XPost: sci.lang, sci.anthropology.paleo
Ar an triochadú lá de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Tilde:
I have just finished "Life and Adventures of William Buckley", an English convict sent to Australia in 1802. He escaped in 1803 and spent 30 years living with the Aborigines. And then come across this article and paper. It occurs to me that language was present when they arrived in Australia. That's 50 to 65 kya according to estimates I've seen. That strikes me as a reliable minimum
Why was he (or why are you) certain that language was present when they arrived in Australia? I think it probably was but I don’t know that we can assert that.
https://news.mit.edu/2025/when-did-human-language-emerge-0314
It is a deep question, from deep in our history: When did human language as we know it emerge? A new survey of genomic evidence suggests our unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago. Subsequently, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago.
Our species, Homo sapiens, is about 230,000 years old. Estimates of when language originated vary widely, based on different forms of evidence, from fossils to cultural artifacts. The authors of the new analysis took a different approach. They reasoned that since all human languages likely have a common origin — as the researchers strongly think
There’s no strong reason to think this. Cf that sign languages do not have
a common origin and that writing systems do not have a common origin (e.g. the Cherokee syllabary, developed without knowledge of the details of European writing systems but with the knowledge of their function.)
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‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)
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