What is Language and How Languages Came to Be

  Language is an information sharing process between two or more entities via sounds or gestures associated with naming things, actions, or the status of beings, which are meaningful and agreed upon between them. As humans, we instinctively name things around us; we name all of the non-living and living things that surround us.

Initially, early humans named objects using sounds and gestures, which in turn become implicitly agreed upon and shared among individuals. Language, as a form of communication, had to be understood and agreed on between human beings in order to serve various different purposes necessary for their survival. Before the information becomes language, there is a need for associating sounds or gestures to an object. Once the sound or gesture is associated with a meaning and agreed upon by more than one individual, it becomes language.

Early humans had the need to name plants, animals, sounds, smells, parts of trees, rocks, water, rivers, and other elements found in their environment. Later on, humans had the need to name actions and functions related to their

experiences as well. Actions and functions were a natural extension of concepts, since each concept had an action or a function associated with it. These actions changed with the further evolutionary leaps and so acquired different roles and meanings.

For example, the word “wood” acquired different actions and meanings as evolution progressed. As new utilizations for “wood” were discovered, the language had to be adjusted to describe those new functions. Basically, actions had to be associated with concepts connected with human skills since language was needed in order to survive, and it was essential to obtain an accurate description and meaning for terms.

As humans reached the evolutionary leap of the stone and fire era, the language as a whole acquired new sounds and gestures associated with new discoveries and their applications and variations therein. The actions embedded in their natural behaviors had to have an interpersonal connotation, and thus, language had to describe interpersonal connections as well as the ones related to a group of people as a whole.

As time passed, another type of language evolved, giving birth to another linguistic need: The Language of Organizations. The language of organizations was a necessity since civilization witnessed the creation of small groups like families, tribes, and communities. Humans, at that point, had to be able to share information about concepts and the actions of and within the organizations.

In conclusion, language is continuously evolving, fueled by the technological innovations in this Internet era. Language is directly proportioned to the ever-increasing advancement of human evolution and technology. Technological devices have greatly impacted, and are continuing to impact, our language. Furthermore, each evolutionary milestone directly and indirectly affects the previous one linguistically, socially, personally, and continues to foster further evolution.

As history shows, language is undergoing constant and never-ending evolvement.