Category Communication

The first men probably started using grunts and other sounds to communicate with each other. Gradually, specific sounds began to be used to denote specific things or actions. As man evolved, his brain became larger. The first time this happened was about 1.8 million years ago. He was now able to use two or three words to express himself. However, in this early form of language, there was no grammar or syntax.  About 500,000 years ago, another step in the evolution of man took place, and man’s brain became even larger. This enables him to remember more words, and also to develop some form of grammar with which these words were to be used. This was the beginning of human language as we know it

Have you heard a baby trying to speak? It just makes noises that sound like ‘goo’ and ‘gaa’. Well, the very first sounds made by early man were probably similar to the sounds made by babies!Human beings probably learned to make sounds by imitating animals. This sound making ability was then passed on from parent to child by mothers making soothing sounds to their babies. Babies learned to repeat those sounds, which sound just like grunts and gurgles to us.Gradually, certain sounds developed into specific meanings to those using them. Over hundreds, and perhaps thousands of years, man developed the ability to communicate through recognizable noise… and ‘speech’ as we know it today became the first form of communication between human beings

Predicting the future may sound like fun, but it is quite a risky business. Many of the predictions made in the middle of the last century about what life would be like today have not come true. At the same time, many things that were not predicted have happened! Could anyone have imagined in 1940 that mobile phones would spread like cobwebs all over the world  . One thing we can be sure though… the future will be different from what we see today. Air travel will probably be the most usual mode of travel for the common man. We will live in ‘Smart Homes’ with appliances that think and anticipate our needs… and may be evenGoing for holidays to other planets!  Electronic paper, home newspapers, wrist phones, holograms movies, pocket sized televisions, wall sized TV screens, interplanetary chats… the possibilities for the future of communications are mind boggling

It requires a lot of skill for a puny man to control a mammoth elephant. Mahouts have learned the skill to make the elephants do his bidding by uttering a command or by a gentle prod with his hands or legs. A rained elephant will turn to the left, when the mahout prods him gently with the toe of his right leg. If the repeats this manoeuvre with his left leg, prodding it to turn right, then the elephant will turn right. If he uses both his big toes to prod the elephant forward, then it moves forward. If the bottom portion of his bare leg is pressed backwards, the elephant takes it as an instruction to move backwards.Mahouts use about 20 words to give commands; they are a mixture of English, Urdu and Malayalam. Lots of elephants are brought from Bihar; they prefer their mahouts to talk to them in the national language-Hindi

 An alarm clock is something that helps you wake up in the mornings, but an alarm call by animals means something quite different! It is a sound made by animals when they sense danger and want to warn others of it. Birds have loud alarm calls that warn other birds that an enemy is near. Different species have different alarm calls, but the meaning of all calls is clear-WATCH OUT! DANGER!’

When you think of frogs, the word ‘croak’ comes to mind. Well, the Malaysian Tree frog is a very smart frog. It knows that in the noisy rainforest of Malaysia, its croaks will not be heard above the calls, shrieks and hoots of other animals.So what does the female tree frog do when it wants to attract a male? She taps with her toes on the leaves of a tree. The vibration is too delicate for human’s man to feel or hear. The male frog though, can feel the taps. He knows that the female is trying to attract him. The male frog will come rushing towards her.  The beating of feet by the female tree frog is, therefore, an important form of communication that is necessary to ensure reproduction.