Origin of language
The divine source
The natural sound source
The physical adaptation source
The tool-making source
The genetic source
The social interaction source
Many societies throughout history believed that language is the gift of the gods to humans.
The “bow-wow” theory
The “pooh-pooh” theory
ding-dong" hypothesis
ta-ta" hypothesis.
yo-he-ho" hypothesis
The physical adaptation source – changes in physical features of humans: upright posture on two feet, change in front limbs functions, vocal tract etc.
Teeth and lips
Mouth and tongue
Larynx and pharynx
The tool-making source – physical adaptation process led to change of functions. Gestures – a precursor of language. Tool-making –evidence of a brain at work.
• Innateness hypothesis – children are born with a special capacity for language.
• Human genetics, a crucial mutation – not a gradual change, but something that happened rather quickly;
• The investigation of language origin turns into a search for the special ‘language gene’ that only humans possess.
The most famous and therefore the most ridiculed hypothesis) holds that vocabulary developed from imitations of animal noises
Holds that the first words came from involuntary exclamations of dislike, hunger, pain, or pleasure, eventually leading to the expression of more developed ideas and emotions.
Language began when humans started naming objects, actions and phenomena after a recognizable sound associated with it in real life.
Charles Darwin hypothesized, that speech may have developed as a sort of mouth pantomime: the organs of speech were used to imitate the gestures of the hand.
Language developed on the basis of human cooperative efforts. The earliest language was chanting to simulate collective effort
Manuel Leonardo Sanchez Ardila
