Notes on the development of Language

1500 Y.A. English did not exist.

About 60% of Eng. is from Latin (Romans), 30 % is from Germanic; and 10% is other (Greek, Arabic, Russian, etc.)  Latin gave rise to French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian.  German related languages are Dutch, English, Sweedish, Norwegian and Danish. 

We can often say things in two ways in English since we have so many words to choose from.  Ex:

Hearty welcome (Germanic) = Cordial reception (Latin).  Of the two, Latin based words are more “elegant” and often very useful in paper writing.

The Brocca Speech center is in the Front left lobe of the brain.  It leaves an imprint on the inside of the skull.  Old skulls of Homo habilis show similar patterns suggesting speech of some sort was possible.  A hyoid bone from the throat was also found and believed to belong to a human ancestor over 100 000 Y.A.    This bone is needed to help articulate speech. 

Some are fluent in reading and writing 50 + languages.  Linguists study how languages change and where they come from.    Ex:

Stone comes from the German Stein, home from Heim, alone from alien.  Such steps can be retraced many times leading linguists far into the past of languages.  Some linguists now believe that there was an original language (Mother Tongue) originating in Ethiopia between 100 000 and 200 000 years ago.  They notice that remote languages exist.  The speakers of one remote language did not know the speakers of another remote language existed and therefore could not have recently shared words with them.  Therefore, linguists suggest that they must have been together as a single language thousands of years in the past.  Some  Mother Tongue words are:

Tik     = one, finger, digit,

tum    = dark

akwa  = water (known to ancient Romans and some N.A. Indian tribes)

mama

papa

Now there are three sources that indicate that Africa may be the birthplace of modern humans:

1) linguistic evidence          2) DNA evidence          3) Fossil record