Evolution of Dialect and Language is the most important phenomenon in Human Advancement. But how did language emerged or modern primate’s talk is appealing. The human language might be evolved from non-linguistic phonations like gestures or by producing specific vocalizations.
Language is probably the most significant technological-based discovery made two million years ago in science.
Nobody knows how it works; neither nobody knows from where it came? As an outcome of the existence of the lack of direct evidence or based on historical signs, this topic became very difficult to study.
Also, the emergence of language lies incomparably back in human prehistory, which makes language a challenge to understand how it began. However, theories like the divine source theory, the bow-wow theory, and the ding-dong theory, to name a few, clearly shows ‘why’ the language began.
Language Origin Theories
As mentioned earlier, some of the oldest and most essential theories of how language began.
Bow-Wow Theory
It states that the language began when our ancestors tried mimicking the natural sounds from the surrounding, such as ‘hiss,’ ‘buzz,’ or ‘meow.’ Limitations of the theory are nevertheless present. Because not all words are originated from natural sounds, and these words differ from one language to another.
Similarly, some of the speeches emerge in response to the sound made from objects such as in the Ding-Dong Theory.
But there is no convincing evidence regarding the connection between the sound and the meaning.
Biological Evolution of Language
The primary evidence of anatomical variations different in some way in the hominin ancestors indicates increased vocal ability is showed in the Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominin dated at approximately 4.5 million years ago. Australopithecines who lived around 3.5 million years ago, got structural developments in the skull, which directed to a distinct L-shaped vocal tract. Any complex organ like – brain or heart or language must have evolved through numerous successive modifications.
The evolution of human language is closely connected with changes in two organs, which are essential for the use of language – structure, and size of the brain and shape of the vocal tract. Homo habilis and Homo erectus had developed a brain fit for basic linguistic tasks. Little advanced vocal tract developed in Homo sapiens via Homo archaiens and Homo neanderthalensis.
An essential prerequisite for the production of language is a well developed central nervous system with an elaborate cortex. The volume of the Australopithecus cortex did not exceed 600cc, and thus they lacked phonation. Homo sapiens exhibits an average brain of roughly 1400cc. Size solely doesn’t contribute to language, preferably the structure.
Three main centers of the human brain are responsible for the production and comprehension of speech, namely Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, and Angular Gyrus.
The frontal lobe is called the ‘Broca’s Area’ named after a French physician, Pierre Paul Broca. It was identified later that Broca’s area had a significant role in language comprehension though it was assumed earlier to possess a role in language production.
Wernicke’s area or Wernicke’s speech area is associated with the understanding of written and spoken language. Meanwhile, Angular Gyrus is involved in many complex language functions, i.e., reading, writing, and interpretation of what is written.
The second necessary prerequisite is the mainly shaped vocal tract.
The vocal tract must be in a position to produce a sufficiently sizeable sound repertoire. It involves apart from lips, larynx, which is a unique source of phonation and flexible resonance chamber that can amplify and modify fundamental frequency created in the larynx. There is a hyoid bone located at the top of the larynx, which is linked to the tongue by a particular connection called “Hyoglossus.”
The stimulating effect of phonation is the following. The lower larynx position leads to the retraction of the tongue, and this is what happened during evolution. The larynx of Homo neanderthalensis is relatively high, enabling them to breathe and eat simultaneously. The sound production capability was, however, restricted.
During evolution, probably due to an increasingly erect position, the human larynx descended into the throat leading to the separation of uvula and epiglottis. This, in turn, had a consequence that a human vocal tract is subdivided into two chambers like oral cavity and pharyngeal cavity, Homo sapiens could produce a wide range of speech sound.
The larynx or vocal tract of Homo sapiens is descended that made phonation possible, which eventually made us ready for the speech. However, hyoid is not descended along with larynx in other animals (or non-primates), which restricted them to talk like us.
Theories of Speech
The Gestural Hypothesis
Once Homos stood erect; they had their hands made free for complex social interactions. It depended on the neural structures and regions on the cortex. And when they started creating more tools, their hands were engaged and could no longer use for gesturing. One proposal is that our tongue supports hand gestures.
For example, when a child writes something, his or her tongue goes along with the hand. Language started from making gestures, not vocal calls. Language is an important mode of communication and expression. Hence, as a need, it has evolved into different languages that we speak today. Late in human evolution, gestures and some phonations switched to vocal expressions only in our species.
The Vocalization hypothesis
It suggests that language evolved from a relatively small set of instinctively used discrete calls shared by all Hominids. This hypothesis might explain why all languages in the world are so much alike in terms of their sound repertoire. However, before any significant precursor to real language came into being, our ancestors have to become capable, perhaps using sudden genetical mutations of combining vocal signs in sequences having an indefinitely different meaning.
The Neural Hypotheses
This hypothesis holds that language resulted from a gradual increase in the general intelligence documented by an increase in brain volume and does the increase in precision of wiring in the neural network.
Earth has diverse social and cultural societies with distinguishing characteristics. Languages are of great significance in learning the difference in the cultural landscape. The concept of classifying languages from dialects is of no use. There is no probable difference between these two words. Usually, it’s more that speech is a little different from place to place, as the nature of language is dynamic and variable.
Dialectology
A dialect is defined as ‘a sort of language that’s utilized by one group of persons and contains a novel way of articulation that contrasts in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar from other provincial dialects nearby.’ The two main dialects are geographical and social. Religious, caste-based, diglossic, and formal-informal dialects are several dimensions of social dialects. Geographic dialects, e.g., South Indian languages like Malayalam and Tamil, have ten distinct varieties and twelve dialects, respectively, and there are fourteen dialects groups of Finnish language.
Geography encompasses a vital role in diversifying dialects.
It had been found that geological distance was crucial in separating community dialects, though, environmental and social differences also added considerably to the divergence of dialect groups. Their surrounding influences human beings, and therefore the ability to regulate various environmental situations resulted in linguistic differentiation.
These differences arise because of the restricted contacts between communities and could also be due to the separated populations. Thus dialects of isolated populations may ultimately emerge into different languages and thus contributed to the evolution of pandemic linguistic diversity.
Let us consider the language Tamil which is the official language of the Tamil Nadu state, the union territory Puducherry of India, Singapore, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. Tamil is one in all the oldest languages, which is dated back to 5000 years.
The Tamil language has emerged from the Proto-Dravidian language. It was believed that Dravidian languages were spoken during three thousand years BC. Thanks to phonological changes and sound shifts that gave rise to twelve different dialects of Tamil. These don’t differ significantly in their vocabulary.
When we discuss English, we regularly consider it as a universal language. But, like most languages, English has evolved through the ages of speakers experiencing significant modifications over time.
The source of English is German or Dutch and a few French. Northern invaders who spoke old English occupied the British Isles and started the gradual spreading of the language. When England was conquered by French-speaking Normans, English vocabulary then had a mixture of French or Latin words.
The English language started at the British Isles were within the 5th and 6th centuries that belongs to the Germanic family.
The Germanic dialects they spoke were referred to as Anglo-Saxon. Languages that were descended from Proto-Germanic ancestors include English, Swedish, German, and many others. The Proto-Germanic language was prevalent in 500BC.
Sanskrit has originated as Vedic Sanskrit which is considered as a sacred and philosophical language in the religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
It is a stereotypical dialect of the Indo-Aryan period which existed between 1700-1200BCE. The phonetic family line of the Sanskrit language is the Proto-Indo-European dialects. Indo-European languages include English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian are the well-spoken languages in the present day.
Arabic first appeared between 1st to 4th centuries CE. The population of Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west and Northwestern Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula are referred to as Arabs. The language spoken in the area is then named because of the Arab people. Varieties include Classic Arabic, modern Arabic, Yemeni Arabic, Jordanian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Lebanese Arabic, Egyptian, Moroccan, Maltese, etc.
During the Shang dynasty over 3,000 years ago, the first written records appeared, and there are hundreds of dialect chain in Chinese. People of China and Taiwan speak Standard Chinese or Mandarin. It is also spoken as one of the languages in Singapore too. Chinese dialect groups involve Mandarin, Jin, Wu, Hui, Gian, Xiang, Min, Hakka, Yue, and Ping.
Lithuanian is also an ancient Indo-European language that is related to Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin. It is the national language of Lithuania and one among the European Union. Unlike other languages mentioned, this language has only two dialects, Aukštaitian, Highland Lithuanian, and Samogitian, Lowland Lithuanian.
Greek, is an Indo-European language, that began when the proto-Greek speakers came into the Greek peninsula. Three dialects, Aeolic, Ionic, and Doric belongs to the Greek language. The language has spoken since 1600 BCE.
Hebrew is the language of Israel, having a place with the Canaanite group. The first evidence of a written piece of this language, Paleo-Hebrew, is from the 10th century BCE. Some of the varieties of the language are Israeli, Mizrahi, Yemenite, Sephardi, etc.
Farsi advanced within the in the region of Persia in southwestern Iran. It has changed over time to its modern form. Three principal versions of Persian are Farsi, Dari, and Tajik.
Basque is the language native to France and Spain. There is a unique language as there are no known relations with other present languages. Biscayan, Gipuzkoa, Navarro-Lapurdian, Upper Navarrese, and Souletin are the major Basque dialects.
Language is correlated with a man’s psychology. Along with his personnel and social consciousness, and the history of peoples and their traditions, it ties a man to his world. Languages and dialects are connected and don’t have existed without one another.
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Featured Image: Evolution of Dialect and Language
Kerala, India
M.Sc Microbiology
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