If anything sets humans apart from other animals, it must surely be our way with words. For something so ubiquitous, our gift for gab still has strangely obscure roots. The appearance of language has been ascribed to factors ranging from finer control over our voices, the evolution of a grammar module in the brain, even the shift to a meat-based diet that fuels more gray matter.

Berkeley professor of anthropology Terrence Deacon takes a very different view. His research into neurobiology and brain development indicates that our species attained its silver tongue in a far less dramatic manner. The human flair for language, he says, emerged in the very same way as all other body structures: in the embryological minuet between evolution and development…

Our language facility, Deacon writes in his award-winning 1997 book The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain, was an adaptation to a new set of environmental needs. About two and a half million years ago, our ancestors made a radical shift in culture: they began using stone tools to scavenge meat on the open savanna. They had to cooperate in small social groups to compete with other animals for downed prey. At the same time, such social closeness sparked conflicts over food resources and mates. To overcome these challenges, early hominids needed an unprecedented form of communication…

Source: HULIQ, NC
http://www.huliq.com/35293/the-launch-of-language