2-The natural-sound source

1- The ‘bow-wow’ theory:

*It is believed that primitive words could have been
imitations of the natural sounds which early men and
women heard around them.

*When a bird made a cuckoo sound, that natural

sound was adopted to refer to that object.
*all modern languages have some words with
pronunciations which seem to 'echo' naturally
occurring sounds.
* In English, in addition to cuckoo, we have
splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech
• a number of words in any language are
onomatopoeic (echoing natural sounds).
‫وشدق‬
‫دق‬ ‫رن‬ ‫تمتم‬
‫قهقهة‬ ‫غرغرة‬ ‫هدهدة‬
‫صهيل الخيل صليل السيوف صرير الباب او القلم‬
• but it is difficult to see how things without
sounds and abstract ideas could have been
referred to in a language that simply echoed
natural sounds.
• It is also difficult to accept the view that
assumes that a language is only a set of words
which are used as 'names‘ for things.
2-The “pooh-pooh” theory
1- This theory suggested that the original sounds of
language came from natural cries of emotions, such
as pain, fear, hunger, surprise, and the sounds of
laughter and crying, etc.
2-OUCH came to have its painful connotations.
• ah, oh, hey, wow, ay

3-Basically, the expressive noises people make in

emotional reactions contain sounds that are not
used in their language so it seems not to be the
source-sounds.
 The social interaction source
the “yo-he-ho” theory

1- According to this theory the source of

language may be the sounds a person
involved in physical effort produce, especially
when that physical effort involved several
people and the interaction had to be
coordinated.

2- a group of early humans might develop a

set of sounds that were used when they were
lifting and carrying large bits of trees.
3- this theory highlights that human sounds
important use within the life and social
interaction of early human groups.
The oral-gesture source

• People use some nonverbal communication

when they speak. For example, we wave hands
to say good-bye; we nod our heads to show our
approval or to mean ‘yes’, we produce a sound
by our tongue when we mean ‘no’.

• The oral-gesture source suggests that language

started with the gestures that we use by our
mouth and other speech organs.
• physical gesture, involving the whole body,
could have been a means of indicating a wide
range of emotional states and intentions.

• many of our physical gestures, using body,

hands and face, are a means of nonverbal
communication stilt used by modern humans
• It is claimed that originally a group of physical
movements was developed as a means of
communication.
• Then a group of oral gestures, involving the
mouth, developed, in which the movements
of the tongue and lips were recognized
according to patterns of movement similar to
physical gestures.
• We can, indeed, use mime or specific gestures
for a variety of communicative purposes, but
it is hard to visualize the actual 'oral' aspect
which would mirror such gestures.
 Glossogenetics
• Our ancestors became bipedal (standing and
walking on their two legs) about 3.5 million
years ago.
• When these humans could stand on their two
legs, their larynx (a speech organ behind
Adam’s apple in the human throat) changed in
a way to allow humans to produce vowel and
consonant sounds in human languages.
• Human language developed as a result of this
evolutionary change.