Most researchers believe that the origins of human language are found in Africa, in particular the south-west part of the continent. But a new study from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) in Germany counters this belief, claiming there is not enough data to support the ‘out of Africa’ hypothesis. The research is backed by the QUANTHISTLING (‘Quantitative modelling of historical-comparative linguistics’) project, which is funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant worth EUR 1.93 million as part of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The findings of the study, presented in the journal Science, indicate that the search for the site of the origin of language is still on. More.

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