Others say language was originally gestures (look at how the great apes interact) and words were then added on.

Not an easy question for an easy answer!

Answer 3

Garik is pretty close. Modern human language evolved out of previously existing primate audio-gestural signalling systems once the human brain had developed an appropriate cognitive level to comprehend and manipulate irrealis and metaphor. Irrealis is the ability to talk about unreal states--possibility, probability, obligation, distant past, future, prevarication, potential, etc. No other animal can understand or manipulate irrealis. Metaphor is the ability to talk about new things by referring to known things. No other animal can understand or manipulate metaphor except in the most limited ways. These are fundamental building blocks for human language. This cognitive ability, as well as complex human language, seems to have evolved about 100,000 years ago before Homo sapiens sapiens moved out of Africa. Indeed, the ultimate human "tool", language, was probably one of the most important factors in giving modern humans the power to overcome their competition and move out of Africa into the rest of the world.

Answer 4

Any specific language or language in general?
If you mean general then I only have this to say. "Necessity is the mother of invention."
If you'd prefer a way out there conspiracy theory then I'd say human being use to be able to speak telepathically but the telepathic link between humans was destroyed by a gigantic antenna designed to link all human minds into one consciousness which was altered and instead caused humans to no longer speak telepathically. This antenna is related to the biblical tower of babel. Like I said, it's way out there.

Answer 5

No-one knows. When and why humans began encoding and transmitting messages in vocal signals is a mystery. One notes (as a father) that babies can make sounds which carry meaning, virtually from birth, so maybe language is an inate part of being human.

Answer 6

People started talking about 40,ooo years ago, presumably in Africa, maybe in a UFO orbiting the Earth, but most likely Africa. The first word was Ma Ma. This sound is formed by the sucking motions of a child at his mothers breast combined with a vibration of the vocal chords.

Answer 7

language originate from the tower of babel when God confused the language of the people that wanted to plot against God by reaching to heaven through the tower.

Answer 8

Man had to deveplop a system of communication, when his world became more complex and cooperation was necessary.

Answer 9

Tower Of Babel

Answer 10

Africa, obviously, where the species that developed language was born.