When did speech become language? Experts differ with each other, setting the time span as wide as fifty thousand to two hundred thousand years ago. Some of them, notably Noam Chomsky argued that human beings have a syntactic circuitry hard-wired into their brain from birth ("Aspects of the Theory of Syntax",1965) and they just adapt to the language they are born into. A natural conclusion that follows is language had never been speech. I do not intend to debate his views, or any of the numerous theories that stand today. In my view, speech continues to evolve into language every day and it will continue to do so as long as anybody speaks.
Language is not merely about communication, but also about miscommunication. In fact, it is the necessity of lying that leads to evolution of speech into language. Lying requires finesse and a certain degree of manipulation of spoken sounds so that fact can be disguised. Speech cannot deliver anything else than the archetypal meaning of a communicable syntax. Language, on the other hand, relies on the difference of connotation every time a communication is intended. For example, every time the word 'beauty' is spoken it carries a different connotation. Even if the word is recorded and played over a thousand times, it will become a different word depending on when it is played, where it is played and other factors of micro-environmental geometry.
Children lack the evolution of speech into language. So they are less adept at lying. As soon as they start learning their native language they understand that lying is inevitable. Initially, their attempts fail, not only due to inexperience with language, but also due to their inability to suppress guilt. They learn this essential skill by first imitating their parents, and then improvising by themselves. They also learn to suppress their guilt, which is of course, a more subconscious process.
As the child grows, it becomes a more efficient lier. After it faces its first challenges in school and learns to cope with success and failure, the inextricable relationship between success and the art of lying becomes apparent. To succeed, one has to lie. It is the ability to lie, the ability to turn language into a complex weapon, determines success in social context.
So, as we vie everyday for socio-psychological selection, akin to the process of Darwinian selection, our speech evolves into language, language into poetry and poetry into meaninglessness. We are hemmed in by our own web of lies and we cannot find a way out. Finally, we retire into amnesia. Our repertoire of the essential art of lying degenerates into mere neologisms. Speech became language and now language becomes speech.
