2. Biography of Otto Jesperson
• Otto Jespersen, in full Jens Otto Harry Jespersen,
• (born July 16, 1860, Randers, Den.—died April 30, 1943,
Roskilde),
• Danish linguist and a foremost authority on English
grammar.
• He helped to revolutionize language teaching in
Europe, contributed greatly to the advancement of
phonetics, linguistic theory, and the history of English.
3. Otto Jespersen's Language Origin Hypothesis
Language Origins The Danish linguist Otto Jesperson (1860-
1943) classified theories of language origin into five group
• “Bow-Wow” People imitate sounds from their environment
• “Pooh-Pooh” People make instinctive sounds related to
emotions, body functions, and pain
• “Ding-Dong” People make “oral gestures”
• “La-La” People work together and produce rhythmic sounds
• People make sounds associated with love, play, and singing
4. Bow-Bow Theory
The bow-wow theory. Language began as imitations of natural sounds --
moo, choo-choo, crash, clang, buzz, bang, meow.
This is more technically referred to as onomatopoeia or echoism.
5. Pooh-Pooh Theory
The pooh-pooh theory. Language began with interjections, instinctive
emotive cries such as oh! for surprise and ouch! for pain.
6. Ding-Dong Theory
This theory maintains that speech arose in response to the essential qualities
of objects in the environment. The original sounds people made were
supposedly in harmony with the world around them.
7. La-La Theory
La-la theory is the name of one of the speculative theories about the origins
of language. This theory claims that speech originated in song, play, laughter,
and other aspects of romantic side of life. It also argues some of our first
words were long and musical rather than short grunts some theories suppose
we started with.
8. Sing-Song Theory
The sing-song theory. Jesperson suggested that language comes out of play,
laughter, cooing, courtship, emotional mutterings and the like. He even
suggests that, contrary to other theories, perhaps some of our first words
were actually long and musical, rather than the short grunts many assume we
started with.
