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Rethinking where language comes from: Framework reveals complex interplay of biology and culture

by Max Planck Society

phys.org/news/2025-11-rethinki…

#books #culture #biology #language

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Oil on board, 1563. Humans have speculated about the origins of language throughout history. The Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel is one such account; other cultures have different stories of how language arose. The painting shows Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Tower of Babel (1563), depicting a colossal, spiraling tower under construction. The structure dominates the landscape, its arches and stacked tiers resembling a monumental, half-finished coliseum. Workers and scaffolding cling to the tower’s surface, emphasizing the scale and ambition of the project. In the foreground, a gathering of figures appear to be overseeing the construction. The surrounding landscape shows a bustling port city, with ships, houses, and fields extending toward the horizon. The sky is partly cloudy, contrasting the monumental tower with the smallness of human activity below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language#/media/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Tower_of_Babel_(Vienna)_-_Google_Art_Project_-_edited.jpg

Rethinking where language comes from: Framework reveals complex interplay of biology and culture

A new study challenges the idea that language stems from a single evolutionary root. Instead, it proposes that our ability to communicate evolved through the interaction of biology and culture, and involves multiple capacities, each with different ev…
Max Planck Society (Phys.org)
#books #language #culture #biology
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