eli5 How did “words” come to be before any language was developed? Like before words existed how did a group of people just collectively decide a banana is a banana and not a “ksirjrnwpx”

Question

eli5 How did “words” come to be before any language was developed? Like before words existed how did a group of people just collectively decide a banana is a banana and not a “ksirjrnwpx”

In: 11

Answer 1

I don’t know, but take your answers with a grain of salt. We’re talking about prehistoric events here. I’m sure there are interesting theories, but no one can know for sure about human activity that happened millennia before humans could even write anything down.

At least, that’s my layman’s assumption. Maybe someone smarter than me will give you a good answer.