THE NERVE OF THE TONGUE

Half a million years ago, the nerve to the tongue suddenly expanded to today's size

There are many fossilized hominin skulls. The nerve to the tongue passes through a hole in the skull. When the ages of the fossilized skulls are known, it tells us the age at which the tongue’s nerve “suddenly expanded to today’s size”. From what my Collections show, this would be at the time the Mother Tongue suddenly was on everyone’s lips. (Imagine that!)

Why was it sudden? Because the groundwork for full language had been laid by a First Language, albeit a halting one that had only a single consonant, the proto-K. The proto-K was nasalized, eventually yielding an /N/. That language served to create 208 (+/-) verbalized concepts using only /K/ and /N/ and whatever variations in vowels it could devise. We distill those original concepts from modern language by collecting words that begin with /K-vowel-N/, and sorting them into groups of similar meaning. (Remember, two slashes are read as “sound of”.)

Below is a group of words from the book The Global Evolution of Words. I found these words as I searched for clues as to the origin of the British tribal name from which the name Can - - - - - is descended. I was finding many other conceptual groups at the same time.

What name or heading would you give to this group of words?

Would you say it’s possible, even likely, that these modern words all arose from a single ancient concept, one that was verbalized by a word beginning with /K-vowel-N/? My studies show that there was an actual First Language, and that the vocabulary for it was effectively identical to the 208 concepts in the K-vowel-N Collection. Furthermore, linguists’ methods reveal that there was one first modern language, calling it the Mother Tongue, which gave rise to all of today’s languages.

WHY AND HOW DID THIS HAPPEN “SUDDENLY”?

If the nerve to the tongue suddenly reached today’s size, it could mean that hominins suddenly began speaking as much as we do today. This is what my Collections suggest ~ that there already was a halting First Language, which was suddenly superseded by torrents of new vocabulary when the labial proto-consonant was devised, for the reason that that proto-consonant made possible an almost unlimited variety of articulate consonant sounds. With these new consonants, endless and creative vocabulary innovation was finally possible. A burst of creativity ensued, teaching ever more advanced skills, especially in stone work, but surely also in ship design and seafaring strategies of all kinds. Likewise, new, never-before-seen products were being introduced by the hundreds in the Philippines, evidenced by a labial-based prefix added to “is used for” to name each one. Once the rudiments of full language were mastered by enough people, novel speech would continue to emerge and “suddenly” be taken to, and received from, all ports of the world.

Because of the First Language, a special group of people ~ the traders, chiefs of tribes, weavers, maybe even accountants ~ formed an “in” culture already fairly fluent in the rudiments of a language far different from ours today. It was limited to a vocabulary of 200-odd concepts, and to be understood, needed to be used in quiet seclusion, and uttered flawlessly.

Traders had tried the First Language at sea, with very unsatisfactory results. When the labial proto-consonant emerged and was discovered by the traders, its potential for creating an immense collection of solid new consonants immediately caused a torrent of new seafaring and ship-design vocabulary to spring up, carrying before it new mastery of the fine points of stone tool design. That this new language was spearheaded within the culture of masterful stone work is evidenced by (1) one single, inordinately huge concept within the vocabulary of that culture, along with (2) the numerical supremacy of the stone-work vocabulary in toto. (i.e., completely surrounded by a dog?)

THE THREE PROTO-CONSONANTS

I call the earliest closings of the vocal air column “proto-consonants” because each one gave rise to several modern consonants. There were just three proto-consonants, simply because there are three places in the mouth where consonants can be made ~ the front, the middle and the back. Amazingly, each proto-consonant gave rise to a unique set of early concepts, the mental imprint of which endured through the Mother Tongue and on into today’s words worldwide. That’s why we can extract those concepts by sticking to the proto-consonants behind each dictionary entry in any language. Letting the images float around in one’s mind, one comes to recognize repetitions, and finally to be able to tag a name onto groups of them.

Rhythmic chanting was how each proto-consonant was mastered. It began with ritualized fire-making, which happened ~ I believe ~ on the full moon. Such would account for the timing of the human females’ menstrual cycle, as well as the deep Asian reverence for the “perfect circle”. Watching and anticipating the moon becoming “perfect” would be everyone’s massive concern, as they worked on making their valuable gifts to give to the Chief.

Each proto-consonant is named for the place in the mouth where it was made. First off, the velar proto-consonant, which evolved into modern K, G, Ng, and Kh, was made by the back of the tongue pressing against the VELUM (a word similar to film) at the back of the mouth. The Collections indicate that the velar proto-consonant was the first to be chanted, and was chanted by all at fire-making rituals.

Next the labial proto-consonant emerged within elementary stone work, and quickly gave rise to the modern consonants /P, B, V, M, F/. Traders and sea-farers used these sounds expertly and the Mother Tongue arose.

Finally, somewhat removed from the verbalizing hubbub, the alveolar proto-consonant came into use among loggers and timberers, as /T, D, L, N, R, Th/ were used to express a bevy of atypical human emotions and views, heavy with aggression.

The hominins who mastered a proto-consonant did so in a group setting where something was being performed rhythmically with the hands. It was surely a utilitarian motion in all three cases, making something of essential importance for daily life. A question I have not been able to answer involves the fact that each proto-consonant probably would have been chanted rhythmically at first, before developing its modern variants and moving beyond simple rhythmic manual motions into more advanced creation. Paleoneurologists say that the earliest vocalizations leading to speech were (1) rhythmic, and (2) accompanied by rhythmic manual motions, “both driven by the same rhythm.”

The question is this: Were all three proto-consonants being chanted during the same general eras by all concerned hominins? Or was it linear, with one first proto-consonant, the /K/, finishing off its rhythmic phase and giving rise to the First Language while the other two groups continued in their rhythmic phases? If the latter, did this give rise to the human condition among the First Language speakers which then spread to the rest of the two chanting cultures, possibly as the Mother Tongue spread world wide?

I’m not an anatomist by any stretch of the imagination, but it is my impression that changes in the skeletons of hominins are usually very, very gradual. For a hominin tongue to “suddenly” need to expand ~ and to today’s size no less! ~ what do you think that hominin was going through? Discovering chewing gum? Or even chewing betel nuts? No! He must have begun speaking as much as we do today, causing the tongue’s nerve to require as much volume as ours now has. And that is what the Meaning Groups of the labial collection show: intense interest in speech and in people generally. Talking, which had been the exclusive province of the leaders, was now everyone’s potential property, and it was free for the taking.

Something else very highly significant also happened to hominins half a million years ago: “Stone tools suddenly became made as if by pattern.” This could not have happened without masterful teaching and discussion of the details of working on stone. Copy-cat learning had not brought about any change in stone tool-making for 700,000 years prior to the time stone tools suddenly became sophisticated. It’s no coincidence that the tongue’s nerve also suddenly enlarged to today’s size around the same time.

One thing is sure: modern language did indeed appear “suddenly”. A picture of speech emerging is contained in the labial-proto-consonant collection. That collection contains an anomaly of great magnitude in the word groups that specifically relate to stone work. If I told you why here, it might spoil the surprise for you. I describe it at the very end of the book, The Global Evolution of Words, Volume II.

Please let me know if you’d like me to email you a PDF copy of the book ~ my email address is tractionpads@gmail.com . Even if you already have the hard copy, the PDF copy can be searched electronically like in Google, if ever one wishes to look up something specific in the book itself.

What names came to mind for the group of words shown above? Here is the actual heading above the group of words, from The Global Evolution of Words:

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Very best wishes,

Kim Salisbury, happily in Bodfish, California