A landmark new book that has researched evolutionary and linguistic development of prehistoric humans, has found that language might be older almost 8 times over what was previously believed, i.e., 1.6 million years ago, instead of 200,000 years ago! This practice of the most rudimentary forms of language likely began in eastern or southern Africa, which corresponds with an increase in brain size and a slew of other evolutionary developments between 2 and 1.5 million years ago.

Speech and Pre-Frontal Cortex: A Hand in Hand Development!

“Humanity’s development of the ability to speak was without doubt the key which made much of subsequent human physical and cultural evolution possible. That’s why dating the emergence of the earliest forms of language is so important,” said British archaeologist Dr. Steven Mithen, professor of early prehistory at the University of Reading, to The Independent. He is the author of the fascinating new book ‘The Language Puzzle’.

Until recently, experts believed humans began speaking only 200,000 years ago. However, based on a detailed study of all the available archaeological, paleo-anatomical, genetic, neurological and linguistic evidence, Professor Mithen’s research suggests rudimentary language’s birth is much older,  occurring between two and 1.5 million years ago.

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Human brain size notably increased after 2 million BC, especially post-1.5 million BC, leading to the emergence of Broca’s area associated with language. Broca’s area is a region of the brain, specifically located in the frontal lobe, associated with language production and comprehension. It plays a crucial role in speech and language processing, particularly in the formation of sentences and the expression of thoughts and ideas.

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