origin of language

1. PREPARED BY: SHAHZAD MANZOOR
MPhil. English Linguistics
The Islamia University of Bahawalpur.

2.  What is Language?
 How did Language Originate?
 Theories about the Origin of Language:
1. Divine Sources/ Religious Hypotheses.
2. Mythological Hypotheses.
3. The Natural Sound sources/Imitation Hypotheses.
4. Social Interaction Sources/Necessity Hypotheses.
5. Physical Adaptation Sources.
6. The Tool making Sources.
7. The Genetic Sources/ Innateness Hypothesis.
 Conclusion.

3.  Language is a God’s special gift to mankind and
without language human civilization as we now know it
would have remained impossibility. It is a source of
communication and present everywhere; in our
thoughts & dreams, in our prayers & meditations etc.
 There are numbers of definitions of language but some
of them are:

4. o “language is a system of conventional spoken or
written symbols by means of which human beings, as
members of a social group and participants in its
culture communicate.”
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
o “language is a primarily human and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires
by means of a system of voluntarily produced
symbols.”
(Sapir, Language 1921)

5. o “Language may be defined as the expression of
thought by means of speech sounds.”
(Henry Sweet, The History of Language)
o “ A language is a symbol system… based on pure or
arbitrary convention… infinitely extendable and
modifiable according to the changing needs and
conditions of the speaker.” (R.H Robins)

6. o “Language is the innate capacity of native speakers to
understand and form grammatical sentences.”
(Transformational Generative Linguists)
In a nutshell, language is an organized noise used
in actual social situations. That is why it has also been
defined as contextualized systematic sounds.

7. We simply don’t know how language originated.
We do know that the ability to produce sounds and
simple vocal patterning ( i.e. a hum versus a grunt )
appears to be in an ancient part of the brain that we
share with all vertebrates, including fish, frogs, birds
and other mammals. But that is not human language.
We suspect that some type of spoken language must
have developed b/w 100,000 and 50,000 years ago
well before written language ( about 5000 years ago).

8. In order to find out the answer of this question,
linguists have studied the language used by children,
speech of primitive societies, the behavior of higher
animals and the state of the people suffering from
speech defects. But all the attempts to reconstruct the
traces of primitive language are based on speculations.

9. Different linguists presented different hypotheses
and sources of the origin of language. Some of these
theories are:
1. Divine sources/Religious hypotheses:
According to this theory,language is a Divine gift
and different religions supported this concept in
different ways.
o According to Islam :
According to Islam, language is a divine gift. The
Quranic views does not confirm to the evolution
theory with regard to language.

10.  In Holy Quran it is said:
ََ‫م‬َّ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬ َ‫و‬ََ‫م‬َ‫د‬‫آ‬ََ‫ء‬‫ا‬َ‫م‬‫أ‬‫س‬َ ‫أ‬‫اْل‬‫ا‬َ‫ه‬َّ‫ل‬ُ‫ك‬ََّ‫م‬ُ‫ث‬َ‫أ‬‫م‬ُ‫ه‬َ‫ض‬ََ‫ر‬َ‫ع‬‫ى‬َ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬َ‫ئ‬ َ‫َل‬َ‫م‬‫أ‬‫ال‬َ‫ة‬َ‫ك‬ََ‫ل‬‫ا‬َ‫ق‬َ‫ف‬‫ي‬‫ون‬ُ‫ئ‬‫نب‬َ‫أ‬َ‫اء‬َ‫م‬‫أ‬‫س‬َ‫أ‬‫ب‬َ‫ء‬ َ‫َُل‬‫ؤ‬ٰ‫ـ‬َ‫ه‬َ‫إ‬‫ن‬َ‫أ‬‫م‬ُ‫ت‬‫ن‬ُ‫ك‬
ََ‫ين‬‫ق‬‫اد‬َ‫ص‬
 “Wa ‘allama Adamal Asma a kullaha, thumma ‘aradahum
‘alal Malaikati faqala anbioonee bi asma i haola e in
kuntum sadiqeen.(31) Qalo subhanaka la ‘ilma lana illa ma
‘allamtana, innaka antal ‘Aleemul Hakeem.(32)” (Surah al
Baqarah)
 “And He taught Adam the names – all of them. Then He
showed them to the angels and said, “Inform Me of the
names of these, if you are truthful. (31) They said, “Exalted
are You; we have no knowledge except what You have
taught us. Indeed, it is You who is the Knowing, the Wise.”
(Holy Quran, 2:31-32)

11. َ‫يم‬‫ح‬َّ‫َالر‬‫ن‬َ‫م‬‫أ‬‫ح‬َّ‫َالر‬ َّ‫َاَّلل‬‫م‬‫أ‬‫س‬‫ب‬
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most
Merciful.
 َُ‫ن‬َ‫م‬‫أ‬‫ح‬َّ‫الر‬
ََ‫آن‬ ‫أ‬‫ر‬ُ‫ق‬‫أ‬‫َال‬َ‫م‬َّ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬
The Most Gracious [Allah]! He taught the Qur’an.
 ََ‫ان‬َ‫س‬‫ن‬ ‫أ‬‫َاْل‬َ‫ق‬َ‫ل‬َ‫خ‬
He created man.
 ََ‫ان‬َ‫ي‬َ‫ب‬‫أ‬‫َُال‬‫ه‬َ‫م‬َّ‫ل‬َ‫ع‬
He taught him speech.

12. o According to Christianity:
In the biblical tradition, as describes in the book of
Genesis, God created Adam and “ whatsoever Adam
called every living, creature, that was the name
thereof.”
o According to Hinduism:
Language came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahama,
creator of the universe.

13. o Attempts to rediscover the original Divine language:
In an attempt to rediscover this original divine
language, a few experiments have been carried out,
with rather conflicting results. The basic hypothesis
seems to have been that, if human infants were
allowed to grow up with out hearing any language
around them, then they would spontaneously begin
using the original God given language.

14. o Experiment of an Egyptian Pharaoh:
An Egyptian pharaoh named ‘ Psammetichus’ (Psamtik)
tried an experiment with two newborn babies more than
2500 years ago. After two years of isolation except for the
company of goats and a mute shepherd, the children were
reported to have spontaneously uttered, not an Egyptian
word, but something that was identified as the Phrygian
word ‘bekos’, meaning “bread.” The pharaoh concluded
that Phrygian must be the original language. That seems
very unlikely. The children may not have picked up this
“word” from any human source, but as several
commentators have pointed out, they have heard what the
goats were saying.

15. o Experiment of King James Fourth of Scotland:
King James the Fourth of Scotland carried out a
similar experiment around the year 1500 and the
children were reported to have spontaneously started
speaking Hebrew. This confirmed the King’s belief that
Hebrew had indeed been the language of the Garden
of Eden.

16. o Egyptian Mythology:
In Egyptian mythology god “Thoth” is supposed to
be the creator of language in the world. “Seshet” the
goddess of writing served Thoth as his secretary.
o Chinese Mythology:
In Chinese mythology, God created a ‘sea horse’
which spoke the Chinese language. The ‘sea horse’
supposed to have spots on its body which eventually
formed the basis of Chinese orthography which
consists of pictures.

17. o Indian Mythology:
The people in India identifies language with a
goddes called ‘ vag devi’ (vag-word); (devi-goddess).
‘Vag devi’ is considered as an originator of language
and god ‘Indra’ is supposed to have invented
articulatory speech.

18. A quite different view of the beginning of language is based on
the concept of natural sounds. According to this view language began
through some sort of human mimicry of naturally occurring
sounds/movements.
This view may include following hypotheses:
o Ding-Dong hypothesis/theory:
Language began when humans started naming objects, actions
and phenomena after a recognizable sound associated with it in real
life.
i.e. crash became the word for thunder, boom for explosion
Limitations:
• How reference was made to the soundless words/abstract concepts.
• Onomatopoeia is very limited part of vocabulary.
• Imitative sounds differ from language to language.

19. o Bow-Wow hypothesis/theory:
Language originated by the imitations of the natural
sounds (animal sounds) which early men & women heard
around them.
i.e. when a bird flew by making the sound ‘coo-coo’ it would
be called ‘cuckoo’.
Limitations:
• Words that describe animal sounds in different languages
are not similar. For instance, pig sound in English is ‘oink-
oink’ in Russian ‘hyru-hyru’.
• Onomatopoeia is very limited part of vocabulary.
• Imitative sounds differ from language to language.

20. o Pooh-Pooh hypothesis/Interjection theory:
According to this theory original sounds of
language may have come from natural cries of
emotions or involuntary exclamations of dislike,
hunger, pain, or pleasure. Such as Ouch!, Ah!, Wow!, or
Yuck!
Limitations:
Such interjections are usually produced with
sudden intakes of breath, which is the opposite of
ordinary talk. We normally produce spoken language
on exhaled breath.

21. o Ta-Ta hypothesis:
Charles Darwin hypothesized (though he himself
was sceptical about his own hypothesis) that speech
may have developed as a sort of mouth pantomime:
the organs of speech were used to imitate the gestures
of hand. In other words language developed from
gestures that began to be imitated by the organs of
speech.
Limitations:
• Human gestures just like onomatopoeic words, differ
from culture to culture.

22. The appeal of this proposal is that it places the development of
human language in a social context. Early people must have lived in
groups and these groups are necessarily social organizations and to
maintain those organizations, some form of communication is required
, even if it is just grunts and curses. It may include following
hypotheses:
o Yo-he-ho hypothesis/theory:
The idea is that language originated as a result of noises made by
a group of people engaged in some activity like moving a tree, or
stone etc. i.e. hums, grunts, groans and curses etc.
Limitations:
• It does not, however, answer our question regarding the origins of the
sounds produce.
• Apes and other primates live in social groups and use grunts and social
calls, but they do not seem to have developed the capacity for speech.

23. o Warning hypothesis:
Language may have evolved from warning signals such as
those used by animals. Perhaps language started with a warning
to others, such as Look out, Run, or Help to alert members of the
tribe when some lumbering beast was approaching.
o Lying hypothesis:
E.H. Sturtevant argued that, since all real intentions or
emotions get involuntarily expressed by gesture, look or sound,
voluntary communication must have been invented for the
purpose of lying or deceiving, he proposed that the need to
deceive and lie was the social prompting that got language
started.

24. We can look at the types of
physical features humans
possess that are distinct
from other creatures, which
may have been able to
support speech production. We can start with the
observation that, our ancestors made a very significant
transition to an upright posture, with bipedal(on two
feet) locomotion, and a revised role for the front limbs.

26. Change can be seen in physical difference
between the skull of gorilla and that of a Neanderthal
man fro around 60,000 years ago. The reconstructed
vocal tract of Neanderthal suggests that some
consonant-like sound distinction would have been
possible.
o Change in Teeth, Lips, Mouth, Larynx and Pharynx:
• Teeth: Human teeth are upright, not slanting outwards
like those of apes. Such characteristics are useful for
grinding and chewing and also helpful in making
sounds such as f or v.

27. • Lips: Human lips have much more intricate muscle
interlacing than is found in other primates and their
resulting flexibility certainly helps in making sounds
like p or b.
• Mouth: Human mouth is relatively small compared to
other primates, can be opened and closed rapidly, and
contains a smaller, thicker and more muscular tongue
which can be used to shape a wide variety of sounds
inside the oral cavity. Unlike other primates, humans
can close off the airway through the nose to create
more air pressure in the mouth.

28. • Larynx: The human larynx or “voice box” (containing
the vocal folds or vocal cords) differs significantly in
position from the larynx of other primates such as
monkeys. Because of the upright posture of human,
the larynx is dropped to a lower position.
• Pharynx: The lower position of larynx is created a
longer cavity called the pharynx, above the vocal folds,
which acts as a resonator for increased range and
clarity of the sounds produced via the larynx and the
vocal tract.

30. o The use of Hands:
• A development is believed to have taken place with
human hands and some believe that manual gestures may
have been a precursor of language.
• If we think in terms of the most basic process involved
in primitive tool-making, it is not enough to be able to
grasp one rock(make one sound); the human must also be
able to bring another rock(other sound) into proper contact
with the first in order develop a tool.
• In terms of language structure, the human may have
first developed a naming ability by producing a specific and
consistent noise for a specific object and then may have
developed another specific noise to combine with the first
to build a complex message.

31. o The use of Brain:
The human brain is not only large relative to human body
size, it is also lateralized. It has specialized functions in each
of the two hemispheres.
Those functions that control
the motor movements involved
in complex vocalization(speaking)
and object manipulation(making
or using tools)are very close to
each other in the left hemisphere
of the brain. It may be that there
was an evolutionary connection
b/w the language-using and tool-
using abilities of human.

32. • This hypothesis indicates that human offspring are born
with a special capacity for language. It is innate, no other
creature seems to have it, and it isn’t tied to a specific
variety of language. Is it possible that this language
capacity is genetically hard-wired in the newborn
human?
• As a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language, this
innateness hypothesis would seem to point to something
in human genetics, possibly a crucial mutation, as the
source. This would not have been a gradual change, but
something that happened rather quickly.

33. All the discussion given above suggests that it is
hard to know scientifically about the origin of
language. So all these theories are partially true and
none of these is completely wrong.