Genomic study shows capacity for language emerged 125-135,000 years ago

A new survey of genomic evidence, which appears in Frontiers in Psychology, suggests humans unique language capacity was present at least 125-135,000 years ago. Subsequently, language entered social and religious use 90-100,000 years ago. Physically our species, Homo sapiens, is about 230,000 years old. Estimates of when language originated vary widely, based on different forms of evidence, from fossils to religious and cultural artifacts.

The authors of a new analysis took a different approach. They reasoned that since all human languages likely have a common origin—as the researchers strongly think—the key question is how far back in time did regional groups began spreading around the world. “Every population branching across the globe has human language, and all languages are related.”

Based on what the genomics data indicate about the geographic divergence of early human populations, he adds, “I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that the first split occurred about 125-135,000 years ago, so human language capacity must have been present by then, or before.”

The new paper examines 15 genetic studies of different varieties, published over the past 18 years: three used data about the inherited Y chromosome, three examined mitochondrial DNA, and nine were whole-genome studies. All told, the data from these studies suggest an initial regional branching of humans about 125-135,000 years ago. That is, after the emergence of Homo sapiens, groups of people subsequently moved apart geographically, and some resulting genetic variations have developed, over time, among the different regional subpopulations.

The amount of genetic variation shown in the studies allows researchers to estimate the point in time at which Homo sapiens was still one regionally undivided group. Like many linguists, Miyagawa believes all human languages are demonstrably related to each other. There are 7,000+ identified human languages around the globe.

Some scholars have proposed that language capacity dates back a couple of million years, based on the physiological characteristics of other primates. But to Miyagawa, the question is not when primates could utter certain sounds; it is when humans had the cognitive ability to develop language as we know it, combining vocabulary and grammar into a system generating an infinite amount of rules-based expression.

“Human language is qualitatively different because there are two things, words and syntax, working together to create this very complex system,” Miyagawa says.”No other animal has a parallel structure in their communication system. And that gives us the ability to generate very sophisticated thoughts and to communicate them to others.”

This conception of human language origins also holds that humans had the cognitive capacity for language for some period of time before we constructed our first languages. So, how can we know when distinctively human language was first used? The archaeological record is invaluable in this regard. Roughly 90-100,000 years ago, the evidence shows, there was a widespread appearance of symbolic activity, from grave goods and meaningful markings on objects to the use of fire to produce ocher, a decorative red color frequently found in human graves.

Like our complex, highly generative language, these symbolic activities are engaged in by people, and no other creatures. As the paper notes, “behaviors compatible with language and the consistent exercise of symbolic thinking are detectable only in the archaeological record of Homo sapiens.”

Among the co-authors, Tattersall has most prominently propounded the view that language served as a kind of ignition for symbolic thinking and other organized activities. “Language was the trigger for modern human behavior,” Miyagawa says. “Somehow, it stimulated human thinking and helped create these kinds of behaviors. If we are right, people were learning from each other [due to language] and encouraging innovations of the types we saw 90-100,000 years ago.”

Many other scholars believe there was a more incremental and broad-based development of new activities 90-100,000 years ago, involving materials, tools, religious rituals and social coordination, with language playing a rapidly growing role in this. There are 7,000+ identified human languages around the globe and the Quran states that every tribe and nation of them received at least one Devine inspirited Prophet (the Jews received 600 prophets).

It is narrated from Abu Dharr that one day he asked the Messenger of Allah: How many prophets are there in all? He replied: One hundred and twenty four thousand. He then asked: How many of them were messenger prophets? He replied: Three hundred thirteen from the above group. He asked: Who was the first of them? He replied: Adam…The first prophet among Bani Israel was Musa and the last of them was Isa and they were in all six hundred (Jewish) prophets.” (Biharul Anwar, Vol. 11, Pg. 32)

Islam teaches that Prophets were inspired and sent to the whole of mankind in different lands and at different times. One version of a hadith puts the number of prophets sent to mankind as 124,000 (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 5, 169). Whether the number was 124,000 or not is not important.

What was essential was that no land, people or period was neglected by God. Prophets were sent to every human language group since the age of Adam. The Qur’an says: “There never was a people without a Warner (Prophet) having lived among them’ (35:24) and “We would never visit our wrath (chastise any community) until We had sent a Messenger to give warning” (17:15)

Since there are over 7.000 languages now spoken in the world, and another 10-20,000 that were spoken over the previous 20,000 years and then died out, all human societies have been taught the way God wants each of them to conduct their Divine worship (Qur’an 21:25), and the moral behavioral rules they should observe (Qur’an 16:90-92). Even today when hundreds of languages are dying out, the African continent is home to some of the most multilingual countries in the world. For example Cameroon has a population of around 27 million people; and over 250 different languages are spoken as first languages.

As a non-Orthodox Reform Rabbi who first became interested in Islam when I studied Islam at a university (UCLA) 65+ years ago, I have continued my study of Islam off and on since that time. In many ways Ahadith relating Muhammad’s comments about Orthodox Judaism, and religion in general, prefigure the thinking of most Reform Rabbis some 12-13 centuries later.

This is why I think of myself as an Islamic Hebrew, i.e. a Jew who firmly believes in the one and only God, and who remains faithful to the covenant the God made with the Jewish People at Mount Sinai. If the Orthodox Jews in the generation of Prophet Muhammad has followed his teaching that “religion is easy”, Reform Judaism would have developed 14 centuries ago.

The term ivri (the Hebrew) first appears in the Torah, when Prophet Abraham is called “the Hebrew’.“And it was told to Abram the Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13) And Prophet Joseph uses the name as both a geographical and an socio-ethnic term: “I was kidnapped from the land of the ivrim” Genesis 40:15 and ’a Hebrew youth’ 41:12, and “The Egyptians could not eat with the ivrim, since that would be an abomination” Genesis. 43:32. The name for Abraham’s grandson Jacob was later changed to Israel, and the name Israel largely replaced Hebrews after the Hebrews left Egypt. Banu Israel is the best name for Jews because it was the name given to Jacob by God himself; and it has been in use for 3,500 years.

The word Muslim is a religious identity term that refers to faithful monotheistic believers. The word Hebrew is a linguistic, geographical and ethnic identity term like German the language, Germany the homeland and Germans the people. The word descendent is a biological inherited birth identity term like nobility or tribe.

Islam was a religion designed by God to respect all other imageless, monotheistic religions: “O mankind, We created you from male and female, and made you peoples and tribes, that you may know (respect) one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” (Quran 49:13)

“Once all humans were but a single community; then they disagreed (formulating different beliefs and rites). Had it not been that your Lord had already so ordained, a decisive judgement would have been made regarding [the truth of] their disagreements.” (10:19) Then all human communities invented different religions of their own with different creeds and ways. This worldly life is a trial to see whether or not you yourselves recognize truth by competing in doing acts of kindness, toleration and welcoming others who are different into your own lands.

And: “Who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while being a doer of good and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend.” (4:125)