Origin of language in the context of "Gesture"

Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of language, with much disagreement surrounding whether music arose before, after or simultaneously with language. Many theories have been proposed by scholars from a wide range of disciplines, though none has achieved broad approval. Most cultures have their own mythical origins concerning the invention of music, generally rooted in their respective mythological, religious or philosophical beliefs.

The music of prehistoric cultures is first firmly dated to c. 38,000 BC of the Upper Paleolithic by evidence of bone flutes, though it remains unclear whether or not the actual origins lie in the earlier Middle Paleolithic period (300,000 to 50,000 BP). There is little known about prehistoric music, with traces mainly limited to some simple flutes and percussion instruments. However, such evidence indicates that music existed to some extent in prehistoric societies such as the Xia dynasty and the Indus Valley civilisation. Upon the development of writing, the music of literate civilizations—ancient music—was present in the major Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Middle Eastern societies. It is difficult to make many generalizations about ancient music as a whole, but from what is known it was often characterized by monophony and improvisation. In ancient song forms, the texts were closely aligned with music, and though the oldest extant musical notation survives from this period, many texts survive without their accompanying music, such as the Rigveda and the Shijing Classic of Poetry. The eventual emergence of the Silk Road and increasing contact between cultures led to the transmission and exchange of musical ideas, practices, and instruments. Such interaction led to the Tang dynasty's music being heavily influenced by Central Asian traditions, while the Tang dynasty's music, the Japanese gagaku and Korean court music each influenced each other.

The origin of speech differs from the origin of language because language is not necessarily spoken; it could equally be written or signed. Speech is a fundamental aspect of human communication and plays a vital role in the everyday lives of humans. It allows them to convey thoughts, emotions, and ideas, and providing the ability to connect with others and shape collective reality.

Many attempts have been made to explain scientifically how speech emerged in humans, although to date no theory has generated agreement.

Evolutionary linguistics or Darwinian linguistics is a sociobiological approach to the study of language. Evolutionary linguists consider linguistics as a subfield of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. The approach is also closely linked with evolutionary anthropology, cognitive linguistics and biolinguistics. Studying languages as the products of nature, it is interested in the biological origin and development of language. Evolutionary linguistics is contrasted with humanistic approaches, especially structural linguistics.

A main challenge in this research is the lack of empirical data: there are no archaeological traces of early human language. Computational biological modelling and clinical research with artificial languages have been employed to fill in gaps of knowledge. Although biology is understood to shape the brain, which processes language, there is no clear link between biology and specific human language structures or linguistic universals.

Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A synchronic approach – from Ancient Greek: συν- ("together") + χρόνος ("time") – considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. In contrast, a diachronic – from δια- ("through, across") + χρόνος ("time") – approach, as in historical linguistics, considers the development and evolution of a language through history.

For example, a synchronic study of Middle English would focus on understanding how the language functioned at a given stage in its history. A diachronic approach, by contrast, studies language change by comparing different stages at different historical periods. The terms synchrony and diachrony are often associated with the historical linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who considered the synchronic perspective as systematic but argued that language change is too unpredictable to be considered a system.

The Etsakọ people are the major ethnic group in the northern region of Edo State, Nigeria. They are historically linked to the ancient Benin Kingdom and are part of the Edo linguistic family. Administratively, they presently occupy three Local Government Areas of Edo State. These are: Etsako East, Etsako West and Etsako Central, with Agenebode, Auchi, and Fugar as their administrative headquarters respectively.

The Etsako, Owan, and Akoko-Edo people are often collectively referred to as the Afenmai people that are indigenous to Edo North senatorial district. Afenmai is a land of brave warriors, renown civil leaders, fearless and industrious men and women, occupying the sprawling hills and beautiful valleys of Northern Edo state. The people were derogatorily tagged Kukuruku people by the invading European colonialist, in memory of the rallying "battle cry" code-sound of the people during wars. The Afenmai people have closely-knitted linguistic, cultural and historical relationships. The local tradition of origin traces their migration from Benin, which many oral traditionalists attribute probably to have happened around the 14th century. It is believed their ancestors settled in south Ibie before groups started moving to populate the other area they occupied like the Weppa Wanno lands, Okpella land, Uzairue, etc.