Today, out of the blue, I just wondered, "What is the true origin of language?" Not just English or Latin, but true speaking to define and announce and question - in any type of language - the very beginning. Vague? Yes. Interesting? To me, yes. And I guess to some other people as well since my Google search filled in its own search parameter before I was done typing "origins of language".
So, Wikipedia is always the first blurb that comes up (after any sponsored shopping link) and I decided to look there first because I am lazy that way.
What does Wiki say? So glad I asked: "The origin of language, known in linguistics as glottogony refers to the acquisition of the human ability to use language at some point during the Paleolithic."
Hmm, I have a history degree (ok, from a small state school) and I can't recall what paleolithic means. I will guess it is some time with hominids, but after dinosaurs.
Wikipedia, as well meaning as it may be, just didn't seem like it would answer those large philosophical and historical questions that were buzzing in my brain. And, they (or the people that post there) had a skew toward vocal language and humans and the larynx being the ultimate point for the start of language. That would rule out any primal form of sign language or communication with animals. I can't rule out the sign languages and communication with animals.
Maybe what I really want to know is how humans became aware enough to be able to communicate to others be they hominids or other animals. Yeah - that's the ticket.
Awareness. Such a concept. How do you even describe it without the ability to be aware? And animals share this awareness, don't they? They may not have the same larynx or cognitive structure to speak, but they know and can learn a vocabulary. Dogs, dolphins, apes, and countless other animals can be trained with vocalizations and repetition.
Scrolling down the page of the Wiki entry, I did finally encounter a paragraph on the Theory of Mind. Feels closer: to paraphrase, it speaks about pre-language as a time when hominids exhibited knowledge, awareness, intention and teaching. According to Wiki, this is a theory of Simon Baron-Cohen (no, not the Borat guy). Yeah, well, I am sure others were aware of this possibility before Simon published it, no offense.
Then that takes me to another level where I wonder if compassion can be learned. Is it something you must possess at birth, when life enters you and you enter the world? I think we can teach compassion by being an example of it, but some kernel of positive feeling must need to be present in order to learn this most important aspect. I have known animals with compassion - ha ha , I know, please don't laugh or shout "anthropomorphism" - I have truly seen it. Is it in the dna? Are we lucky when we are born with this or is compassion learned? I have met many humans who seem to lack it. I am not 100% convinced either way.
Compassion, awareness, communication. So important to life. So many questions left in my meandering mind.
OK, I know, I am going off on many tangents here. This is the way my mind rolls. This is my "meditation".
Anyway.... I love cave drawings. A physical embodiment and fossil of hominid communication. At least we have that.
Next question of my meditative mind....why must we temper chocolate? Off to Google, copy some recipes and research the history of the cocoa bean...
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