Babel's Dawn

From Protolanguage to True Language

Pidgin speakers use the closest contemporary approximation to protolanguage, but it is hard to find records of their language because they are in such a low status in their societies. The picture shows migrant laborers in Abu Dhabi and surely they use some pidgin to communicate with one another, and just as surely both their employers and the migrants despise the pidgin they speak.

Derek Bickerton’s most important contribution to the study of language origins was the idea of a protolanguage that was spoken before full language appeared, and it remains the most important idea in his new book, Adam’s Tongue: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans. Put simply, protolanguage is a simple language, but Bickerton is more specific than that and puts the matter more formally. He also reveals that he had a series of e-mail exchanges with Noam Chomsky on the subject of protolanguage and, as he tells it, he came out on top.

A Critic's Chance to Say What He Is For

Derek Bickerton is one of the most striking critics of the search for language origins. He does not mince words when he thinks you’re wrong. Now it is time for him to look in the other direction and tell us what is right. He sums up the thesis of his new book, Adam’s Tongue in its subtitle: How Humans Made Language, How Language Made Humans. In other words, humans and language made each other, or to use a fancier term, they co-evolved. Surprised? Neither am I. It turns out that Bickerton is a more exciting critic than proponent.

How Different Are Ape Brains From Ours?

How do human brains differ from ape brains? We know that our brains are a lot bigger, but so what? Presumably we are smarter, but how exactly? We divvy up the work between right and left brain hemispheres (“lateralization”), but what does that get us? For some years now Jared Taglialatela and his team have been delving into the question of ape brains and how they foreshadow human brains, and every so often this blog reports on their work (see, e.g.: Ape Cries are Complex). The March 11 issue of Current Biology includes the latest results of the team’s investigations (“Communicative Signaling Activates ‘Broca’s’ Homolog in Chimpanzees,” paper here). They have found evidence that brain structures “underlying language production in the human brain may have been present in the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees.” Or, to emphasize the surprise, the brain’s “language areas” are older than language itself.

The Oldest Form of Speech

Motherese can be heard as a mother talks to her baby about toys.

“Motherese” is the simplified, slowed-down, high-pitched speech that people use when talking to infants and toddlers. Even slightly older children use it when speaking to infants, and of course mothers use it most of all. Motherese syntax is simplified too. Dada go bye-bye is recognizable motherese. But does motherese have anything to do with a child learning a language, or with the evolutionary origins of speech? In her new book, Finding our Tongues  Dean Falk makes the case for its relevance. She rejects the argument that it is merely a device for strengthening the mother-infant bond and, despite the fact that previously I have tended to dismiss the motherese argument, I think her case is a good one.