The Origin Of

language
Course Title: General Linguistics
Submitted To: Dr.Tahira Asghar
Submitted By: Kanzah Suhail
Maria Shabbir
M.Phli English linguistics 1st semester
Section : C
The origin of language
Introduction:
Jespersen’s propose that human language originated
while humans were actually enjoying themselves is one
of the more endearing speculations concerning the origin
of language. It remains however the speculation we
simply do not know how language originated, we do
know that spoken language developed well before written
language there is not any direct physical evidence related
to the speech of our distant ancestors. Perhaps because of
this lack of evidence there has been no shortage of
speculation about origin of human speech.
Introduction:
Spoken language probably developed
between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago while
writing only dates back to about 5,000 years
ago
 No direct evidence about the development of

speech a lot of speculation about the origin

of language but little know about the topic
 little physical evidence on language our

ancestors use.
Introduction
 Bernard Campbell states flatly in ‘Human
kind’Emerging (Allyn & Becan 2005) we
simply do not know and never will how or
when language begin.
 Over the centuries many theories have been

put forward and just about all of them have

been challenged, dis-counted and often
ridiculed. Each theory accounts for only a
small part of what we know about language.
Some theories of
origin of language.
The divine source:

Islam
Christianity
(Adam)
Hinduism
( goddess Sarswati)
The divine Source:
 In most religions, a divine source gives language to the
humans. Nearly all divine theories believe that languages
originated from a single source and are thus monogenetic
theories of language origin.
 Over the ages, people carried out experiments to rediscover
this original, God given language.
 God created Adam and whatsover Adam called every living
creature that was the name there of.
 Hindu tradition language came from goddess Sarasvati wife
of Brahma creator of universe.
 In divine source the basic hypothesis seems to have been
that if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any
language then they would being using the original God
given language .
The divine Source:
 Experiments: If human infants grow up in isolation, they will
automatically begin to use the original God-given language!??!
 Psammetichus (Egyptian pharaoh) let two new born babies grow
up in the company of only goats and a mute shepherd 2500
years ago.
- they are reported to have started saying the
Phrygian(Turkey) word 'bekos (bread)= original language
- however, it is more likely that the children imitated
the sounds they heard the goats make
 King James of Scotland carried out similar experiment around 1
500 years ago.
If human language did emmnate from divine
source ,we have no way of reconstructing that original
language ,especially given the events in city called Babel"because
the lord did there confound the language of all the earth.
 The divine Source:
 Criticism:
Divine source is impos
sible to
prove/disprove the ‘fir
st language’ is
impossible to recontra
ct.
The Natural Sound source:
 Bow- Wow Theory:
 Primitive words started as imitations of the natural
sounds early humans heard around them (bow-wow
theory)
 According to this theory, language begins when our
ancestors start imitating the natural sounds around
them. The first speech was onomatopoeic for mark by
echoic words such as moo, meow, splash, cuckoo and
bang
For example: when a bird flew by making the sound
'co0-coo, it would be called 'cuckoo
The Natural Sound source:
 Criticism
 how would sound less things and abstract concepts
have been referred to??
 Criticism:
 Language is more than only a set of names
 Onomatopoeic vary from one language to another
like dog's bark is wang wang in China...
 Ham Ham in Albania....
 Au au in Brazil ...
 Many onomatopoiec words are recently originated..
The social interaction source
 Language arose out of the rhythmical grunts of
people working together, involved in physical effort
that has to be coordinated (yo-he-ho theory)
 Early humans may have developed a set of grunts,
groans and curses used when lifting and carrying
trees/mammoths
 Makes sense as early humans must have lived in
groups, which require some form of organization
and hence communication to maintain
=development of language placed in a social
context
The social interaction source

 Criticism:
 Apes and other primates also live in
groups and use grunts etc without
having developed the capacity for
speech
The Oral gesture source:
 One suggestion regarding to the origin of
sound of language involves a link between
physical gesture and orally produced sounds ,
like movements of tongue (oral gesture ) in a
goodbye but waving of hand or arm is
( physical gesture)
 The Ding Dong theory:
 This theory is favored by Plato and Phytha goras,
maintain that speech arose in response to the essential
qualities of object in the environment.
 This theory is associated with the German scholar, &
philologist Max Müller.
 In simple terms this theory is all about imitation.
Imitation of movements rather than sound .This theory
may connect us to the origin of sounds
 its very first stages it was simple rhythmical hum
(or)chant.
The Ding Dong theory:
 Criticism :
◦ No persuasive evidence in any language innate
connection between sounds and meaning.
The Pooh Pooh Theory
 The theory holds the speech began with the
interjections, spontaneous cries of pain
(ouch!!!) , surprise (ohhhh!!)
 It deals with the emotions..
 It evokes by pain, surprise, pleasure etc.

 Language is developed from the

sounds associated with love, play and
especially songs
The Pooh Pooh Theory
 Criticism:
 This theory will fails to account for the gap between
emotional and rational aspects of speech expressions.
Interaction & Transaction
 Human use language to interact with each
with , socially or emotionally is interactional
function of language use.
 Human use their lingusitic abilities to

communicate knowledege , skills and

information is transactional function of
langauge use and language transfer to one
generation to another.
Remarkes:
 As Peter farb says in ‘ World Play: What happens
when people talk’.
 “all these speculation have serious flaws and none can
with stand the close scrutiny of present knowledge
about structure of language and evolutionof our
species.
 Keneally says :
 “in a cross-discipline multidimensional treasure hunt”.
 To find out how language began
 As William James remarked,
 “language is the most imperfect and expensive means
yet discovered for communicating thoughts