What If the evolution of human language began to
shift radically -

shift in such as a way that meaning becomes -

- less dependent on the actual words we speak, and

- progressively more dependent on HOW we say
those words, on intonation and gesture

that is, language evolves in such a way that
meaning is conveyed by the movements of our
bodies and the pitch of our voices; with our actual
words having little importance

in time, fewer and fewer words would be needed;
and our vocabulary would shrink drastically

long ago, Mandarin Chinese began to evolve in
this manner; and now a single word can convey
multiple meanings -

Mandarin, a tone language.
In tone languages, a single word can differ in meaning depending on pitch patterns called "tones." For example, the Mandarin word "mi" delivered in a level tone means "to squint," in a rising tone means "to bewilder," and in a dipping (falling then rising) tone means "rice."
-www.edu-cyberpg.com

perhaps in our distant future, the English language
will have evolved into a tone language; a language
so radically different than our own as to be virtually
incomprehensible to 21st century English speakers

perhaps the situation would look something like this