Evolution of Human Speech Essay

It can not be disputed that speech is an important aspect in communication and above all it enables man to adapt to his environment by expressing his feelings, thoughts and sentiments. The power of the spoken word is also apparent in different authorities at it reflects what should be done and the ultimate success of the society. This illustrates why this art was adopted millions of years ago by the ancient man and has been used since then. However, the origin and development of speech is still unclear with various theories being put forward to address this issue. The most recent development in this field has been the proposal that this unique human characteristic developed from the gene FOXP2 in the KE family. However, this is yet to be affirmed as counter propositions have been raised, both by scientists, anthropologists and biologists. It is upon this background that this paper aims at analyzing the different phases of the evolution of human speech. Speech is a complex occurrence that is characterized by intonation and flow. However, Hewitt emphasizes that gestures are the most fundamental aspect of speech because of the fact that speech emanates from the movement of certain body organs in a systematic manner (342). From this, he further argues that the earliest human beings essentially used gestures in communication (342). This marked the earliest form and starts a journey to modern human speech. According to Crow, man definitely developed this sign language from the birds and the insect gestures (49). In this respect, he indicates that the birds usually take a material for nesting to the partner as a sign of proposal. In addition, the bees usually move their tails in a certain specific motion when they land on a flower that has nectar. From observing the characters of these and other animals like the dogs and the cats, man came up with a sign language to enable him communicate just like the other animals (Hewitt 342). As such different gestures were adopted by man to symbolize different things and ideas. For example, waving meant good bye, putting fingers on the lips meant keep quiet and shaking ones head meant disagreement. Hauser indicates that these gestures are still being used by the modern man and has the same implication (52). In addition, the gestures are universal and mean the same thing in diverse cultures. This has an implication that speech developed from a single source. Further, by watching the animals such as dogs and chimpanzees make some sounds when expressing different emotions, Maddeison points out that man also imitated them and came up with certain syllables that could convey the different emotions like for instance crying, laughing among others (56). Indeed, he affirms that the traditional man was able to grunt, cry and produce other emotional sounds with the help of his laryngeal glands. However, Hewitt argues that man developed speech because of his craftsmanship (342). To this end, he indicates that as man involved his hands in practical activities like Agriculture and crafts, he increasingly found it difficult to use his hands to communicate by gesturing while working at the same time. Furthermore, since his eyes also concentrated on the duties he was doing, it became difficult to see and acknowledge the gestures. According to Hewitt, this prompted him to derive other ways of expressing his ideas while working at the same time (342). Thus, Crow shows that he developed this using the lips and the tongue and that is when speech was born (57). Development of speech is thus related to the gestures that man once used. In this respect, it can be noted that children that are learning how to write often twist their tongues as their hands move. In addition, it can be observed that when a person is using a pair of scissors to cut anything, usually, the jaws of the person also move simultaneously. From this, Hewitt argues that it can be concluded that as it became more and more difficult to use hands in gesturing, man adopted the gestures using his jaw, lips and tongue (342). Hence, the development of speech is actually related to the activities that man engaged in. In other words, man adopted his speech from movement of his hands as he concentrated on different activities. With time, man got used to using the jaw, tongue and lips and his hands retired completely from gesturing. Afterwards another vital discovery was made that if air could be blown through the nose or mouth as the jaw, lips and the tongue moved systematically, these movements could become audible either as whispers or as sounds (Hauser p. 55). This reflected the sounds of grunting, snoring and crying made by man initially. As a result man was able to hear these sounds and hence communicate even when in the dark or when away from his peers, something he could not do earlier on. However, it was soon realized that not all movements of the jaws, lips and tongue were successful in producing these audible and coherent sounds. Hence, according to Hewitt, man decided to limit the mouth movement to up and down and not sideways (343). This was very effective in producing the coherent and audible sounds and man was then able to communicate effectively. Afterwards, man realized that the repetition of these sounds could make words and many words could make a speech. He made this idea practical while relatively using the words and finally, he was able to communicate clearly. In addition, Hauser argues that the development of these words was contributed to by the activities that man engaged in (57). For example, he explains that the word â€Å"sip† originates from the act is sipping. According to him, when man sips any liquid, and air is blown in to the mouth, the sounds of sip sap are produced. This explains how the word sipping came in to existence. It should be noted that these words are acknowledged ad appreciated universally and including in English. In the development of speech, Crow points out that man started with simple words and consonants before developing more complex words (62). To this effect, he indicates that the baboon can say certain simple words like man, is, eat amongst others although it can not use the words successively to make a sentence. Likewise, Crow contents that the development of speech took the same pattern (62). According to him, man started with simple words like go, eat, is amongst others before he came up with more complex words. However, unlike the baboon, man was able to repeat these sounds because he has two interlinked tubes in the vocal track while the baboon and the chimpanzee have only one (Crow p. 63). This explains while these animals, besides being hominids can not use speech. Words differ considerably because of the different environment and other scenarios that are unique to different areas. These include the climatic conditions, culture and other natural episodes and scenarios that characterize different areas. Despite this, Hewitt asserts that speech originated from the very first attempt by man to use lips, the tongue and jaws (343). This development is perceived to have occurred almost 400,000 years ago when is thought to have developed the essential organs to aid in the same. Specifically, the hypoglossal canal is perceived to be instrumental in attaining this condition and the right size for this is thought to have developed at this time. In addition, the gland is effective in transferring the relevant signals to the brain which then develops the ideas to be passed on. Despite the development of these vital organs, it is not clear whether speech developed concurrently or later on as other studies point out that speech developed only 100000 years ago (Maddeison, p. 62). To this effect, he argues that other vital features in speech development like the long neck developed almost 100000 years ago and therefore, speech developed then. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be ascertained that the development of speech in man is a phenomenon that started millions of years ago. This started by man imitating the gestures made by birds, insects and animals. Then, he started emulating the sounds made by the same and gradually developed his own sound system. It is also worth noting that the advent of craftsmanship contributed a great deal to the development of speech. In fact, it can be argued that this was the major factor that made man develop his speech. Works Cited Davidson, Hauser. Development of Speech in the Hominids; Cambridge: University Press, 1997. Foged, Maddeison. The Diversity in Linguistics; UK: Oxford, 1996. McLarnon, Hewitt. â€Å"Anthropology: The Origin and Development of Human Speech† American journal of Linguistic Inquiry, 109 (3) 1999: 341-343 Ploog, Crow,J. The Modern Man and Development of Speech; UK: Ox