The History of Language
No one believes that the Roman Senate sat down one day to design the complex system that is Latin grammar.
- Guy Deutscher
There are many on the origin of language (like the gestural theory, suggesting that language came from gestures) but none of them are absolutely certain. Deutscher attempts to trace back as far as possible through the clues in each word or grammatical structure, left behind when they were filtered through add-ons from other languages.
When it comes to how languages spread and got to be where they are, there are thousands of factors. Tracing all the way back to the neanderthals, people began all across the world. The very first few languages were developed apart from each other and as language evolved, humanity spread and they took their languages with them. Languages spread apart and changed, creating multiple different languages, and new languages bumped into each other created new mixes and blends. The entire history of all languages goes on forever, following the path of humanity's migration over the globe and moving with our evolution.
When it comes to how languages spread and got to be where they are, there are thousands of factors. Tracing all the way back to the neanderthals, people began all across the world. The very first few languages were developed apart from each other and as language evolved, humanity spread and they took their languages with them. Languages spread apart and changed, creating multiple different languages, and new languages bumped into each other created new mixes and blends. The entire history of all languages goes on forever, following the path of humanity's migration over the globe and moving with our evolution.
Pangea
There is also a theory that there was once only one language, living on the continent of Pangea, and as Pangea broke apart and spread out, it took the language with it in all directions. The separation caused each chunk of the language to develop independently and thusly creating multiple languages. This ties into the story of the Tower of Babel and the possibility that the tower was somewhere on Pangea. |
The Tower of Babel
According to biblical stories, long ago man created language as a tool so that they could work together to build a tower tall enough to reach heaven. God saw this and believed that if men were all able to speak to each other in the same language and work together, they would be too powerful and nothing would be out of reach. Angered by this, God destroyed the Tower of Babel and scrambled all the languages so that each one was different. |
Language Migration Maps
History of English in 10 Minutes
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Language Trees and Timelines