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You might be confusing language (a natural human skill which we evolved) and writing (a technology invented by humans, within the last 5-10 thousand years - ver
by nkrisc 2y ago
You might be confusing language (a natural human skill which we evolved) and writing (a technology invented by humans, within the last 5-10 thousand years - very roughly).
As far as I’m aware, there no evidence that modern humans ever existed without language. And other recent hominid species that until recently co-existed with our ancestors probably had language too.
So probably there was never a human without language. Any non-lingual ancestor of ours was not human and probably pre-dates humans.
As for writing, to be reductionist, it is essentially arbitrary.
- WalterBright 2y agoWe co-evolved with language - the evidence is our adaptations to control over the voicebox, tongue, lips, etc.
- nkrisc 2y agoYes, that is what I meant though in retrospect I see I didn’t make that entirely clear. What I meant was that language and vocalizations go way, way back than any ancestor remotely human-like. Where you draw the line between mere “vocalizations” and “language” is a pretty open question, IMO.