The Origin of Language

Rosalin Gusdian,MA
Some Theories (yule,2010)
• The Divine Source
• The Natural Sound Source
• The Social Interaction Source
• The Physical Adaptation Source
• Tool Making Source
• The Genetic Source
The Divine Source
• Find in the Quran, God’s Saying about Language
• Find it also in other religions
(Christianity/Hinduism/Taoism/Budhissm)
The Divine Source
• In many religions the divine source gives language to humans
• MONOGENETIC THEORY  Language comes from a single source
• Many experiments to prove it  Pharaoh in Egypt, King James
England
• Finding  Children living in isolation don’t seem to speak any
language at all!
• Criticism?
The Natural Sound Source
• Bow-Wow Theory  Primitive Sounds come from imitations of
natural sounds
• Onomatopoeic Words
• Criticism?
The Natural Sound Source
• Pooh-pooh Theory  Language comes from emotion (pain, joy,
sadness)
• Criticism?
Social Interaction Source
• Yo-he-ho theory  Language comes from rhytmical grunts of people
working together
• Human are social creatures  living together
• Criticism?
Physical Adaptation Source
• Our physical features support the language production  lips, theeth,
larynx, etc
• Compare it with apes
Tool Making Source
• Oral Gesture Theory  Language starts from gestures
• Early human’s hands were busy with tools, and they used less hand
gestures. thus speech became necessary
Genetic Source

• Language is innate
• LAD
• Language gene in our DNA
Wrap-up