A new analysis of genetic studies proposes that the cognitive capacity for language was already present at least 135,000 years ago, with language likely becoming a social tool around 100,000 years ago.
The study challenges long-standing debates about the timing of language emergence. The research was conducted by a team led by Shigeru Miyagawa, a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), alongside Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall from the American Museum of Natural History.
Genetic evidence of human language evolution Previous attempts to determine the origins of language have relied on fossil records, cultural artifacts, or linguistic reconstruction. This study took a different approach.
The team examined genetic evidence to trace the earliest known divergence of human populations, reasoning that all human languages likely share a common origin.
“The logic is very simple,” said Miyagawa. “Every population branching across the globe has human language, and all languages are related. I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.”
The study systematically reviewed 15 genetic studies conducted over the past 18 years. These studies included: Y chromosome analysis (which traces paternal lineage), mitochondrial DNA studies (which track maternal ancestry), as well as whole-genome studies (which examine broader genetic variation).
Human populations branched out Together, these genetic studies suggest that human populations began splitting around 135,000 years ago, meaning that before this divergence, Homo sapiens was a single, undivided population.
Andrei Ionescu