The Origins

of Language
 CONTENTS :

1/ INTRODUCTION
Divine sources

THE ORIGINS 2/ Theories about

origin
OF
3/ Physical adaption

LANGUAGE 4/ Tool making

source

Conlusion
 The
Divine
Source
 Divine Source
Biblical Source
In the book of Genesis, God created Adam and
“whatsoever Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof.”
Hindu Tradition
Language came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma,
creator of the universe.
Basic assumption of Divine Source
Theory
 Ifhuman infants were allowed to grow up
without hearing any language around them,
then they would spontaneously begin using
the original God-given language.
 Story of an Egyptian Pharaoh
 The Greek writer Herodotus reported the story of an Egyptian pharaoh named
Psammetichus (or Psamtik) who tried the experiment with two newborn babies more
than 2,500 years ago. After two years of isolation except for the company of goats and a
mute shepherd, the children were reported to have spontaneously uttered, not an
Egyptian word, but something that was identified as the Phrygian word bekos,meaning
bread.” The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian, an older language spoken in part of what
Is modern Turkey, must be the original language. That seems very unlikely. The children
may not have picked up this “word” from any human source, but as several commenta-
tors have pointed out, they must have heard what the goats were saying. (First remove
the -kos ending, which was added in the Greek version of the story, then pronounce be-
as you would the English word bed without -d at the end. Can you hear a goat?)
 King James’ experiment
 KingJames the Fourth of Scotland carried out
a similar experiment around the year 1500
and the children were reported to have
spontaneously started speaking Hebrew,
confirming the King’s belief that Hebrew had
indeed been the language of the Garden of
Eden.
 The natural
sound source
 Some Theories

 Natural evolution
Invention/imitation hypotheses:
“ding-dong” hypothesis
“pooh-pooh” hypothesis
“bow-wow” hypothesis
“ta-ta” hypothesis
 Necessity Theories of
Language Invention

• Warning hypothesis
•“yo-he-ho” hypothesis
• Lying hypothesis
 Natural Evolution Hypothesis
 Humans evolved a Language Acquisition Device . The simple
vocalizations and gestures inherited from our primitive ancestors
quickly gave way to a creative system of language – perhaps in a
single generation or two due to a genetic mutation that produced
advantageous results.
 One theory suggests this perhaps gave Homo sapiens an
advantage over Homo neatherthal is, whose vocalizations were
limited by a less developed vocal tract. Studies of Neanderthal
skulls indicate that they were only able to produce fricative
sounds, like /f/ and /v/.
 “Homo loquens” – the speaking human!
Invention Hypotheses (Ding Dong)
 “Ding-Dong” – humans named objects, actions and
phenomena after a recognizable sound associated
with it. The first human words were a type of ICON,
a sign whose form is an exact image of its meaning:
Boom = explosion (English)
Tun-tun = heart (Chinook Indian)
Ai-ai = knife (Basque, literally “ouch-ouch”)
2. The natural sound source
 Invention Hypotheses (Pooh – Pooh)
 “pooh-pooh” Hypothesis: humans’ first words were derived
from spontaneous expressions of dislike, hunger, pain, or
pleasure.
 Ha-ha-ha, wah-wah
 Problems: Very small part of any language.
 Differ from language to language:
English ouch; Russian oi; Cherokee eee, Basque ai
Made with intake of breath, which is the opposite of normal
talking.
Invention Hypotheses
 Renditions of animal sounds differ considerably from language
to language, even though the animal makes essentially the
same sound:
 Dog: bow-wow; Chinese wu-wu; Jap. wan-wan; Russian gaf-gaf
or tyaff-tyaff
 Cat: meow; Russian myaoo; Chinese mao; Japanese nya-nya
 Rooster: cocka-doodle-do; Japanese kokekoko; Greek kikuriku,
kikikiriki
 PROBLEM: Where do names for natural noiseless concepts come
from: rock, sun, sky, love????
The basic assumption(Bow-wow)
 The primitive sounds have been imitations of the natural sounds which
early men and women heard around them.
 When an object flew by , making a caw-caw sound, the early human tried
to imitate the sound and used it to refer to the thing associated with the
sound.
 Similarly by hearing coo-coo sound the early man might have identified
the bird with sound.
 The fact that all modern languages have some words with pronunciations
that seem to echo naturally occurring sounds could be used to support this
theory.
 The words like cuckoo, splash, bang , boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech
and forms such as bow-wow.
Bow-Wow theory of language

This view of language origin has

been called the “ Bow-wow
theory.
This theory is only acceptable in regard to
onomatopoeic words. While we know that
not all the words are onomatopoeic.
This theory does not explain the origin of
abstract word in language.
Thefunction of language is not just to
name the words.
 Natural Cries of emotion

Another theory suggests that the

original sounds of language may
have come from natural cries of
emotion such as pain, anger and
joy.
The theory can be refuted on the following
grounds:
 But Ouch! and other interjections such as
Ah!,Ooh!,Wow! or Yuck!, are usually produced with
sudden intakes of breath, which is the opposite of
ordinary talk. We normally produce spoken language
on exhaled breath.
 Basically,
the expressive noises people make in
emotional reactions contain sounds that are not
otherwise used in speech production and
consequently would seem to be rather unlikely
candidates as source sounds for language
Invention Hypotheses (ta-ta)
 “ta-ta” Hypothesis. Charles Darwin theorized that speech may
have developed as a sort of mouth pantomime – the organs of
speech were used to imitate the gestures of the hand. The first
words were lip icons of hand gestures.
 Same problem as for onomatopoeia – different gestures in
different cultures: crossing fingers for good luck in English
versus Russian “fig” gesture; nodding “no” in Greek versus “yes”
in English
 Even Darwin himself thought this was a little implausible.
 Necessity Hypotheses

 Necessity is the mother of invention”

 Warning Hypothesis. Language evolved from the
warning signals used by animals. Perhaps language
started with a warning sound to others, that
signified “HELP!” or “RUN!” to alert other members
to the approach of a lumbering hairy mammoth or
hungry saber-tooth tiger.
 Other first words could have been hunting
instructions.
 Necessity Hypotheses
 The “Lying” Hypothesis: Sturtevant argued that since
all our real intentions or emotions get involuntarily
expressed by gesture, look, or sound, voluntary
communication must have been invented in order to lie
or deceive. He believed that the need to deceive and
lie – to use language in contrast to reality for selfish
ends – was the social prompting that got language
started.
 Seems pretty far-fetched.
Yo-he-ho theory
 Another proposal involving natural sound
has been called the “ yo-he-ho” theory. The
idea is that the sounds of a person involved
in physical effort could be the source our
language, especially when that physical
effort involved several people and the
interaction had to be coordinated.
So, a group of early humans might have
developed a set of hums, grunts,
groans and curses that were used when
they were lifting and carrying large bits
of trees or lifeless hairy mammoths.
Primitive man hunting a mammoth
Appeal of the theory
 Theappeal of this theory lies in its emphasis on
social context.
 Languagewe know is a social phenomenon and it
must have been originated in groups.
 Earlypeople must have lived in groups, if only
because larger groups offered better protection
from attack. Groups are necessarily social
organizations and ,to maintain those
organizations, some form of communication is
required, even if it is just grunts and curses.
Weaker point of the theory

 Butthe theory does not fully answer

our question as we see same kind of
sounds produced by different animals
but these grunts and groans do not
develop into a fully fledged
communicative language.
The Real Reason For Language
The Physical
Adaptation
Source
Basic Assumption
Physical features humans
possess, especially those that are
distinct from other creatures,
may have been able to support
speech production.
 Bipedalism
 our ancestors made a very significant transition to
an upright posture, with bipedal (on two feet)
locomotion, and a revised role for the front limbs.
Neanderthal Man
4. The physical adaptation source
Human vs Neanderthal
(Evidence of vocal tract)
The reconstructed vocal tract
of a Neanderthal suggests that
some consonant-like sound
distinctions would have been
possible.
 In the study of evolutionary development, there
are certain physical features, best thought of as
partial adaptations, which appear to be relevant
for speech. They are streamlined versions of
features found in other primates. By themselves,
such features would not necessarily lead to
speech production, but they are good clues that a
creature possessing such features probably has
the capacity for speech.
Teeth

 Human teeth are upright, not slanting outwards like those of apes, and they
are roughly even in height. Such characteristics are not very useful for ripping
or tearing food and seem better adapted for grinding and chewing. They are
also very helpful in making sounds such as f or v.
Lips, Mouth and Tongue
 Human lips have more intricate muscle
interlacing than is found in other primates
and their resulting flexibility certainly helps
in making sounds like p or b.
 The human mouth is relatively small
compared to other primates, can be opened
and closed rapidly, and contains a smaller,
thicker and more muscular tongue which can
be used to shape a wide variety of sounds
inside the oral cavity.
 In addition, unlike other primates, humans can
close off the airway through the nose to create
more air pressure in the mouth. The overall effect
of these small differences taken together is a face
with more intricate muscle interlacing in the lips
and mouth, capable of a wider range of shapes
and a more rapid and powerful delivery of sounds
produced through these different shapes.
The tool-making
source
 Other Sources of Language
 The tool-making source: As early humans’ hands
became occupied with tool use, they were less able to
use hand gestures, so speech became a necessity
 Preferential right-handedness
 Lateralized
brain: each hemisphere of brain has its
own functions alternatively
 Speechand tool-making abilities are very close to
one another in the left hemisphere
 Other Sources of Language
 The Genetic Source: a crucial genetic mutation arose which
gave humans the unique ability to produce and understand
language. This means that language is
 Innate
 Hard-wired like in a computer
 Pre-programmed
 Universal in form
 The innateness hypothesis states that language is endemic to all
humans.
 Hypotheses Regarding Language Diversity

 Was there one or more than one original

language?
Was there one or more than one “invention” of
language?
There are approximately 6,300 languages spoken on
earth now, and an even greater number spoken in the
past
 Latin Roman

6
Primative German
languages
Beltic

Indian
Celtic Iranian
 Linguistic Diversity
 Early humans first appeared 150,00 years ago
 Language first appeared 50,000 years ago
 Language is a relatively recent phenomena
 All of the original first languages have disappeared
 Many more languages were spoken in the past
because humans lived in small tribes (lots of different
languages) rather than in large states (with one
common language)
 Linguistic Diversity
 Monogenesis: mono = “one”
genesis = “birth”
There was a single, original language spoken by a single group of
Homo sapiens as early as 50,000 years ago which gave rise to
all human languages spoken on earth today.
The Mother Tongue Hypothesis – this original language diverged
through time and distance to form many different languages.
All of today’s languages descended from this one language.
Out of Africa Theory – General theory of human origin arising in
Africa; language may have arisen here as well.
 Linguistic Diversity

 Polygenesis: poly = “many”

genesis = “birth”
The Candelabra Hypothesis:
The hypothesis of parallel evolution of language in
more than one place and by more than one group
of Homo sapiens. Each of these languages would
have diverged into many forms.
The major language groups of today would be
descended from these separate mother tongues.
Comparative and Anthropological Linguistics

 Comparative linguists try to trace the original mother

tongue (or tongues). Scholars compare modern
languages and try to reconstruct ancient ones.
 Anthropological linguists see language as a window
into the past. Language changes much more slowly
than the environment in which it is spoken, so you can
learn a lot about the cultural history of the people who
speak a language.
 The origin of language
Theories Characteristics Criticism Development
The divine source Suddenly
(monogenetic)

The natural sound source Existence of onomatopoeia Soundless things and Gradually
(bow-wow/pooh-pooh) abstract concepts
Produced with intake of
breath
The social interaction Early humans lived in Other primates also live in Gradually
source (yo-he-ho) groups groups and use grunts

The physical adaptation There’s evidence for the These changes would not Gradually
source (teeth, lips, evolutionary changes themselves lead to speech
mouth, larynx & pharynx) production

The tool-making source Accounts for structural Gradually

(brain) organisation of language

The genetic source Automatic set of Suddenly

(innateness theory) developments in young
children
ANY