MONTESSORI INTEGRATED SCHOOL
SECOND QUARTER
ENGLISH 5 & 6
SUPPLEMENT 4A
NAME:________________________________________________ DATE:___________________
THE HISTORY OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE
I. Theories about the origin of language
A. BOW WOW THEORY – language was formed based on humans forming their first word
by imitating animal sounds.
B. POOH-POOH THEORY – language developed from the emotional and expressive cries
being vocalized. It is believed that the first words developed from signs of pleasures,
moans of pain, and other semi-voluntary cries of exclamations.
C. DING-DONG THEORY – or the “watch the birdie theory”, places the origin of human
language in onomatopoeia: the various imitative sounds that humans make to mimic
the sounds of the world around them. So “boom” becomes a word for thunder, and
“oink” for a pig.
D. YO-HE-HO THEORY – according to this theory, language arose in rhythmic chants and
vocalisms uttered by people engaged in communal labor or people working together.
E. MUSICAL THEORY – origin of language came from music and songs.
F. CONTACT THEORY – or “the ta-ta theory”, evolved from sounds made by contact of
one person to another. Human language represents the use of oral gestures that began
in imitation of hand gestures that were already in use for communication.
II. Non-naturalistic Theory of the Origin of Language
Some people resort to traditional narratives, myths, and legendary history in order to
explain the origin of human language.
The book of Genesis 2:19-20 has God give Adam the task of assigning names to all the
animals and plants he had in Eden. A later Bible story holds that God punished human
resumption in building the Tower of Babel by confusing the tongues of the builders; the
observed variety of human languages is a consequence of that divine judgement. Many other
cultures have similar legends that explain how language came to be.
III. Geoffrey Bibby
In the book “Testimony of Spade” by Geoffrey Bibby, all European languages (as well as
Persian) are rooted from a single source known as “Hindu”. This European language spread out
and was once believed to be the language spoken by the Nomads of Russia, 4000 years ago.
Bursting out to seek and conquer, these copper-leading Nomads were agriculturally literate.
When the Missionaries came to propagate their religion, their culture, custom and
intermingled with the Nomads, it gave birth to a new language. A new breed was born, a
mega-link of buildings for large funerals, and tombs for communal burials. They learned the art
of trading, communicating with the outside world, blissfully enhancing and adapting to changes
brought by bell beakers, introduced pottery and the use of bronze.
Still having the distinct qualities of warriors, they conquered and ventured onwards
across lands faster through the use of domesticated cattle and horses-drawn vehicles.
“4 Thousand Years Ago '', a book authored by Bibby, went deeper to explain the battles
of long ago. 2500 B.C. Proto-Indo-European warriors moved to Armenia, Mesopotamia, Iraq and
North Western India: some went southward to the Vulcan West to invade the Alps, Italy, France
and Spain. Other groups went north to the Baltics and Russia.
Furthermore, facts in this book explain not only the ancient race behind the English
Language but also, the conglomeration of languages that gave birth to its complexity.
COMMUNICATION IN SIGN – A brief history of the written language
One of the first groups of people who used symbols to express what they wanted to tell
others were the SUMERIANS. They are marked on wet clays before it dries out and hardens.
They used “Stylus” which is a short stick sharpened into a triangular thing. This system of
writing of the Sumerians is called “CUNEIFORM”. It comes from the Latin word “cuneius” which
means “wedge” or wide impressions.
Then came the EGYPTIANS who introduced the “HIEROGLYPHICS”. The Egyptians carved
symbols or pictures to express their ideas and painted them. This system of writing is very
difficult to understand. “Hieroglyphics” means, “writings of Gods”.
Years later, about 1000 B.C., the “PHOENICIANS” sailing the Nile river with cargoes of
precious stones, copper, tin, silver and a special dye known as “tyrion purple”, became popular
with Kings and Emperors and very in demand in the Ancient World. They continuously sailed the
seas exchanging goods and partly imparting some of their culture.
A great and very important change happened during the course of their travels. It is
through this intermingling with other cultures that a new system of writing, derived from the
Egyptians hieroglyphics, a new system developed came to be known as the “One Sign, One
Sound System of Writing”. One big value of this system is the small numbers of signs to
represent an idea.
GREEKS came after the Phoenicians. They adapted the system of the Phoenicians by
transforming the “sound sign” as consonants and added their vowel sounds thus creating the
“ALPHABET”. The Greeks were the first to improvise the “left-to-right” manner of writing. Then
the ROMANS adapted the Greek’s alphabet , spreading it throughout Europe. The word
“Alphabet” was derived from two Greek words: the “Alpha” and “Beta” from then on, this
system of writing passed on from generation to generation and still exists up to the present.