The Origins of Language (Unit 01)
 What is Language?
“Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of
voluntarily produced symbol”. (Edward Sapir)
“Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means
of which a social group communicates”. (Bloch and Tragen)
 Origin of Language:
We simply do not know how language originated. We do
not know that spoken language developed well before
written language. Yet we have no physical evidence relating
to the speech of our ancestors and because of this absence
of evidence speculations about the origins of human speech
have been developed.
 The Divine Source:
“And HE taught Adam all the names, then showed them to
the Angels, saying: Inform me of the names of these, if ye
are truthful”. (Quran)
God created Adam and “whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, that was the name thereof”. (Genesis)
The basic idea of the theory is that: “If infants were allowed
to grow up without hearing any language, then they would
spontaneously begin using the original God-given
language”.
 Experiment:
An Egyptian Pharaoh who tried the experiment with two
new born babies more than 2500 years ago and he put
them in isolation for two years with goats and a mute
shepherd. The children were spontaneously uttered a single
word bekos which is not an Egyptian word, but something
that was identified as the Phrygian word bekos, meaning
“bread”. (Bekos word is from the older language which was
spoken in Turkey). Children did not pick up any word from
any human source but they spoke the word what the goats
were saying.
 The Natural Sound Source:
A beginning of language is based on the concept of natural
sounds. The human auditory system is already functioning
before birth. The primitive words could have been
imitations of the natural sounds which early men and
women heard around them. For Example: Cuckoo, Splash,
Bang and Boom etc.
Jespersen (1922) presented two theories
regarding this idea:
a. The “Bow-Wow” Theory
b. The “Pooh-Pooh” Theory
a. The “Bow-Wow” Theory:
In this scenario, when different objects flew by, making a
caw-caw or coo-coo sound, the early human tried to imitate
the sounds and then used them to refer to those objects
even when they were not present. All the modern
languages have some words with pronunciation that seems
to echo naturally occurring sounds. In English, we have
splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss and bow-wow.
Words that sound similar to the noises or echoing natural
sounds are called Onomatopoeic Words.
b. The “Pooh-Pooh” Theory:
In this Jespersen’s “Pooh-Pooh” theory, speech developed
from the instinctive sounds of emotional circumstances.
The original sounds of language came from natural cries of
emotion such as pain, anger and joy. For example: Ouch!,
Ah!, Ooh!, Phew!, Wow! and Yuck! etc.
 The Social Interaction Source:
Another theory involving natural sounds called “Yo-Heave-
Ho” Theory (Yo-He-Ho Theory). The sounds of a person
involved in physical effort could be the source of our
language, especially when that physical effort involved
several people and had to be coordinated. So, a group of
early humans might develop a set of hums, grunts and
groans were used by them when they were lifting and
carrying large bits of trees etc.
The importance of Yo-Heave-Ho theory is that it places the
development of human language in some Social Context.
 The Genetic Theory/Glossogenetics:
The focus is on the biological basis of the formation. In the
evolutionary development there are certain physical
features human have which is related with the speech
production. At an early stage, our ancestors made a major
transition to an upright posture, with bi-pedal (on two feet)
locomotion. It shows the clear clues that creature
possessing such feature probably has the capacity for
speech.
 The Oral Gesture Source:
The theory comes from the idea that there is a link
between physical gesture and orally produced sounds. First
of all a set of physical gestures was developed as a means
of communication. Then a set of oral gestures especially
involving the mouth developed in which the movements of
the tongue, lips and so on where recognized according to
patterns of movement similar to physical gestures.
 Physiological Adaptation Theory:
Human teeth, lips, mouth, tongue, larynx, pharynx and
brain have been created in such a way to coordinate in
producing speech sounds. Their places, connections and
coordinative functions make humankind different from all
the living creatures.
Human Teeth: Teeth are not very useful for ripping or tearing food but
they are useful for grinding and chewing food. They are also very helpful in
making sounds such as f and v.
Human Lips: Lips are more intricate muscle interlacing than other
creatures. Lips are very helpful in making sounds like p, b and m.
Human Mouth: Mouth is small as compared to the other creatures and it
can be opened and closed rapidly. It has an extended vocal tract in L –
Shape than the straight path in other creatures.
Human Tongue: Tongue is shorter and thicker in mouth as compared to
the other creatures. It helps to shape a variety of sounds inside the oral
cavity.
Human Larynx: The human larynx or voice box (containing the vocal folds)
position is lower than that of monkeys. Upright posture moved the head
more directly above the spinal column and the larynx dropped to a lower
position.
Human Pharynx: A longer cavity called pharynx. It acts as a resonator for
increasing range and clarity of the sounds produced via the larynx.
Human Brain: Human brain is lateralized. There are special functions in
each of the two hemispheres. A left hemisphere controls the analytical
tool for using language. A right hemisphere controls the visual spatial
skills.
 Interactions and Transactions:
There are two major functions of language:
A. Interactional Function: It is related with how
human use language to interact with each other socially or
emotionally, how they express their feelings or their ideas.
B. Transactional Function: It is related with how
human use their linguistic abilities to transfer knowledge
from one generation to the next.