Currently, scientists have more than four thousand languages, although there are no more than two hundred countries on Earth. Science is faced with a serious question about the causes and mechanisms of the appearance of speech, which laid the foundation for many different theories, from evolutionary to theological. But there is only one reason for the emergence of such a large number of languages - territorial.
According to the biblical legend, there was a single language throughout the earth. But as punishment for people's attempts to build a tower with a height to heaven, God made it so that the speech of one was incomprehensible to another (Old Testament, Book of Genesis, Ch. 11). Historical linguistics also does not exclude the possibility of the existence of a single proto-language, according to various sources from 50 to 100 thousand years ago. The main argument of scientists is that all languages of the world are built according to some universal laws, have similar patterns at their basis. And the determined time coincides with the lifetime of homo sapiens. This means that it is a reasonable person who is credited with mastering speech. The ability to communicate, negotiate was one of the advantages that the Cro-Magnon, for example, did not have. A person masters speech in the learning process, thanks to the mechanism of imitation and the ability to observe. But it is believed that speech did not arise due to intelligence, but on the contrary, intelligence develops as a result of the use of language. At first, scientists were interested in why people speak at all, because in animals all communication is carried out through sounds that are mastered at an instinctive level. Research has not yet led to clear answers. Therefore, the question of the reasons for the disintegration of languages is preceded by the question of the time of the origin of the proto-language. The time of the beginning of human migration from Africa is about 100,000 years ago, and the end of dispersal on the Earth - 10,000 years BC. From these figures, two theories arose: either the language was already formed 100,000 years ago, and further, as a person settled, in different areas under the influence of different conditions, it developed and modified. The second theory believes that languages appeared after human settlement, their appearance is focal, arising simultaneously in different places of the world. That is, in any case, regardless of whether there was a proto-language, the existence of many languages is explained by the dispersal of people around the globe, their isolation and the independent development of each language group.
