What is ''Language''?

 This question, which is the key to unlocking the mystery of humans, has been debated for years and years by scientists, especially linguists and philosophers, and every other person who is curious about human uniqueness. To be able to clarify what the language is, we should make a distinction between talking and language. The biggest mistake that other researchers have made is that they mistake the word ‘’language’’ as talking. Therefore they claim that animals have language as humankind has. What animals have is that we prefer to call ‘’talking’’. As we know, language is much more than talking, it has a complex structure that still remains a mystery, as well as its function.

According to the founder of modern linguistics N. Chomsky, language is a natural object, a component of the human mind, physically represented in the brain and part of the biological endowment of the species (Chomsky, 2002: 1). This quote refers to many characteristics of language and it is a sufficient explanation for this part of the paper as one is expected to have their own explanation of language once the reading is completed.

How did language occur? 

According to Fischer, language has occurred from an evolutionary process named chemo communication which can be explained as the continuous need over millions of years to contact with others of the same species in order to procreate necessitated more complex methods of communication. Fischer ‘’ In its simplest definition, language signifies ’medium of information exchange’. This definition allows the concept of language to encompass facial expressions, gestures, postures, whistles, hand signs, writing or mathematical language, programming language and so forth. This also includes the honey bees’ dance and ants’ chemical language, furthermore, the frequencies that humans are not able to hear. 

Theories About the Origin of Language      

 1) Bow-Wow Theory;  

 This theory is mainly based on the imitation of natural sounds such as animal sounds, rivers, fire sounds, etc. This theory is also asserted by Joan Jack Rousso. As this theory is controversial, some experts deny this theory with the presence of different words for these sounds in different languages.                                                                       

2) Ding-Dong Theory;   

On the other hand, the ding dong theory claims that the first words are produced with the equality of meaning and sound, for example ’’boom’’ as the sound of thunder. Basically the first words were the representation of its sounds.                                                                        

 3)The pooh-pooh Theory;                                            

This theory states that the first speech originated from interjections such as crying or the sounds that occurred from pain, dislike, horror, or other emotions. As many animals do interjections and they have not developed a language like humankind, this theory is being confirmed by some researchers.                                                                

 4) The Yo-He-Ho Theory;          

This one is based on the grunts, chants, and rhythmic sounds that were believed to be used while working in cooperation as well as to make it in harmony. This also emphasizes that language has occurred from the cooperative efforts of human beings. This theory does not provide a proposal for the origin of the words, however, it is great explanation of the rhythmic features of human speech.