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| {{linguistics}} | | {{subpages}} |
| A '''language''' is a [[system]] for encoding and decoding [[information]]. Determining what kinds of [[signals]] or [[symbols]] constitute language is not always a straightforward matter. Does the blossoming of a flower, whose color or scent signals to bees or birds to come and pollinate it, constitute a form of language? Does a skunk spraying constitute language, since it can certainly be said to be a form of communication? Are communications that involve, say, chemicals or pheromones part of some kind of language? Can we say that signaling behavior that is learned, rather than wired in, is language, whereas signaling behavior that is instinctive is not language?
| | {{dambigbox|language in general|Language}} |
| | '''Language''' refers to: the faculty that allows individuals to acquire and use at least one specific language; the [[system]] of a language itself; the performance of [[spoken language|speaking]], [[written language|writing]] or [[sign language|signing]]; and to different varieties or levels of speech, writing or signs (e.g. '[[profanity|bad language]]'). Typically, language and languages act as a system for encoding and decoding [[information]], and for the purpose of [[communication]]. However, determining what kinds of [[signal]]s or [[symbol]]s constitute language is not always a straightforward matter, and issues of how [[biology|biologically]]-based this ability is, how it could have [[evolution|evolved]] and whether it is unique to [[human]]s continue to fascinate [[linguistics|linguists]] and users of language in general. |
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| The following article concerns language in all of its aspects. The [[definition of language]] - what counts as a language and what doesn't - is a difficult [[philosophy|philosophical]] topic, deserving an article in its own right.
| | ==Types of 'language' and how it is studied== |
| | 'Language', primarily, refers to a system of the [[human]] [[mind]] that facilitates one kind of [[communication]]. It has both a [[spoken language|spoken]] and a [[written language|written]] form. Its study is called [[linguistics]], with subdivisions such as [[historical linguistics]] and [[sociolinguistics]], though some fields of this [[science]] are concerned with linguistic systems that run on [[computer]]s. To distinguish the 'human' system from such [[formal language]]s in [[mathematics]] or [[computer science]], it is also sometimes called [[natural language]]. However, linguistics is not the only scholarly area with an interest in language. The discovery of the oldest evidence of language, primarily via vestiges of early writing, falls under the purview of [[archaeology]] or [[anthropology]] and also [[history]]. The mechanisms related to learning of human languages may be of interest in [[psychology]] and [[medicine]] due to its exercise of higher brain function. [[Computer science|Computer scientists]] have been engaged in the study of human languages for the purpose of [[translation system|machine translation]] between different human languages. |
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| ==Human languages (Natural languages)== | | ===Formal, mathematical, and computer languages=== |
| Human languages are usually referred to as [[natural language]]s, and the science of studying them is [[linguistics]], but linguistics is not the only scholarly area with an interest in human languages. The discovery of the oldest evidence of language, primarily via vestiges of early writing, falls under the pervue of [[archaeology]] and also [[history]]. The mechanisms related to learning of human languages may be of interest in [[psychology]] and [[medicine]] due to its exercise of higher brain function. [[Computer science|Computer scientists]] have been engaged in the study of human languages for the purpose of [[machine translation]] between different human languages.
| | The activity of computer engineering has produced numerous computer [[Programming language|programming languages]], and in fact they have created several subfields of scholarly research relating to them, such as [[formal language|formal languages]] and [[compiler]]s. Mathematicians have expressed various mathematical formalisms that they describe as languages. |
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| ===Properties of natural languages===
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| Linguistic scholars have described human languages as a system of symbols (sometimes known as [[lexeme]]s) and the [[grammar]] ([[wiktionary:rule|rule]]s) by which the symbols are manipulated. The assignment of meaning to a symbol in a human language is arbitrary. Any symbol can be mapped onto any concept (or even onto one of the rules of the grammar). For instance, there is nothing about the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] word ''{{lang|es|nada}}'' itself that forces Spanish speakers to use it to mean "nothing". That is the meaning all Spanish speakers have memorized for that sound pattern. But for [[Croatian language|Croatian]] speakers ''{{lang|hr|nada}}'' means "hope". Not all mappings of symbols to concepts are entirely arbitrary, however; spoken language may assign meaning to symbols because the spoken sound is imitative of a natural phenomenon. Thus for example, the word "meow" sounds similar to what it represents (see [[Onomatopoeia]])<ref name="onomatopoeia">{{cite web|url=http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/animals.html|title=Sounds of the World's Animals|publisher=Catherine N. Ball, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University|year=year not specified|accessdate=2007-04-12}}</ref>.
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| ===Origins of human language===
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| No one yet agrees on when language was first used by humans (or their ancestors). Estimates range from about two million (2,000,000) years ago, during the time of ''[[Homo habilis]]'', to as recently as forty thousand (40,000) years ago, during the time of [[Cro-Magnon]] man.
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| <!--::(need a section here on earliest archeological evidence of emergence of writing, i.e., runes and things), or maybe something about first evidence of "written" language emerging--or, does written language stuff belong here or in a sub-article?[[User:Pat Palmer|Pat Palmer]] 14:47, 13 April 2007 (CDT)-->
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| ===Language versus dialect classification===
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| From the point of view of [[Historical_linguistics|historical]] [[Comparative_linguistics|comparative]] [[Linguistics|linguistics]], two [[natural language]]s with noticable difference in pronunciation but which are still [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] may be classified as being two ''[[dialect|dialects]]'' of the same language. However, the decision to term a particular regional language as its own language, versus a ''dialect'' of another language, is sometimes also the result of political divisions, cultural differences, distinctive [[writing systems]], or other factors. [[Max Weinreich]] is credited as saying that "[[Language-dialect aphorism|a language is a dialect with an army and a navy]]". For instance, some [[dialect]]s of [[German language|German]] are [[mutually intelligible]] with some dialects of [[Dutch language|Dutch]]. The transition between languages within the same [[language family]] is usually gradual (see [[dialect continuum]]). The concepts of [[Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache|Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache and Dachsprache]] are used to make finer [[distinction]]s about the degrees of difference between languages or dialects.
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| ===Study of grammar===
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| The oldest surviving written grammar for any language is believed to be the ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'' (தொல்காப்பியம்), a book on the grammar of the [[Tamil language]], written around [[200 BC]] by Tolkāppiyar. Its classification of the alphabet into [[consonant]]s and [[vowel]] was a breakthrough. The historical record of the study of language begins in [[North India]] with [[Pāṇini]], the [[5th century BC]] grammarian who formulated 3,959 rules of [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], known as the ''{{Unicode|[[Aṣṭādhyāyī]]}}'' (अष्टाध्यायी). {{Unicode|Pāṇini’s}} grammar is highly systematized and technical. Inherent in its analytic approach are the concepts of the [[phoneme]], the [[morpheme]], and the [[Root (linguistics)|root]]; the phoneme was only recognized by Western linguists some two millennia later.
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| In the [[Middle East]], the [[Persian language|Persian]] linguist [[Sibawayh]] made a detailed and professional description of [[Arabic language|Arabic]] in 760 CE in his monumental work, ''Al-kitab fi al-nahw'' (الكتاب في النحو, ''The Book on Grammar''), bringing many [[Linguistics|linguistic]] aspects of language to light. In his book he distinguished [[phonetics]] from [[phonology]].
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| Later in the West, the success of [[science]], [[mathematics]], and other [[formal system]]s in the 20th century led many to attempt a formalization of the study of language as a "semantic code". This resulted in the [[academic discipline]] of [[linguistics]], the founding of which is attributed to [[Ferdinand de Saussure]].
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| ::Where do Wittgenstein and Quine argue this? [[Philosopher]]s such as [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], [[W. V. Quine]], and [[Jacques Derrida]] have disputed the possibility of such a rigorous study of language by questioning many of the assumptions necessary for such a study, and have put forth their own views on the nature of language. There is no end in sight to this debate.
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| ===Language taxonomy===
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| The [[Taxonomic classification|classification]] of natural languages can be performed on the basis of different underlying principles (different closeness notions, respecting different properties and relations between languages); important directions of present classifications are:
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| * paying attention to the historical evolution of languages results in a genetic classification of languages—which is based on genetic relatedness of languages,
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| * paying attention to the internal structure of languages ([[grammar]]) results in a typological classification of languages—which is based on similarity of one or more components of the language's grammar across languages,
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| * and respecting geographical closeness and contacts between language-speaking communities results in areal groupings of languages.
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| The different classifications do not match each other and are not expected to, but the correlation between them is an important point for many [[linguistics|linguistic]] research works. (There is a parallel to the classification of [[species]] in biological [[phylogenetics]] here: consider [[monophyletic]] vs. [[polyphyletic]] groups of species.)
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| The task of genetic classification belongs to the field of [[historical-comparative linguistics]], of typological—to [[linguistic typology]].
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| See also [[Taxonomy]], and [[Taxonomic classification]] for the general idea of classification and taxonomies.
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| ====Genetic classification====
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| The world's languages have been grouped into families of languages that are believed to have common ancestors. Some of the major families are the [[Proto-Indo-European_language|Indo-European languages]], the [[Afro-Asiatic languages]], the [[Austronesian languages]], and the [[Sino-Tibetan languages]].
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| The shared features of languages from one family can be due to shared ancestry. (Compare with [[homology (biology)|homology]] in biology.)
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| ====Typological classification==== | | ==Origins of human language== |
| An example of a typological classification is the classification of languages on the basis of the basic order of the [[verb]], the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] and the [[object (grammar)|object]] in a [[sentence (linguistics)|sentence]] into several types: [[SVO language|SVO]], [[SOV language|SOV]], [[VSO language|VSO]], and so on, languages. ([[English language|English]], for instance, belongs to the [[SVO language]] type.)
| | {{seealso|Language evolution}} |
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| The shared features of languages of one type (= from one typological class) may have arisen completely independently. (Compare with [[analogy (biology)|analogy]] in biology.) Their cooccurence might be due to the universal laws governing the structure of natural languages—[[language universal]]s.
| | Linguists do not agree on when human language may first have been used, or even whether the first language users were modern humans at all - earlier [[hominin]]s may have come to language first, passing it down the generations to modern humans. Possibly, such [[species]] as ''[[Homo habilis]]'' may have been the first to link sound, gestures, [[symbolism|symbol]] and meaning to form a linguistic system, producing the first individual languages around two million years in the past. Some linguists go further back into the past, attributing the first forms of language to ''[[Australopothecus afarensis]]'', which would mean that human language is actually between 4 and 7 million years old.<ref>Pinker, S. ''The Language Instinct. How the Mind Creates Language.'' (1994)</ref> Alternatively, since [[spoken language|spoken]] and [[sign language|signed]] languages leave no [[fossilization|fossil]]s, for all we know language may have emerged only with the early modern [[Cro-Magnon]] humans, as recently as around 100 - 40,000 years ago. |
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| ====Areal classification====
| | In all likelihood, some of the [[gene|genetic]] basis for language was found in many species, though only in human did it lead to language: our extinct relatives, the [[Neanderthal]]s, have been reported to have carried a gene, ''[[FoxP2]]'', that is linked with speech in humans,<ref>''Nature:'' '[http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071018/full/news.2007.177.html Modern speech gene found in Neanderthals]'. 18th October 2007.</ref> plus vocalisation in [[bat]]s (including [[echolocation]])<ref>[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000900 Li G, Wang J, Rossiter SJ, Jones G & Zhang S (2007)].</ref> and [[chimpanzee]]s.<ref> ''Evolutionpages.com:'' '[http://www.evolutionpages.com/FOXP2_language.htm FOXP2 and the Evolution of Language]'.</ref> |
| The following language groupings can serve as some linguistically significant examples of areal linguistic units, or ''[[sprachbund]]s'': [[Balkan linguistic union]], or the bigger group of [[European languages]]; [[Caucasian languages]]. Although the members of each group are not closely [[genetic relatedness of languages|genetically related]], there is a reason for them to share similar features, namely: their speakers have been in contact for a long time within a common community and the languages ''converged'' in the course of the history. These are called "[[areal feature (linguistics)|areal feature]]s".
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| N.B.: one should be careful about the underlying classification principle for groups of languages which have apparently a geographical name: besides areal linguistic units, the [[taxa]] of the genetic classification ([[language family|language families]]) are often given names which themselves or parts of which refer to geographical areas.
| | <!--::(need a section here on earliest archeological evidence of emergence of writing, i.e., |
| | | runes and things), or maybe something about first evidence of "written" language emerging-- |
| ===Constructed languages===
| | or, does written language stuff belong here or in a sub-article?[[User:Pat Palmer|Pat |
| Humans have also deliberately contructed [[Constructed language|artificial language]]s such as [[Esperanto]], [[Lojban]], [[Ido]], [[Interlingua]], and [[Klingon language|Klingon]]. [[Esperanto]] is a well-known artificial language that was created by [[L. L. Zamenhof]] as a compilation of various elements of different languages, and was intended to be an easy-to-learn language for people familiar with similar languages.
| | Palmer]] 14:47, 13 April 2007 (CDT)--> |
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| ==Do animals have language?==
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| Some animals communicate in a system which might be considered language, consisting either of calls or body postures used consistently for certain purposes and which are learned behavior. There are examples of multiple signals existing within one species, but signals are also sometimes used across species, such as when birds respond to chattering and tail waggles made by squirrels to warn of the presence of a predator.
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| The term "[[animal language]]s" is often used for non-human languages. Most researchers agree that these are not as complex or expressive as [[human language]]; they may better be described as [[animal communication]]. Some researchers argue that there are significant differences separating human language from the communication of other animals, and that the underlying principles are unrelated.
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| In several publicised instances, non-human animals have been trained to mimic certain features of human language. For example, [[chimpanzee]]s and [[gorilla]]s have been taught hand signs based on [[American Sign Language]]; however, they have never been successfully taught its grammar. There was also a case in 2003 of [[Kanzi]], a captive bonobo chimpanzee allegedly independently creating some words to mean certain concepts. While animal communication has debated levels of [[semantics]], it has not been shown to have [[syntax]] in the sense that human languages do.
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| Some researchers argue that a continuum exists among the communication methods of all social animals, pointing to the fundamental requirements of group behaviour and the existence of "[[mirror cells]]" in [[primate]]s. This, however, may not be a [[scientific]] question, but is perhaps more one of [[definition]]. What exactly is the definition of the word "language"? Most researchers agree that, although human and more primitive languages have [[Analogy|analogous]] features, they are not [[wikt:homologous|homologous]].
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| ==Formal, mathematical, and computer languages==
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| The activity of computer engineering has produced numerous computer [[Programming language|programming languages]], and in fact they have created several subfields of scholarly research relating to them, such as [[formal language|formal languages]] and [[compiler]]s. Mathematicians have expressed various mathematical formalisms that they describe as languages.
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| ==See also== | | ==Do other species have language?== |
| *[[Linguistics]]
| | Does the blossoming of a flower, whose color or scent signals to bees or birds to come and pollinate it, constitute a form of language? Does a skunk spraying constitute language, since it can certainly be said to be a form of communication? Are communications that involve, say, chemicals or pheromones part of some kind of language? Can we say that signaling behavior that is learned, rather than wired in, is language, whereas signaling behavior that is instinctive is not language? |
| *[[Deception]]
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| *[[Philology]] and [[Historical linguistics]]
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| *[[Psycholinguistics]]
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| *[[Sign language]]
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| ==References==
| | Some animals communicate in a system which might be considered language, consisting either of calls or body postures used consistently for certain purposes and which are learned behavior. There are examples of multiple signals existing within one species, but signals are also sometimes used across species, such as when birds respond to chattering and tail waggles made by squirrels to warn of the presence of a predator. The question of whether animals have the capacity for language to a similar degree that humans have (even sign language) is controversial. |
| <references/>
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| ==External links==
| | Edmund Blair Bolles, author of [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158243641X?ie=UTF8&tag=telllingitcom-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=158243641X ''Babel's Dawn: A Natural History of the Origins of Speech''], asserts the following: “''I call it language when a speaker and a listener exchange news about a topic. The closest thing in the animal kingdom to this kind of behavior is the waggle dance of the bee.''”<ref>Edmund Blair Bolles. (2014) [http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2014/07/how-can-you-recognize-language.html How Can You Recognize Language?]</ref> |
| * [http://www.primitivism.com/language.htm ''Language: Origin and Meaning'' by John Zerzan]
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| * [http://www.netz-tipp.de/languages.html Distribution of languages on the Internet]
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| * [http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/ Speech accent archive]
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| * [http://multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html/ Listen to online radio of the world's languages]
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| * [http://polyglottery.wordpress.com Learning Global Languages]
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| * [http://www.audioenglish.net/ English as a foreign language]
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| * [http://acp.eugraph.com The Animal Communication Project]
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| * [http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages]
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| * [http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/8/8/article_01.htm "Languages — Bridges and Walls to Communication"], from ''[[Awake!]]'' magazine
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| * [http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Language_%26_communication Language & Communication at The Psychology Wiki]
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| [[Category:Linguistics Workgroup]]
| | ==Footnotes== |
| | {{reflist|2}} |
Language refers to: the faculty that allows individuals to acquire and use at least one specific language; the system of a language itself; the performance of speaking, writing or signing; and to different varieties or levels of speech, writing or signs (e.g. 'bad language'). Typically, language and languages act as a system for encoding and decoding information, and for the purpose of communication. However, determining what kinds of signals or symbols constitute language is not always a straightforward matter, and issues of how biologically-based this ability is, how it could have evolved and whether it is unique to humans continue to fascinate linguists and users of language in general.
Types of 'language' and how it is studied
'Language', primarily, refers to a system of the human mind that facilitates one kind of communication. It has both a spoken and a written form. Its study is called linguistics, with subdivisions such as historical linguistics and sociolinguistics, though some fields of this science are concerned with linguistic systems that run on computers. To distinguish the 'human' system from such formal languages in mathematics or computer science, it is also sometimes called natural language. However, linguistics is not the only scholarly area with an interest in language. The discovery of the oldest evidence of language, primarily via vestiges of early writing, falls under the purview of archaeology or anthropology and also history. The mechanisms related to learning of human languages may be of interest in psychology and medicine due to its exercise of higher brain function. Computer scientists have been engaged in the study of human languages for the purpose of machine translation between different human languages.
Formal, mathematical, and computer languages
The activity of computer engineering has produced numerous computer programming languages, and in fact they have created several subfields of scholarly research relating to them, such as formal languages and compilers. Mathematicians have expressed various mathematical formalisms that they describe as languages.
Origins of human language
- See also: Language evolution
Linguists do not agree on when human language may first have been used, or even whether the first language users were modern humans at all - earlier hominins may have come to language first, passing it down the generations to modern humans. Possibly, such species as Homo habilis may have been the first to link sound, gestures, symbol and meaning to form a linguistic system, producing the first individual languages around two million years in the past. Some linguists go further back into the past, attributing the first forms of language to Australopothecus afarensis, which would mean that human language is actually between 4 and 7 million years old.[1] Alternatively, since spoken and signed languages leave no fossils, for all we know language may have emerged only with the early modern Cro-Magnon humans, as recently as around 100 - 40,000 years ago.
In all likelihood, some of the genetic basis for language was found in many species, though only in human did it lead to language: our extinct relatives, the Neanderthals, have been reported to have carried a gene, FoxP2, that is linked with speech in humans,[2] plus vocalisation in bats (including echolocation)[3] and chimpanzees.[4]
Do other species have language?
Does the blossoming of a flower, whose color or scent signals to bees or birds to come and pollinate it, constitute a form of language? Does a skunk spraying constitute language, since it can certainly be said to be a form of communication? Are communications that involve, say, chemicals or pheromones part of some kind of language? Can we say that signaling behavior that is learned, rather than wired in, is language, whereas signaling behavior that is instinctive is not language?
Some animals communicate in a system which might be considered language, consisting either of calls or body postures used consistently for certain purposes and which are learned behavior. There are examples of multiple signals existing within one species, but signals are also sometimes used across species, such as when birds respond to chattering and tail waggles made by squirrels to warn of the presence of a predator. The question of whether animals have the capacity for language to a similar degree that humans have (even sign language) is controversial.
Edmund Blair Bolles, author of Babel's Dawn: A Natural History of the Origins of Speech, asserts the following: “I call it language when a speaker and a listener exchange news about a topic. The closest thing in the animal kingdom to this kind of behavior is the waggle dance of the bee.”[5]
