General linguistics

The origins of language

What is language ?

Definitions of language
Language is the human ability to acquire and use complex. system of communication
Language is a system that enables humans to exchange.verbal or symbolic utterances
A system of communication consisting of sounds, words,and grammar, or the system of communication used
.by people in particular country or type of work

The origin of language

.The divine source

. The natural sound source

.The oral-gesture source
.The physical adaptation source
.The genetic source

The divine source .1

The basic idea of this theory is that : a divine source
.gives language to the humans
If human infants grow up in isolation, they will
.naturally begin to use the original God-given language
Over centuries, people carried out many
experiments to discover the original God-given
.language

Pasmmeticus (Egyptian pharaoh) let two newborn infants grow up in the company of goats and a mute
shepherd, after two years the children were reported
to have started saying the Phrygian word bekos
(bread)
The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian must be the .original language
However, children discovered living in isolation do not
.confirm these findings but grow up with no language

The natural sound source. 2

The language comes from the imitation of sounds
.made by the nature
the imitation of sounds were used( bow-wow theory)
to refer to the things associated with the relevant
sound.(onomatopoeic)
the language developed on the basis) yo-he-yo theory (
. of human cooperation

It has also been suggested that the

original sounds of language come from
natural cries of emotion. e.g. Pain, anger
. and joy

The oral-gesture source. 3

The gestural theory states that human language
developed from gestures that were used for simple
.communication
This theory links between physical gesture and
.orally produced sounds
Oral gestures were developed via too-making, as
early humans hands became occupied with tool use,
they were less able to use hand gestures, so speech
.became a necessity

The function for object manipulation and for

speaking are very close to each other in the left
. hemisphere of the brain

The physical adaptation source- 4

Physical features that distinguish humans from other
.creatures may have supported speech production
.Parts of human body work differently
upright teeth (fricative sounds)*
more flexible lips*
Smaller, thicker more muscular tongue*
The human larynx, or voice box, which contains *
the vocal cords, is in lower position in humans than in
,primates

Longer pharynx (cavity above the vocal fold)*

the genetic source- 5

Crucial mutation in human genetics, languagegene
This would mean that language did not result fromgradual change but happened rather quickly unlike
.physical adaptation

:Linguistic functions
Interactional function- 1
Transactional function- 2

Thank you