Introduction to Linguistics

 Max Müller thinks that all human languages

have a single common origin.
 Charles Darwin believes that the origin of
language is the imitation of natural sounds,
the voices of other animals, and man’s cries. The Origin
 Noam Chomsky claims that the origin of
language is mutation of brain cells.
of
 Ferdinand de Saussure insists that it is
meaningless to ask a question of the origin
Language
of language.

After all, what is the origin of language?

 The evolutionary emergence of language in
the human species has been a subject of
speculation for several centuries. The topic is
The Origin difficult to study because of the lack of direct
evidence. Consequently, linguists wishing to
of study the origins of language must draw
inferences from other kinds of evidence such as:
Language Fossil record archaeological evidence
contemporary language diversity
studies of language acquisition
comparisons between human language and systems
of communication existing among animals
Millions of years ago,
while the predecessors
of homo sapiens still
communicated in
grunts and cries,
prehistoric humans
discovered their ability
to create and utter
words, and language
was born.
Words are definitely not inborn, but the capacity to acquire a
language and use it creatively seems to be inborn. Noam
Chomsky calls this ability the LAD (Language Acquisition
Device).
- How did this language instinct in humans originate?
- How did the first language come into being?
The earliest words may have been imitations of the sounds
humans heard in nature, such as the rustling of wind
through the leaves, the crack of thunder, or the roar of wild
beasts; perhaps, these sounds were imitations of their own
vocalizations on feeling pain, joy, or other emotions.
 Main hypotheses concerning the origin of language

Belief in divine natural evolution

creation hypothesis

Language is the gift of God At some point in time,

to humans. Genesis 2:20 humans evolved a language
says that Adam gave names acquisition device. The
to all living creatures. This simple vocalizations and
belief predicates that gestures inherited from
humans were created from primate ancestors then
the start with an innate quickly gave way to a
capacity to use language. creative system of language.
If humans acquired the capacity for language either by
divine gift or by evolution, then exactly how might
humans have devised the first language?
There are several hypotheses as to how language might
have been consciously acquired by humans based on a
more primitive system of hominid communication. None of
the invention hypotheses is convincing, and most sane
linguists agree that the origin of language is still a mystery.
There are four imitation hypotheses that
hold that language began through some sort
of human mimicry of naturally occurring
sounds or movements.

1. The ding-dong hypothesis

2. The pooh-pooh hypothesis
3. The bow-wow hypothesis
4. The ta-ta hypothesis
1. The ding-dong hypothesis
Language began when humans started naming objects,
actions and phenomena after a recognizable sound
associated with it in real life. This hypothesis holds that
the first human words were a type of verbal icon, a sign
whose form is an exact image of its
meaning: crash became the word for thunder, boom for
explosion. The problem with this hypothesis is
that onomatopoeia is a very limited part of the
vocabulary of any language; imitative sounds differ from
language to language
2. The pooh-pooh hypothesis
The first words came from involuntary exclamations of dislike,
hunger, pain, or pleasure, eventually leading to the expression of
more developed ideas and emotions. The problem with this
hypothesis is that emotional exclamations are a very small part of
any language. They are also highly language-specific. Thus,
exclamations are more like other words in that they reflect the
phonology of each separate language.
Also, exclamations, like most other words are
symbols, showing at least a partially
arbitrary relationship between sound and meaning.
3. The bow-wow hypothesis
Vocabulary developed from imitations of animal noises, such
as: Moo, bark, hiss, meow, quack-quack. In other words, the
first human words were a type of index, a sign whose form is
naturally connected with its meaning in time and space.
The problem with this theory is that the linguistic renditions
of animal sounds differ considerably from language to
language, although each species of animal everywhere
makes essentially the same sound. Thus, the human
interpretation of animal sounds is dependent upon the
individual language.
4. The ta-ta hypothesis
Charles Darwin hypothesized (though he himself was
skeptical about his own hypothesis) that speech may have
developed as a sort of mouth pantomime. It is very possible
that human language, which today is mostly verbal, had its
origin in some system of gestures. Human gestures,
however, just like onomatopoeic words, differ from culture
to culture (cf. English crossing the finger for good luck vs.
Russian "fig" gesture; nodding for yes vs. nodding for no in
Turkish and Bulgarian)
A second set of hypotheses on language origin
holds that language began as a response to
some acute necessity in the community.

1. Warning hypothesis
2. Yo-he-ho hypothesis
3. The lying hypothesis
1. Warning hypothesis
Language may have evolved from warning signals such
as those used by animals. Perhaps language started
with a warning to others, such as Look out, Run,
or Help to alert members of the tribe when some
lumbering beast was approaching. Other first words
could have been hunting instructions or instructions
connected with other work. In other words, the first
words were indexes used during everyday activities and
situations.
2.Yo-he-ho hypothesis
Language developed on the basis of human cooperative efforts.
The earliest language was chanting to simulate collective effort,
whether moving great stones to block off cave entrances from
roving carnivores or repeating warlike phrases to inflame the
fighting spirit.
Plato also believed that language developed out of sheer practical
necessity. And Modern English has the saying: Necessity is the
mother of invention. Speech and right hand coordination are both
controlled in the left hemisphere of the brain. Could this be a
possible clue that manual dexterity and the need to communicate
developed in unison?
3. The lying hypothesis
Edgar Howard Sturtevant (1875 –1952) argued that,
since all real intentions or emotions get
involuntarily expressed by gesture, look or sound,
voluntary communication must have been invented
for the purpose of lying or deceiving. He proposed
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.
There are no scientific tests to evaluate between these
competing hypotheses. All of them seem equally far-
fetched. This is why in the late 19th century, the Royal
Linguistic Society in London actually banned
discussion and debate on the origin of language out of
fear that none of the arguments had any scientific
basis at all and that time would be needlessly wasted
on this fruitless enquiry. Attempts to explain the
origin of language are usually taken no more seriously
today either.
Why do languages differ?
 tWo age-old hypotheses regarding language diversity

1. Monogenesis

The oldest belief is that there was a single, original language.

This original language was confused by divine intervention, as
described in the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis. “(…)
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the
earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was
called Babel — because there the Lord confused the
language of the whole world. From there
the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”
 tWo age-old hypotheses regarding language diversity

2. parallel evolution

This hypothesis holds that, as humans evolved

parallel in more than one location, each group
developed its own unique language. Each of the
original languages would then have diverged into
numerous forms, and the major language families of
today would be descended from these separate
mother tongues.
Regardless of the origin of language, the fact remains
that there are over 5,000 mutually unintelligible forms of
human speech used on Earth today. And, although many
are radically different from one another in structure, the
differences are superficial since each and every one of
these languages can be used creatively. Languages do
not differ in terms of their creative potential but rather
in terms of the level upon which particular distinctions
are realized in each particular language – e.g. what is
expressed concisely in one language requires a phrase in
another language.
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test1materials/origin_of_language.htm
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