Implications of the evolution of writing for the origin of language

can a paleoneurologist find happiness in the neolithic?

Dean Falk

pp. 235-241

in: Jan Wind, Brunetto Chiarelli, Bernard Bichakjian, Alberto Nocentini, Abraham Jonker (eds), Language origin, Berlin, Springer, 1992

Abstract

Comparative primatological evidence suggests that the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees that lived five million years ago had a lateralized brain. The endocranial cast (endocast) of a two million year old Homo habilis specimen shows a cortical sulcal pattern associated with Broca's speech area in modern humans. Thus, the beginnings of speech appear to have originated early during the evolution of our genus. Unfortunately, there is no direct evidence regarding the subsequent development of speech in humans, or its rate of evolution. However, an archaeological record does exist for the relatively recent evolution of the ability to record speech, i.e. writing. Because writing had a long evolution, even though its domain was visual and therefore easily recordable and retrievable, the evolution of its predecessor, unseen speech, must have been much longer. Such a view is consistent with the continuity and elaboration of neurological lateralization and related behaviors throughout higher primate evolution, and an early origin of language behaviors in Homo that continued to evolve over time.