Historical story

Searching for the cradle of language

For a long time, research into the origin of language was a faux pas. Pure speculation that respected researchers didn't burn their fingers on. Sverker Johansson shows in The Origin of Language that these times are now – rightly – behind us.

A CERN physicist who solves one of the biggest problems in linguistics. I was a bit skeptical to say the least when I saw the book The Origin of Language by Swede Sverker Johansson. That didn't get any better when it turned out that Johansson also wrote the most Wikipedia pages worldwide - with a bot, but still. I was therefore pleasantly surprised how thorough and convincing his book turned out to be.

Ban on research

The origin of language has been a fascinating mystery to great thinkers for centuries. The ancient Greeks were already thinking about it and in the eighteenth century, the time of the Enlightenment, philosophers speculated lustily. Did language start with gestures? With innate vocal responses? With sound imitations? And when exactly? However, there was no scientific basis for this, simply because science in the field of language and human evolution was barely developed.

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Because of all this speculation, the linguistic society L'Association Phonétique Internationale in Paris banned research on this subject in 1866. As the science of humans, language, and evolution subsequently made great strides, this ban ensured that research into the origins of language was not taken seriously well into the twentieth century. Fortunately, respected scientists are now also venturing onto the subject again.

Johansson gives an up-to-date state of affairs in his book. In addition to being a physicist and bot programmer, he also turns out to be a linguist, affiliated with the Swedish Dalarna University. In that capacity, he has been attending the international Evolang conferences since 1990, where scientists from various fields examine the origin of language. In the introduction, he writes that this book builds on the results of that research journey so far. “My aim is to provide an overview of where we are now, how we have thought and what we do and do not know about the origin of language.”

Traces of language

The author does this in a thorough manner. In the first part of the book he reflects on what language actually is. Readers who already know a lot about language may want to skip this part, but here he lays the groundwork for the rest of his story, so some refresher work might be helpful. What properties are characteristic of human language? Which of these do you also see in animals? And what role exactly does language play in human communication? Spoiler 1:Johansson is clearly not a supporter of Noam Chomsky, who sees grammar as the (innate) core of language.

In the second – and largest – part, language is hardly discussed. That may seem strange for a book about the origin of language, but all in all it makes for a credible argument. Johansson focuses on human evolution here. Language leaves no trace, but other excavations such as bones, tools and other objects reveal much about the cognitive abilities of our ancestors. Capabilities that also enabled or even required language.

For example, the evolution of stone hand axes over millions of years shows that before they got to work, their makers increasingly envisioned a final form, with an accompanying conscious strategy for achieving it. The hand ax kept the same ideal teardrop shape for about a million years – which could only be created with a trained hand. This indicates that the knowledge about this was passed on from generation to generation. Stable knowledge transfer is both a necessary condition for language and a skill that requires language, argues Johansson. Spoiler 2:The woman in labor and her midwife were also indispensable for the development of language, according to Johansson.

Dutch examples

In the third part, Johansson brings together all the loose lines from the previous two parts. In this way he arrives at the most likely answers to the questions from the subtitle:where, when and why humans started talking. Spoiler 3:About 1.8 million years ago, our distant ancestor found homo erectus probably a breakthrough in social evolution that made language possible. This primordial language was initially spoken, mimed and gestured, and intended for communication – and not as music or as a language of thought. From that moment on, language and cognitive capacities propelled each other forward in their development, ultimately resulting in language as we know it today.

What is great about Johansson's approach is that he discusses different theories where possible and then explains why one of them is the most plausible in his opinion. This ensures that you get a good overview of the playing field and you can follow his vision more convincingly.

Johansson is a Swede and this is regularly reflected in the examples he gives to illustrate certain linguistic principles. Fortunately, translators Lucy Pijttersen and Marit Kramer have provided additions from Dutch where possible, so that your own language sense connects directly to the story. Compliments for their work.

Ultimately, we will probably never be able to say with one hundred percent certainty when, where, how and why humans started talking – unless that time machine is ever invented. But Johansson connects numerous puzzle pieces from different fields in this very readable book and thus arrives at a picture that is sharper and more complete than it has ever been sketched by the great thinkers of history.