From gestures to speech

When we speak or listen, our brain has a lot to do. It has to process the linguistic signals. Gestures and symbols are linguistic signals too. They existed even before human speech. Some symbols are understood in all cultures. Others have to be learned. They can't be understood just by looking at them. Gestures and symbols are processed like speech. And they are processed in the same area of the brain! A new study has proven this. Researchers tested several test subjects. These test subjects had to view various video clips. While they were watching the clips, their brain activity was measured. In one group, the clips expressed various things. These occurred through movements, symbols and speech. The other test group watched different video clips. These videos were nonsense clips. Speech, gestures and symbols didn't exist. They had no meaning. In the measurements, the researchers saw what was processed where. They could compare the brain activity of the test subjects. Everything that had meaning was analyzed in the same area. The results of this experiment are very interesting. They show how our brain has learned language over time. At first, man communicated with gestures. Later he developed a language. The brain had to learn, therefore, to process speech like gestures. And evidently it simply updated the old version …

Guess the language!

______ is counted among the Eastern *****ce languages. It is the native language of about 30 million people. These people live primarily in ******* and Moldova. ______ is also the official language of the Republic of Moldova. There are also sizeable ______-speaking communities in Serbia and Ukraine, however. ______ originated from Latin. The *****s formerly maintained two provinces in the region surrounding the Danube. ______ is most closely related to Italian.

Therefore, ______s can understand Italians very well for the most part. The opposite is not always the case. This is due to the fact that ______ contains many Slavic words. The phonology was influenced by the neighboring Slavic linguistic area. As a result, the ______ alphabet has a few special symbols. ______ is written like it is spoken. And it still exhibits many similarities with the structure of ancient Latin … That is precisely what makes the discovery of this language so exciting!