Joseph Greenberg, “The Languages of Africa”, 1963.

Morris’ Swadesh, “The Origin and Diversification of Language”, 1968 was the topic of an earlier blog post.

Richard Wrangham, ”Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human”, 2009 also was the topic of an earlier blog post.

Here I present: Joseph Greenberg, “The Languages of Africa”, 1963.

Joseph Greenberg, “The Languages of Africa”, 1963 was the first grouping of African languages in four (4) phylums: 1. Afro-Asiatic, 2. Nilo-Saharan, 3. Niger-Congo & 4. Khoisan (shown BELOW). The grouping are the origin of the species Homo sapien.

Here I presented: Joseph Greenberg, “The Languages of Africa”, 1963.

HYPOTHESIS:

I wish to put forth the hypothesis: that “lip-reading” occurred in the African River Civilizations; before, “written-reading” occurred in the Tigris-Euphrates River Civilization or the Huang-Yangtze River Civilization.

The anatomical prerequisite of Fusiform Gyrus function is obvious temporal requirement of language learning by a species. This temporal requirement occurred in Homo sapiens; but, Homo erectus or Homo neanderthalensis is doubtful.

Prehistory
is a timeline that begins with a genus of Homo that utilizes fire for cooking, farmed foods.

The agricultural settlements along rivers for planters & herdsmen working alongside fishermen & boatmen has been speculated by Richard Wrangham.

Language learning is what makes you human; and, lip-reading of what is written on your face, requires Fusiform Gyrus function.