Chapter 1: The origins of language 1. Egyptian Pharaoh Psammeticus (664 610 B.C.

) two newborn
infants with goats cared for by mute shepherd after 2 years, the first
Introduction
word uttered becos meaning bread, a Phrygian word Phrygian, ancient
1) Otto Jespersen (1921) language of Phrygia (N. W. corner of Turkey). Pharoah concluded that must
be the original language, but failed to be confirmed by other researchers.
Human language originated while human beings were enjoying themselves.
But, it is just a speculation. 2. James IV of Scotland (1473 1513) performed a similar
experiment children matured spoke Hebrew. Unfortunately all other
(1) The divine source:
cases of discovered of children living in isolation without contact with
According to: ( In most religion, God provides human language) human speech do NOT confirm the result of divine source experiments.

1. Judeo-Christian belief Adam 3. In 1920, two wild children, Amala and Kamala, were found in India
in 1970, a child called Genie discovered - had been confined to small
2. Egyptian Thoth
room received minimal human contact none of these children was able
4. Hindus Sarasvati (wife of Brahma- the creator of universe) to speak or knew any language conclusion: children living without access
to human speech grow up with no langue at all.
6. The Tower of Babel story: because the Lord did there confound the
language of all the earth and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad (3) The natural-sound source:
upon the face of all the earth: (Genesis II: 9) accounts for the diversity of
Hypothesis: Primitive words are imitations of the natural
languages.
sounds which early man and women heard around them
(2) Experiments to verify divine origins of language:
i. Object flew by with making a CAWCAW sound, and then human
Hypothesis: If infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any imitated the sound and used it to refer to the object associated with
language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original God the sound.
-given language. ii. The situation same as an object flew by and make a CUCKOO
sound.
Conclusion: All modern languages have some words with pronunciations
which seem to echo natural occurring sounds could be used to support this
theory.
a) Bow-wow theory of language origin: Formation of words by imitating
(echoing) natural sound (onomatopoeia) bow wow, cawcaw, cuckoo,
buzz, hiss, rattle, screech, etc. how about soundless objects stone, wood
abstract ideas truth, happiness We are sceptical that language is simply
a set of words used as names for entities.
b) Yo heave ho theory of language origin: Sounds made by persons
involved in physical efforts, especially when that physical effort involved
several people and had to be coordinated. grunts, groans (when lifting and
carrying bits of trees or lifeless mammoths ) , swear words This
indicating that language developed in social context but does not shed
light on the origin of the sounds produced apes have grunts and social
calls, but have not developed the capacity for speech.
c) Natural cries of emotions as source of language: Emotional cries of
pain, joy, sorrow, disgust, etc. expressed in words, such as ouch, wow, ah,
yuck, etc. interjections (expressive noises) seem to be unlikely candidate
as source of language sounds.
(4) The oral-gesture source:
Oral gesture theory a link between physical gesture and oral gesture
Physical gesture which involving the whole body could have been a means
of indicating a wide range of emotional states and intentions- originally a
set of physical gestures (pantomimes representing actions, characters,
moods, etc.) were developed for (nonverbal) communication then oral
gestures (movements of tongue, lips, etc.) were recognized according to
patterns of movements similar to physical gestures movement of tongue
representing waving of hand in a goodbye message (both in similar
messages) called a specialized pantomime / of the tongue and
lips proposed by Richard Paget (1930) hard to visualize oral gestures that
can mimic various physical gestures or vice-versa. (Create a medium for
communication)
(5) Glossogenetics:
Focuses on the biological basis of the formation and development of human
language some physical aspects of human that are not shared with other
creatures transition to upright posture bipedal (two-legged) locomotion
revised role for the front limbs differences between the skull of a
gorilla and a Neanderthal man (around 60, 000 B.C.) Neanderthals could
have made some consonant-like sound distinctions (based on the
reconstructed vocal tract) reconstructed fossilized skeletons of about
35,000 B.C. resemble modern humans there was partial adaptation of
certain physical features that appears relevant for speech.
(6) Physiological adaptation:
Teeth: upright, roughly even in height, useful in producing sounds such as
f,v,th lips: more intricate muscle interlacing than in other primates
very flexible, useful in producing the sounds such as p,b,w mouth:
relatively small open / close rapidly tongue: very complex muscular
structure, can be used to shape a wide variety of sounds very flexible
larynx: the voice box contains vocal cord (folds) lower in humans
pharynx: cavity above vocal cord can act as resonator for any
sounds via larynx Position of human larynx make human easily choke
on pieces of food, unlike monkey- brain: lateralized in humans each of
the two brain hemispheres has specialized function analytical functions,
such as tool using and language largely confined to the left hemisphere for
most humans 1. Ability to name objects 2. Combining naming words to
build complex messages.
(7) Interaction and transaction:
1. Interaction: Use of language to interact with one another, socially
or emotionally to indicate friendliness, co-operation, hostility, annoyance,
pain, pleasure. (Bow-wow, cuckoo, wow, ugh, speech with physical gesture)
2. Transaction: Human used those linguistic abilities to communicate
knowledge, skills, information from one generation to the next through
spoken and written language. The transfer function of language remains
fairly restricted in time and space as long as it can only be realized in
speech.
The study questions
1) What is the basic idea behind the yo-heave-ho theory?
2) What specific type of claim is made by the oral gesture theory?
3) What special features of human teeth and lips make them useful in
the production of speech sounds?
4) What exactly happened with the larynx and why was it a
disadvantage?
5) What are the two major functions of language, and how do they
differ?