How did we go from grunts and “ooh”s and “ah”s to complex modern languages? And why haven’t other animals done the same?
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Sounds like “ooh” and “eeh” are really just expulsions of air and probably originated from being startled or excited, without much meaning. Going from a simple “ooh” to a more deliberate “ah ah!” required a leap into cognition and pre-conceptualization that likely required many generations of evolution and development.
But all of these sounds still derive from natural breathy sounds, or aspirates. It took far longer for more complex alveolar sounds to emerge such as “ting” or “tang” to develop, and these likely were first used imitatively from sounds heard in the environment.
The last great leap occurred when wholly original noises emerged that were neither imitations of environmental noises co-opted for use nor adaptations and elaborations of normal respiratory noises. At this point complex innovative sounds like “walla walla” and “bing bang” began the long process of true linguistic development that continues in modern language today.
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