The Formation and Evolution of Language

The origin of language has always been an unsolved mystery, and all kinds of assumptions are not supported by empirical evidence, and there is no direct historical trace of related development. From18th century to19th century, the origin of language has become a hot topic in philosophy and religion. In order to make "the origin and evolution of language" disappear, some evolutionists choose not to solve this problem. For example, the Linguistic Association of Paris issued a ban at 1866, demanding that any discussion on the origin and evolution of language be stopped. This shows the difficulty of this problem. Since 1930s, archaeologists, biologists, geneticists, psychologists, statisticians and computer experts have started to enter the academic fields abandoned by linguists and made some scientific progress. In fact, even in 2 1 century, the origin of language is still one of the most important obstacles in evolution.

Since ancient times, human beings have been interested in the origin of language and put forward various explanations. The origin of language is still a controversial topic. There are many hypotheses about when and where language originated, and the number of these hypotheses is almost as much as that of scholars in this field. In addition, other theories about the origin of language, including God-given theory, gesture theory, exclamation theory, imitation theory, labor theory, contract theory, catastrophe theory, gradual change theory, instinct theory, etc., are still "castles in the air", and the exploration is simply "standing still", and there is no substantive progress at all.

Language is a powerful skill of human society. You can convey your ideas to others through some specific coding symbols, and at the same time you can understand others' ideas through this coding symbol. Language is also a powerful tool to contact and exchange past, present and future information. It can also organize ideas in an orderly way, implement some actions through language, persuade, induce and even deceive others. Today, more than 7,000 languages in the world use this specific encoding. All human societies have languages, and all languages have the function of all-round communication with human experience. No language is "better" or "superior" than other languages. Scientists who study human evolution believe that language may have existed when modern Homo sapiens rose in Africa 200,000 years ago. However, how human language evolved into more than 7,000 languages has always been a mystery.

Until recently 100, linguistics was used for analogy analysis with other disciplines due to the rise of modern science, but various assumptions about the origin of language are always confusing. In recent years, the analysis of population migration and differentiation by molecular anthropologists seems to be approaching the answer to this mystery. Single generation is also the preference of supporters of mother tongue theory, which is related to theories outside Africa. Based on the large number of languages spoken today and the diversity of early ancestors, pluralism opposes this single origin. Because scholars have not provided concrete evidence of the first spoken word, no one can be completely sure which theory is correct.

Since 1980s, more and more scientists have supported the theory of single origin in Africa, and some even regard the origin of human beings as a great migration in ancient times. Through genetic research and statistical analysis, scientists believe that most modern people outside Africa come from the same place, and that is Africa. It is said that about 50 thousand years ago, human beings lived in Africa. With the passage of time, some people left Africa and crossed the ocean to where they live now, forming the present human distribution system. If the origin of human beings is in Africa, then the starting point of human language is probably also in Africa. After arriving all over the world, people have their own culture and language according to the changes of different local living environments.

Not long ago, Dr. Quentin Atkinson, a New Zealand psychologist, said that all human languages may have originated in southwest Africa, about10.5 million years ago when cave art began. This judgment is based on the fact that African dialects often contain more phonemes, while languages in tropical islands of South America and the Pacific Ocean contain less phonemes. Some African dialects have more than 65,438+000 phonemes, while Hawaiian dialects have only 65,438+03 phonemes and English has 46 phonemes. Dr Atkinson believes that the farther away a language is from Africa, the fewer phonemes it uses.

Professor Zhou Haizhong, a Chinese scientist, once pointed out in an interview with mainstream media that solving the problem of language evolution is as difficult as solving the mystery of species evolution; The evolution of language is not only a social phenomenon, but also a natural phenomenon, and it is also the result of human psychological development and historical and cultural evolution. Because the origin and change of language has its internal causes and external influences, it increases the complexity of language evolution. Professor Zhou Haizhong's academic viewpoint shows the complexity of language evolution and the difficulty of solving this problem, which provides useful reference and enlightenment for language explorers.

Phonetics is the most primitive and basic way of human communication, so understanding the origin of phonetics can help us to understand the language more deeply. In the past 60 years, people have always thought that the prolongation of vocal tract caused by the drop of larynx is the first step in the appearance of speech. Because this feature is anatomically considered unique to modern Homo sapiens, this theory limits the development of language to the past 200,000 years. However, a research team recently proved that at least 20 million years ago, early humans could emit contrasting vowels as the basis of speech. Dr. Louis Boyle, the main researcher of the team and a French scientist, said that language is a mysterious feature, which is the basic feature and uniqueness of the human species; Understanding how it emerged in the process of evolution is as important as understanding how our species emerged and the origin of the world.

The mystery of the origin and evolution of language has not been solved, and it still belongs to the eternal mystery of science; Philosophy and religion can be directly based on conjecture, but science needs evidence. Unfortunately, we have no conclusive evidence to prove how language originated and how it evolved. Of course, the process of pursuing unknown puzzles is the basis of the evolution of human civilization, and the exploration of language puzzles may also help us understand ourselves.