The Proto-Human language (also Proto-Sapiens, Proto-World) is the hypothetical most recent common ancestor of all the world's languages.
The concept of "Proto-Human" presupposes monogenesis of all recorded spoken human languages. It does not presuppose monogenesis of these languages with unrecorded languages, such as those of the Paleolithic or hypothetical Neanderthal languages. Advocates of linguistic polygenesis do not accept the notion of a fully developed Proto-Human language and consider the world's language families independent developments of a proto-linguistic form of communication used by archaic Homo sapiens.
If the assumption of a "Proto-Human" language is accepted, its date may be set anywhere between 200,000 years ago (the age of Homo sapiens) and 50,000 years ago (the age of behavioral modernity).
Read more about Proto-Human Language: Terminology, History of The Idea, Date and Location, Characteristics, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)