Скачать или смотреть The Origins of Language (George Yule, Chapter 1)

The origins of language:No one knows exactly when or how human beings came up with spoken language. One hypothesis is that language began between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, with the advent of modern man, i.e. homo sapiens. This is well before the invention of the written language, about 5,000 years ago. We have direct evidence and artifacts about writing. The divine source: Genesis: God created Adam and “whatsoever Adam called every living creature, was the name thereof. "The Qur’an: He said, “O Adam, inform them of their names.” And when he had informed them of their names…

The Natural Sound Source: Language emerged from natural sounds. Primitive words are considered to be imitations of natural sounds that people hear around them. The natural sound a bird makes is argued to have been used to describe that particular animal. The fact that in many languages there are words such as drip, click, and meow that sound like what they mean supports this claim. Not every sound is onomatopoeic in languages!!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 Yo-He-Ho Theory:based on the notion that speech arose from physical environmental needs which produced communal, rhythmical grunts which later on developed into chants.The Oral Gesture Source:Originally a set of physical gestures was developed as a means of communication, Then a set of oral gestures, specifically involving the mouth, developed for expressing ideas. The Physical Adaptation Source: Human beings are genetically with some physical features that are responsible of producing speech sounds. Like speech organs
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