The document discusses several theories about the origins of human language: 1) Divine creation - that language was a gift from God and humans were born with the innate ability to use language. 2) Natural evolution - humans evolved a language acquisition device and vocalizations quickly developed into a creative linguistic system, perhaps providing an advantage over Neanderthals. 3) Invention hypotheses - early words developed from imitating sounds ("ding-dong"), emotional expressions ("pooh-pooh"), animal noises ("bow-wow"), or hand gestures ("ta-ta"). 4) Early language was used for tasks like moving stones or war cries to stimulate collective effort ("yo-he-ho"). While early humans appeared 150,

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THE ORIGINS OF LANGUAGE

2. The Theories
Divine creation
Natural evolution
Invention/imitation hypotheses:
“ding-dong” hypothesis
“pooh-pooh” hypothesis
“bow-wow” hypothesis
“ta-ta” hypothesis
“yo-he-ho” hypothesis

3. Divine Creation of Language
Many societies throughout history believed
that language is a gift of the gods to humans:
Genesis 2:20 “Adam gave names to all living
creatures.” Humans were created from the
start with an innate capacity to use language.
This capacity is complex – there are NO
PRIMITIVE LANGUAGES!! Nor have there
ever been – even among the most remote
tribes today or of stone-age hunter gatherers!

4. Natural Evolution Hypothesis
Humans evolved a Language Acquisition Device .
The simple vocalizations and gestures inherited from our
primitive ancestors quickly gave way to a creative system of
language – perhaps in a single generation or two due to a
genetic mutation that produced advantageous results.
One theory suggests this perhaps gave Homo sapiens an
advantage over Homo neatherthalis, whose vocalizations were
limited by a less developed vocal tract. Studies of
Neanderthal skulls indicate that they were only able to
produce fricative sounds, like /f/ and /v/.
“Homo loquens” – the speaking human!

5. “Ding-Dong”
“Ding-Dong” – humans named objects,
actions and phenomena after a recognizable
sound associated with it. The first human
words were a type of ICON, a sign whose
form is an exact image of its meaning:
Boom = explosion (English)
Tun-tun = heart (Chinook Indian)
Ai-ai = knife (Basque, literally “ouch-ouch”)

6. “pooh-pooh”
“pooh-pooh” Hypothesis: humans’ first
words were derived from spontaneous
expressions of dislike, hunger, pain, or
pleasure.
Ha-ha-ha, haw-haw

7. “bow-wow”
“bow-wow” – human vocabulary
developed from animal noises, e.g., Moo,
hiss, quack, meow, etc.
Dog: bow-wow
Onomatopoeia: lit. “name-sound” the
imitation of a sound in naming.

8. “Ta-Ta”
“ta-ta” Hypothesis: Charles Darwin theorized
that speech may have developed as a sort of
mouth pantomime – the organs of speech were
used to imitate the gestures of the hand. The
first words were lip icons of hand gestures.

9. “yo-he-ho”
The earliest language was chanting to stimulate
collective effort, like moving a great stone to
block off a cave entrance from roving carnivores,
or repeating a war phrase over and over to
inflame the fighting spirit.

10. CONCLUSION:
Language is a relatively recent phenomena
Early humans first appeared 150,00 years
ago Language first appeared 50,000 years
ago
All of the original first languages have
disappeared
Many more languages were spoken in the
past because humans lived in small tribes
(lots of different languages) rather than in
large states (with one common language)