Origins of Human Language Revealed

A study recently released reveals the mystery of the origins of human language used. Science Magazine 15 April 2011 edition reveals, the language used by humans first emerged in southern Africa. From there later this language spread throughout the world.

Researchers from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Quentin Atkinson, conducted a study to explore the track record by breaking 504 languages ​​language into the smallest components called phonemes. Phonemes derived from the Latin, phonema, meaning the spoken voice. Research shows, the more diversity of phonemes which is owned by a language indicates that the source language from other languages ​​that have fewer phonemes.

His research came to the conclusion that the further a group of humans ventured out of Africa in a historical track record, the fewer phonemes used in their language. This means that, as predicted in the study, the languages ​​in South America and the Pacific Islands have the phoneme at least, while the languages ​​in Africa has the highest phoneme.

Apparently, this pattern also has similarities with the study of human genetics. As is presented as a general rule, the farther a person out of Africa, which is widely regarded as the origin of human ancestors, the smaller the difference between individuals in the population of the individual groups when compared with the diversity in the region of origin, Africa.

Atkinson's study uses a sophisticated statistical method similar to mengonstruksikan genetic tree based on DNA sequence. Regarding the use of this statistical method in finding the source of human language, a linguist, Brian D Joseph from the University of Ohio, said, as a source of new insights in the study in its field.

"I think we should have noticed this with seirus although there are still those who would reject it," said Joseph.

For additional information, studies conducted Atkinson is unique because it tries to find the root language of a very ancient time. About the age of any language is still a matter of debate because on the other side while the fact was found that age has reached 50,000 tahun.Namun language, on the other hand some other linguists are still skeptical of the facts in the meantime. They found another factor that is "the development of words very quickly" so that the possibility of language itself does not age more than 10,000 years.