Lecture 2
The Origins of Language
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The origins of language
• A famous quote from Charles Darwin (1871)
“The suspicion does not appear improbable that
the progenitors of man, either the males or
females, or both sexes, before they had acquired
the power of expressing their mutual love in
articulate language, endeavored to charm each
other with musical notes and rhythm”.
• What is Darwin’s vision of language origins in
this short passage?
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The origins of language
• No one knows exactly when or how human
beings came up with spoken language.
• One hypothesis is that language began
between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, with
the advent of modern man, i.e. homo sapiens.
• This is well before the invention of the written
language, about 5,000 years ago. We have
direct evidence and artifacts about writing.
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Origins: The divine source
• Genesis 2/19: God created Adam and
“whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, was the name thereof.”
• The Qur’an: He said, “O Adam, inform them of
their names.” And when he had informed
them of their names… (Al Baqarah, 2/31-33)
• A Hindu belief: language came from Saraswati,
wife of Brahma, creator of the universe.
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Origins: The divine source (cont.)
• Attempts to find a divine, God-given language
 Psamtik carried out an experiment with two
babies depriving them of human contact. They
uttered the word bekos ‘bread’ in Phrygian!!
 King James the Fourth did a similar experiment
and the kids were reported to speak Hebrew.
• The fact is children who are deprived of any
language contact cannot learn any language.
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The natural sound source
• Language emerged from natural sounds.
 Primitive words are considered to be imitations of
natural sounds that people hear around them.
 The natural sound a bird makes is argued to have
been used to describe that particular animal.
 The fact that in many languages there are words
such as drip, click, meow and honk that sound like
what they mean supports this claim.
 Not every sound is onomatopoeic in languages!!
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The social interaction source
• The sounds of a human engaged in an activity
requiring physical effort could be the source.
 This idea is reasonable considering that the effort
involved several others and work required some
interaction between people.
 This theory places the development of
human language in a social context.
 It doesn’t explain the transition from the sounds
human made to speech sounds used in language.
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The physical adaptation source
• It pays more attention to the physical features
humans have, rather than focusing on sounds.
 The physical characteristics that other creatures
don’t have that would support speech production.
 Teeth: They are similar in size and do not stick out.
They are good for making sounds such as f and v.
 Lips: They have more complex muscle interlacing
and this makes it possible to produce sounds like p
and b.
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The physical adaptation source
 Mouth: It is relatively small and can be opened
and closed rapidly.
 Tongue: Smaller, thicker and more muscular. It can
be used to make different sounds.
 Larynx “Voice box”: The position of the larynx
dropped to a lower position, which created a
longer cavity called pharynx.
 Pharynx: It acts as a resonator for
increased clarity of sounds.
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The tool-making source
• Tool-using and language-using abilities are
somehow connected because they are
evidence of a thinking and lateralized brain.
• The functions that control motor movements
involved in speaking and making/using tools
are very close to each other in the left
hemisphere of the brain.
 The development of the speaking brain.
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The genetic source
• Every human offspring learns how to speak a
language in a relatively short time.
• Human child is born with a special capacity for
language. It is innate, no other species have it!
 Is it possible that the language capacity is hardwired in the newborn human?
 The innateness hypothesis:
A crucial mutation in human
genetics.
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Wrap-up
• We do not know for sure when or why
language originated in human beings.
• There are different competing theories about
its origins, some more reasonable than others.
• We do know that humans have the necessary
physical characteristics to produce speech
sounds and a unique ability to learn language.
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In the next lecture
• Animals and human language
 What are the properties of human language?
 Do animals actually have language?
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Human vocal tract
a
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Left Hemisphere of the Brain
m
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