North American Polyglot Symposium 2016 (NAPS)

1. The Origins of Language
by Simon Ager

2. Summary
• What is language?
• What is language for?
• What is evidence is there for how language emerged?
• Theories of language origins

3. What is language?
“ a systematic means of communicating ideas
or feelings by the use of conventionalized
signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having
understood meanings” [Merriam-Webster]

4. What is language?
“Language is the expression of ideas by means of
speech-sounds combined into words. Words are
combined into sentences, this combination
answering to that of ideas into thoughts.” [Henry
Sweet, Encyclopædia Britannica]

5. What is language for?
•Communication
•Cooperation
•Identity
•Social bonding

6. What evidence is there?
• Fossil record
• Genetics
• Tools and other artefacts
• Cave paintings
• Evidence from modern languages and statistics

7. A taboo subject?
In 1866, the Linguistic Society of
Paris banned any existing or future
debates on the origins of language.

8. Approaches
Continuity
• Language developed over a long period of time from
communication systems of our primate ancestors
Discontinuity
• Language is unique to humans and emerged fairly suddenly

9. Discontinuity
“a single chance mutation occurred in one individual
in the order of 100,000 years ago, instantaneously
installing the language faculty (a component of the
mind–brain) in "perfect" or "near-perfect" form.”
Chomsky (1996)

10. Bow-wow, Pooh-pooh, etc.
• Bow-wow – imitation of animals
• Pooh-Pooh – exclamations and interjections
• Yo-he-ho – sounds used in collective rhythmic labour
• Ding-dong – the first words echoed natural resonance
Müller (1861)

11. Imitation of natural sounds
“I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the
imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of
various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and
man’s own instinctive cries.”
Darwin (1871)

12. Aquatic Apes
• At some point in human evolution our ancestors learnt to swim and dive
and may have gone through an aquatic phase.
• This lead to better breath control and to other physiological changes
that made articulate speech possible.
• Speech emerged as other forms of communication were not visible when
immersed in water.
Morgan (1997)

13. Hmmmmm
• Language and music were once a single communication system – Holistic,
multi-modal, manipulative, musical and mimetic (Hmmmmm)
• Neanderthals took this system as far as it would go.
• Modern humans started segmenting utterances and using them in
particular orders, creating a much more flexible system.
• Music became a separate entity no longer used for communication.
Mithen (2005)

14. From grooming to gossip
• Language developed as a form of ‘vocal grooming’
• It enables social bonds to be maintained with more
individuals then physical grooming
• Over time it developed more complexity
Dunbar (1996)

15. Waving the hands about
• Language developed from gestures, perhaps accompanied by mouth
movements and vocalisations
• Gestures and languages are controlled by neighbouring parts of the brain
• As we started to use more tools, vocalisations were used more than
gestures.
Corballis & Wray (2002)

16. Bibilography
• Armstrong, David F. Gestural Origin of Language
• Aitchison, Jean. The Seeds of Speech. Language origin and evolution (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 1996)
• Chomsky, Noam. Powers and Prospects. Reflections on human nature and the social
order. (London: Pluto Press, 1996)
• Corballis, Michael & Alison Wray, eds. The transition to language. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002)
• Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (London, Murray,
1871)

17. Bibilography
• Dunbar, Robin. Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language (London, Faber and
Faber, 1996)
• Mithen, Steven. The Singing Neanderthals. The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and
Body (London, Phoenix, 2005)
• Morgan, Elaine. The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (London, Souvenir Press, 1997)
• Müller, Max. 1996 [1861]. The theoretical stage, and the origin of language. Lecture 9
from Lectures on the Science of Language. Reprinted in R. Harris (ed.),The Origin of
Language. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, pp. 7-41.