The definition of a language is “the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.” Now while there are about six-thousand-five-hundred different languages spoken around the world today, scientists are intrigued as to how these forms of communications initiated (Cite this). How did humans, evolving from one continent, expand their vocabulary to the many languages we have today? This man-made creation has lead researchers, as well as our ancestors, to develop many different theories on how communication rose, and these unanswered questions emphasize the complexity as well as the uncertainty of language evolution despite how easy a language like English may seem today (Tallerman). Some speculate that the first steps guided towards communication occurred 1.7 million years ago, …show more content…
When researchers attempted to teach chimps human speech from birth, it was unsuccessful because the chimps would only pick up on three or four words. In a famous experiment, Koko the gorilla was taught sign language and she successfully learned a few hundred signs. This proves that if nonhuman primates have the ability to learn some basic sign language, then our early ancestors most likely used some form of sign language or at the very least basic hand gestures to communicate with one another. Also, because apes are very similar to humans and could not understand our language as well, it proves the uniqueness that human language has in our natural world (Jackendoff). Because our early human ancestors evolved into bipedal animals, they began to use their hands for many different purposes. For examples, weapons could be used to hunt prey more efficiently; however, more importantly, hands allowed humans to express themselves in a much more freer and commonly manner (Corballis