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Introduction to linguistics

Lecture 12: Origins and development

of language

Sources

• Yule, 2006. The study of language. CUP.

– Chapter 1: The origins of language.

• Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, Nina

Hyams. 2011. An introduction to language.

– Chapter 1: In the beginning. The origin of

language, pp. 27-29.

The origins of language

• Spoken language developed approximately

between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.

• Writing was invented about 5,000 years ago.
• That is why there is

no evidence

about the

speech of our ancestors: there are

no theories

about the origins of language but only

hypotheses

(beliefs):

– They can’t be proven or disproved given the

present knowledge.

2 main hypotheses

• There is no agreement about the ultimate

origin or age of human language.

1. Belief in divine creation:

– language is the gift of the gods to humans.

2. Natural evolution hypothesis:

– language is an evolutionary development.

The divine source

• Christianity

: in Genesis 2:20 Adam gave names to

all living creatures; in Genesis 11:7-9 At the tower
of Babel God confused people’s languages.

– This belief suggests that humans were created with an

innate ability to use language.

– There was only one language at the beginning.

• Hinduism

: languages grew from the branches of a

knowledge tree that Brahma, the creator-god, cut
off as punishment for its pride.

The divine source

• The Americas

: the only survivirs of a great

flood, a man Coxcox and a woman
Xochiquetzal, had many children. The children
couldn’ speak until a dove gave them the gift
of language. However, each child received a
different speech so that they couldn’t
understand each other.

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The divine source

• Africa

: in the beginning people knew only one

language but once a great famine happened.
Hunger made people mad and they wandered in
all directions uttering strange words.

• Australia

: Once there lived an old woman

Wurruri who used to scatter fires around. When
she died, people came to show their joy. They ate
her corpse, which caused them to speak different
languages.

– Diversity in language resulted from cannibalism.

The divine source

• In most religions, a divine source gives language to

humans.

• Over the ages, people carried out experiments to

discover the original, God-given language.

• Egyptian pharoah

Psamtik I

(7th c. BC) thought that if

infants grew up in isolation, they would begin to use

the original language.

– He let 2 babies grow up in the company of only goats and a

mute shepherd.

– The children were believed to have started saying the

Phrygian (Turkey) word

bekos

(bread) – original lg?

– Yet they probably only imitated the sounds goats made.

The divine source

• King James of Scotland

(about 1500) did a similar

experiment:

– The children were believed to have started speaking

Hebrew – original lg?

• 20th century

: there have been children who grew

up in isolation (e.g. Genie), but they didn’t learn
any language at all.

• So

the divine source hypothesis is impossible to

prove or disprove and the original language is
impossible to reconstruct

.

The natural sound source: bow wow

– First words originated as imitations of natural

sounds: if an object was making a

cuckoo

sound, it

was named a ‘cuckoo’

– All lgs have

onomatopoeic

sounds that echo

natural noises.

– BUT

: such words are a minority;

• most words name soundless entities, e.g.

bring, if, dry

,

etc. so they can’t be of the bow-wow origin.

• Language is more than just naming things.

The natural sound source: pooh pooh

– Lg developed from people's instinctive sounds

caused by pain, anger or other emotions.

– Such interjections are universal.

– BUT

: these sounds are produced with sudden

intakes of breath, unlike speech sounds – they are
not related to speech sounds.

The social interaction source: yo-he-ho

– The source of lg – the sounds of people working

together, involved in physical effort that has to be
coordinated.

– Grunts and groans could be the first words.
– This hypothesis makes sense because early

humans lived in groups, which required
organization.

– Development of lg is placed in a social context.

– BUT

: apes also live in groups and produce grunts

but haven't developed speech.

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The social interaction source: la-la

– What initiated language was the romantic side of

life – sounds associated with love, play, poetic
feelings or even song.

– BUT

: the theory does not explain the rational

aspects of speech expression.

The physical adaptation source: the

hominids

• Homo erectus

(spread from

Africa to Europe and Asia):

originated 1.8 million years ago,

became extinct 0.5 million years

ago.

– hunter-gatherers, made

tools;

– able to control fire;
– brain larger than that of their

ancestors;

– the structures of the skull and

neck suggest that they were

probably able to make noises

more complex than the

grunts and screams of

modern apes – some kind of

human-like proto-language?

The physical adaptation source: the

hominids

• Homo Neanderthalensis

(Europe, originated 300,000

years ago, extinct probably

40,000 years ago).

– brain larger than that of

modern humans;

– 3D x-ray technology showed

that their hyoid bone (kość

gnykowa) is like that of modern

humans – they could probably

speak.

– The origins of language are far

older than it was previously

believed.

The physical adaptation source

• Evolutionary development of humans resulted

in certain

physical adaptations

that made

speech possible:

– Transition to upright posture made front limbs

free.

– Adaptations that helped the development of

speech:

teeth, lips, mouth, tongue, larynx and

pharynx.

The physical adaptation source

• Teeth

: upright and quite even, helpful in making such

sounds as [f] or [v].

• Lips

: more flexible, suitable for producing sounds like [p] or

[b].

• Mouth and tongue

: smaller than those of other primates,

can move faster, can shape a wide variety of sounds.

• Larynx

: due to the upright position the larynx is lowered.

• Pharynx

(cavity above the vocal folds, acts as resonator):

became longer which led to an increased rnge and clarity of

sounds.

• BUT

: certain birds (e.g. parrots) can also produce a variety

of sounds; the changes alone would not lead to speech

production.

The tool-making source: oral-gesture

• Humans started making

tools and manipulating
objects using both
hands.

• Manual gestures may

have preceded
language: bringing
words together was like
bringing two rocks
together to make a tool.

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The tool-making source: oral-gesture

• The functions for object manipulation and for

speaking are

very close to each other in the

left hemishere of the brain

– there may have

been

an evolutionary connection

between

the use of tools and the use of language in
early humans.

• This hypothesis explains the structural

organisation of all languages (including sign
languages).

The genetic source: innateness theory

• All human babies develop in the same way:

– At first: small brain, the larynx high in the throat;
– then changes take place: the brain grow, the larynx

moves lower in the throat.

• Even deaf children become fluent users of a sign

language.

• These facts led to the claim that

humans are

born with a special capacity for language

.

• Perhaps this capacity is genetically hard-wired

into newborn humans.

The genetic source: innateness theory

• There is a special

“language gene”

(FOXP2) that is

linked to speech and language.

– FOXP2 is also present in chimpanzees, but it differs

slightly from the human one – so it is this tiny

mutation which gives us the ability to develop

language.

• This might mean that language did not result

from a gradual change but happened rather

quickly as a crucial genetic mutation.

• It is not clear when the genetic change happened

or how it may relate to physical adaptation.