Evolution of Language
Over the millions of years humanity has existed, we have constantly borrowed words, changed their meanings, their pronunciations, and have completely changed the way one another views the world around us. Within lies the question of its beginnings, and where languages are likely to be taken in the future.
Identifying and understanding when languages first became something more than a couple of grunts is difficult because the evidence is so sparse. Like what was said in the Linguists Society’s article on its evolution “Spoken languages don’t leave fossils..”. Scientists tend to argue between two theories; that it just happened in one giant leap, or that it gradually happened over several million years. The problem with both is that they don’t exactly make sense. Our ability nowadays to interpret the different sounds made within a sentence and to pronounce them are very dependent on the way our brains control the vocal tract, and decipher speech. Human structure back then was definitely not the way it is now, so their sudden capacity to express deeper thinking is a mystery. Whilst cultural artefacts give evidence to this, a lot more needs to be done to understand the true beginnings of language.
Languages are constantly developing, so it comes as no surprise that the future will be vastly different from now. With 1.5 billion speakers, English is one of the most spoken languages in the world. However, with international travel becoming a new normal, it's likely that our interactions with other cultures will shape new words and see the death of old familiar ones. As well as this, we’ll see a rise in the number of speakers of other languages, as our business sector in particular will diversify. Unfortunately though, with a rise in mainstream “proper” languages taught and kept in dictionaries, we’ll also see the extinction of lesser-known “improper” languages handed down through word of mouth. Whilst the world currently speaks over 7000 languages now, an estimated 3000 of these will be lost by the end of this century at a rate of one every two weeks. Cultures and heritage will be unsalvageable due to this, and the UN has given a timeline of a decade to save them.
Grasping the evolution of language is important when making a decision to learn or restore one. By deepening our understanding of the way we speak and create paragraphs much like these, we’re able to appreciate this ability even more, and gain perspective on how much language broadens horizons or closes them off completely.
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