Why is it so difficult to pinpoint the emergence of the earliest languages?
A) Written language only appeared about 5,000 years ago.
B) Modern apes have a rudimentary language, so it must date to at least the divergence of the human and ape lineages.
C) There are clear structural differences in the brains of people who speak and people who don't, but we have no fossilized evidence of brain structure.
D) Every culture reports that they have been able to speak since the beginning of time.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The earliest languages are difficult to pinpoint because written language only appeared about 5,000 years ago, leaving no direct evidence of earlier spoken languages.

Why Is It So Difficult to Pinpoint the Emergence of the Earliest