Chapter 1 The Origin of Language

SOME THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE

In this blog, I will summarize Chapter 1: The Origins of Language in the book " The Study of Language: of GEORGE YULE 6th. 

In chapter 1, we will explore the origin of language. According to the book 

1 The Divine Source:

According to this theory, language is a divine gift, in the book of Genesis, God created Adam and “ whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that name thereof”. Just like in the Hindu goddess Sarasvati brings language to humanity. In most religions, language has a divine origin. Several historical figures, including the Egyptian Pharaoh Psammetichus, King James the Fourth of Scotland, and the Mogul emperor Akbar the Great, conducted experiments by raising the kids without speaking to them. And receive the same result that all the kids can not speak the language of their community. Back to modern-day scientists found that “ very young children living without access to human language in their early years grow up with no language at all”. Victor, the wild boy of Aveyron in France, and Genie, an American child are two cases proving this stance.

2 The Natural Sound Source: 

This is a quite different view of the beginning of language is based on the concept of natural sounds. The human auditory system is already functioning before birth. There are two theories of this source 

• The “Bow-Wow” theory

Humans make sounds like “ Caw-Caw”, or “Coo-Coo”  just like some animal to call some object. The fact that all modern languages have some onomatopeia such as splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech, and of course bow-wow. These sounds are replications of some sounds in nature. 

• The “ Pooh-Pooh” theory 

According to Jespersen's theory human speech developed from emotional sounds like: Ouch!, Wow!, Haha! represent some emotions like pain, surprise, and happiness. These words are usually used in spoken language and we usually use them accidentally.

3 The Social Interaction Source     

Can be known as the “ yo-he-yo” theory. Can be supposed that the sound that people make when making the physical effort could be the source of our language. Especially when it involves several people and they have to coordinate. So, a group of early humans might have developed a set of hums, grunts, groans, and curses to use when they were lifting or carrying heavy or big things. Early humans must have lived in groups for better protection, and every group needs to maintain an organization and a form of communication to do that. But this is just a theory because apes and other primates live in a social group and use grunts and social calls, but they have not developed the capacity for speech.

4 The Physical Adaptation Source 

Besides the type of sound, we can look at the type of physical features humans possess as the source of human speech. 

• Teeth and Lips

Human teeth are different from apes and suitable for ripping or tearing food. And better adapted for grinding, and chewing, and also helpful in making sounds such as /f/ or /v/. Humans' lips have more intricate muscle interlacing than other primates and it helps in making sounds/p/,/b/, and /m/. 

• Mouth and Tongue

The human mouth is smaller and can be opened and closed more rapidly than other primates. Also the part of an extended vocal tract that has more of an L-shape than the straight path from front to back in other mammals. Humans have shorter, thicker, and more muscular tongue than other large primates which can be used to shape a wide variety of sounds. Moreover, humans can also close off the airway through the nose to create more air pressure in the mouth.

• Larynx and Pharynx 

The human larynx is different from other primates. Through physical development had created a longer cavity called the Pharynx acts as a resonator for increased range and clarity of sounds produced via the larynx. 

5 The Tool-Making Source

In the physical adaptation view. Teeth and lips previously used for other purpose like chewing and sucking. Similar to human hands manual gestures may have been a precursor of language.

• The Human Brain

The human brain has a large size relative to human body size and is lateralized, it has specialized functions in each of the two hemispheres. The left hemisphere of the brain controls motor movements like speaking and using tools. It may be there was an evolutionary connection between the language-using and tool-using abilities of humans

6 The Genetic Source

Human babies in the first few years have some physical changes. At birth baby’s brain is only a quarter its eventual weight and the larynx is much higher in the throat, allowing the baby to babies to breathe and drink at the same time. After a short period of time, the larynx descends, and the brain develops children can walk and talk. This seems to indicate that human offspring are born with a special capacity for language. This language capacity may be genetically hard-wired in the newborn human.

• The Innateness Hypothesis 

The innateness hypothesis is a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language. According to this hypothesis, there are some gene mutations have taken place and occurred some physical changes that could be called language gene