How did early humans explain words to each other when they created the first languages?

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I am aware of the fact that humans did understand each other a little bit before the invention of language, but how did they explain complex words? Was the creation of languages like a buildup of words so they start with very simple words and gradually build up so that the rest of the tribe or country or whatever would understand the meaning of the new word easier? Or was it like one big language created at once and everyone just kind of figured out the meaning of the words over time?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Best I could come up with as a theory is that it was simply trial and error and gesture. I think of 2 troglodytes just chilling and one points at a rock and grumbles out “blork” or something, repeatedly. The other would be like “rawp?” And point at it himself. They’d maybe play with the sounds and pronunciation, or fight over it or something until they both eventually came to agree to use the same verbal expression to refer to the agreed upon object. Boom. Word. I’m no anthropologist, but I liked picturing this idea.

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