There are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, allowing humans to chat, tell stories, and share information. Being able to communicate our ideas is an integral part of being human, and a new study suggests we’ve been using language a lot longer than we initially thought—at least 135,000 years ago.
Despite each language having its own unique sound and structure, new research suggests that all 7,000+ languages spoken today may trace back to a single linguistic family tree. A team of researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the American Museum of Natural History, the Department of Linguistics at University of São Paulo, and other international collaborators explored the genetics of ancient humans and uncovered that the capacity for language was likely embedded in our DNA long before our ancestors began migrating across the globe.
Miyagawa and his team looked at 15 different scientific studies, all using different methods, and noticed they all pointed to the same conclusion: humans started splitting into different groups about 135,000 years ago. This was based on studying things like our full DNA, Y chromosomes (passed down from fathers), and mitochondrial DNA (passed down from mothers). The researchers say that if language had developed after that split, then some human groups today might not have language, or they might communicate in a totally different way. But that’s not the case—all humans have language, leading the researchers to believe that language must have existed before humans spread out.
“Every population branching across the globe has a human language, and all languages are related,” explains Shigeru Miyagawa, a professor emeritus of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at MIT. “I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.”
Some scientists believe that humans might have had the ability to use language a few million years ago, just by looking at how other primates (like apes) communicate. But according to Miyagawa, it’s not just about making sounds—it’s about having the mental power to combine words and grammar into a system that lets us express complex ideas. He says human language is special because it has two key parts: words, which are the names we give to things like “tree” or “run,” and syntax, which refers to the grammar or rules that help us put words together in a meaningful way.
Miyagawa suggests that humans had the mental capacity for language before they began using it to communicate. At first, it may have been a private thinking tool, but by around 135,000 years ago, it evolved into social communication. Evidence of this shift appears in archaeology around 100,000 years ago, with behaviors like carving symbols in caves and tombs.
“Language was the trigger for modern human behavior,” says Miyagawa. “Somehow it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 100,000 years ago.”
Miyagawa admits there's still a lot to learn in this area, but he sees studies like this one as important steps toward understanding how language first came to be. “Our approach is very empirically based, grounded in the latest genetic understanding of early homo sapiens,” he says. “I think we are on a good research arc, and I hope this will encourage people to look more at human language and evolution.”
Check out the full scientific paper, titled Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago, here.
Sources: Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago; When did human language emerge?
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