The Study of Language:
Language: is primarily a means of communicating thoughts from
one person to another.
The Origins of Language
While it is sure is that - unsurprisingly - spoken language
developed long before written language, no-one knows for certain
how language originated. There are, however, lots of speculations
about the origin of human language.
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The Divine Source
The Natural Sounds Source
The Oral-Gesture Source
Physiological Adaptation
Interaction and transaction.
The Divine Source
According to one view God created Adam and " whatsoever
Adam called every living creature , that was the name thereof ‫" من ذلك‬
.In most religions there appears to be a divine source that provides
humans with language.
However it seems that children with no access to human
speech simply grow up with no language at all
NO SPEECH = NO LANGUAGE.
The Natural Sounds Source
1-'Bow-wow theory" one speculation on the origin of language is that
the first words were imitations of natural sounds. It is true that there
are onomatopoeic words in every language, i.e. words that echo
natural sounds, for example: CUCKOO, SPLASH, BANG‫ قرع‬,
RATTLE‫ خشخشة‬, BUZZ‫ أزيز‬, etc. but language is not simply a set of
words used as 'names'.
2- Another idea is that the original sounds of language came from'
Natural cries of emotion', i.e. pain, anger and joy, for example: OUCH!
3-One another is the "yo-heave-ho theory" places the development of
human language in a social context and states that language originated
in the need to coordinate physical effort-grunts, groans, swear words.
The Oral-Gesture Source‫إيماء‬
Many of our physical gestures, using body hands and face, are
means of nonverbal communication and are used by modern humans,
even with their developed linguistic skills. The "oral-gesture theory"
proposes an extremely specific connection between physical and oral
gesture involving a "specialized pantomime ‫ فن التمثيل اإليمائى‬of the
tongue and lips".
Physiological Adaptation
Some of the physical aspects of humans that make the production of
speech possible or easier are not shared with other creatures: Human
teeth are upright and roughly even in height. Human lips have an
intricate muscle interlacing. The human mouth is relatively small, can
be opened and closed rapidly and contains a very flexible tongue.
The human larynx ‫( حنجرة‬or 'voice box') is special as well as the
pharynx above the vocal cords can act as a resonator for any sounds
produced.
The human brain is lateralized and has specialized functions in
each of the two hemispheres. The functions that are analytic, such as
tool-using and language, are largely confined to the left hemisphere of
the brain for most humans. All languages require the organizing and
combining of sounds or signs in specific constructions.
Interaction and transactional
Many of the speculations on the origin of language deal with the
question of how humans started to interact with each other. However
there are two major functions of language use:
The interaction function has to do with how humans use
language to interact with each other socially or emotionally.
The transactional function has to do with communicating
knowledge, skills and information.
This transactional function will have developed, in part, for the
transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. And while there
are cultures that rely mainly on their oral tradition, in many cases, as
speech by its nature is transient‫ عابر‬,‫ زائل‬, the desire for a more
permanent record must have developed: