The Origin of Language

The Origin of Language
Where did language come from?

 Since the early 1990s, a growing number of professional
linguists, archaeologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and
others have attempted to address with new methods what
they are beginning to consider "the hardest problem in
science."[4]
…the origin of language.

How old is human language?
 Language is at least 50,000 years old, the date that modern
humans dispersed from Africa, and some experts say it is at
least 100,000 years old.
What or who created language?
#1 Belief in the Divine Creation of
Language

 Many societies throughout history believed that language is the

gift of the gods to humans. The most familiar is found in Genesis
2:20, which tells us that the first man, Adam, gave names to all
living creatures. This belief predicates that humans were created
from the start with an innate capacity to use language.
 It can't be proven that language is as old as humans, but it is
definitely true that language and human society are inseparable.
Wherever humans exist language exists.
#2 Natural Evolution Hypothesis
 At some point in their evolutionary development humans
acquired a more sophisticated brain which made language
invention and learning possible.
 The simple vocalizations and gestures inherited from our
primate ancestors soon became a creative system of
language. As soon as humans developed the capacity for
creative language, cultural development would have been an
inevitable next step.
#3 Invention Hypotheses
 If humans acquired the capacity for language either by divine
gift or by evolution, then exactly how might humans have
devised the first language?
 There are several hypotheses as to how language might have
been consciously invented by humans. Most linguists agree
that the origin of language is still a mystery.
 Regardless of whether language was a special gift from the
gods, a natural evolutionary acquisition, or an ingenious,
conscious human invention, language came to exist!
 Since there are over 5,000 languages spoken on Earth today,
a second question arises: Was there one or more than one
original language? We know that there were even more
spoken in the past, when most people lived in small bands or
tribes rather than in large states.
What did man’s original language sound like?
How did so many diverse languages come to exist today?
No one is sure—only theories exist. We

will explore some of those theories.
There are three age-old beliefs
regarding the origin of the
world's present number of
languages.
The Hypothesis of Parallel
Evolution (or the Candelabra
Theory)
 As humans evolved at the same time in more than one
location; each group developed its own unique language.
This hypothesis is called the Candelabra theory. Each of
the original languages then would have changed into
numerous forms. The major language families of today
would be descended from these separate mother tongues.
The Mother Tongue theory
(or the Original Language)
 This theory holds that one original language spoken by a
single group of Homo sapiens perhaps as early as 150
thousand years ago gave rise to all human languages spoken
on the Earth today.
 As humans colonized various continents, this original mother
tongue diverged through time to form the numerous
languages spoken today. Since many scientists believe that
the first fully modern humans appeared in Africa, the mother
tongue theory is connected with a more general theory of
human origin known as the Out of Africa theory.
Migration of Languages
Religious theories:
 The oldest belief is that there was a single, original
language. In Judeo-Christian tradition, the original language
was confused by divine intervention, as described in the
story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis.
 There is a similar story from the Toltecs of pre-Columbian
Mexico, who tell of the building of the great pyramid at
Cholula, and the dispersal of the builders by an angry god.
And other similar stories are found in other parts of the
world.
Some humorous theories proposed by
scholars:
 A German scholar of the last century stated that German was

the first language and that all other languages are inferior
corruptions of it. Other European linguists conferred the
same exalted status on Greek or Sanskrit!
 One Swedish scholar claimed that in the Garden of Eden
God spoke Swedish, Adam spoke Danish and the serpent
spoke French!
The Twelve Super-families of
Present-Day Human Language
 Linguists like Joseph Greenberg believe that all of man's
languages are descended from a common ancient language,
and that twelve distinct language families exist. Their
evidence is that words like ``akwa'' (water) and ``dik''
(finger/one/ten) are used by distinct languages all over the
world. Different linguists will divide the world's languages
into `super-families” in different ways.
How do linguists create these
theories?
First, to try to trace the original mother tongue (or mother

tongues), comparative linguists compare modern languages
to try to reconstruct ancient languages.
 Second, because languages change slowly, they contain all
sorts of indications of ancient culture.
 Study a language--any language--and you will learn much
about the history of the people who speak that language. You
will also be taking a crucial step toward understanding the
contemporary culture of the speakers. Linguists who study
language from this cultural standpoint are called
anthropological linguists.
So what does this mean for my
language: English?
 The Comparative Method finds regular similarities between
languages that cannot be explained by coincidence or word-
borrowing, and estimates ancient language forms from these
similarities. The ancestor language of English can be traced
by this method.
Where does English come from?
 English is one of many modern language derived from Proto-
Indo-European. Linguists have determined a “family tree”
of languages which descended from Proto-Indo-European.
The next slide is an artistic representation of this language
family tree of which English is a part.
Videos/Images
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0phq7litTc
(Before Babel: In search of the first language) From 0:00 to

7:40 minutes and 41:40-47:30 min.
 http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/world_languages
.html
 http://9gag.com/gag/3629214
 http://golden-zephyr.tumblr.com/image/32334248366
 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_terms_derive
d_from_Proto-Indo-European

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The Origin of Language

Where did language come from?

…the origin of language.

 Many societies throughout history believed that language is the

No one is sure—only theories exist. We

 A German scholar of the last century stated that German was

First, to try to trace the original mother tongue (or mother

(Before Babel: In search of the first language) From 0:00 to

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