Hello and welcome to Wulfhūs once more!

Join me as we examine language evolution over many eons, up to the present day. For this post, specifically, it’s going to be a basic overview of what “language” is and the phenomenon that is “language evolution.” I will also give a brief rundown on Linguistics. At the end of the post, I will be sharing my plan for the order of this extensive series to commence soon hereafter – much is to come, enjoy!

As is my way, I prefer to start my blog posts with a few questions to examine and discuss throughout.

For reference: What is Linguistics? What is Language? What is Language Evolution, and why does it occur?

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| Linguistics |

By definition, Linguistics is the study of language and its structure. There are 5 components to take into consideration as applicable to what makes up Linguistics:

• Phonology: A branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds within a language or between different languages.
• Morphology: The study of the forms of words.
• Syntax: A branch of Linguistics focusing on a set of rules for, or as an analysis of, the syntax of a language.
• Semantics: A branch of linguistics and logic concerned with the meaning of words, phrases, sentences or texts.
• Pragmatics: A branch of linguistics dealing with language in use, and the contexts in which it is used.

Elaboration of each of those components is touched on a bit in my newest post.

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| Language |

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Language is defined in three ways as according to Oxford definition sources:

• The principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture.
• A system of communication used by a particular country or community.
• The style of a piece of writing or speech.

Now, please tag along further, as we travel back in time to where it all began.

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Although the origin and first record of language is still debated to this day, the most common belief is that the very first record of language having been discovered was Egyptian, from 2690 BCE. Next came Sumerian, and then Akkadian – both of which were more commonly recognized previously as the first. To date, there are roughly 7,000 languages spoken worldwide.

As I was working through my research for this blog, I came across a post from a Travel Agency on their website that included a visual timeline of language origin as according to record of when first written – feel free to check it out here.

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How long has research into the origin of language been around, and what is the “fruit of its labor?”

Understanding the origin and functionality of language serves countless reasons – the most impactful being, simply, for the sake of human cooperation. In a primitive sense, this was: cooperation in hunting, promoting bonding, nurture, and a plethora of other functions and purposes for the sake of survival.

An important aspect to consider when it comes to language is context. As shown above, there are three definitions for language; context is indicative of whether we are considering verbal, non-verbal, or written language.

When it comes to where the first record of research began, it was Greek philosophers who began to study and hypothesize language origin in the Third and Fourth centuries BCE. In those times, the focus  of their hypothesizing was also amidst debates from two different theorizing groups of the time: Conventionalists and Naturalists.

Conventionalists erred on the perception that the relationship between the formation of language and its meaning (purpose) was subjective and canon for society, whereas Naturalists erred on the perception that language and its meaning (purpose) had a natural association with whatsoever it referred to in the real world. These philisophical hypotheses led to what is now known, more recognizably, as the discipline of Etymology – the study of words.

These first examinations of language by Greek Philosophers, while paired with research that had been started over in India, also paved the way for a new scientific discipline to get established – that of which came to be known later as Linguistics.

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Without getting too in depth with the timeline of linguistics development (more on this, and credit given to its author, here), I’d like to jump ahead to more presently, come the 20th Century when Swiss Linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, hypothesized the following Principles of Linguistics:

• Langue vs. Parole:
  • Langue: Language System
  • Parole: Language Behaviour

Stemming from Academia c. 1916 by Swiss Linguist Ferdinand De Saussure when he published his Course in General Linguistics, Langue refers to an abstract system of “signs” (meaningful “events”) prevalent in structure  of a language. He credited language as a system inandofitself in this context, rather than it’s counterpart Parole, which refers to “individual expressions” within a language – of which become products of Langue.

“The language system is not a function of the speaking subject, it is the product which the individual registers passively…”

– Ferdinand De Saussure

These principles postulated, additionally, that a structural approach to linguistics is to not be restricted to a finite, streamlined, method of processes encompassing the study of present meaning, phonology and grammar (i.e focusing only on historical context of language origin) – that by analyzing language with both Langue and Parole summed to their product, then and only then, a language can be studied, and understood, wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, though, this philosophy was not widely accepted by other thinkers of the time – it wasn’t until much later that this philosophy was reconsidered and expounded upon a couple of decades later – in the realm of what came to be known as linguistic Structuralism.

What is Structural Linguistics (Structuralism) and why is this important to the origin of language and its evolution?

As defined, according to Oxford Dictionary sources:

• Structuralism: A branch of linguistics that deals with language as a system of interrelated structures, [and] emphasizing the accurate identification of syntactic and lexical form as opposed to meaning and historical development.

What this implies, then, is that Structuralism (linguistically) provides a way to learn and study language with definitive pattern recognition – i.e., language can be divided into various different components with relation to each other, and we can analyze how these components interact in order to form, and understand, its grammatical rules.

Structuralism then, in the context of language evolution, offers us a way to study how grammatical cases have changed over time. It also allows for a way to analyze language from a subjective, Synchronic (study of language at a particular, given point in time) perspective rather than an objective, Diachronic (study of language change, historically over time) perspective.

An important last consideration I’d like to make on the topic of Structuralism is: the first instance of this branch of linguistic study, as it relates to language, stems from a European standpoint. Though very similar, the American standpoint on Structuralism has more of a focus on formal models of language rather than this philisophical approach to the idea or theory of what Structuralism is and how it gets applied to study. More about this will come in a later post.

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| Language Evolution |

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We’ve gone over quite a bit as relating to Language overall so far – its history and its study through the development of Linguistics as a field – now we will transition to discuss language evolution.

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What is Language Evolution, and why is it important to learn about?

For many eons, humans have utilized language as a way to communicate, cooperate, and simply coexist. With such a broad time frame – and like the infrastructure of our communities – language also ebbs, flows, and grows. Humans have developed a slew of language systems in order to communicate throughout history – whether verbal, non-verbal, or through writing systems – such as the Cuneiform in the Ancient Middle-East, to the Indigenous Petroglyphs of the Americas.

Overall, language evolution is a very broad topic for discussion. Study encompassing it includes aspects of natural sciences such as: anthropology, archaeology, biology, philosophy, and many other disciplines, respectively. In other words, much of what impacts the phenomenon of language evolution is dependent on many variables, and there is no single answer as to its purpose and applicability for modern applications.

When it comes to examining language evolution, there are two running theories postulated to this day as to the origin of “how” and “why” language evolved. These theories are known as:

• Continuity Theory: A theory developed that postulated language evolved gradually from earlier forms of communication in non-human animals and homonids.
• Discontinuity Theory: A theory developed that postulated human language was unique by nature – that it “spontaneously appeared” as opposed to having evolved from said animals’ or hominids’ method(s) of communication.

These are the two most prevalent theories debated and most commonly recognized, though other theories such as having to do with genetics and learning in social interactions have surfaced more recently.

As much debate as is still prominent in modern-day interpretations and attempts at explanation, the reasoning behind how language evolution came to be – and a “language-ready” brain developed – still remains much a mystery.

The one constant that has been supported across the board, though, is that human language – whether verbal, non-verbal, or written – and language evolution, must have all evolved from earlier, more primitive forms of communication.

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In closing, the phenomena of languages and language evolution are both complex. What has been covered in this post only narrowly touches the surface of the examination into all of these topics of study.

Conclusively, while linguistics focuses on the study of language according to its structure (in words, as well as in sentences and phrases), language evolution focuses more on the origin of language from various different scientific disciplines – all of which correlate with its prevalence, usage, and philosophies. Additionally, the phenomenon of language and language evolution are more complex than can be warranted by a single, basic interpretation or explanation for/and of its existence.

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Now, as promised, please see below for a brief rundown on what to expect from the start of this series moving forward~

| The Scope: |

Series I: An Introduction to Linguistics

• 5 Components of Linguistics
• An Introduction to Historical Linguistics
• An Introduction to Literary Linguistics
• An Introduction to Language Acquisition, Dialectology, and Conversation Analysis
• An Introduction to Psycholinguistics
• An Introduction to Sociolinguistics

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Series II: Independent Study: Proto-languages

• Proto-Indo-European/Germanic: An Introduction
  • North Germanic
  • East Germanic
  • West Germanic
• Proto Slavic: An Introduction
• Proto-Semetic: An Introduction
• Proto-Sino-Tibetan: An Introduction

As I bring this post to a close, I would like to thank you all for joining me once more, and I look forward to exploring all of these concepts with you in due time.

Stay tuned for more!

Cordially,

– E.K.

The Wandering Wolf