• Question: how was the first language made? And What Was it ?

    Asked by sintesha to Paula, Nathalie on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nathalie Pettorelli

      Nathalie Pettorelli answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hi there,

      How would you define languages? are we talking human languages (since animals have languages)? If yes, which of our ancestors do we agree on being the first humans?

    • Photo: Paula Salgado

      Paula Salgado answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hi sintesha

      Do you mean the first written language? Or spoken?

      In terms of spoken languages, we started to use grunts and humms as initial sounds to communicate and those evolved to more and more complex sounds that eventually lead to languages appearing. But because it’s spoken, there’s no record of it that we can analyse and trace now, so it’s hard to know where and when it all started…

      As for written language, it all started in the ancient middle east, where Iraq is now. It was basically a serious of marks on clay that represented quantities and started because of the need to record what people were trading: how many goats one was receiving in exchange for a certain amount of cereal, for example.

      Hope that answered your question!

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