How do you make a handaxe? And what relationship does a handaxe have with language? The Stone Age handaxe had a broad base and ended in a point, and this point as well as the sides, were sharp, and could be used for cutting or chopping. It was quite a complicated tool, made of flint or some other stone, with facets that provided a firm grip. Handaxes have been found in Africa dating back to 1.6 million years ago, and by one million years ago had spread to Europe and Asia. The complex nature of this Stone Age tool have led scientists and anthropologists to suggest that it was linked with the development of language. Though no one really knows when and how humans began to speak, and when they moved from making animal-like sounds to speaking words and full sentences, it may have been around the time they made the handaxe. Brain scans of those making such tools today show that the same part of the brain is used in speaking and in making a tool like this. ‘Tool making and language evolved together’, says Aldo Faisal, a neuroscientist, based on several scientific studies. Others believe that language emerged with modern Homo sapiens, perhaps 200,000 years ago or a little later.
In this context, many other questions can be raised. Where did language develop? Was there more than one area of development? How did different languages grow? How did they change, develop, and reach the various continents of the world?
The Italian linguist Mario Alinei and put forward the Palaeolithic continuity theory (PCT) in a two-volume work in Italian, published in 1996 and 2000. Alinei places language development before that of modern humans, and believes that language diffusion took place along with the earliest migrations of Homo sapiens from Africa or, at the latest, during the late or upper Palaeolithic period. After reaching Europe, there was initially a very slow rate of change but, by the end of the Ice Age, Celtic, Italic, Germanic, Slavic and Baltic languages had developed. During the Neolithic period, language began to change at a faster pace. This theory finds some support among linguists and archaeologists, and somewhat corresponds with the theory of language evolving along with complex tools such as the handaxe.
Yet both linguists and archaeologists date certain language groups, such as Indo-European, much later. Celtic, Italic and Germanic languages, along with several others including Iranian, Vedic Sanskrit and most north Indian languages, belong to the large group of Indo-European languages. The theory of this language group owes its origin to William Jones (18th century), one of the first to discover the similarities between Sanskrit and Greek and Latin. Jones, who came to India in 1783 and became a judge of the Calcutta High Court, knew several languages including English, Persian, Latin, Greek, Gothic (an old form of German), and Welsh. In India, he began to study Sanskrit, to better understand local and customary laws. In 1786, he put forward his views, laying the base for further study. He said: ‘The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure: more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either; yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which perhaps no longer exists.’ He stated that Persian, Celtic and Gothic probably also belonged to the same family of languages.
Jones provided the hints that later led to the theory of Indo-European languages, the term being first used by an English scholar Thomas Young in 1813, which since then became the standard term for all these related languages. These languages are spread across Asia and Europe, and are today spoken by about 3 billion people, more than any other language group. In addition, they include some extinct languages.
Among these languages, was there one original language? How did the different languages emerge and spread, was it through migration, or through the spread of agriculture as some archaeologists have suggested? And what was the date of the original Indo-European language? This original language has been termed Proto-Indo European (PIE) and about 1500 words reconstructed in it. Dates provided for it include those between 7000 -5000 BCE, with other languages diverging from this. PIE is thought to originate somewhere in Anatolia or in the Caspian Steppes, though many other homelands including India have been suggested. Apart from the fact that dates for the spread and divergence of these languages are variable, there are some archaeologists and linguists who feel there was no language such as PIE, and that in any case the date and divergence of languages is placed far too late. (Those interested in the arguments and counter arguments can read them in my book on the Vedas.)
Recently, a date of origin of 4500-4000 BCE has been provided for Dravidian languages, that is, somewhat similar to dates for Indo European languages.
So what is the link between the handaxe, early language developments, and the evolution of language groups such as Indo-European and Dravidian? Is there a link at all? A complete theory is yet to be worked out.
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