evolution?

Question

at what point in evolution did humans learn to speak and understand over 6809 languages and why are they so different?

im not implying each individual can speak that many.

Answer 1

Actually thats not evolution, thats human migration.

Answer 2

When people were isolated they could not adapt words from other languages into everyday speech. Anyway few humans can understand and speak 10 languages much-less 6809 languages.

When they got their vocal cords connected to a large brain and grew into complex groups, Languages expressed what they were thinking better than a grunt

Each word that was adapted made for more communications that expressed their particular understanding and defense of their world.

Answer 3

Languages are _not_ very different, as the questioner is probably acutely aware. Apart from a few oddities, they can all be traced to each other, mostly within the last 10 000 years. Linguistic evolution is far more recent than biological evolution. Mankind is perhaps 300 000 years old, but languages as known today are probably grown out of a few in the last 10 000 years, since the last ice age. Languages are constantly changing, whereas biological change is much more gradual.

Bad, bad, fundie question. 39 lashes.

Answer 4

there's a different native tribe in South America in every valley, which developed their own language. Natural geographic barriers can cause great differences. Curiously enough, the Hopi, who live 3,000 miles away from the Carrier (BC interior) can understand each other. Most tribes do not. Mostly because there were no cars, and it took many generations to go forth and fill the earth. I mean, even Hawaii. A dot in the middle of a vast ocean, has people on it. It's simply amazing.

There are language groups, though. Teutonic (Germanic), Romantic (like latin-type), Oriental, etc.

There is one language that entails the use of clicks, and it is considered the most ancient language on earth. It is the language used by 3 tribes in Africa: and they are in the Rift valley.

Answer 5

Humans don't speak and understand over 6809 languages. Only the ones you learn. They are so different because different groups of people that lived in different areas, invented their own languages. Because they weren't connected to everybody else. If we were created by "god" wouldn't it make more sense if we all spoke the same language?

Answer 6

That's an overly simplistic and (IMO) deliberately ignorant question. Language developed just as humans have, and varied over time as groups migrated and separated from each other. Even animals (other than humans) use various forms of vocal signaling and more so nonverbal communication; some of which is fairly complex. Ergo the idea of symbolic language is not such a huge leap as some make it out to be.

Answer 7

Languages evolve as well. English, for example, came from other languages before it.

And how could any-one know the exact point in time when people decided to communicate with words instead of just making noises and gesturing (though we still do that a bit even in this century)?

Evolution still makes more sense than the theory of some omnipotent being snapping his fingers and everything suddenly coming into existence. I mean, if you wanted to see a 'god' do that, check out the Q from Star Trek...

Answer 8

People learned to speak many thousands of years ago. Language evolved - it did not just appear. Language most likely started off with just grunts and from there our early ancestors started forming more sounds that meant something. As our ancestors moved across the world different groups of people would have slightly adapted these sounds to mean the same thing. Hence why people from diffeent countries speak different languages or even just speak a slightly different dialect despite living in the same country.

Even animals probably have their own language. Although they probably don't form sentences in the same way we do - they certainly do have sounds that have meanings to them (which you could argue is a form of language - even if simplistic).

Answer 9

News to me.

I only speak 5

You really speak that many? You must be more evolved then.


EDIT
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Ah, well

Language is genetic, it's a capability that exists in every person. The language we end up speaking depends on what languages we're exposed to as we're learning to utilize that capability.

As for the different languages, I speak swedish, german, english and french (and understand a bit of spanish, italian, dutch and portugese) And my home language is Finnish.

From those Finnish is the odd one out, it's not related to the others. But the rest appear to be based in either old germanic base language or latin. You could almost call some of them dialects and not languages.

Think of english, it started with celtic influences, transformed to anglo-saxon... and got norman influences to combine to old english. If you look at the word norman, you can see the influences there, norra mannen (man from north). That appears to be the result of viking conquest of northern france, the area of normandy.

So languages don't exist in vacuum, they don't just appear. They're developed and they interact, borrow words... share common ancestors. How they end up mostly different is distance from the original speakers. If you look at the vikings, they spoke some scandinavan dialect (swedish, norvegian or danish, all pretty much the same)when they first came.

Those of them that stayed in france would have learned french words and in effect would speak a mixed language that wasn't anymore the language of their home country.. their decendants would have already spoken a language the people of their great grandparents country couldn't understand.

And once they invaded england, the resulting language would be still further from the original. But still follow some of the same rules. There are words that can be recognized...
King (english)
Kung (swedish)
König (German)...

Father (english)
Fader (swedish used mostly in combo words)
Vater (german)... german V usually goes to F in english....

Fish (english)
Fiske (swedish)
Fische (german)
(and even)
Piscine (french) french words that have p usually equate to f in germanic languages.

They're not all that different really ;)

Look at the way you speak here, or with your friends, and then think if it's really the official language of your people. If you were living on an island with your friends you'd start to forget some of the old words you'd never use, and your children would learn only what you remember, so the language they'd learn wouldn't be the one you learned... let that go on a few generations, and add some other people with a whole different language, and the result would be a new language loosely related to your original one ;)

Now imagine humans doing that for a 100.000 years...

There, is that better?

Answer 10

Thats a heavy question. We do not know when language originated, i believe it is the birth of our intelligence. It is so very complex that i can't seem to wrap my head around how we came to the point where simple sounds we make have so much meaning.

Answer 11

What do you define as speaking? Grunts and acknowledgment or how we talk to each other today? And even if you were more clear there really isn't a way to find out.