When one speaks about language, they usually consider speech to be this language. Yet, language is a varied means of communication that could have developed out of manual gestures rather than vocalization. Nevertheless, this assumption can never be hold to be definitely true.
The theories on the origins of language vary as no direct evidence was ever found. Yet, as Muslims, we accept as true that Allah taught Adam all names (i.e. languages). But since we are students of Anglo literatures and civilizations, we need to study the Anglo perspectives.
According to Yule’s ‘The Study of Language’ there are six presumable sources:
1 – The Devine source:
In the Bible, Adam was created and whatsoever Adam called any object or creature, then that would be its name. In Hindu tradition, language came from Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, creator of the universe. There is also the tower of Babel theory in which Babylonians, who spoke one language, tried to build a tall tower to reach heaven’s doors. Hence, god, in their beliefs, gave them several and different tongues in order to never agree again upon such idea. And divine sources vary as cultures and religions and beliefs differ. The basic hypothesis to the divine origins of language was that there was an original God-given language which every human acquire even if they are never exposed to any human-language.
2 – The Natural sound Source:
It is believed that humans of primitive societies have imitated nature’s sound. If a certain object, as a bird, would make a sound of Coo-Coo while flying, then the heard sound would be adopted to refer to that specific bird or birds in general. The fact that there are actually some words, such as boom, bang, buzz, supports this theory. These words that echo nature are known as ‘onomatopoeic’ words. Nevertheless, counting the number of soundless objects and abstract things in the universe would lead the theory to contradict itself.
3 – The Physical Adaptation Source:
The physical features humans possess had provided the ability of speech production. In the evolutionary development, the Neanderthal is supposed to be developed from apes; that is, the physical adaptation of a human being is more relevant to speech than the one of apes. Consequently, language has started with the human evolution.
4 – The Articulatory System:
Teeth
Human teeth are mostly fit for chewing and grinding, and not for ripping or tearing such as those of apes. Teeth, with the human characteristics, are also useful in making dental and labiodental sounds.
Lips
The suppleness of human lips makes muscle interlacing very flexible. The lips serve in uttering the bilabial sounds.
Mouth
The human mouth can be closed and opened rapidly thanks to its small size. This characteristic helps shaping a wide variety of sounds inside the oral cavity.
Larynx and Pharynx
The human larynx, which contains the vocal cords, and the pharynx, the cavity that increases and clarifies the sounds produced via the larynx, are in a better position in the human body. Some primate animals such as apes have the two organs disturbed by the spinal column. These characteristics assure that language could never have been known before the complete development of the human species.
5 – The Brain:
When talking about the human brain, one understands the ability of organizing and controlling complex physical objects in addition to sound production. The part of the brain that is responsible for manipulating objects and for speaking is the left one; hence, it is presumed that language developed in the tool-making periods. That is, when early humans used their brains to combine things and make objects, they also used the same strategy to combine certain sounds and create names. Nevertheless, they lacked the ability of building up complex messages.
6 – The Genetic Source:
The complexity of human evolution has led scientists to look for something more powerful than physical adaptations as the origin of language. New born deaf babies lack the ability of learning a natural language. Yet, the facility in being fluent in artificial languages, such as sign language, indicates that every new born possesses a special capacity to acquire any language. The language learning ability depends on genetic sources that have developed through time. The study of genetics suggests that a genetic change happened very quickly, yet it is not certain about when that took place.
The origin of language varies as scholars and researchers have always suspected each source. To know more about language and its characteristics, it is advisable to read Plato’s, Socrates’, and Chomsky’s works in which the mentioned theories are well developed.