Was is the origin of language?

Answer 1

Nobody knows, though there are many speculations. We CAN speak because a certain gene put our voiceboxes high in our throats. Our cousins the apes can't make anywhere near the variety of mouth sounds we can because theirs are farther down. On the other hand, they're less likely to choke on their food; it was kind of a trade-off.

Somewhere along the line, people discovered that sounds could be used to REPRESENT things: objects, commands, ideas. While nobody knows what the first meaningful language sounds were, many think they were sort of clicks, made by popping the tongue against the palate. Several African languages (and we all started in Africa) still use clicking today. When you see an exclamation mark (!) in front of the name of a language, that means it's a "click" language.