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If you believe in creation, as I do, then the first language would have come in the very beginning with the creation of Adam. If God spoke with Adam, and he in turn, spoke with Eve, then reasonably, they needed a verbal language. If you don't believe in creation, then I have read where historians have traced the spoken language to the Middle East, probably in the region between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly, in this regard, the creation and secular sources do not disagree with each other concerning the location of the first spoken language.

Some languages on the Asian and European continents developed from an Indo-European originator, but as with any evolutionary process it was a slow one. Early language probably developed sounds (eventually forming words) to indicate nouns, such as animals or food, with verbs, adjectives and the whole rang of language coming as a later development. We can't know much about the origins of language as there are no written sources, but all things point to it being a gradual thing.

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The first answer is in error on one point: there is no possible way for linguists, etymologists, and/or philologists to trace the origins of spoken language. Spoken language is certainly prehistoric, which means that there can be no written records of it.

Since the most likely area for the initial evolution of homo sapiens, and its precursors, is sub-Saharan Africa, it is likely that language was first used there. But it is not certain.

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The origin of language can be viewed in two ways, depending on whether you believe in a successful run of "The Forbidden Experiment".

If the test is positive, then this points toward language developing innately, perhaps primitively, at the first point where evolution pushed intelligence over some "critical mass". This does not mean black and white: there is evidence that Humpback whales exhibit Chomsky-esque hierarchies.

If the test is negative, then this means that speech evolved slowly with us, and that the first languages must have been immensely primitive. There is good reason to believe that the test is positive, based on the way that children learn languages.

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