ONE OF a Neanderthal baby’s first words was probably “papa”. That’s the conclusion of one of the most comprehensive attempts to date to make out what the first human language was like.
Many of the estimated 6000 languages now spoken share common words and meanings, notably for kin names like “mama” and “papa”. That has led some linguists to suggest that these words have been carried through from humans’ original proto-language, spoken at least 50,000 years ago. But without information on exactly how often these words occur across distantly related languages, there has been little evidence to support that claim.…
