Answer to Question #292349 in History for bruno

Question

World Civilization/World History

Map of ( Original Language Family Groups) The use of complex language developed 100,000 years ago among Homo sapiens in Africa. As humans dispersed throughout the globe, nineteen language families evolved from which all modern languages originate.

• How many different landmasses did language evolve on? Which landmasses have a greater number of language families, and why might that be?

• On the basis of this map, what geographic features had an impact on the evolution of language groups?

• Why do you think separate languages emerged over time?

Answer 1

• Language evolved in six landmasses, namely Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia. Africa has the largest number of language families, which include: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharian, Niger-Saharian (Niger-Congo), and Khoisan. The geographical features that led to the evolution of languages include mountains and oceans which separated people, making them develop their own localized languages. The separate languages emerged over time since different regions had varying experiences and environments. Therefore, the people living there had to come up with words to refer to the things and ideas around them.