How did humans communicate before language?

Question

How did humans communicate before language?

Answer 1

Even chickens have rudimentary cries that can be understood as 'hawk!' or 'snake!'. There would probably always have been some vocalizing of warning nouns. Non emergency communication would have been from gesturing with hands, and other non verbal signs like facial expression.

Answer 2

language is part of being human... the pre-humans that lacked language communicated like animals - grunts and postures.

Answer 3

Adam and Eve were the first humans on earth and they had spoken in Arabic. sign language........... never, but may be in jungles.

Answer 4

Sign laguage and emotional grunts and sounds.

Answer 5

Animals, like birds, make vocalizations about events and conditions happening right then.  Early pre-human primates  communicated in the same way with vocalizations only about things happening in the here-and-now.  Then, as early human ancestors evolved, they branched off from all other animal forms of communication by achieving "symbolic thought".  They could think about something or a condition not happening at that moment.  Anthropologists, studying chimps and bonobos, genetically the closest relatives on the planet to humans, have observed that primates, when they achieve symbolic thought, use their hands especially in symbolic gestures.  Those hand gestures and vocalizations among early humans became standardized and human language then came into being.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...

Answer 6

If someone is telling you what a great person you are and how happy they make you but they are gesturing in a way that is aggressive and yelling offensively you will hear one thing and feel another.  Words are a most inadequate way to express FEELINGS.

I have often thought if we were struck dumb or blind all the worlds worst problems would evaporate.  It is only because we can see and speak to each other that we use observation and assumption to judge and after we judge we act sometimes inappropriately.  

We should use our other senses and "feelings" that do not rely on sight and speech to understand and relate to each other.  We would make less mistakes in judgement about others if we trusted our gut and the warm feelings or the creepy crawly feelings we get on our skin when we run into other humans...without language we'd learn to trust these senses much more than our eyes and ears which we know can lie.

Answer 7

You really should watch a movie called "Quest for Fire", it's all about grunting cavemen fighting over the knowledge of how to make fire.

Very watchable movie actually!

Answer 8

sign lang n pics....plus some sounds.

Answer 9

They battered each other over the head with clubs. Once for a yes. and twice for a know. etc etc.

Answer 10

grunts and  pulling hair. much like can be seen today.

and with that i be tired.

Answer 11

Yes they did. By signs..by pictorial illustrations...