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- In the eighteenth century, German philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder had a radical idea, one that ran contrary to the popular notion that language was a divine gift. Herder’s proposition was that vocal imitation—mimicry of the natural environment—could be the spark that, over time, led to fully developed language.
www.neh.gov › article › how-speech-beganHow Speech Began | The National Endowment for the Humanities
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What were the early theories of speech?
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How did speech originate?
Here are five of the oldest and most common theories of how language began. 1. The Bow-Wow Theory. According to this theory, language began when our ancestors started imitating the natural sounds around them. The first speech was onomatopoeic —marked by echoic words such as moo, meow, splash, cuckoo, and bang .
- The bow-wow theory. The idea that speech arose from people imitating the sounds that things make: Bow-wow, moo, baa, etc. Not likely, since very few things we talk about have characteristic sounds associated with them, and very few of our words sound anything at all like what they mean.
- The pooh-pooh theory. The idea that speech comes from the automatic vocal responses to pain, fear, surprise, or other emotions: a laugh, a shriek, a gasp.
- The ding-dong theory. The idea that speech reflects some mystical resonance or harmony connected with things in the world. Unclear how one would investigate this.
- The yo-he-ho theory. The idea that speech started with the rhythmic chants and grunts people used to coordinate their physical actions when they worked together.
An expert in Proto-Indo-European—a theorized common ancestor of many languages still spoken today, as well as of Latin and ancient Greek—Müller believed in a single origin point for all modern languages. “Language is the Rubicon which divides man from beast,” wrote Müller, “and no animal will ever cross it. . . .
The origin of language, its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries. Scholars wishing to study the origins of language must draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition, and comparisons ...
David McNeill challenges the popular 'gesture-first' theory that language first emerged in a gesture-only form and proposes a groundbreaking theory of the evolution of language which explains how speech and gesture became unified. Read more. Reviews & endorsements.
May 2, 2018 · This special issue provides an interdisciplinary view on contemporary language evolution research. It opens with two articles, those of Nathalie Gontier and Francesco Suman, which address epistemological issues concerning the relation between theory of evolution and language origin research.
