Researchers say it’s time to finally discard a decades-old theory about the origins of human language – and revise the date when human ancestors likely were able to make certain speech noises.
Nisarg Desai observes wild chimps known as Sandi, Ferdinand and Siri in Tanzania.
Michael Wilson
Do chimpanzee talk to each other? Scientists follow and record chimpanzees in the wild to find out – and to fill in details about how human language might have evolved.
What can a modern-day Creole language tell us about its first speakers in the 1600s?
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New research suggests that hints left in Creole languages can identify where the original speakers came from – even hundreds of years after they migrated and mixed together.
Borrowings from the indigenous Māori language are so common that visitors to New Zealand are greeted in Māori as soon as they arrive.
Sinead Leahy
There’s little research into origins of the geographic patterns of language diversity. A new model exploring processes that shaped Australia’s language diversity provides a template for investigators.
How many colors in your language’s rainbow?
Eye image via www.shutterstock.com.
New research investigates how people sequentially add new color terms to languages over time – and the results hold surprises about assumptions linguists have made for 40 years.