ShmoopTube

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Shmoop here's today's million dollar question how did our use of language

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evolve over time did a giant alien monolith appear and ignite our evolution [apes sat together on rocks]

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most scientists would probably doubt that but we are not most scientists okay

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fine we doubt it too but there are a lot of different theories about how and why

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human speech came about and most of them don't have any mention of aliens well [man scribbling equations on a chalkboard]

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some things that early humans actually develop their own versions of sign

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language before they started speaking and no not because they were incredibly

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progressive in their treatment of the deaf signing with hand gestures would

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have been super useful while humans were on the hunt a subtle hand gesture [man using hand gesture to another man hunting]

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signaling that a deer was nearby would have been a lot better than screaming

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deer at 3 o'clock no that's 9 o'clock to you're right

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right Paul that's left oh I got to do everything myself [deer running off into the forest]

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yeah long story short deer don't like noise and while there's no fossil record

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that tells us when humans developed speech fossils do show that our hands

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became complex enough to sign not long after we stopped walking on our knuckles [human skeleton hand on a table]

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so yep it could have started a really long time ago well the sign language

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theory is also supported by the fact that Apes can actually learn how to sign

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yeah we have to teach them but they have the physical ability to do it and the

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[monkey waving a banana] mental ability to communicate basic ideas another theory is that early

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humans actually saying to each other before they spoke brings this up next

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time somebody criticizes musicals for not being realistic singing to

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communicate ideas in everyday life isn't unrealistic it just seriously old school [a woman singing]

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well Charles Darwin mister evolution himself actually proposed the idea that

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humans might have been singing love songs to each other before they could

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speak early hits may have included titles like mammoth love hunt and gather [a couple walking through the forest together]

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my heart and bash me in the head with a club and drag me into your cave well you

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won't hear that last one on any softer rock station fans of the song speech

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theory also point out that modern humans communicate with babies by making [a couple rocking a baby]

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musical googly noises yes Googly noises the technical term

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people so are we just saps or do we instinctually know that those developing

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little minds will respond to certain rhythmic tones hmm and last but not

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[a mother making noises to her baby] least another theory states that language as a whole actually began as

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the little sounds between mothers and their children think about that next

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time somebody says making googly sounds at babies is stupid yes you're stupid

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Carol

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