Evolutionary linguistics

Evolutionary linguistics is a sub-discipline of linguistics that explores where human language came from.

A central question within evolutionary linguistics is how old language is, and when humans started to use language. There are many other questions within the field that linguists are trying to answer. For example, whether language is something that only humans have, or if other animals can use language as well. Another issue is whether the ability to use language is genetic or whether it is something that early humans learned from the environment.^[1]

Some linguists claim that a gene mutation in the FOXP2 gene gave humans the ability to learn and use language.^[2] There is evidence that a version of this gene existed in Neanderthals, which suggests that this ability emerged over a long period of time.^[3]

1. ↑ McMahon, April; McMahon, Robert, eds. (2012), "Evidence for evolution", Evolutionary Linguistics, Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 23–50, doi:10.1017/cbo9780511989391.003, ISBN 978-0-521-81450-8, retrieved 2024-04-12
2. ↑ Enard, Wolfgang; Przeworski, Molly; Fisher, Simon E.; Lai, Cecilia S. L.; Wiebe, Victor; Kitano, Takashi; Monaco, Anthony P.; Pääbo, Svante (August 2002). "Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a gene involved in speech and language". Nature. 418 (6900): 869–872. doi:10.1038/nature01025. ISSN 1476-4687.
3. ↑ Krause, Johannes; Lalueza-Fox, Carles; Orlando, Ludovic; Enard, Wolfgang; Green, Richard E.; Burbano, Hernán A.; Hublin, Jean-Jacques; Hänni, Catherine; Fortea, Javier; de la Rasilla, Marco; Bertranpetit, Jaume (November 2007). "The Derived FOXP2 Variant of Modern Humans Was Shared with Neandertals". Current Biology. 17 (21): 1908–1912. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.10.008.