My version

> 1 how old is language
> 2 period between speaking -writing
> 3 what factor speed it up
> 4 what is easier make language or learn it.
> 5 single origins? Multiple ?
> 6 speed of spread
> 7 is ancient sounding language ancient
> 8 Is language prone to change? So why is sometime changing so little

1. Language has no beginning - it emerges out of the gestures and
utterances of animals, and in fact, when considered as communication,
extends down into the chemical "languages" of neuropeptides and
pheramones exchanged between insects and even single cells in the
ocean.

2. The first written language appears to have been the memnonic aids
of the Jemdat Nasr period in Southern Iraq, that later grew into
Sumerian cuneiform of the Late Dynastic III period. To give an
origin to the period of the origin of writing may be done as a fairly
arbitrary exercise some time between these two periods. A similar
finding occurs in Egypt between the first recognisable signs of the
Pre-Dynastic period and the full pyramid texts of the reign of Unas
(5th Dynasty).

3. The factor that speeds up the spread of writing is culture contact
with a literate society.

4. Learning a language is an automatic process and occurs as a result
of contact between adult speakers and children, usually before the
age of 12. After this date, acquisiton of a new language is a much
more complicated afair and requires a difficult learning process -
with the result that (unlike children) an accent will continue for a
long time. Inventing a new language by comparison is much more
difficult.

5. All languages (even insect ones) have a single origin, but
diversification occus as a result of geographic spread and mutation
in the signifiers. In languages that are learned culturally (from
the social animals onwards), secondary contacts can lead to
modificaion of signals (in humans - the adoption of new vocabulary),
but the underlying original origins can still be determined. A
possible exception to this is the "bundsprachte" systems where a
group of languages existing in georgraphic proximity begin to
homogenise in grammar and phonemic structure (This seems to have
happened in many Australian Aboriginal languages where
precise "trees" are difficult to determine).

6. Speed of spread of a language is determined by the socio-
political, economic, religious, educational and cultural forces that
propell it. Arab was spread from Spain to the Indus in less than a
century! Other languages spread incredibly slowly.... How long is a
piece of string?

7. There is no such thing as ancient sounding language. Insead each
individual language has evolved from earlier languages, and when
known these languages "sound" ancient to their modern hearer, but to
the people who spoke these languages they were not ancient sounding
at all. Ancientness resides in the ear of the hearer.

8. All languages are prone to change. The rate of change varies
according to a number of factors
- How many speakers are there (small languages can change
significantly faster than big ones)
- How fast is the rate of socio-cultural change (periods of fast
change see the introduction of new vocabularly faster than slow
periods)
- Is a "classic" standard of the language recognised. Languages
based upon an educated "classical" form change slower than those that
are not.

But no matter how much you try you cannot stop the change of a
language.

Hope that helps

Regards

John