Did language originate with the Homo Sapiens or did the Neanderthal have a language of his own? This article from current biology claims that Neanderthal man shared a gene that also appears in sub species of the homo sapien right down to modern man. FOXP2.

We do know that we can break up languages into Tonal (pitch affects language) and Non Tonal types. Now scientists are begining to ask if languages and the learning of them have a genetic basis. Read about it here.