# What was the worlds first language? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2002, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211 "2002-11-22T19:22:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/2bfe46/32.png) [@Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xavier)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/1 "2002-11-22T19:22:34Z")
And is that Q even answerable? If we are all immigrants from Africa (a vast oversimplification of the details I know), surely all the languages from the human family tree are related (even if distantly). We have types like Semetic and Indo-European with no obvious relationship to each other at all… yet they must have some common ground - considering both have common elements (such as alphabets & writing/distinctive sounds etc.) So if we consider the first groups of humans - running around in East Africa eons ago - is it possible to determine (ever) what thier original language must have sounded like? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/2 "2002-11-22T19:29:50Z")
No one knows. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/3 "2002-11-22T19:44:35Z")
It’s hard to say if anybody will ever know for sure, but there are researchers trying to figure it out: www.santafe.edu/sfi/publications/Bulletins/bulletinSummer01/features/language.html ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/4 "2002-11-22T19:57:09Z")
I’d say its a safe bet it was some sort of sign language. Pointing, gesturing, etc. Spoken language? I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/5 "2002-11-22T20:03:11Z")
Ogdian. Og Smash! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/6 "2002-11-22T20:15:41Z")
The language of looooooooove, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/7 "2002-11-22T20:31:16Z")
Why would you say that it had to be a Signed language, bernse? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/8 "2002-11-22T20:39:48Z")
[A web page](http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/PERSPRO1.htm) by a scholar giving some preliminary conclusions on a Pre-Nostratic language. A (preserved) [NY Times article](http://www.santafe.edu/~johnson/articles.nostratic.html) on the Nostratic Hypothesis. And [more on the same theme](http://www.newswise.com/articles/1998/10/NOSTRAT.OSU.html). Ilya Yakubovich on the [Nostratic Macrofamily](http://popgen.well.ox.ac.uk/eurasia/htdocs/nostratic.html). [Here’s](http://glen-gordon.tripod.com/LANGUAGE/origin.html) the mother of all language superfamily hypotheses. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/9 "2002-11-22T21:18:48Z")
Hmmph! You animalcentric armchair linguists make me sick. There were civilizations of intelligent plants long before the mobile oppressors crawled from the sea. The first language was Treebonics! [sub]running, running…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/10 "2002-11-22T21:22:37Z")
> [@](#): > > The first language was Treebonics! Hoom! I think you are being much too hasty and are being livingthingcentric, what about the language of rocks? or subatomic particles? Brian ---
**Author:** ![SteveSteve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SteveSteve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveSteve)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/11 "2002-11-22T22:41:38Z")
## quote: The first language was Treebonics! * * * HAHAHAHA That is hilarious, thanks a lot for posting it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/12 "2002-11-22T22:48:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Xavier \* > \*\*If we are all immigrants from Africa (a vast oversimplification of the details I know), surely all the languages from the human family tree are related (even if distantly). > \*\* Not really. If a group emmigrated from Africa before the development of language was complete, they could have developed their own language independently of the groups that remained in Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/13 "2002-11-22T22:54:53Z")
If English was good enough for Adam and Eve and their pet dinosaur…wha? feeling dizz \ Where am I? I had a dream I was Jack Chick. Not as funny as Treebonics I’ll admit. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/14 "2002-11-22T23:08:27Z")
Well, Aklo is a pretty old language. ---
**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/15 "2002-11-23T04:06:08Z")
[slight hijack] Which is the oldest language that is currently still in use? There are so many that come to my mind (Chinese, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Urdu), but I can’t think of _the_ oldest… [/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-worlds-first-language/138211/16 "2002-11-23T04:46:24Z")
gouda writes: \> Which is the oldest language that is currently still in use? There’s no real answer to this question. The Chinese spoken today is not a single language but a set of about nine related but distinct languages. No speaker of any of these languages could understand the Chinese of 2000 years ago any more than a speaker of Italian could understand the Latin of 2000 years ago. Indeed, no language stays the same enough for even 1000 years. There are cases where what we call a language now is the same as what we call the ancestor of that language 1000 or 2000 years ago, but the two stages of the language are not mutually comprehensible.