Human Language Arose From Africa

According to Washington Post, Human language arose from Africa, and like thats not enough, Findings show that Southern Africa is the birth of all humans, Hurrah Hurrah..Oh Joy!...does this mean we all have a little South Africa in us?

Thats not all...There is scientific proof that Soweto was previously the Garden Of Eden.. Pause...Gotcha...that has not been proven ..yet.. *winks*

just last year Hilter had African Ancestors now all humans originate from Africa, is there anything that doesnt originate from Africa?...Next year they're going to tell us Australia is actually Africa...these scientists

According to the Washington Post, researcher Quentin Atkinson of the University of Auckland in New Zealand conducted the study by breaking down 504 languages into their smallest components, called phonemes. As the Post explains, the words "rip" and "lip" are separated by one phoneme, "one corresponding to the letter 'r' and the other to the letter 'l.'"

Atkinson then looked at the diversity of phonemes throughout the world and found that the farther a people would have travelled from Africa, the fewer phonemes in their language. This means that, as predicted by the study, languages in South America and the Pacific Islands had the fewest phonemes, while African languages had the most.

As groups left Africa, the number of phonemes in their language decrease. As the process was repeated, the total number of phonemes in all the languages created decreased, according to USA Today. This is the same pattern that applies to human genetics. Reports the Post:

The pattern matches that for human genetic diversity: As a general rule, the farther one gets from Africa -- widely accepted as the ancestral home of our species -- the smaller the differences between individuals within a particular population.

The study is unique because it attempts to look at language in the distant past. According to theNew York Times, language is at least 50,000 years old, which corresponds with the diaspora of modern humans from Africa. However, because words evolve so quickly, linguists are skeptical of claims of language traces over 10,000 years old. Atkinson used "sophisticated statistical methods developed for constructing genetic trees based on DNA sequences" in order to draw his conclusions, according to the Times.

While viewed with suspicion by some, these new methods are leading to new insights into human language. Linguist Brian D. Joseph of the University of Ohio told the Times, "I think we ought to take this seriously, although there are some who will dismiss it out of hand."