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I fully agree that women are considerably more proficient in
the use of language, and that one reason for that is indeed
perhaps that hunting and stalking requires quietness and patience.
Another factor perhaps is, that although hierarchies exist in
both gender groups, arguments about who has the say are much more
detrimental in hunting and domain-defence than in foraging and
child-care. So here too, it seems important for men to learn to
hold their tongue until the opportunity comes when it is safe to
speak out.
Nevertheless, I don't think this has any bearing upon which
of the two genders started it all. I think that human social
behaviour, insofar as it differs in principle from the animal,
was first learned in child sibling hierarchies resulting from
over-long childhood. Human language, insofar as it differs in
principle from animal signalization, must too then, have begun
among children. As a woman would give birth again long before
her previous child(ren) reach(es) adulthood, the ratio of
number of children to number of women is too high for women
alone to care after the children, and sibling hierarchies
must take over part of the chores.
I think therefore, that youth slang and the tendency among
children to form Pig-Latin-style secret language are attavisms
of an early state, when children started modifying vocal
signalization in a social organisatorial context (animal
social structure is taxonomically invariant, in humans it
is culturally variable).
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