CLICK sounds made with the tongue against the teeth may be the earliest form of language.
Alec Knight and Joanna Mountain led a Stanford University team which examined DNA from two peoples who still share the same complex click language despite living thousands of kilometres apart. Genetically, the San of southern Africa and the Hadzabe of eastern Africa parted ways tens of thousands of years ago, the analysis shows (Current Biology, vol 13, p 464). But each group has retained the clicks to the present day, combining them with their respective 鈥渕odern鈥� languages.
鈥淭he best guess is that they split about 50,000 years ago,鈥� says Knight. 鈥淔or them to have invented the same repertoire of clicks and accompanying sounds is not plausible.鈥�
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Knight鈥檚 hunch is that the clicks enabled hunters to confer without disturbing their prey in the open savannah.