Hi @PeppiPatty
I remember - oh um which came first - language or memory - I think they probably evolved together
Would that be it? Yes - you are writing a book on the Anglo-Saxons I think - they would have a well established language by then - but linguisitcally this subject would be interesting
So I am into pre-history - I did a year of linguistics at university and it was fascinating - and now language development is one of those things that interest me - how did language begin?
Small primates have a complex language already - they can signal to each other that there is a predator and what kind and how many and how far away - and within some groups of monkeys they are able to understand the warning sounds of other kinds of monkeys even though they only communicate with their own "language" sounds
And the Gilada babboons in the Ethiopian Mountain of Northern Africa seem to have a complex language - and chatter to each other - even seem to have names for each - I find this fascinating
So - first language would have been for warnings I guess - and then words for food types - where to find what - and it took millenia but once it began it could never stop -
Spoken language needs a bone in the throat called the Hyoid Bone - and this is mechanical - speech cannot really develop without that - still - maybe the early hominids used hand-signs - it's possible and not my idea either - someone else thought that one up
However David Attenborough and those who are following him in the natural world have given us a lot of insight into the development of language and the use of tools in the other primates - human beings do not have this realm to themselves
Decadian
