Chapter Two Language, its Origin and Progress

Chapter Two

Language, its Origin and Progress

1- The discipline of Linguistics is considered a social science. Language is such a system and organization of sounds that started with civilization, with the help of which, people of the same social groups interact with and understand each other. (1)

Just as the whole universe and its system is a natural phenomenon: such as the rising and setting of the sun, change of seasons, the sowing and harvesting of crops, rains and winds are all governed by Nature, similarly language too is a natural entity having a system and discipline. There is an order, sequence and discipline in the formation of words and their pronunciations, the structural position of words in sentences and the changes they go through, the variations in the intonation of sounds in sentences, the inflections and the grammatical formation of tenses etc. They all follow a system and a set of rules. No conscious human effort is involved in their formation.

2- How, when and where did language(s) start, are subjects that have been explored and researched by linguistic experts. According to one such linguist Mr. Gordon Hews, about 10,000 different references are available. (2) In his view, from the 19^th century various opinions were being formed on this subject until a time came in late 1866 when the Linguistic Society of Paris issued advice to refrain from giving opinions on this subject. (3) In any case, there is a dire need to produce material on this topic in Sindhi and other Pakistani languages, as there has hardly been any significant work in these languages.

In this context an opinion regarding its origin is that the language spoken by the early man started when he tried to imitate the sounds already present in nature. These sounds included those of chirping of birds, flowing water in rivers and fountains, the sounds of wind, lightening, of insects and animals and similarly the sounds emanating from eating, drinking and coughing etc. Experts believe that humans and birds have an inherent ability of imitating the sounds arising in any environment. (4)

            Various experts of this field have adopted different theories regarding the origin of language based on their social milieu, customs, traditions and religious inclination. It would be prudent to see what the scholars have contributed to polish our civilization and what they think about speech, language and its script/writing systems.

3- Experts have distinguished mankind from other animal kinds that do not speak. It is indeed the power of speech that has made man a superior creature. Mankind believes that God Almighty has bestowed it with speech to enable it to acquire wisdom and to share that with others. In this regard, different scholars from various countries and religions hold different views. An analysis of these views and opinions is briefly presented here as follows:

(a) Ancient Egyptian View:

There was an ancient Egyptian god named ‘Tehuti/Thoth’ (5) who was considered to be Supreme Being having great powers. As per Egyptian belief, it was Thoth who uttered some ‘mantras’ and words which brought about the birth of the entire universe. He is considered as a lunar god in addition to being a god of magic, sacred writings and the art of writing books. They believed that the goddess of writing called ‘Seshet’ was always with him as his secretary. Thoth was not only a fierce debater, art lover and sweet-talker but he also mastered the art of writing, speech and statistics. He was also considered a god physician, lawyer and architect. Whatever he uttered was considered gospel.

(b) Civilization of Babylon:

As per the myth of Babylonic civilization. ‘Oannes’ was the first cultured person in the form of a mermaid, who swam to the Persian Gulf where he introduced writing and such other arts.

(c) Chinese Civilization:

According to the Chinese myth: Nature produced a ‘sea horse’ or a turtle who spoke Chinese. He did not possess the art of writing but had pictorial designs on its back that were thought to represent his gift of writing. And afterwards different laws and rules were defined. (6)

            The Chinese had great respect for ‘King Celestial’. He was very fond of listening to the chirping sounds of birds and after they flew away, he used to silently copy the marks on the soft sand left by the birds. The Chinese produced very good dictionaries 1000 years back and kept the words in an ideological arrangement.

(d) The Hindu Belief:

Six or seven centuries before the Christian era, the pundits and saintly men of Bharat Varsh hypothesized an interesting perspective based on myths. The ancient manuscripts and writings were personified and called the “goddess (of Vak) of language” and it was respected as being a manifestation of the ‘Brahma’. According to these saints, the sacred voice (Vak) has neither an origin nor the any end, and it is a contemporary of early human beings. Vak is the creative power of Brahma. These preachers believe that the universe came into being at once by the command (Vak). They think that the god uttered “happen” and thus the world was created.

            They also think that many languages were created for human beings, through which man would be able to pray and recite verses and mantras. The Tantric records gave a magical connotation to the power of speaking. Mantras are considered to be symbols of living gods/goddesses. (7)

(e) The Jewish View:

According to the Jewish belief, man is a reflection of God’s creation, who was chased out of paradise and left between rivers and hurricanes as a punishment. He could only speak one language. And the angels worked hard to build cities and dwellings for him.

(f) The Muslim View:

Most of the Muslim clerics believe that Allah Almighty provided the knowledge of language to the first man ‘Adam’ through a revelation. They quote references from the holy Quran to support their view:

      وَعَلَمَ آدَمَ الاَسمآءَ كُلهَا       

 “And He taught Adam the names- all of them.” (8)

At another place the Quran says:

وَمِن آىَاتِه خَلقُ السَموات وَالْاَرْضِ وَاختِلافُ اَلسِنَتكُم وَاَلوَانِكُم  (9)

 “Among other signs of Him, is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of your tongues and complexions. Surely there are signs in this for those who understand.” (9)

Yet another verse says:

اَلرحمنo  عَلَمَ القُرآنَ o  خَلَقَ الاِنْسانَ  o عَلمَهُ البَىَانَ o  (10)       

      “The Most Merciful, taught the Quran, created man, [And] taught him eloquence.” (10)      

So the way the creation of the “first man” did not involve a gradual formation, similarly God Almighty with His divine authority bestowed man with the ability of speaking language from the very beginning.

            In this regard, according to a tradition by Ibn Abbass:

“Adam was taught all the languages of the world; and that Adam and his children expressed themselves according to their own choice. And later when Adam’s children spread to different areas of the world, they, as different groups started using one of those languages while the other languages became redundant.” (11)

            Responding to the clerics that term language as angelic, Ibn Jami says:

“Teaching Adam the act of speech and the names of things does not mean that all this was done through ‘Wahee’ but it means that Allah Almighty bestowed Adam with the gift of speech.” (12)

• Various Theories About Origin of Language:

Linguists have described various theories regarding the origin of language, some of which are worth mentioning (13):

• Pooh-Pooh theory
• Ding Dong theory
• Yo-he-ho theory
• Theory of gestures
• Others

            These theories will now be introduced briefly as follows:

(a) The Pooh Pooh Theory: A famous linguist Max Muller described this theory in the 19^th century; it is also known as the ‘Interjectional theory’. It is based on the concept that the sounds that the early man produced during certain emotions e.g. sorrow, grief, surprise, joy or anger etc. later progressed and took the shape of language.

(b) The Ding Dong Theory: This theory explained the relationship of sounds with the meanings of a language, and the external influences that affected the early man, who used appropriate sounds to express those influences. (14) Later these took the form of a language.

(c) THE Yo-He-Ho Theory: Some of the experts believe that during collective labour when certain people performed some ritual or work together, they must have pronounced certain sounds e.g. hee, ho, ha etc. (15)

(d) The Theory of Gestures: Some anthropologists believe the sign language is the oldest form of language. (16) According to them, by certain gestures with movements of parts of the body, one can express or convey a certain message, for example movements of hands, lips, nodding, blinking or looking away, frowning, shrugging etc. They infer that that when man tried to explain things by these gestures, they became tools of communication. (17)

            There is unison of sounds and symbols in the sign language where more words are usually required for names of things or their alternatives. In this context, Golden Hews believes that the sign language must have had its origin before the spoken language. (18)

Gestures like pursing the lips or curving them, and other signs are also used, even today to convey a particular feeling or message therefore it can also be called a sign language. It has been inferred from these examples that the initial language of the early man was a sort of sign language that took the form of spoken languages in some later period.

Some experts believe that there is a sound track system in the vocal cords, and when a gush of air from the lungs passes through, it produces certain sounds, in some later period, subconsciously took the form of words leading to sentences. Spoken languages may have started in this manner. (19)

(e) Birds sing or chirp but among the Primitives, it is only the human race which can speak. (20)

(f) Theory of Co-operation: Explaining the importance and basic requirements of language for social interaction, Grace de Laguna wrote in 1927:

“Human interaction can be of three different ways during usage of language, such as: to question, to order and to express. Each of these ways has progressed in language through ancient sounds of the early man (that is called the ‘Human Cry Theory’).” (21)

According to him:

“Animal cry is a sort of a call for attention according to the circumstances, to influence emotions of other living things.” (22)

            He further writes:

“Suppose a group of men is scattered around in search of food; and by chance a lion appears there. One of the men from the group spots the lion. He gives out a kind of a cry to warn the others who would find a place of shelter. This type of communication- a call and its response, may have given rise to language. Warning about impending danger is a rule according to which the relationship between “needs versus its response” has been called language by Laguna.” (23)

            Laguna believes that:

“Certain things of human activity were used differently in different circumstances. In these instances the words of the primitive language were sparse and specific and their reach was not so wide. Man must have used the one-word sentences in the beginning. With time the vocabulary increased; one-word sentence based speech was replaced with multiple-word sentences.” (24)

He thinks that:

“The complete sentence of ancient times was based on an “isolated type”, in which the constituent words were not used according to the established pattern of nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs but by doing internal variations and adjoining prefixes and suffixes for common understanding.” (25)

(g) The Verb Theory: A solicitor named A.S. Diamond had discussed the origin and evolution of language in his book. (26) He threw light on the following points:

• Words of speech have been derived from verbal roots.
• The initial utility of language
• The phonological shapes of ancient words
• The semantic stature of ancient words

            The crux of Diamond’s theory is that semi-gypsy, nomadic and local groups used words of request that took the shape of early language; and he thinks that those requests later progressed to action words like breaking, cutting, killing etc. Those words were more indiscreet than the present day verbal forms.

Diamond opines that it is the verb that is the foundation on which a language stands. As time went by, social influences increased the scope of language bringing about newer grammatical forms like adjectives and nouns, with the resultant increase in its vocabulary. In this context, he has referred to Shakespeare’s plays and writes:

      “There is a preponderance of verbs in the plays and the words which are scarcely used, are mostly nouns, while adjectives are even less in number.” (27) As time passed, the usage of nouns and adjectives in comparison to verbs increased. Later he conducted a comparative study of the language used by hunters, food collectors and that of the ancient man with the language of later periods and lastly with the present form of language. (28) And he came to the conclusion:

“The usage of verbs in the present language is only 10%.”

            He further believes that:

“There were times when verbs were abundantly used in language but now with the addition of other words and evolving process, the study of language, shows that other words of speech e.g. nouns, adjectives, pronouns and adverbs are comparatively more than verbs.” (29)

Explaining it, Diamond writes:

            “A study of verbs has proved that the rules to add prefixes and suffixes to a verbal root are quite scarce; and only a very small number of suffixes are added to verbs to make new forms, while prefixes are never added to verbs as seen to occur in other forms.” It is proved from Diamond’s opinion that “the forms of verbs were the basis of the ancient form of language.” (30)

5- Theory of Morris Swadesh: Another contemporary linguist Morris Swadesh presented his theory in 1991 in one of his books. (31) He has divided the evolution of language in four periods.

• Eoglottic period (Initial stone age)
• Paleoglottic period (Ancient stone age)
• Neoglottic period (New stone age)
• Historical period (Modern period)

(a) Eoglottic Period: This initial period is considered to be up to 3 million years back. The man of Java i.e. Australopithecus of that period used to wander in the forests of Africa. Before this period man was used to exchange some abstract individual simple words, prolong them or pronounce them loudly, using low and high pitch or repeating the words (like dual words) to draw his meanings from them. It is quite possible that while pronouncing the name of some object, he may have brought a change in the shape of his lips or mouth to express its meaning; for example he may have rounded off his lips when talking about round objects.

            Morris thinks that in the Eoglottic period language was in the process of transformation from the “exclamatory” to the “expressive message” system. It is possible that in that period there were only two basic words and by the help of intonation, or by way of pronunciation, lyricism and notes of the musical system, different meanings of the words were expressed.

(b) Paleoglottic Period: The forms and signs for objects changed in this period and by bringing about changes in the roots, more words were acquired i.e. new words were formed with different meanings. There must have been quite a big difference in the pronunciation of “bi-labial sounds” as compared to “velar sounds”.

(c) Neoglottic Period: In this period vowels and consonants were added to words and their roots (that already existed from some previous period) as prefixes and suffixes to form new words. Most of the changes were made by adding or subtracting a vowel in the syllable between words, or by changing the phonetics by bringing a change in the lips or the glottis, or by changing the words after replacing certain vowels before, amid or at the end of a word; thus change in their pronunciation was caused which resulted in the change in their meaning. In this way, using inflections, reduplication and other procedures of linguistic nature, words with new meaning were formed. There was no difference in genders or numbers at that time.

(d) Historical Period: This period saw a change in the words, their participles, prefixes, suffixes and the rules of syntax. Local languages gave rise to classical languages and there was addition in nouns, pronouns etc.

            One of the important points Swadesh made was that all the languages of the world belong to the same family and it was in the Paleoglottic period that it happened; especially in the middle Paleolithic period, when the Neanderthal Man existed.

By analyzing the theories of Swadesh, many questions boggle the mind. For example:

• When did language start?
• Where did language first start?
• Was there one principal language from which other daughter languages were derived?
• Did the sign language precede or follow the spoken language?
• How much part did tools, food and man play in the origin of language?
• How favourable were the natural circumstances in the ancient times when man was crossing the boundaries of language?
• Did language come into being gradually with time or it appeared in a form suddenly?
• Could the Neanderthal man speak?
• Was there an established language in the period of Australopithecus?
• Was there a theme for a change from non-lingual to a lingual society?
• Did the early man have the tools to communicate with each other before language came into being?

6. Difference of opinion exists between the experts on the above mentioned questions, and if some answers are available, contrary opinions exist too. In any case, certain questions have been pondered upon as follows:

(a)  Theory of Evolution of Mankind (A theory of Transition)

            Communication experts, Melvin, Defleur, Sandra Ball, Bernard Comrie, Stephen Mathews and Maria Polinsky in their recent research have divided the existence of mankind into different eras and periods. For example they write:

           “The beginning and existence of man on this universe can be divided into the following ages:

• Ancient initial period
• Middle period
• Neolithic/New stone age
• Copper
• Iron age.” (32)

            These experts have further divided these very eras into periods of “short” and “long” durations. To protect and preserve his life, man invented tools and weapons from different ores and metals. And as time went by, people had to develop new technologies and skills so that they could protect their younger ones and produce food, using methods of hunting, agriculture and animal farming.

These ages were intervened by certain intervals. Experts have called their durations by various names. Morris Swadesh’s theory has been discussed later in detail but the names Melvin and his associates have attributed are as follows:

• Paleolithic period (Ancient Stone Age)
• Mesolithic period from 6000 BC to 4000 BC (Middle Stone Age)
• Neolithic period from 4000 BC to 3500 BC (New Stone Age)

These ages, without doubt, help in studying the evolution and research of technology and weapons and other inventions of the man of those times. But these periods have not been able to throw light on the basic elements of the evolution and preservation of mankind in these periods.

7. The methods by which one can say something about the existence and progress of mankind have been divided by experts into different classes or stages. The progressive development of the subsequent generations of man learned to change their life style and acquired special qualities and abilities to help them in their evolution process.

(a) The Stages of Human Evolution: Experts believe that the evolution of man can be explained by the “Theory of Transition”. Every stage of progress has influenced life on individual and collective levels. It can be summarized that the progressive stages of evolution of mankind and its growth are related to different stages of development of language e.g. sign language, speaking, writing, reading, press and publications and means of communication.

            Experts have called the first step of the ladder of evolution as “Age of Signs and Signals”. This stage must have started in the very early man, i.e. Proto-human life, which was when the existence of mankind would have just started. This early man must have come in contact with other mammals and would have asked for something in the sign language; and would have in some way responded to their needs. The means of communication amongst themselves must have been a language even if it was a sign language.

(i) When did language start?

This is a question of great importance as to when did language begin. And the answer depends upon the guiding principles and rules fixed to define the properties of these languages. Experts believe that 5000 years before the ancient cities of the Near East were established, languages had already existed, as there are evidences found on pottery with scripts of their languages. It proves that a language was spoken and a written form of that language also existed. Some pottery found from Japan is more than 10,000 years old. Similarly it is also proven that idols of clay were made 20,000 years back; such evidence is provided by expert archaeologists, after studying these idols. (33)

In this context, microscopic studies have revealed that carving on bones was done 30,000 years back. (34) These findings have proved the existence of language to at least the Upper Paleolithic age. Some proofs of existence of language in that period have been found from paintings, in the Cro-Magnon caves (35). These pictures give ample evidence that man spoke some language at that time. Cro-Magnon Cave Man had first discovered/appeared 40,000 years back but most anthropologists believe that language existed even before the appearance of the Cro-Magnon. Some experts think that Neanderthal knew some sort of language. His existence is dated some 100,000 years back (36), who had already disappeared long before the appearance of Cro-Magnon. (37)

Anthropologists have also tried to prove the existence of Pithecanthropus (Man of Africa) before Neanderthal (38), and it is said to have existed 1 million years back (39). This man first appeared in Africa followed by South Asia and later the population spread in the temperate zone (40). The man of this group used fire also (41) and hunted elephants, and he could speak too. (42)

There are evidences of Australopithecus’s existence before Pithecanthropus (43) which is said to be 4 million years ago (44). Proofs show that somewhere around the period of Pliocene and about 12 million years back “the Man of North West India” existed. He is called Ramapithecus. (45) Australopithecus had a large head, walked upright on two legs and used hand-made crude instruments (46). A few anthropologists believe that Australopithecus could speak (47), while some think that Ramapithecus could also speak. (48)

It can be inferred from this narration that the man who existed 12 million years ago could speak some language.

(ii) Where did language come into being?

The answer to this question depends upon a study of the fossils of the ancient man. It is discovered from such studies that the ancient man initially lived in the geographical boundaries of Eastern Africa and North West India; later the regions of South Africa and Java, the Atlantic belt of Europe, Africa and China were the geographical areas where the ancient man lived. It would be difficult to reach at a conclusion whether the ancient Cro-Magnon of the Upper Paleolithic era started speaking a language in the surrounding areas of the Mediterranean, or the Man of China (Neanderthal) started speaking first. In this context, and on the basis of linguistic analysis, Morris Swadesh has opined that “Far-East was the principal region from where principal language(s) started. (49)

(iii) Was the ancient man able to speak?

Dr. Melvin and his associates have raised the same question in their book, where they have said: “Whether or not the ancient man could speak, is a very important question.” They have answered this question by saying:

“Some recent research has proved that the early man was definitely able to pronounce some sounds of a language. It has revealed that the excavations from the ruins of the Upper Paleolithic age show no the skull and bodily configuration etc. such as; vocal cords (sound box) in ancient Apes. They feel that the size of skull, length of tongue and shape of the sound box of the early man (Hominids) is not like Apes. In other words, the ancient Apes did not possess this ability to speak. The present day primates are a proof of this finding, it has not been possible to teach or train the chimpanzees, to speak. Their physical structure and bodily functions are incapable of learning to speak. On the contrary it can be assumed that the Hominids had these abilities and could pronounce sounds of language; they could speak in addition to be able to express through signs and movements of hands, face and other body parts.” (50)

The experts believe that the sound box and the shape and size of the skull of the Cro-Magnon was similar to the present day humans, therefore it can be claimed that the Cro-Magnon possessed the ability to speak. And this proves that language existed even 35 to 40 thousand years back. The bodily configuration of people of those times was similar to the present day man. (51)

Honorable Mr. Melvin, Bernard Kamri and their associates point to another important point which is about the appearance of Cro-Magnon in his habitat, where the Neanderthal man already existed in the same region. They (Neanderthal people) were physically strong and were well versed with the ways to live. They were excellent hunters, intelligent and were able to make useful instruments and tools.

Similarly Cro-Magnon people were also intelligent, sharp and very good hunters. In addition to other qualities, they knew how to bury their dead. In short Cro-Magnon people were successfully progressing through stages of human evolution. These were our fore-fathers while the Neanderthal people were lost and erased from the face of the earth.

Critics have raised a question as to why the Cro-Magnon progressed while the Neanderthal people perished. The acceptable view in this regard is that Cro-Magnon people worked towards improving their language and they could communicate better, could help each other by giving ideas about how to hunt and protect themselves thereby ensuring their survival. They invented ways and means to produce and store food items and protect themselves from calamities and enemies. While the Cro-Magnon people progressed and achieved much better living conditions, the Neanderthal people remained confined to their stage of sign language and did not progress. Later when climatic changes of the Ice Age occurred they were unable to sustain and cope and slowly and gradually perished.

Throughout this time the Cro-Magnon people kept progressing with time. The region where they had lived from the very beginning started to become dry and they found it hard to meet their requirement of food, fruits and vegetables, so they started moving to other areas along rivers; some went to Tigris and Euphrates, some to the west of the Mediterranean and in the North West to the Nile Valley.

Around 10,000 BC these people started cultivating crops and invented tools and weapons for hunting and other purposes. They started keeping animals, starting from dogs and later went to keep horses, cattle and goats, even some birds like hens. By 6500 BC they had properly engaged themselves in agriculture and started living in houses and created a society that progressed with the passage of time. Their living conditions improved, they developed traditions and formed communities leading to establishment of towns and cites. These ancient cities became a sign of the historic period of their civilization.

Human population and the evolution of civilization and culture is a very vast subject and much has been written about it and is beyond the scope of this book.

(iv) Languages originating from single or multiple sources:

There can be no doubt in saying that there are thousands of languages spoken in the world in present times. There were times when not much was known about languages. The next important question is whether all the existing languages of the world originated from one principal language or they are all from different groups of languages. Whether they started all at once or at different times? In this regard, after a comparative study of languages Morris Swadesh has opined that all the languages have originated from one principal language (52), but others differ with him (53). They think that he has based his theory on presence of identical words in various languages, which is not true. It is quite possible that languages have borrowed words from other language or that one language has been influenced by others. This issue has not yet been resolved.

(V) Did language start progressively or instantly?

The most important point about origin of language is whether it started instantly or progressively improving with better living conditions and getting enriched with time. Eric Lenneberg believes that the power of speech was a special gift bestowed upon man by Nature. It has to be kept in mind that a mentally retarded human being would not be able to learn a language, and if some of them are able to utter bits and pieces, that may not be absolutely correct, phonetically or grammatically. (54) Lenneberg thinks that, “Language has been present from the very beginning of mankind (55). He further argues:

• “Every human society speaks some language”.
• “Language is related with physical and instinctive knowledge, and there are specified cells in the human brain related with speech.”
• “In order to speak continuously, Nature has equipped man with respiratory adjustments in the lungs through breathing and presence of sound track in the mouth, where sounds are produced. No other living creature apart from man is equipped with a sound box of this nature that could produce sounds.” (56)

Experts believe that mankind learned to speak in a “magical environment”. They think that when a child is born, the noises in his surroundings reach his ears; his parents loving words and affectionate utterances of his siblings and his relatives and people around him are heard by him. When he starts speaking as he grows, it is like a magic that comes about in the environment; a magic that provides cognizance of things and the child feels he or she is being heard and understood. Every human understands that the power of speech is a means for expression of love and hate, fear and other such feelings.

According to Professor Firth, “Human being is an integral part of the world we live in.” (57) Human speech is a mixture of bi-labial, dental, palatal, glottal and velar sounds. Language is not just a production of sounds from the vocal cords but it is a conscious mental activity that controls the different nerves. It would be incorrect to say that it is the ears that hear as it requires a much more sophisticated system in the brain. Whatever occurs in our surroundings, our ears are ready to hear it.

7-   Powers of the Human Mind:

(i) In the different eras of human development, the human mind has also evolved and progressed. The ancient man did not possess all the abilities of mind but he acquired them gradually with time. It must have taken ages to get the ability to learn more from development of society, including the ability to pronounce and understand different sounds of language. Ultimately human mind progressed with resultant increase in his intellect, wisdom and acumen, but still he was not able to reach the stage of speaking a language.

It would be imprudent to believe that human mind progressed in the use of language like animals, birds and insects, which use gestures like bringing changes in their feathers and necks to express fear or want of food. Further points about the human mind and the origin of language will be discussed later, but we admit that it must have taken millions of years to produce means of communication and to improve upon them as well.

(ii)  According to Melvin and his associates, the second stage in the evolution of human life came when he reached the stage of speech and language. Some experts disagree with the notion that man started to speak somewhere between 90,000 and 40,000 years ago i.e. 35000 years from today a language would have first assumed the status of human communication. And the art of writing came about much later.

(iii) Melvin and associates write that in the more recent period i.e. 5000 years back man entered his third stage of evolution by acquiring the art of writing. The first ever writing was invented by the people of China and Mayan civilization. Similarly the Sumerians and Egyptians invented script for their prevalent languages. It is rather surprising that Melvin and his colleagues have not mentioned the Indus script which was used by the Indus civilization. Even though from Sir John Marshall to the present day researcher Dr. J.V. Kenoyer and other experts have written hundreds of articles and books about the Indus script that are available in the libraries of the world. It is also surprising that Brian Isyros has mentioned Ramapithecus of North West India but has not written about the one who lived in the Swan Valley of the Potohar near Rawalpindi. This valley is a part of the greater Indus valley, therefore it needs to be given its due importance. Other scholars have mentioned Ramapithecus of the Indus valley who inhabited the Swan river area of the Indus Valley.

There is plenty of material related to the folk literature available with the sughars (folk poets) of the Indus Valley, which mentions about the presence of Adam in the Indus Valley. So the concept of Ramapithecus of North West India also represents Adam (man) of this region.

Dr. Melvin and his associates have written in their book titled “Theories of Mass Communication” that:

“The ancient man must have expressed his desires by some sort of multiple sounds, shouts, screams and by certain movements of his hands, eyes, mouth, shoulders and other body parts; and in the same way he would have responded to the requirements of others. With the passage of time these signs and expressions would have progressed but the means of expression would not have assumed status of a language.” (58)

8- (a) Human sound is a compound of the “postural scheme” of his mind. It is part of an act and involves his entire body, especially parts concerned with respiration, but the human mind has a greater role to play in this regard. His brain controls and regulates his speech. In other words, the mind acts like an administrator.

(b) Human sounds depend upon the activity of air in the mouth cavity. If, during the process of speaking, the passage of air is interfered at different places and different positions then various sounds are pronounced. Speaking is a special quality of human race. Simple production of sounds is different from the act of speaking which is related with stimuli and their responses. (59)

(c)  One must remember the point that when a child starts pronouncing sounds from his surroundings, they appear innocent, very tender, loving and interesting. His stammering is the first step of his act of speaking, where he tries to utter sounds which he has heard from his surroundings.

Experts believe that the first sounds that a child utters are [d, b or m]. With time he hears his parents, siblings and other relations, which increases his vocabulary of sounds, words and meanings. He starts mimicking new words as his ears become used to hearing those sounds and subconsciously he increases his collection of sounds and words.

9- (a) Experts believe that language progressed along with other human acts. Study of biology and biochemistry reveals that human nature has always kept changing. Like other human instincts, mimicking and learning are special qualities of man, speech is one such priceless ability, as it is required for the expression of his wishes in performing all the daily chores of a man’s life from the very beginning. In fact the early man had the same organs like the present day man e.g. throat, sound box, and the air passages whether he lived in caves  or on trees or when he moved to other places for cattle farming etc.

According to Lenneberg: “There is a set standard for evolution of language in a child. It is known that a child learns to utter three sounds initially that are [d, b or m] (60), i.e a child either voices one of the bi-labial voiced sounds [b or m] or utters the dental sound [d]. It means that he learns un-aspirated sounds first. Having learnt these sounds, the next step is uttering simple words which can either be nouns or verbs, but mostly verbs.

(b) Experiments have shown that initially a child starts voicing these three [d, b or m] sounds one after the other, and as he grows older his mental acumen matures and he starts getting used to his surroundings; similarly there is an increase in his vocabulary. It is clear that he starts with one word or one-word sentences, gradually progressing to two-word sentences and more. It must be emphasized that he would learn to speak sentences in accordance with the grammar of the language spoken in his surroundings.

(c) This is also a fact that nobody can stop someone from learning a language. A child can learn a language despite being mute, deaf or blind. Indeed no other living being speaks as humans do and although a lot of experiments done on chimpanzees have been in vain.

10- It is clear from the above text that a child makes progress in his knowledge of language, along with the growth of his mental ability. In a similar way, with time and acquisition of knowledge, man was exposed to newer surroundings and he kept adding new words to his treasure, enriching the language. In this process simple language started becoming more and more complex and this continued happening.  In the post World War II period, the English scientists and experts and scholar of social sciences added thousands of words to its vocabulary. This addition not only included words but they added new fields of knowledge as well. Hymes thinks:

“All the languages do not fulfill and satisfy the requirements of its speakers; neither do all languages have the ability to be helpful to the society where spoken.” (61)

According to the research of experts and scholars, mankind has been evolving in the different eras of culture and civilization. Upper Paleolithic period was an ancient cultural era when man initially made crude weapons from stones followed by making them from bones of hunted animals. He then invented fire and started eating cooked food. This way he gradually progressed in his environment, which gave rise to the progress of his language. So we can say that language evolves with the evolution of culture and civilization. With time language acquired the finesse and refinement by changing and adapting itself according to the surroundings.

This discussion can be summarized by saying that language is a natural heritage of man bestowed on him from the beginning which has kept progressing slowly and gradually with the progress of mankind.

References

• Sturtevant, E.H. 1947, An Introduction to Linguistic Science, New Hawen; Yale University Press, p. 21
• Gordon Hewes, 1974, Language Origins, a Bibliography, second edition, Morton, The Hague. Also see Ibid, 1973, Primate Communication and the Gestural Origin of Language, an article published in <Current Anthropology”, 14, pp 5-24
• Brian Stross, 1976, The Origin and Evolution of Language, University of Texas, W.M.C. Brown Company Publishers, p:20
• Ibid
• Firth, J.R., 1964, The Tongues of Men and Speech, London; Oxford University Press, p:3
• pp:4-5
• Ibid p:5
• Al-Quran 31:2
• Al-Quran 22:30
• Ibid 4-1:55
• Al-Razi Fakhrudin: Tafseer Kabeer, Tehran; 2. 175
• Ibn Jany: 1, 46
• Bloomfield, L. 1964, Language, George Allen and Ltd, London; p:12

Also see Sirajul Haque Memon: 1964, Sindhi Boli, Azeem Publications, Preface, pp:4-5

• Jatoi, Ali Nawaz, Prof: 1983, Linguistics and Sindhi Language (Ilm Lisaan ain Sindhi Zuban) Jamshoro; Institute of Sindhology; p:28
• Ibid ( Also see : Brian Stross., Op. Cit., p:22)
• Brian Stross., Op. Cit. p:22
• Ibid, Op., Cit., p. 23
• Gordon Hewes., 1973, Primate Communication and the Gestural Origin of Language, an article published in “Current Anthropology”, 14, pp:5-24
• Richard Paget, 1963, Human Speech, London: Rontedge and Kegan, Paul, p:120
• Grace de Laguna, 1927, Speech, its Functions and Development, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, p:24
• Ibid
• Ibid p:24
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid p:24
• Diamond, A.S., 1959, The History and Origin of Language, New York: Philosophical Library, p:26
• Ibid p:26
• Ibid
• Diamond, A.S., Op. Cit, p. 26
• Ibid
• Swadesh Morris, 1971, The Origin and Diversification of Language, Chicago: Aldine Atherton, Inc. p:57
• Brian Stross, Op. Cit, p 26
• Melvin L. Defleur and Snadra Ball Rokeach, 1989, Theories of Mass Communication, Longman, New York & London: fifth edition, p:7
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Brian Stross: p. 33
• Ibid p.33
• It is also called Homoerectus
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Swadesh Morris, 1971, The Origin and Diversification of Language, Chicago: Aldine Atherton, Inc.
• Melvin Op, Cit. p. 7
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Ibid
• Lenneberg, Eric, 1976, Biological Foundations of Language, New York: John C. Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Ibid (Also see Bernard Comre, Stephen Matthews and Maria Polinsky, 1996, The Atlas of Languages, the Origin and Development of Languages throughout the world, Bloomsbury Publishing London: Pp:10-11
• Hymes, D., 1861, Functions of Speech ,An Evolutionary Approach in Anthropology and Education, ed. F.C Gruber Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, pp:55-83
• Lenneberg, Eric., Op. Cit.
• Firth, J.R. 1964, The Tongues of Men and Speech, London: Oxford University Press, p:19
• Melvin L. Op. Cit
• Firth, J.R. Op. Cit p:20 Also see Bloomfield, L, Language, Op. Cit
• Lenneberg, Eric. Op. Cit
• Hymes, D., 1961, Functions of Speech ,An Evolutionary Approach in Anthropology and Education, ed. F.C Gruber Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, pp:55-83