Word Origin & History -

communication

c.1384, from O.Fr. communicacion, from L. communicationem (nom. communicatio), from communicare "to impart, share," lit. "to make common," from communis (see common).

History of communication -

If we take a look at recorded history, we will know that early humans had very limited vocabulary. In fact, early humans (and apes) used different simple sounds to communicate. There was possibly not much to differentiate between humans and apes in this respect. The number of different sounds were also limited, but this was sufficient.

Communication was the manifestation of emotion if the form of sound and/or body posture. The range of emotions were simple such as, hunger, anger, protection, possession, tired, happy, love, etc. and so there were corresponding sounds and gestures or a combination of both to express such. It was simple, but effective. Minimal, but sufficient.

As humans evolved, the sounds became more and more sophisticated and refined. So much so, that different languages with multiple dialects and localisation evolved. Today, there are between 5,000 and 10,000 languages and some 40,000 dialects in a world that consists of a little more than 6 billion human beings.

Why then did so many different languages and dialects evolve? Was there any need for such?

My understanding is that each and every human being believes that (s)he is unique and different from the rest. And by the same reasoning, each tribe, race, society and nation. It was for the need to be unique from the rest that languages as we know them evolved. Also, along with the need for identity, it became necessary for each tribe, race, society to have different languages - it served the purpose of 1) uniquely identifying the tribe and 2) prevent other tribes from understanding their communication.

Another reason is that as human beings evolved, in their quest to communicate more precisely and to quantify/qualify the finer distinctions / meanings of the base word, synonyms and other words got created. For example, hungry would mean requirement for food which further meant either hunt or harvest. Today, hungry does mean food, but it does not necessarily necessitate hunting or harvesting. Food could be in the form of a snack, a meal, a desert, etc. It is this need to distinguish human feelings, that there are so many words in the dictionary, irrespective of language.

And, as language becomes more and more complex (similar way humans are becoming complicated), the possibility of misunderstanding / miscommunication keeps increasing.

Nature -

Is nature silent? Does it communicate? To most of us nature would seem to be “a silent spectator”, but is it really? Imagine Earth without a single human being. Imagine what it would be. Most of would say “Earth would be like an open air zoo”. Few would realise that Earth then would be simple “Natural”, there would be nothing artificial in it – no plastic, synthetic chemicals etc. All of nature would be co-existing in harmony and peace.

Harmony and peace? Is a lion hunting deer and killing it defines peace and harmony? Yes, it does, keeps the food chain in balance and the very existence of nature depends on this. Once, the lion has fed, the rest of the deer may graze right next to the lion without fear of being killed. That is harmony and that is also peace.

Now introduce into this paradise, the human race. Will there be harmony and peace? A look at the daily news would be fair indication.

I rest my case in SILENCE.