I don't think that's quite right. Homo Sapiens first emerged 300,000 years ago, and since other animals communicate via sound, it's at least that long. If you

I don't think that's quite right. Homo Sapiens first emerged 300,000 years ago, and since other animals communicate via sound, it's at least that long. If you want to define "people" as encompassing all of the genus Homo though, then you're looking at more like 3.3 million years. Just depends how you want to define "people", really.