The origin of language

THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE ‘‘No thing, no doubt, more interesting than to know from historical documents the exact process by the first man began to lisp his first words, and thus to be rid

WELCOME TO OUR CLASS

GROUP 1:Huỳnh Thị Thanh Thúy_11128129

Đặng Thị Thúy Sương_11128089

Vũ Thị Kim Trúc_11128112

Trần Thị Mỹ Dung_11128016 NguyễnThị Lệ Hà_11128027

THE ORIGIN OF

LANGUAGE

‘‘No thing, no doubt, more interesting than to know from historical documents the exact process by the first man began to lisp his first words, and thus to be rid for ever of all the theories on the origin of speech.’’

(M.Muller, 1874)

•Anthropologists claim that humans have existed for between 1-4 million years

•Earliest written records are only 6000 years old

I THE BEGINNING ORIGIN OF

LANGUAGE

 Neither can be proved or disproved given present knowledge

A BELIEF IN DIVINE CREATURE

God’s gift to humanity ?

 According to Judaeo-Christiant: ‘And out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.’

Genesis 2:19 s

 Adam gave names to all living creatures

=> An innate capacity to use language

 According to the Egyptians, the creator of speech was the god Thoth.

 Babylonians believed the language giver was the god

Nabu

 According to Hindu tradition, language comes from the

goddess Sarasvati.( wife of Brahma who created the

universe)

 language origin => myths,customs and supersitions

 no way to ‘prove’ or‘disprove’ (the divine origin of language)=> (the existence of God.)

Historical experiment by:

• Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichus (664-610) new born

baby in company of goats and mute shepherd

• James IV of Scotland (1473-1513): similar experiment

It was claimed that children eventually spoke Hebrew

• J.G Becanus argued that German was the original

language? Why?

Because God would have used the most perfect language.

• 1830, The American lexicographer Noah Webster

asserted that the ‘proto-language’ must have been Chaldee (Aramaic)

• 1887, Joseph Elkins maintained that ‘There is no other

language which can be more reasonably assumed to be the speech first used in the world’s gray morning than can Chinese’.

B THE FIRST LANGUGE

• mono-: one, single

• genetic: influenced by geneses or origins.

=>monogenetic: a theory of language origin that all

languages originated from a single source

 For example: Tower of Babel story in Genesis, legend of the Toltecs

 Many modern scholars:

 The Mother Tongue Theory : a single group of Homo sapiens perhaps as early as 150 thousand years

 The Out of Africa Theory: the first fully modern

humans appeared in Africa

C NATURAL EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS

1)The "ding-dong" hypothesis

 naming objects, actions and phenomena after a recognizable sound associate=>in real life

Uses:

 the first human words: type of verbal icon, a sign whose form is an exact image of its meaning:

 crash became the word for thunder, boom for explosion

 Chinook Indian word for heart tun-tun,

 Basque word for knife: ai-ai (literally ouch-ouch)

 The problem ‘onomatopoeia’:

 limited part of the vocabulary

 imitative sounds differ from language to language:

Ex: Russian: ba-bakh =bang, bukh= thud

2.The ‘pooh-pooh’’ hypothesis

 involuntary exclamations of dislike, hunger, pain, or pleasure,

 the expression of more developed ideas and emotions ex: ha-ha-ha, wa-wa-wa

 The problem :small part of any language

 expressing sudden pain or discomfort:

 Eng:ouch;

 Russ oi.;

 Cherokee eee

3.The ‘bow-bow’’ hypothesis

 Uses:vocabulary developed from imitations of animal noises

 Ex: Moo , bark , hiss , meow , quack-quack

 the problem:

 ‘onomotopoeia’ : a limited part of the vocabulary of any

language

 The linguistic renditions of animal sounds differ considerably from language to language

a) Dog: English: bow-wow

 Chinese: wu-wu;

 Jap.:wan-wan ;

 Russ , tyaff-tyaff

b)Cat :English:meow,

 Russ:myaoo,

 Chin mao,

 Jap nya-nya ;

 purr in French is ron ron

c) Pig: English: oink-oink; Russ hryu-hryu;

Chin. oh-ee-oh-ee;

Jap bu-bu

 4.The ‘‘ta-ta’’ hypothesis

Charles Darwin

 Speeching: a sort of mouth pantomime: the organs of speech => imitating the gestures of the hand

 the problem: Human gestures differ from culture to culture

Ex :

 Cf English crossing the finger for good luck vs.Russian

"fig" gesture;

 nodding for yes vs for no in Turkish and Bulgarian;

 knocking on wood vs spitting over the left shoulder three times.

5. Warning hypothesis.

 Starting with a warning to others

 Ex: Look out, Run, or Help

6. => alerting members of the tribe when some lumbering beast was approaching The " yo-he-ho" hypothesis

Language developed on the basis of human cooperative efforts

 language was chanting to simulate collective efforts

 repeating warlike phrases to inflame the fighting spirit

 The first poetry and song came from this aspect of beginning speech

EX: Volga boatmen, military marching chants, seven dwarfs working song

8. Lying hypothesis

E.H Sturtevant

 since all real intentions or emotions get involuntarily

expressed by gesture, look or sound, voluntary

communication have been invented for lying or

deceiving

 Using language in contrast to reality for selfish ends –

was the social prompting that got language started

 Example: the word tree in several languages:

Spanish árbol;

 French arbre;

 Slovak strom;

I BASIC IDEAS

1. Languages and races?

no evidence to support that racial differences are

responsible for linguistic differences

2. Language and culture?

There is no inherent relation between language and

culture

3. “Primitive” and “civilizable” language?

 there is no correlation between degree of cultural

advancement and complexity and linguistic structure

4. “Corrupt” language?

 Just as there are no primitive languages, there are no

“corrupt” languages Languages change, but they do not decay

5. Theories of language origin

─ The origin of language have been advanced, but none

worth taking seriously:

 imitation of animal cries

 great physical exertion were the original source of

speech

─ Neither idea has any evidence in its favor.

 a man accquired language as the result of evolutionary

changes in the structure of his mind