THE

EVOLUTIO
N OF
LANGUAGE

P R E PA R E D B Y:
M A R I T E S Y. C A N I L A O
A A R O N B A U T I S TA 1
In the last unit, we examined the
brain and its role in language use. If
the human brain is designed for
language as we have learned, it is
important to know how and when it
happened. Research about do origin
language is as old as that of the
origin of the human race. In this unit,
we shall examine the evolution of
human language in terms of its origin
and its development unto the present
state of sophistication in its usage
and creativity.
Every human language first exists in
a spoken form before it is developed
into a written form. All religions and
societies have stones in their oral
literature about the origin of their
language. There are also theories of
divine origin, evolution, and human
invention of language. However,
that a little scientific evidence in
providing an answer to the question.
We shall examine the different
notions on the origin of language.
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• At the end of this unit, you should
be able to.
• explain the different notion, of the
origin of human language
• drank the Macro aka. supporting
the notion of evolution of human
language

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Because of dearth of documented
evidence for the origin of Spoken
language, various concepts and
theories pertaining to the evolution of
human spoken language have been
proposed: the divine theory, natural
sound theory, oral-gesture theory,
glossocentric theory and
interactional function theory.

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THE DIVINE
THEORY
• According to the Bible. God created
Adam and Eve. earth and everything
therein. Genesis 2:19 says, "from the
ground God formed every wild animal
and every bird in the sky. and he
brought them to man so man could
name them. Whatever, the man
called each living thing that became
it's name". In other words, language
can be trace to the first man, Adam,
or God himself.
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BOW-WOW
THEORY
• Bow-wow theory is based on the
assumption that human language
comes from 'natural sounds'. The
assumption is that primitive words
could have been imitation of the
natural sounds which early men and
women heard around them. The
proponents of this theory believed
that language evolved by imitating
the sounds objects make in the
environment.
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Consider the following examples of
"motorcycle" in Nigerian languages:

• Motorcycle: English
• Thatumtum: lgbo
• Aluptipu: Yoruba
• Akpukpuk: lbibio
• Akpokpok: Awing
• Okpukpuc: Yakurr

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NATURAL CRIES OF
EMOTION THEORY
• To counter the critics' position on
the bow-wow concept, another
group proposed that the original
sounds of language came from
natural cries of emotion such as
anger, joy and pain. By this, some
exclamatory marks or interjection
like Eh!, Ah!, Oh', Wan!, Hey! are
associated with some connotations.
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• The theory on natural cries of
emotion is criticized in that the
expressive noise people utter in
emotional reactions contains sounds
that are not normally used in the
language, and this assumption
seems not to comply with source-
sounds as the basis for language
evolution.

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YO-HEAVE-HO
THEORY
• This is part of 'natural sound' theory that
says the source of human language
emanates from the sounds made during
the exertion of physical effort in doing
things. As such a group of early humans
might have through co-coordinated
efforts evolve language through grunts,
groans and swear words which they
used when lifting and carrying heavy
trees, stones and irons.
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• The most interesting thing about this
assumption is that it places the
evolution of human language within
the society in which language is
used see the critics to this concept
argue that this does not answer the
question to the origin of language.
because apes and other primates
have grunts and social calls, yet
they do not stem to have developed
the capacity for speech (Yule 2002).
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THE ORAL —
GESTURE THEORY
• This theory says language evolved
through physical gesture and orally
produced sounds. This suggests an
extremely specific relationship
between physical and oral gestures.
This is actually a means of non-verbal
communication which is supportive of
oral communication. The theory
claims that originally a set of physical
gestures was developed as a means
of communication. 13
 GLOSSOCENTRIC
THEORY
• This theory focuses on the biological
basis in the formation and development
of human language. It is largely
connected with some of the physical
features of humans that other creatures
lack. It emphasizes the premise that at
the early stage. our human ancestors
made themselves different from other
primates by taking an upright posture
with the use of two legs for walking and
the hands for other things. 14
• This theory claims that the effect of
this postural change is evident in the
physical differences between human
skull and that of other primates like
gorilla and chimpanzee. In the
evolutionary transformation. these
physical structures are instrumental
for speech production particularly for
creatures with the most sophistication
in their speech capacity.

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 SUMMARY
• In foregrounding our discussion on the
evolution of human language.
• We have discussed on the divine origin
of human language that its origin can
be traced.
• The Bow-wow theory assumes that
language evolves from imitation sounds
of objects.
• While the physiological assumption
bases its assumption of language
evolution on the sophisticated nature of
human organs of speech productions. 16
• We, however, ended by saying that no
matter how human language evolved
they are meant to serve two basic
functions which are interactional and
transactional functions.

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