Proto-human language
Proposed common ancestor to all human languages / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The proto-human language, also known as proto-sapiens or proto-world, is the hypothetical direct genetic predecessor of all human languages.[1]
Quick Facts Reconstruction of, Era ...
Proto-human | |
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Proto-sapiens, Proto-world | |
(widely rejected) | |
Reconstruction of | All extant and extinct human languages |
Era | Paleolithic |
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The concept is speculative and not amenable to analysis in historical linguistics. It presupposes a monogenetic origin of language, i.e. the derivation of all natural languages from a single origin, presumably at some time in the Middle Paleolithic period. As the predecessor of all extant languages spoken by modern humans (Homo sapiens), proto-human language as hypothesised would not necessarily be ancestral to any hypothetical Neanderthal language.