III.Origin

Humans have speculated about the origins of language throughout history.The Biblical myth of the Tower of Babel is one such account;other cultures have different stories of how language arose.

Now the whole earth had one language and few words.And as men migrated from the east,they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.And they said to one another,“Come,letus make bricks,and burn them thoroughly”.And they had brick for stone,and bitumen for mortar.Then they said,“Come,let us build ourselves a city,and a tower with its top in the heavens,and letus make a name for ourselves,lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth”.Andthe LORD came down to see the city and the tower(see Figure 3-1),which the sons of men hadbuilt.And the LORD said,“Behold,they are one people,and they have all one language;and this isonly the beginning of what they will do;and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.Come,let us go down,and there confuse their language,that they may notunderstand one another’s speech”.So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face ofall the earth,and they left off building the city.Therefore its name was called Babel,because therethe LORD confused the language of all the earth;and from there the LORD scattered them abroadover the face of all the earth.

Figure 3-1　“The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.Oil on Board,1563

Language holds us together as groups,differentiates us into groups,and also controls the way we shape concepts,how we think,how we perceive,and how we judge others.When we understand how important and complex a culture’s native language is,it is easier to see why in a country such as India,English is the official language.

Theories about the origin of language differ in regard to their basic assumptions about what language is.Some theories are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form,but that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our pre-human ancestors.These theories can be called continuity-based theories.The opposite viewpoint is that language is such a unique human trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and that it must therefore have appeared suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man.These theories can be defined as discontinuity-based.Similarly,theories based on Chomsky’s generative view of language see language mostly as an innate faculty that is largely genetically encoded,whereas functionalist theories see it as a system that is largely cultural,learned through social interaction.