Additional reading… Language and Speech

Language is a complex phenomenon with origins that are difficult to trace. Certain aspects of language, though not without controversy, are better suited to empirical investigation. Speech is one example because it requires some physical properties that can be measured in, or at least partially derived from, the fossil record.

Phillip Lieberman has investigated the origin of speech for many years and has used this research to form hypotheses about the evolution of language. Lieberman suggests that speech improved greatly about 150,000 years ago when the larynx descended into the throat. According to the work of Lieberman and his colleagues, this descension improved the ability of early homonids to make key vowel sounds. Whereas the Neanderthals had a vocal tract similar in many respects to that of a new born baby, the elongated pharynx of a modern adult human is thought to enable production of a more perceptible repertoire of speech sounds. Lieberman suggests that though Neanderthals probably had some form of language, they may have failed to extend this language because they lacked the physical apparatus for producing a more sophisticated set of speech sounds. The theory that the modern human vocal tract is better suited for production of vowels has, however, recently been called into question by Louis-Jean Boe.

But the strongest part of Lieberman's argument is evolutionary rather than strictly phonetic. He points out that the descension of the larynx into the throat makes humans much more susceptible to choking than any other mammal. It is unlikely that such a dangerous adaptation would have evolved unless there was some strong selective advantage provided by it. Since the larynx contains the vocal cords and is critical for speech, it seems likely that Lieberman's hypothesis is correct in that this change somehow improved speech and that improved speech gave a distinct selective advantage, even if his hypothesis about what the exact improvements to speech were turns out to be incorrect.

Picture 1. Comparison of the supralaryngeal vocal tracts in a new born infant, Neanderthal, and an adult human.

Source: www.brainconnection.com

Major language families

The names in Italics after the Arabic numerals indicate the language families, the names in square brackets are those of the major languages of each group.

EUROPE AND ASIA MINOR 1) Indo-European (see below). 2) Finno-Ugric (Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and various smaller languages in Russia as well as beyond the Urals, e.g. the Samoyed languages). 3) Caucasian (languages of the mountainous region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, characterized by many highly differentiated languages in a small area, Georgian [south Caucasian] is the best known of these). 4) Altaic (Turk languages) [Turkish and various other languages, such as Azeri, Uzbek, Turkmen, etc., stretching eastward of Turkey as far as the border with China, includes Mongolian and Tungusic languages]. 5) Independent The only surviving independent language in Europe is Basque which has not been proven to be genetically related to any surrounding language. From history we have other examples of language isolates, e.g. Etruscan in ancient Italy.

NORTH-EAST ASIA (SIBERIA AND ALASKA) 1) Paleo-Asiatic (consists of a few small languages spread over a vast area of eastern Siberia). 2) Eskimo-Aleut (few speakers spread over a large area stretching from Siberia through Alaska and Canada to Greenland).

NORTH AFRICA 1) Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) [Branches into Semitic, which includes Arabic proper, Hebrew, Ethiopic and Aramaic, and Berber (in the Atlas mountains), along with Cushitic, Egyptian (Coptic) and Chadic (Hausa); it is the language family with the oldest linguistic records].

SUBSAHARAN AFRICA 1) Niger-Congo (a very large group, grouping into Western Sudanic, with the branches Mande, West Atlantic, Gur and Kwa, and Benue-Congo of which the main branch is Bantu with over 500 languages stretching down to South Africa, includes Xhosa, Zulu and Kiswahili). 2) Nilo-Saharan (a diverse group stretching across the Sahara to Sudan).

SOUTH AFRICA 1) Khoisan (Bushman, Hottentot and other minor indigenous languages of the South African peninsula, noted for the presence of clicks).

SOUTH ASIA (Indian subcontinent, Pakistan) 1) Dravidian (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada; the second most important family in India). 2) Munda (consists of a number of languages spoken on the east coast of India). The remaining languages are Indo-European.

SOUTH-EAST, EAST ASIA 1) Sino-Tibetan (divides into at least three sub-groups: Sinitic, the chief representative of which are the dialects/languages of Chinese, Tibeto-Burman including Burmese and Tibetan, Tai which contains the two major languages Thai and Lao). 2) Mon-Khmer (Khmer spoken in Cambodia). 5) Independent. There are a number of independent languages in South and South-East Asia: Burushaski in Kashmir (northern India) is spoken by approximately 30,000. The language Ainu is spoken by even fewer speakers on various islands in northern Japan. Apart from these cases there are the three national languages: Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean. A possible link exists between the latter two, but it is tenuous and contested.

AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA 1) Austronesian (Indonesian, Polynesian; consists of hundreds of island languages spread throughout a large area in the West Pacific). 2) Papuan (a group in a small area [that of the state of Papua, one half of the island state of Papua New Guinea]; it contains very many different languages in a small area and is comparable in diversity with the Caucasus). 3) Australian (the indigenous language family of Australia, consists of many languages spoken in all by not more than 50,000 aborigines).

THE AMERICAS Very many languages in many families are spoken by the native Americans of both continents. Among the major North American families (Canada, United States, Mexico) are: Algonkian, Wakashan, Salishan, Athapascan, Penutian, Yuman, Iroquoian, Siouan, Muskogean, Uto-Aztecan, Oto-Maguean, Zoquean, Mayan. The major families of Central-South America are: Macro-Chibchan, Ge-Pano-Carib and Andean Equatorial. Some of these languages, such as Quechua [Andean Equatorial], are spoken over a very large area (in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia and Ecuador) while Guaraní (in Paraguay) has official status alongside Spanish.