原始人類語言

原始人類語言，又名原世界语，是一个假设於世界上存在的語言，並且是所有语言的最近共同祖先原始语，也是一个古老的原始语。

原始人類語言假設现今所有的现代语言，包括现代的语系和已消亡语言，皆起源於單一的一種语言。這種語言，被認為是人類的祖先當仍在東非時所使用的語言。尽管有无数的尝试，但是语言学家得出一些结论既，復原该语言的方法是可疑的，並且如果真有原世界语的话，原世界语也不太可能被復原。從近年對尼安德特人化石的研究，認為他們很可能亦有語言的能力，「原始人類語言」是否包含尼安德特人的語言亦變成了爭議之一。假若尼安德特人亦有其語言，有可能表明原先的單一語言假設的錯誤，但亦可能暗示人類的語言跟尼安德特人的語言還有一個更早期的祖先。

根據人類的發展歷史，語言學家推斷原始人類語言通行於約20萬到5萬年前。

參考文獻

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外部連結

• Genetic Distance and Language Affinities
• Babaev, Kirill. 2008. "Critics of the Nostratic theory", in Nostratica: Resources on Distant Language Relationship.