As difficult as it may be to imagine a world without language common sense tells us that such a time must have existed long ago, but when and where? That is an intriguing question but one to which we may never have a complete answer: How did we get from animal vocalization (barks, howls, calls…) to human language? This subject has puzzled scientists, including linguists, archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists and biologists for centuries as we recognize that human language is unlike any form of communication used by other animals. We also recognize that because it is different this ability had to have developed sometime after the genetics of humans split from that of the chimpanzees and bonobos, our nearest relatives, around six million years ago.
Examples of early origin studies include Mesopotamia’s compilation of word lists from the cuneiform symbols in use during the 3rd to the 2nd Millenia BC before they moved on to study other symbol languages including Sanskrit and Hieroglyphics. A main problem with the symbol languages was the lack of knowledge as to how the symbols had been vocalized. And during the Reign of the 26th Dynasty in Egypt (664 BC – 610 BC) the first recorded language experiment was conducted by Pharaoh Psammetichus I (Psamtik I) when he had twin babies brought to a remote location to be raised by caretakers who were not permitted to speak any words to them. At the end of two years the children most often repeated the Phyrigian word becos, meaning bread which Psamtik concluded meant that language is innate and that Phyrigian is the natural language of humans. Interesting theory but not reasonable.
During the 19th century language origin studies were ongoing with one speculative theory after another showing up in the literature. In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris, citing the shortage of direct empirical evidence, banned any existing or future debates on the subject, a prohibition which remained influential across much of the Western world until late in the twentieth century. However, out of all the theories floating around a Top Ten list with rather whimsical names has emerged and has been cited throughout the literature on the subject.
According to the mama theory language began with the easiest syllables that were attached to the most significant objects and what could be more significant to a baby than their mother? However, Sir Richard Paget, a British Baronet who was both barrister and an amateur scientist held that language may have derived from gestures. His ta-ta theory suggests that human language originated when tongue and mouth gestures unconsciously imitated people’s common gestures. He likened saying “ta-ta to waving goodbye with one’s tongue but would there be other gestures readily explained by this ta-ta theory?.
Friedrich Max Müller, a German born philologist and orientalist is credited with suggesting the bow-wow theory which is the idea that words were first formed by imitating the sounds one hears around them like moo, tick-tock, choo-choo, clang, buzz, bang, meow. This is technically referred to as onomatopoeia or echoism. I guess the obvious comment then would be to ask how one would explain words like love and hate which seem to have no sound association. And following that thought there is the pooh-pooh theory that proposes thatspeech developed from the instinctive sounds people make in emotional circumstances like “ouch” in response to pain or “achoo” as a sneeze. This theory suggests a common response across all languages, however, if “ouch” is the natural response to pain then why is it expressed as “oi” in Russian and “eee” in Cherokee?
Sound symbolism is the basis for the ding-dong theory, anotheronomatopoeia theory which claims there is a somewhat mysterious connection between sounds and meanings so that objects were named after the sounds of everyday life like “oink,” “boom” or “crash.” Then, according to this theory what sound is associated with a rock? The theory also points out that small, sharp, high things have high front vowels in many languages like “itsy bitsy teeny weeny” and that big, round, low things tend to have round back vowels like “moon.” Then, linguist A. S. Diamond suggests that a yo-he-ho theory relates to the rhythmic chants similar to the grunts and groans a human emits when doing heavy work that were perhaps calls for assistance or cooperation. The theory does not explain the origin of most words and Diamond, because of words like “cut,” “break,” “crush” or “strike,” thought this theory might also be somehow related to the aforementioned ding-dong theory.
Danish linguist, Jens Otto Harry Jespersen, suggests that, contrary to other theories, perhaps some of our first words were actually long and musical, rather than the short grunts many assume we started with. He proposed in the sing-song theory, that language is a result that comes from play, laughter, cooing, courtship, emotional mutterings and the like. And, according to a linguist named Revesz humans have always needed contact with their fellow man and he proposed a contact theory known as the hey you? Theory whichsaid that language began as sounds to signal both identity, as in “here I am!” or belonging, “I’m with you!” Or we may also cry out in fear, anger, or hurt, as in “help me!”
Later additions to the top ten list include a contribution by Dr. George Boeree, author of the list, which he named the hocus pocus theory with the idea that language may have had some roots in a sort of magical or religious aspect of our ancestors’ lives. He further noted that perhaps humans began calling out to game animals with magical sounds, which then became their names. And the final theory on the list is the eureka theory that says that maybe language was consciously invented because some ancestor had the idea of assigning arbitrary sounds to mean certain things.
The most recent offering to the compilation of theories is from Quentin D. Atkinson, a biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who in 2011 added the findings of his work. Rather than study words as most previous researchers had done Atkinson applied mathematical measures to linguistics to study phonemes, the distinctive units of sound by which words are represented, for more than 500 languages around the globe. His primary focus was on the click consonants in the Khoisan languages, most of which are indigenous to southern Africa.
Atkinson noted that many African click languages contain more than 100 common phonemes, while the spoken languages among the Pacific Islanders, inhabitants of the furthest migration route out of Africa, contained only 13 of those and the Modern English language has approximately 45 of the phonemes. Findings from the study suggest that language originated only once, and the specific place of origin may be southwestern Africa. He also speculates that since the African populations began their dispersal from Africa to Asia and Europe 60,000 years ago it is possible that the spoken language existed at that time and may have been the catalyst for the dispersion and subsequent migration.
All of these theories along with those more scientifically named such as the Continuity theories (language is so complex it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems) and the Discontinuity theories (language must have appeared suddenly during the course of human evolution) in addition to the other large number of proposals, create an enormous amount of information which can be mind-boggling. There is one thing to be said about the language theories, that lacking direct empirical evidence one is certainly free to subscribe to the one they like best!
By Pat Farrell / Contributing Writer
