How was the first language formed?

frantic00/Shutterstock Published: July 21, 2026 2:28am EDT Nine-year-old Eva was watching an episode of the children’s show Horrible Histories about the stone age recently when a question popped into her head. The cave men were speaking a broken form of English, but Eva thought that didn’t sound right and she wondered: how was the first language formed? She joined our host Eloise to get some answers from anthropologist April Nowell on The Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast. In each episode of The Conversation’s Curious Kids, a child joins host Eloise to ask a top researcher their burning question. To listen to season two, follow us wherever you get your podcasts, or listen on the Yoto Player via the Discover section on the Yoto interactive audio platform for kids. You can also listen back to season one and read lots of answers to questions sent in by children around the world in our Curious Kids series. Got a question? Pop it in an email, or record it and send us the audio to curiouskids@theconversation.com. This season of The Conversation’s Curious Kids is supported by the University of Southampton in the UK, a world-leading research-intensive university with a global network of international students and campuses in Malaysia and Delhi. Disclosure statement April Nowell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Credits This episode of The Conversation’s Curious Kids was hosted and mixed by Eloise Stevens. The producer was Katie Flood and the executive producer was Gemma Ware. Credits in this episode to Horrible Histories, Pysched for Nature and Wild Ambience. Want to write? Write an article and join a growing community of more than 229,900 academics and researchers from 5,568 institutions. Register now