Does language make us uniquely human? | Ray Tallis, Joanna Kavenna and Jennifer Ackerman
Philosophy For Our Times
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Human Language Is Unique
We don't have evidence for symbolic communication in other species that's as rich and multifunctional as our language. We share features not because they evolved in a shared common ancestor 300 million years ago, but because of convergent evolution. And we've come to understand that birds learn their songs the way tha we learn language, through vocal learning. Birds and humans converged on strategies and similar neuronal pathways and gen because these are good and effective mechanisms for learning sophisticated communication. So in short, birds may have forms of communication that hold more meaning and subtle language like qualities than we ever imagined.
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