content: Very nice, a linguistics person, just what I was looking for.  So, from my armchair, I've always thought that "of course humans share a common language!" and my reasoning is short, but sweet:  A baby's cry A gasp A chuckle, chortle, or laugh A sneeze, a hiccup, a snort Sobbing, hurling, moaning The sound of chewing.  Well, you get the idea.  These are noises that everyone makes regardless of culture, they are universal to humans (and they extend to many mammals, so that's cool!).  Things like this are likely the source of language as they all communicate something that is happening in a way that everyone recognizes.  It's on account of our shared biology. And of course it's not limited to audible cues.  A wince, a smile, dirty looks, you get the idea. Now, these are not some atomic building blocks from which all grammars derive - like ::cough:: ::cough:: ::exhale:: ::spit:: meaning "I am in great pain, please help me ".  They are the calibration points that allow us to establish a baseline of understanding between two people.  When we experience something happening to or within ourselves, it allows us to recognize it when it happens in someone else (or if we have never experience the thing within ourselves, when we observe it in someone else, it may be distressing because it is unknown - even a child can recognize something is wrong with a stumbling drunk person, for example.) From birth, we are exposed to all kinds of sensory input, but these baselines allow our brains' neural networks to orient themselves.  Every moment of our life, our brain is recalibrating that network with the latest input.  One generation of networks passes its inputs onto another and eventually you end up with something like English. So my question to you is how stupid are these ideas within the realm of Linguistics and where can I go to read more about how stupid they are?