Evolution of Language
Jun. 6th, 2022 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribA writer of my acquaintance, Mary Robinette Kowal, has two cats. She purchased for her cats the Fluent Pet system, which are buttons put on the floor that the cat (or your dog) can press to talk. One of her cats has gotten, well, fluent - basically communicating at the level of a two-year-old. The other cat apparently ignores the system.
I find this fascinating and it got me thinking about evolution of humans and human language. It struck me that as early hominids were developing language, you'd have some hominids in the group that "got" language and found it useful. Others would not be of the same opinion. Over time, the language-users would tend to hang out with their fellow language-users. Basically, evolution in action, creating two species.
Now, from our point of view, looking back at million-year-old bone fragments, detecting this change would be difficult if not impossible. The key trait is behavioral, not physiological, or at least not physiological until the two groups have made a significant divergence.
Just a thought.
I find this fascinating and it got me thinking about evolution of humans and human language. It struck me that as early hominids were developing language, you'd have some hominids in the group that "got" language and found it useful. Others would not be of the same opinion. Over time, the language-users would tend to hang out with their fellow language-users. Basically, evolution in action, creating two species.
Now, from our point of view, looking back at million-year-old bone fragments, detecting this change would be difficult if not impossible. The key trait is behavioral, not physiological, or at least not physiological until the two groups have made a significant divergence.
Just a thought.
