Being able to communicate with each other is a skill often taken for granted. Take going abroad for example. With 62% of Brits only speaking English, many have an expectation that others will be able to speak our language, however, when this is not the case, we are left miming and shouting and pointing, all to no avail. This situation is pertinent because it brings to light the importance language has over our ability to communicate.

The origins of human speech are much contested and to this day remain relatively unknown, as do the origins of language. Some believe that these changes were genetic whilst other believe they were cultural. Either way, language has changed dramatically over time. For instance, if you pick up Romeo and Juliet you'll see how different language was just 400 years ago, let alone the thousands of years humans have been communicating with each other.

However, despite its enigmatic origins, we can trace the histories of individual languages. For example, English is a West Germanic language, but, having been invaded by the Romans and the Normans, many English words have been derived from Latin and French. From the Latin word magna, meaning large, we get words such as magnify, magnitude and magnificent.

English doesn't only have words derived from other languages, it also has many borrowed words: "alfresco"-Italian, "au naturel" -French, "wok" -Chinese, "emoji" -Japanese, "bungalow" -Hindu and Urdu, "bagel" -Yiddish, "meerkat" -Afrikaans and "afficionado" -Spanish. From this we can see that whilst the origins of human speech remain undetermined, language is shared and spread; constantly growing and evolving.

No matter whether or not we can understand language and speech they remain indisputably important. In a world where international messaging is commonplace, communication and language have never been evolving faster than they are is now. So, who knows what they will look like in the future?