A Grand Question: How Did Language Evolve?

[Robert_Byers]

Language is about tones. Thge special cases of sign language miss the greater issue here.
is not about abstraction of reality. Why put it that way.
Its just dumb sounds in combinations that have been agreed upon/memorized for meaning.
Its human thoughts that is the glory of communication. otherwise we are parrots.

[T_aquaticus]

@Robert_Byers

Language is about tones. Thge special cases of sign language miss the greater issue here.

The greater issue is that language doesn’t require sound. Otherwise, how could you read?

@Robert_Byers

is not about abstraction of reality. Why put it that way.

I put it that way because that is how language works. The word “sky” is an abstraction. It is a group of letters that abstractly represents the atmosphere above us.

Object abstraction, or simply abstraction , is a concept wherein terms for objects become used for more abstract concepts, which in some languages develop into further abstractions such as verbs and grammatical words (grammaticalisation). Abstraction is common in human language, though it manifests in different ways for different languages. In language acquisition, children typically learn object words first, and then develop from that vocabulary an understanding of the alternate uses of such words.
Abstraction (linguistics) - Wikipedia

@Robert_Byers

Its just dumb sounds in combinations that have been agreed upon/memorized for meaning.
Its human thoughts that is the glory of communication. otherwise we are parrots.

What you are describing is abstraction.