Language

and
Culture
 01 02
Accounts on the Biblical, Mythological,
Origin of Language Historical and Scientific
Accounts

03 04
Otto Jespersen’s
Language Origin of Semiotics or Sign
Hypotheses Language
 01
Accounts on the
Origin of language
 Accounts on the Origin of language
 Many religions provide an account of Origin of Language. Since the 1960’s the
theory of grammar has come to dominated the ideas of Noam Chomsky.

 The Origin of language was widely studied and controversially debated in the
Victorias period in a variety of fields, including comparative philology and
linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology.
 Language is both a cultural phenomena and also the
most salient distinguishing characteristics of modern
Homo sapiens as species.

 Thomas Sebeok and Noam Chomsky are the acknowledged

founding fathers of two research fields which are known
respectively as Biosemiotics and Biolinguistics and which
have been developed parallel during the past 50 years.
 They both regard language as a faculty, or a
modelling system , that appeared rapidly in
the history of life and probably evolved as an
exaptation from previous animal system.
 02
Biblical, Mythological,
Historical, and Scientific
Accounts
 Biblical Origin of language

 The Bible doesn’t describe an original development of language.

Rather, language is shown to be a trait of God himself.

 Another significant biblical point about language is that God

allowed man flexibility and creativity in developing his
vocabulary, in coining new words.
 Biblical Origin of language

The Biblical view explains not only why

all mankind(and only mankind) has
language, but also why mankind
universally shares the smaller unique
aspects of language.

This explains early major changes in

languages and existence of “language
isolates”- languages with no known
connection to or development from other
language.
The Biblical accounts explains why language
is exclusively human and why it is hardwired
into our brains and vocals anatomy; because
God deliberately designed it as such.
Mythological
Origin of
Language
 Mythological Origin of Language

 There are countless theories about the origins of

human language even if many linguists and
scientists in the past have claimed the search for
the seed of that human language grew to be a
fruitless one.
 Three Myths about Origin of Language

1. The Tower of Babel

 Possibly the most well-known

 According to this story, the reason
myth, at least where Judaism there are different languages in
and Christianity are common, is different areas of the world is
that found in the Hebrew Bible, because of this language confusion
specifically in Genesis. and dispersion of the population.
 2. The Hindu World Tree

 According to the Hindu myth, there was once a very

tall tree that grew out from the very center of the earth.
It was called the “world Tree” or “knowledge Tree”
and grew so tall that it almost reach the heaven.

 The god Brahma discovered the tree’s intentions and

as punishments for it being so proud, he cut off all the
tree’s branches and scattered them all over the earth.
 3. The Death of Wurruri

 An aboriginal tribe from Southern Australia

has a rather gruesome myth regarding why
we don’t all speak the same language.
 Thus, the different aboriginal tribes and their
languages were a product of eating a
different body part.
 Historical
Origin of Language

 The language dates back to roughly

150,000 years ago. However, all the
linguistic evidence dates back to
around 6000 years ago, when writing
began.
Early History
 For centuries, humans have wandered about the
origins of language and get nobody is any the
wiser due to lack of agreement on the topics as
well as evidence.

 The lack of evidence has meant that many

experts shy away from this subject. In fact, in
1866 The linguistics Society of Paris banned
any debates on the topic.
Scientific Origin
of Language
???
 Scientific Origin of Language
 Linguistics is the science of language,
and linguists are scientists who apply
the scientific method to questions
about the nature and the function of
language.

 Linguists conduct formal studies of

speech sounds, grammatical structures,
and meaning across all the world’s
over 6000 language.
 Clearly, many of the questions linguist pose overlap
with fields in the life sciences, social sciences, and
social humanities, thus making linguistics a
multidisciplinary field.

 “Polyglot” is the term used for a

person who has knowledge of
multiple language.
 03

Otto Jespersen’s
Language Origin
Hypotheses
 Otto Jespersen’s Language Origin Hyphotheses

His full name is “Jens Otto

Harry Jespersen Died April 30, 1943
Roskilde, Denmark at the
aged of 82 years old.

July 16,1860
Randers, Denmark

A Danish Linguist and a

Foremost authority of
English Grammar.
 He helped to revolutionize language teaching in
Europe, he contributed greatly to the
advancement of phonetics, linguistic theory, and
the history of English, and originated on
international language Navial (q.v).

However, In the 19th century, philosophers and

linguists proposed a number of hypotheses to explain
the origin of language, which are noteworthy for
their names even if none of them have vanquished
their competitors in the battles of scientific
credibility.
 Five Language Theories/Hypotheses
01 The Bow-wow 02 The Ding-Dong

 According to this theory, language  The theory favored by Plato and

began when our ancestors started Pythagoras, maintains that speech arose
imitating the natural sound around in response to the essential qualities of
them. objects in the environment.

 What’s wrong with this?

 What’s wrong with this?
Apart from some rare instances of sound symbolism,
Relatively few words are there is no persuasive evidence, in any language of an
onomatopoeic, and their words vary innate connection between sound and meaning.
from one language to another.
 Five Language Theories/Hypotheses
03 The La-La 04 The Pooh-Pooh

 This theory is suggested by Otto  In this theory holds that speech began
Jespersen the Danish Linguist. with interjections.

 What’s wrong with this?  What’s wrong with this?

As David Crystal notes in “ How No language contains very many interjections, and
Languages Work” (Penguin, 2015), this Crystal points out, the click intakes of breath, and
theory is still fail to account for. other noises which are used in this way bear little
relationship to the vowels and consonant found I
phonology.
 Five Language Theories/Hypotheses
05 The Yo-He-Ho

 According to this theory, language

evolved from the grunts, groans, and
snorts evoked by the heavy physical
labor.
 What’s wrong with this?
Through this notion may account for some
rhythmic features of language, it doesn’t go
very far in explaining where words came
from.
Semiotics or
Sign
Language
 Semiotics or Sign Language
 Semiotics is the theory and study of
signs and symbols, especially as
elements of language or other systems
of communication.

 Linguistics and cultural semiotics investigates

sign system and the modes of representation that
humans use to convey feelings, thoughts, ideas,
and ideologies.
 Semiotics or Sign Language
 It is also a key study into the evolution of human consciousness. English
philosopher John Locke
(1632-1704) tied the advancement of intelligence in three steps.

01 02 03
Understanding what to do to The ability to communicate these
Understanding the nature of
things. achieve whatever you wish to things to another.
achieve.
 Semiotics or Sign Language
 Charles Sanders Pierce (1839-1914) said
that signs work only if there is an
intelligence capable of learning from
experience.

 Pierce’s conception of semiotics was

triadic; sign, meaning, and
interpreting.
 References
 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/97871119072256.ch1
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225143752_On_The_Origin_of_Language
 https://www.thought.com/where-does-language-come-from-1691015
 https://www.thetrumpet.com/18320-where-did-language-come-from
 https://alphaomegatranslations.com/foreign-language/three-myths-about-the-origin-of-language
 https://www.greatcoursesdaily.com/origin-of-language-when-did-it-start--and-how-did-it-evolve/#:~:text=Th
e%20Language%20dates%20back%20to.era%20th
 https://www.thelanguagegallery.com/blog/the-history-of-language
 https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/science-linguistics
 https://www.Britannica.com/topic/Novial
 https://freelanguage.org/general-language-info/linguistic-hyphotheses-on-the-origins-of-language
 https://www.darwinproject.ack.uk/commentary/human-nature/origin-language
 https://www.thoughtco.com/semiotics-definition-1692082
 https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almancs-transcripts-and-maps/semiotics-language-and-
culture
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