Origin of language and causes of why there are different languages in the world?

Answer 1

The Bible teaches that the languages exist because at one time, mankind only had one language, and they tried to build a tower to Heaven, which displeased God. It is possible that the tower was connected in some way with false worship, but the Bible text does not explain that. Anyway, then God, in order to stop the building of the tower, caused the people to begin to speak in many different languages, and since they could no longer communicate with each other, they did not finish building the tower. The story is found in Genesis 11:1-9.

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Answer 2

The origin of language is the emergence of language in the human species. This is a highly controversial topic, empirical evidence being so limited that many regard it as unsuitable for serious scholars. In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris went so far as to ban debates on the subject - a prohibition which remained influential across much of the western world until late in the twentieth century.origin-of-languageToday, there are numerous hypotheses about how, why, when and where language might first have emerged - almost as many hypotheses as there are researchers in the field.origin-of-languageTo an outsider, it might seem that there is hardly more agreement today than there was a hundred years ago, when Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection provoked a rash of armchair speculations on the topic.origin-of-languageSince the early 1990s, however, a growing number of professional linguists, archaeologists, psychologists, anthropologists and others have attempted to address with new methods what they are beginning to consider 'the hardest problem in science'.origin-of-language

Theories about the origin of language can be divided according to their underlying assumptions. 'Continuity theories' are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form: it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our primate ancestors. 'Discontinuity theories' are based on the opposite idea - that language is so unique a trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and must therefore have appeared fairly suddenly during the course of human evolution. Another contrast is between theories that see language mostly as an innate faculty that is largely genetically encoded, and those that see it as a system that is mainly cultural - that is, learned through social interaction.origin-of-languageOrigin of language

Noam ChomksyBorn7 December 1928(1928-12-07)

Currently the only prominent discontinuity theorist is noam-chomsky. Responding to Darwinian proposals, Chomsky complains: 'There is a long history of study of origin of language, asking how it arose from calls of apes and so forth. That investigation in my view is a complete waste of time, because language is based on an entirely different principle than any animal communication system'.origin-of-languageWhen pressed to explain language's origins, Chomsky replies that we cannot know: 'To tell a fairy story about it, it is almost as if there was some higher primate wandering around a long time ago and some random mutation took place, maybe after some strange cosmic ray shower, and it reorganized the brain, implanting a language organ in an otherwise primate brain'. While cautioning against accepting this literally, he insists that 'it may be closer to reality than many other Fairy Tales that are told about evolutionary processes, including language'.origin-of-languageMore recently, Chomsky has gone further in arguing that a single chance mutation really did occur in one individual, triggering the 'instantaneous' emergence of language in 'perfect' or 'near-perfect' form.origin-of-languageorigin-of-language

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Answer 3

The origins of speech itself can only be guessed at, but observing the behaviour and interactions of animals gives us plenty of clues.

For Written Languages, we are on slightly firmer ground. Cuneiform originated with the Phoenicians, probably a Semitic race, perhaps 3500 years ago. It was originally just a method of recording accounting information, such as 'Who has paid towards the irrigation?' or 'How many bags of grain has someone stored in the granary.' The Cuneiform marks were made in soft clay tablets, and the scribing instrument was a sharp sided triangle. The tablets were then baked to preserve them.

From these beginnings both the number symbols developed and much of language.

Other written language systems developed independently. The Chinese system developed characters, many of which are pictorial. [It is probably no accident that many Chinese symbols are based on a brush drawn triangle.]

The old Egyptian language of Hieroglyphics was also a pictorial language. [In it a cubit, the unit of measure, was shown as an arm.] And again, the Mayans independently developed a written language.

A good book looking at this is The Alphabet Effect by Robert K Logan.

Answer 4

The English language is Germanic and has its early origins in the tribes of North Western Europe, The Jutes from Jutland peninsular in Denmark, The Angles from Southern Denmark and the Saxons of North Germany before they invaded the Romano -Brythonic speaking Isle of Britannia in 449AD when it became known as Englisc.

The tribes were so closely linked that up till the mid 11th century Norwegians, Danes, English and Icelanders could still make themselves understood to each other.