Firelight may have shaped the origins of spoken language
A new paper proposes that fire and language, two of humanity's greatest innovations, may be far more connected than previously thought.
People often name language or fire when asked to identify humanity's greatest innovation. A new paper suggests these two achievements may be more interlinked than we previously assumed.
The paper, reported by Phys.org, proposes that firelight may have shaped the origins of spoken language. The idea is that the social and practical dynamics of gathering around fire could have created conditions that favored the development of speech.
Rather than treating fire and language as separate milestones in human evolution, the authors argue for a closer connection between them. The paper adds to a growing line of thinking that the everyday use of fire, and the light it cast, may have been an overlooked factor in how language emerged.
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