What is language?
Language is an arbitrary system of a set of signs used for communication. It is arbitrary because there is no natural connection between the sign and what it refers to. The signs used in the language are only means which help in referring to something other than them.
How did language originate?
We do not have enough data to prove the origin of language. Because of this, we can only make some hypotheses about the origin of language.
What are the different hypotheses about the origin of language?
The different hypotheses about the origin of language can be grouped as divine source hypotheses, human source hypotheses and evolutionary hypotheses.
Explain the Divine Source Hypothesis about the origin of language.
It is a view held by the religions. It says that human beings did not invent language, but some divine source gifted it to mankind.
Explain the Human source Hypothesis about the origin of language
The human Source hypothesis about the origin of language claims that man produced language with his own effort. There are many popular versions of this hypothesis. They are:
a) "Bow-wow" hypothesis
b) “Pooh pooh” hypothesis
c) The "Yo-heave-ho" hypothesis and
d) The 'Ta-ta' hypothesis
Explain the Bow-wow Hypothesis about the origin of language
It claims that the first human words were those sounds whose form communicated its meaning. When one imitates the sound of dog and says ‘bow-wow’, the picture of a dog comes to mind. The few surviving onomatopoeic words are examples. However, onomatopoeia is a very limited part of the vocabulary of any language. Even if one agrees that onomatopoeia provided the first words, where did the rest come from?
Some English onomatopoeic words are bang (door), click (computer mouse), moo (cow), oink (pig), quack (duck), meow (cat) honk (horn), vroom (engine) pew pew (laser) quack (duck), hiss (snake) roar (lion), splash (water), beep (electronic devices), ping pong (table tennis) etc.
Explain the “Pooh pooh” Hypothesis about the origin of language.
The “Pooh pooh” Hypothesis about the origin of language claims that the first words came from involuntary cries. Cries expressing dislike (pooh pooh!), hunger, pain (ouch!), or pleasure, gradually led to the expression of more developed ideas and emotions. However, emotional exclamations are a very small part of any language. Moreover, most human responses to stimuli like sneeze, cry, hiccough etc. are ingressive sounds while human languages use egressive sounds.
Explain the "Yo-heave-ho" Hypothesis about the origin of language.
The Yo-heave-ho" Hypothesis about the origin of language claims that language developed out of necessity when human beings began working together in groups. When they engaged in hard labour (lifting heavy animals, pulling fallen trees, pushing huge rocks etc.), they needed grunts, chants etc. to synchronize their activity. This theory stresses the social origin of language.
Explain the ‘Ta-ta’ Hypothesis about the origin of language.
The ‘Ta-ta’ Hypothesis argues that that language came from oral pantomime of gestures. People used organs of speech to imitate body gestures with a sort of mouth pantomime. However, although primates use same gesture to communicate, human gestures differ from culture to culture.
Explain Glossogenetics:
Glossogenetics is a hypothesis about the evolution of language. It argues that that human language developed as a result of this evolutionary change because of some physical language acquisition device they got during evolution. It points out that a) at some stage in the evolution humans acquired a sophisticated brain which helped them acquire language, and b) the ability to move upright transformed human larynx to an organ capable of producing of vowel and consonant sounds.
