Question: where did all the languages in the world come from

title: Origin of language
text: In one particular study , rats and pigeons were required to press a button a certain number of times to get food . The animals showed very accurate distinction for numbers less than four , but as the numbers increased , the error rate increased . Matsuzawa ( 1985 ) attempted to teach chimpanzees Arabic numerals . The difference between primates and humans in this regard was very large , as it took the chimps thousands of trials to learn 1 -- 9 with each number requiring a similar amount of training time ; yet , after learning the meaning of 1 , 2 and 3 ( and sometimes 4 ) , children easily comprehend the value of greater integers by using a successor function ( i.e. 2 is 1 greater than 1 , 3 is 1 greater than 2 , 4 is 1 greater than 3 ; once 4 is reached it seems most children have an `` a-ha ! '' moment and understand that the value of any integer n is 1 greater than the previous integer ) . Put simply , other primates learn the meaning of numbers one by one , similar to their approach to other referential symbols , while children first learn an arbitrary list of symbols ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ... ) and then later learn their precise meanings . These results can be seen as evidence for the application of the `` open - ended generative property '' of language in human numeral cognition .