The Origin of Language

The origin of language is hidden in the depths of antiquity. Man’s search for the origin of language is deeply rooted. His inquiring spirits were driven by a desire to discover the entire history of language. The irony is that the question is a fruitless one. Each generation asks the same questions, and reaches the same impasse — the absence or any evidence relating to the matter, given the vast, distant time-scale involved. We have no direct knowledge of the origins and early development of language, nor it is easy to imagine how such knowledge might ever be obtained. We can only speculate, arrive at our own conclusions, and remain dissatisfied. Indeed, so dissatisfied was one group the 19^th-century scholars that they took a drastic action. In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris published an edict banning discussion of the topic at their meetings. But the theorizing continues, and these days there is a revival of interest, as new archaeological finds and modern techniques of analysis provide fresh hints of what may once have been.

One of the best-known reports concerns the Egyptian king, Psamtik I, who reigned in the 7^th century B.C. According to the Greek historian, Herodotus, Psamtik wished to find out which of all the peoples of the world was the most ancient. His way of de­termining this was to discover the oldest language that, he thought, would be evidence of the oldest race. This is how Herodotus tells the story, — “He gave two newly born babies of ordinary men to a shepherd, to nurture among his flocks in a special way. He charged him that none should utter any speech before them, but they should live by themselves in a solitary habitation; and at the due hours the shepherd should bring goats to them, and give them their fill of milk, and perform the other things needful.

For after the shepherd had wrought thus for a space of two years, when he opened the door and entered in, both the babes fell down before him, and cried becos, and stretched out their hands. When this word was oftentimes spoken as he came to care for them, he told his lord, and brought the children into his presence when he com­manded. And when Psamtik had also heard it, he enquired which nation called anything becos; and enquiring, he found out the Phrygians called bread by this name. Thus the Egyptians, guided by this sign, confessed that the Phrygians were elder than they”.

Phrygian is now extinct, but at the time it was spoken in an area corresponding to the northwestern part of modern Turkey.

Psamtik’s conclusion was wrong, for we know from philological studies that Phrygian is but one of several languages, which had developed in that period of history. So why did the children say becos? Doubtless they had begun to babble naturally and repeti­tively to each other, in a similar way to twins. Some commenta­tors have even suggested that they were imitating the sound of the goats.

Whether the Psamtik experiment ever took place is open to question. Possibly the origins of the story lie in a fiction invented by someone to discredit the Egyptians. But whatever the reality, the initiative credited to Psamtik has been paralleled later. At least two similar experiments have been reported — though, again, there are doubts as to their authenticity.

It was the German scientist Wilhelm Wundt in the nineteenth century (1832–1920) who prepared the ground for a classification of theories of the origin of language. He distinguished between theories of invention and imitation, miraculous and evolutionary theories. Since his time, the problem of the chronological sequence of the two forms of language, phonetic and gestural, have occu­pied a special place in theories of origin of language.

In recent years serious attempts have been made to see if modern science can throw any light on the question of the origins of language. The study of the formation and development of hu­man language, in both the child and the race, is sometimes called glosso-genetics. Such investigations involve biology (especially sociobiology), anthropology, psychology, semiotics, neurology (for the study of brain evolution), primatology, and linguistics.

(Levitsky A.E. Linguistics / A.E. Levitsky, Slavova L.L.,

Borisenko N.D. – Київ: Знання України, 2006. – С. 20 – 22.)

2. Read the text again and answer the questions. Substantiate your ideas using the information from the text. Discuss the questions in pairs.

1. Do we have any direct knowledge of the origins and early development of language?

2. What drastic action did the Linguistic Society of Paris take in 1866? What were the reasons for it?

3. What provides fresh hints of what may once have been?

4. What is one of the best-known legends about the origins of language?

5. Why was Psamtik’s conclusion wrong?

6. Who prepared the ground for a classification of theories of the origin of language in 19^th century?

7. What theories did he distinguish between?

8. What is glosso-genetics?