How did language
begin? Words don’t leave artifacts behind—writing began long after language
did—so theories of language origins have generally been based on hunches. For centuries
there had been so much fruitless speculation over the question of how language
began that when the Paris Linguistic Society was founded in 1866, its bylaws
included a ban on any discussions of it. The early theories are now referred to
by the nicknames given to them by language scholars fed up with unsupportable
just-so stories.
1. The bow-wow theory
The "bow-wow" theory (the
most famous and therefore the most ridiculed hypothesis) holds that vocabulary
developed from imitations of animal noises, such as: Moo, bark, hiss,
meow, quack-quack. In other words, the first human words were a type
of index, a sign whose form is naturally connected with its meaning in time and
space. But, once again, onomotopoeia is a limited part of the vocabulary of any language. The linguistic renditions of animal sounds differ considerably from language to language, although each species of animal everywhere makes essentially the same sound:
a) Dog:bow-wow; Chinese:wu-wu; Jap.wan-wan Russ gaf-gaf, tyaff-tyaff;
b) Cat-meow, Russ.myaoo, Chin--mao, Jap.nya-nya purr in French is ron ron.
c) Pig: oink-oink; Russ. hryu-hryu; Chin.--oh-ee-oh-ee; Jap. bu-bu.
