LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION - EPISODE 3

...a continuation from episode 2: -

Where does Language Originates from?

The argument where language emanates from has never been a settled phenomenon. The divide is anchored on the facet of one’s believe or ideology.

X-raying the fact that language is not acquired in isolation but with a mixture of natural phenomenon stimulated by the speech pattern in our communication environment, ideologies postulating and placing origin of language on interactions between man and its immediate environments might sound cool and ok.

This however, looks at the language system as man has evolved and interacted over time. It does not explain the situation when the first man was alone with animals before the population of the earth.

"Relaying to the fact that the language community at the time was with animals, how was he able to speak/communicate distinctively. How come his speech pattern became entirely different from that of other animals? How come there is no understanding between animals and human expect in some cases of extensive training, yet limited in learning the speech patterns of the animals (for Human) and human communication (for animals)".

There seems to me that there is an explanation believers of the following listed theories need to give:

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,

The Ding-Dong Theory:

This theory, favoured by Plato and Pythagoras, maintains that speech arose in response to the essential qualities of objects in the environment. The original sounds people made were supposedly in harmony with the world around them.

The La-La Theory:

The Danish linguist Otto Jespersen suggested that language may have developed from sounds associated with love, play, and (especially) song.

The Pooh-Pooh Theory:

This theory holds that speech began with interjections—spontaneous cries of pain ("Ouch!"), surprise ("Oh!"), and other emotions ("Yabba dabba do!").

The Yo-He-Ho Theory:

According to this theory, language evolved from the grunts, groans, and snorts evoked by heavy physical labour.(https://www.thoughtco.com/where-does-language-come-from-169…)

"Language has being since from the creation of man, resides in man, came out of man because Man's creator, God was the first to use language"

The creationist Theory Next,

~Episode 4~

- Egbilika JosiahLinguist, Language/Communication Expert, Consultant, Editor, Public Speaker, Research Consultant

Turn In to #LanguageHealth Radio Programme, 9-10pm Every Wednesday, 92.3 Nigeria Info. Twitter: @megastarjec | facebook.com/egbilikaj | #LanguageSense Initiative | #LanguageHealth

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