The truth is, no one knows for sure when talking was “invented.” It’s a big mystery. But as a language scientist for 15 years, I can tell you our best guess about when people started talking to each ...

Humans' unique language capacity was present at least 135,000 years ago, according to a survey of genomic evidence. As such, language might have entered social use 100,000 years ago. It is a deep ...

The left half of the brain is generally in charge of spoken and written language in most people Spoken and written language are two of the major ways humans communicate with each other. In addition, ...

Large language models aren’t trained on real-life conversations. As we encounter their language, it could affect our own Because of the way they are trained, large language models capture only a slice ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Among the myriad abilities that humans possess, which ones are uniquely human? Language has been a top candidate at least since ...

Language is commonly understood as the instrument of thought. People “talk it out” and “speak their mind,” follow “trains of thought” or “streams of consciousness.” Some of the pinnacles of human ...