From Ros Groves, Watford, Hertfordshire, UK
Here is another idea about how language arose. As pitch-based communication is widespread among non-human animals, could language have developed from similar-pitched Tarzan-like calls specific to a tribe, by which they could identify its members? As we became more complex, a wider repertoire of melodic vocalisations was needed. Pitched sounds could then have been differentiated more acutely through their combination with consonant- and vowel-type inflections. Over time, the need to communicate both more quickly and more intricately could have evolved into an advancing rapidity of pitch change, with vowel and consonant sounds dominating. This developed into something more like language as it is now(28 June, p 31).
