Why can we not use the languages of nonliterate societies to learn about the origins of language?
A) Their languages are not simpler or less developed than our own.
B) Their written histories do not go far enough back in time.
C) They were often developed more recently than written languages.
D) Languages of nonliterate societies change too quickly to be any use for study.
Question 2
Why is it so difficult to pinpoint the emergence of the earliest languages?
A) Written language only appeared about 5,000 years ago.
B) Modern apes have a rudimentary language, so it must date to at least the divergence of the human and ape lineages.
C) There are clear structural differences in the brains of people who speak and people who don't, but we have no fossilized evidence of brain structure.
D) Every culture reports that they have been able to speak since the beginning of time.
Two women having a conversation using American Sign Language.
Language tree
How difficult is it for children to learn to speak two languages?
Language Patterns
Origins of (a) a terminal and (b) an intercalary deletion
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