Re: Latin in the future?

Jonathan L Cunningham <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


As a slightly more sfnal speculation: did humans invent language more
than once? I *think* that would require evolution of the ability to
learn and use language before language was invented, and a period in
which proto-humans capable of language didn't actual have it, so that
the language capable humans could separate into isolated groups before
inventing language.

This is quite hard to imagine, but not impossibly difficult. Modern
humans appear to invent language spontaneously, judging by twin data,
but children raised by wolves don't - in any case, the mechanisms for
acquiring language are very robust, where it is possible.

I cannot imagine human language evolving _except_ in a situation where
the ability to learn and use language had already developed. And it
would have developed as an "unintended" byproduct of some other set of
abilities for which there was direct selective pressure. (As a
parallel, the use of manipulated objects as tools can only evolve in a
context where some bodily structure, e.g., a hand, has already developed
the ability to grasp and manipulate objects. Given a hand that can
grasp branches, the ability/habit of picking up sticks and using them as
tools can evolve spontaneously any number of times.)

Heather
--
Heather Rose Jones
heatherrosejones.com
lj=hrj
.

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