Who invented words?

Question

Who invented words?

Answer 1

I don't know, I've wondered this too.  But can you pick me as best answer anyway, I really need more points so I can answer more q's.  : D

Answer 2

Archaelogical records provide clear evidence of complex social behavior among early civilizations, including perhaps care of the old and infirm and burial of the dead.  This may indicate the existence of at least a rudimentary form of language as a prerequisite for organizing social behavior.  

Today, human languages are far more diverse and numerous than most speakers of major world languages think.   There are presently over 6,000 tongues spoken around the world, with distinctions ranging from regional dialects of Chinese to great language families like the Indo-European and Sino-Tibetian.  Linguistics histories can be reconstructed by comparison of vocabularies and of grammatical structures, and today the search continues for ever more distant relationships, which may perhaps indicate a single origin of all languages.  

The origin of languages may lie in sub-Saharan Africa with the emergence of modern humans.  The present Bantu languages of the region include those of the Zulus and the Shona and lingua francas such as Swahili, while the Khoisan languages of the Bushmen, renowned for their "click" sounds, have long been in decline.  The Semitic languages of North Africa are of a unique structure, notably reflected in the Arabic writing system.

Spoken language and written language are not to be confused.  People familiar with Latin script may be able to give letter symbols their approximate sound values, but they may not be able to recognize what language they record.  Almost everyone with certain basic cognitive abilities knows one language, but many of them are unable to read or write.  Human languages have long existed, but writing systems have developed only in the last few thousand years.  

The diversity of the world's languages is at least as threatened as that of its plant and animal species.  The passing of traditional ways of life and the economic lure of major languages is driving local tongues toward extinction.   But today, dying languages are at least being recorded for prosperity, and much work is underway to reverse their decline; the revival of the Hebrew language offers an inspiring success story.

Answer 3

It's impossible to tell, because spoken language came before written language, and only the latter would leave physical evidence. Here's what I found on Wikipedia...

"There is disagreement among anthropologists on when language was first used by humans (or their ancestors). Estimates range from about two million (2,000,000) years ago, during the time of Homo habilis, to as recently as forty thousand (40,000) years ago, during the time of Cro-Magnon man. However recent evidence suggests modern human language was invented or evolved in Africa prior to the dispersal of humans from Africa around 50,000 years ago."

Answer 4

the guy that was sitting around the fire and got tired of getting up to get his own beer...so he blurted out "someone grab me a beer" but unfortunately noone knew what he said...

Answer 5

different civilisations have different beginnings in writing. the first form of writng was in pictorial forms.Even in prehistoric caves, there is evidence of pictures drawn by early man to communicate.

The earliest writing can be traced to Sumer, in Mesopotamia. This system did not use an alphabet, instead it used pictographs which are symbols representing familiar objects. This type of writing was called cuneiform, or wedge-shaped writing. Egyptians used hieroglyphics, also a pictograph system.the ancient chinese  also discovered paper and used pictorial writing.  then slowly , the pictorial forms evolved into writings.