The origins of language

1. CHAPTER 1
The origins of language
Instructor: Lam Hoang Phuc
Introduction to Linguistics
---  ---

2.  A divine entity provides humans with language.
 Infants growing up without hearing any language around
them will use the original God-given language.
 Psammetichus’ experiment: Two infants living with goats
uttered something similar to a Phrygian word.
 Phrygian might be the original language; however, the
infants probably just mimicked the goats.
 King James’ experiment: Children living in isolation spoke
Hebrew.
 Hebrew might be the original language; however, other
cases do not confirm this – infants without access to human
language in their early years normally produce no language
at all  It is impossible to reconstruct the original language.
1.1. The divine source

3. 1.2. The natural sound source
 “bow-wow” theory: Primitive words could have been
imitations of natural sounds.
 All modern languages have words whose pronunciations
echo natural sounds (onomatopeia).
 However, this view cannot be applied to soundless things
and abstract concepts.
 The original sounds of language may have come from
natural cries of emotion.
 However, these expressive noises contain sounds that are
not used in ordinary talk.

4. 1.3. The social interaction source
 “yo-he-ho” theory: Language could have come from the
sounds of people involved in physical effort such as hums,
grunts, groans and curses.
 This theory places the development of human language
in a social context.
 However, other primates live in social groups and use
grunts and social calls, but they do not seem to have
developed the capacity for speech.
 This theory does not point out the origin of language.

5. 1.4. The physical adaptation source
 The evolutionary process of humans created certain
physical features which appear to be relevant for speech
production:
o upright teeth.
o flexible lips with much more intricate muscle interlacing
than other primates.
o small mouth that can be opened and closed rapidly.
o smaller, thicker, and more muscular tongue.
o larynx at a lower position.  creating a longer cavity
called the pharynx.
  These features allow a more rapid and powerful
delivery of a larger range of sounds despite some
disadvantages (e.g. prone to food choking).

6. 1.5. The tool-making source
 The 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.
 There may have been an evolutionary connection
between language-using and tool-using abilities, i.e. when
humans developed the ability to craft and use tools, they
also developed the ability to produce speech.
 Combining rocks to build a tool is comparable to
combining sounds to build a complex message.

7. 1.6. The genetic source
 innateness hypothesis: Only human offspring are born
with a special capacity for language.
 Language capacity is genetically hard-wired in the
newborn human.
 Evidence:
o Human infants develop physical features needed for the
production of speech in a relatively short period of
time.  Possible genetic mutation.
o The complexity of the young child’s language.
o Children who are born deaf can become fluent sign
language users.

8. REFERENCES
Yule, G. (2010). The study of language (4th ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.