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Chapter 1
The Origins of Language

Linguistics: includes the systematic and scientific study of language.

Linguistics: is concerned with understanding the structure and nature of language
which is divided into: phonetics, phonology morphology, syntax, semantics and
pragmatics.
Linguistics: deal with other perspectives on language which are represented in
specialized or interdisciplinary branches such as: sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, neurolingustics and second language acquisition.

Before we start: we should aware that

We don’t how language was originated. Yet we know that spoken language developed
thousand years before written languages.
It is estimated that spoken languages have developed between 100,000 years and
50,000 years ago.
Written language developed nearly 5000 years ago

Speculations about sources of the origins of language

The divine source
The natural sound source (bow-wow/pooh-pooh theories)
The social interaction source
The physical adaptation source (teeth and lips/mouth and tongue and larynx and
pharynx)
The tool-making source (the human brain)
The genetic source (innateness hypothesis)

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The Origins of Language
The divine source -1 •
The natural sound source -2 •
The social interaction source -3 • The physical adaptation source -4 • The tool
making source -5 •
The genetic source -6 •

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1- The divine source
I. biblical •
In most religions, language was given to the humans. E.g. Hindu •
tradition > language came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma.
Hypothesis: is that if human were allowed to grow up without • hearing any language
then they will spontaneously use the original God-given language.
A. Egyptian experiment: •
Egyptian pharaoh named Psamtik who tried the experiment with • 2 new born babies
more than 2500 years ago. After 2 years of isolation except for the company of
goats and a mute shepherd.
Result: the children started saying the Phrygian (Turkey) • word “bekos=bread)
Criticism: it is likely that children imitated the sounds they heard • from the
goats.

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1- The divine source
B. King James the Fourth of Scotland: •
Carried out a similar experiment around 1500 years • ago and children were reported
to have started speaking Hebrew= is it the original language? The language of the
Garden of Eden.
Criticism: many children who were discovered living in • isolation do not confirm
these findings, they grow up without a language at all
e.g. the story of Genie Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZ olHCrC8E
So divine source is impossible to prove/disprove the • “first language” is
impossible to reconstruct.

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The Origins of Language
1- The divine source •
2- The natural sound source •
3- The social interaction source • 4- The physical adaptation source • 5- The tool
making source •
6- The genetic source •

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The natural sound source
Hypothesis: •
Primitive words derive from imitation of the natural sounds that early men and
women heard
around them
I- The “bow-wow” theory (Jespersen, 1922): •
Pronunciations that seem to echo naturally occurring sounds could be used to
support this theory •
e.g. caw-caw, splash, buzz (onomatopoeia) Criticism: •
how would soundless things and abstract concepts have been referred to? Language is
not a set of words used to name things
II- The “pooh-pooh” theory (Jespersen, 1922): •
Speech developed from the instinctive sounds people make in emotional circumstances
or natural
cries of emotion such as pain and joy e.g. ouch, yuck and wow. Criticism: •
•
those words are produced with sudden intakes of breath (exhale not inhale) which is
not the case • for ordinary speech, emotional reactions contain sounds not
otherwise used in speech production
•
•

Rana Alnufaie
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The Origins of Language
1- The divine source •
2- The natural sound source •
3- The social interaction source • 4- The physical adaptation source • 5- The tool
making source •
6- The genetic source •

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The social interaction source
The “yo-he-ho” theory: •
The sounds of a person involved in physical effort could be the • source of our
language especially when the physical effort involved several people interaction
had to be coordinated e.g. hums, grunts, groans and curses while lifting a carrying
heavy things.
Appealing idea because: it places the development of human • language in a social
context, some form of communication is required to maintain the organization of the
groups.
Criticism: apes and other primates also live in groups and use • grunts without
having developed the capacity for speech.

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The Origins of Language
1- The divine source •
2- The natural sound source •
3- The social interaction source • 4- The physical adaptation source • 5- The tool
making source •
6- The genetic source •

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The physical adaptation source
Instead of looking at types of sounds as the source of human speech, the • physical
adaptation source looks at the types of physical features humans possess that
support speech production (function and features)
Transition to upright posture and bipedal locomotion >front limbs free. •
(ancestors)
The effect of this change can be seen in the differences between skull of gorillas
• and Neanderthal > Neanderthal may have been able to produce some
consonant like sounds (vocal tract)
They study of evolutionary development suggested that there are certain • physical
features (partial adaptation) which appear relevant for speech. They are
streamlined versions of features found in other primates.
However, features themselves may not have triggered speech but give good •
indication that the creatures had the capacity for speech.

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The physical adaptation source
Evolutionary development resulted in partial adaptation making speech • possible
for early humans:
Teeth (upright position, not slanting outwards like those apes, roughly even in
height, good for grinding and chewing. Result > very helpful in making sounds such
as “f” or “v”
Lips ( more intricate muscle interlacing than is found in other primates, more •
flexible, capable of a wider range of shapes. Result > suitable for making sounds
such as “p”, “m” and “b” (human infants during first year)
Mouth and tongue (relatively small compared to other primates, can be opened and
close more rapidly, smaller and thicker and more muscular tongue that can be used
to shaped a wide variety of sounds, airway through the nose can be closed off to
create more air pressure in the mouth) It is a part of an extended vocal tract that
has much more of an L-shape than the fairly straight path from rapid and powerful
delivery of sounds front to back in other mammals. Result> produced through these
different shapes.
•
•

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The physical adaptation source
Larynx and pharynx: larynx is “voice box” containing the vocal folds or • vocal
chords.
Due to upright position, head moved directly above the spinal • column and larynx
dropped to a lower position. Result = the pharynx (cavity above the vocal folds
acts as resonator) became longer and thus, increased range and clarity of sounds
produced by larynx and vocal tract.
Other primates have almost no pharynx. •
Disadvantage of this position: due to lower position of pharynx, • humans may choke
more easily on food => ability to speak must have outweighed this disadvantage for
human
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The physical adaptation source
Criticism: what do you think? •

19
The Origins of Language
1- The divine source •
2- The natural sound source •
3- The social interaction source • 4- The physical adaptation source • 5- The tool
making source •
6- The genetic source •

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5- The tool making source

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5- The tool making source (the humanbrain)
This development is seen to have a similar concept of the previous source as it •
looks to the human hands and that manual gestures may have been a precursor of
language. (bringing words together like bringing two rocks together to make a tool)
Humans started making tools and manipulating objects using both • hands. Result =
it is evidence of a brain at work.
The human brain: the functions for object manipulation and for speaking are • very
close to each other in the left hemisphere of the brain (lateralization) and thus,
as a result = there may have been an evolutionary connection between the use of
tools and the use of language in early humans.
Humans produced single noise to indicate an object around them (brain was •
developed to make these arrangements)

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The Origins of Language
1- The divine source •
2- The natural sound source •
3- The social interaction source • 4- The physical adaptation source • 5- The tool
making source •
6- The genetic source •

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The genetic source
At birth, the baby’s brain is only a quarter of its eventual weight and the larynx
is • much higher in the throat allowing babies (like chimpanzees) to breath and
drink at the same time.
By time, larynx descends, the brain develops, the child assumes an upright •
posture and start walking and talking (automatic).
Even children who are born deaf became fluent sign language users, given •
appropriate circumstances. Result: this indicate that human offspring are born with
a special capacity for language (it is innate and no other creature seems to have
it).
It is possible that language capacity is genetically hard wired in the new • born
humans. This innateness hypothesis is crucial mutation.
The language genes that only humans possess indicates that humans are • being pre-
programmed or hard wired to produce some type of language to communicate.

Chapter2:
Animals and Human Language

Two key questions to think about:

- Is it possible that a creature could learn to communicate with humans using
language?
- Does human language have properties that make it so unique to be learned by other
creatures?

Communication
During our communication, we need to distinguish between: Communicative signals:
It happens when someone intentionally use language to tell this person something.
e.g., I am one the applicants for the vacant position of senior brain surgeon at
the hospital. This is considered as to be intentionally communicating something.

Informative signals:
It happens when someone may become informed about you through signals that you have
not intentionally sent. For example, someone might note that you have a cold
because you sneezed

Note
Both of animal communication and human language are considered to be means of
intentional communication.

Properties of human language

Humans are able to reflect on language and its uses. Without this abilities humans
would not be able to reflect on properties of human language.
1. Displacement
2. Arbitrariness
3. Productivity
4. Cultural transmission 5. Duality

Displacement
• It allows language users to talk about things and events not present in the
immediate environment.
• Indeed, displacement allows us to talk about things and places whose existence we
cannot even be sure of.

Arbitrariness
• There is no natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning. This
connection is arbitrary.
• Some words in English seem to be less arbitrary such as crash and slurp.

Productivity
• It is also called creativity and open-endedness.
• It means that the potential number of utterances in any
human language is infinite; unlike the communication
system of other creatures.
• Animal communication lacks productivity which can be
described ‘fixed reference’.

Cultural transmission
• Language is acquired through a culture with other speakers not from parental
genes.
• Humans are born with some predisposition to acquire language in a general sense;
but not born with the ability to produce utterances in specific language such as
English but rather to acquire the first language as children in a culture.
• Non-humans are born with a set of specific signals that are produced
instinctively.

Talking to animals
Some spoken languages are directed by humans to animals, as we see in circus
animals
 Chimpanzees and language
In an experiment regarding teaching a chimpanzee to use a human language, Luella
and Winthrop Kellog reported that the chimpanzee (Gua) had the ability to
understand nearly 100 words but did not manage to any of them

Chimpanzees and language

Another experiment was done by Catherine and Hayes to teach a chimpanzee (Viki) a
human language. Catherine and Hayes spent five years attempting to get Viki to say
some English Words. Viki managed to produce some basic words such as mama, papa and
cup.

Chimpanzees and language

• From these experiments and others, it was concluded that non- human primates do
not actually have the physical and structural ability (vocal tract) to articulate
the sounds used in speech.
• Chimpanzees, apes and gorilla can all communicate with a wide range of vocal
calls, but they just cannot make speech sounds like humans.

Chimpanzees and language

• From different experiments, it was concluded that the Chimpanzees’ behavior is
viewed as a type of conditioned response to cues provided by human trainers.
• Herbert’s also concluded that Chimpanzees are clever creatures who produce
certain type of behaviors to get rewards which can make sophisticated tricks.

Using language
• Some Chimpanzees were found capable of taking part in interaction with humans –
using a symbol system by humans.
• Chimpanzees did not perform linguistically on a level comparable to a human
child.

Using language
• The behavior of a two-year human child interacting with a caregiver is an example
of using language.
• We observe very similar behavior from Chimpanzees when they interact with humans
- Accordingly, we can say that in both cases we observe participants ‘using
language’.
- Yet, there is a still difference in term of ‘using language’ between humans and
non-humans.

Using language
Yet, there is a difference in term of ‘using language’ between humans and non-
humans. Such meaning of ‘using of language’ (by humans) is the capacity to develop
a complex system of sounds and structures which allow users to use extended
discourse containing infinite number of novel utterances. It is in this more
comprehensive and productive sense that we say that language is uniquely human.

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Source
Yule, G. (2014). The study of language (5th ed.).Cambridge: • Cambridge University
Press.

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Thank you for attending today’s class •