THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
By: Eridafithri
INTRODUCTION
In many resources there
are still arguments about the origins of language and the process of its
change. Some experts say language originated from God, others say that it is naturally
produced by human, either obtained from sound in nature or from human speech
articulation (Yule, 2006). However, most people agree that language is one of the most
sophisticated products of human being. Language is considered as one of symbols
of civilization. Language shows identity of a nation. As language is one of
human products, it is no doubt that it will be developed, and changed. The
change of language indicates the dynamics of the language itself. Today,
there are huge arrays of new words adopted from many fields mostly in terms of
technological and medical terms. In addition, there have been a wide range of
changes in terms of linguistics aspects. I personally think to some extent the change
will cause the loss or originality of the language itself which enriches the
characteristics of it and makes the language unique or special. However, this
change is inevitable to avoid. It might always change as long as people still
use it for communication. This change does not indicate the language is
mutilated or disfigured. It is just a natural process as the process of people
and the world change.
LANGUAGE ORIGINS
The origins of language
are a big question until now despite continuing research conducted by
linguists. If we take a look on English language, where it comes from, we might
get satisfactory answer, because it has similarities to several languages in
the world, like German, Italian, Spanish and French and some others European
languages. Moreover, it is claimed that there are some similar words among
these languages (Ruhlen, 1996) and (Gil, 2008).
The speculation about the
origin of language results in many theories. The first theory is that language
is a gift of God, as stated in holy books. God taught Adam names of all things
found on Earth, as described by Aitchison (2000). Nevertheless if Adam was taught by God, it would then be
questioned what language he used at that time and where other languages come
from. Furthermore, to respond to the questions, another theory comes up; Aitchison (2000) adds that every creature particularly primates can produce
sound which is the sign of communication. It means that the creature has speech
organs that they use for communication and produce language. Especially for
human, this speech organ then develops for example; babies cannot speak like
adults do. Dealing with human language, it will develop very fast because it
spreads quickly across the globe. Long people left a language at new place they
inhabited, and it became pidgins or creoles in which they take one or more
existing language. Africa and New Guinea are examples of countries which
develop pidgins and creoles (J. Aitchison, 2001).
PERIODS OF LANGUAGE CHANGE
According to Hudson (2000) and Baugh & Cable and Singh as cited by Gil (2008), the periods of language change is divided into 3 periods;
old English (450 – 1150), middle English (1150 – 1500) and modern English which is divided into early modern English
started around 1500 – 1700 and modern English 1700 onward. Hudson also adds
that old English was strictly different from middle and modern English. The
influence of French was still very strong like it was used in Gospel. Besides
the influence of French, old English was also influenced by Germanic languages
in northern Europe and brought to British Isles. It was found many similarities
with English words (Yule, 2006). In addition to these, old English is also different to
modern one in terms of spelling, pronunciation, lexicon and grammar (Gil, 2008). The presence of Norman French in England, Chaucer, and
Shakespeare in the era of Middle English had brought remarkable changes in
English language, particularly in terms of sounds, syntactic and semantic. The
existence of Shakespeare in
LANGUAGE CHANGE
As it has been explained
in introduction that language is human products, in which it keeps changing.
According to Aitchison (2003) the change of language is however still unexplained. It is
considered to be like the movement of the planets which is undetectable. In
addition, Aitchison also describes about how language is changed. As in the
case of Martha’s Vineyard, one of popular holiday resort in Massachusetts,
where a sociolinguist found the pronunciation had changed. That was because the
inhabitants of the place picked up and imitated the pronunciation of the
fishermen in the island.
In addition to this case,
Aitchison also stated that children pick up “dreadful accent” at school and it
become new way of their speaking. The ones that people admire also influence
the way people speak. In this case media play major roles in spreading the
change of language. It happens in all major language across nations.
The language changes in
several factors including, vocabulary, semantics, syntax, and pronunciation (J. Aitchison, 2001). This is clear if take a look at several languages in Africa
and Asia. In Singapore, for example,
(based on my observation when I was living there) English pronunciation or
accent and sounds are rather different from British or American or Australian. Therefore
people call it Singlish or Singaporean English. Similar case also happens in
The Philippines with their Taglish or Tagalog English, or in India. In Singapore, the structure of language
particularly in terms of oral communication is a bit different from English
speaking countries. They use isn’t it in
Question tags for every subject
regardless it is singular or plural or it is adjective or verbs. For example, “the books are expensive, isn’t it?”. Despite
this grammatical structure this expression is acceptable in oral communication,
and it influences non Singlish speakers to imitate them.
In terms of semantics or
meaning, there have been new words adopted from other languages and become
English words. Largely, most of adopted words related to certain field of
knowledge, like medical or biological terms, which mostly come from Latin. The
change in semantics is also influenced by external forces such as the use of technology
and mechanical terms. Next factor is Accidental association in which it
connects one word to form new word which is known as metonymy. Internal forces
also influence in semantic change. In this case people tend to make analogy to
form new vocabulary, such as head department is taken from head of body which
is the highest position in human body. The last factor is loss of specify which
is also called as over generalization, for example, for the word doctor, which
is the same the root for the word docile originally meaning “teachable” (Hudson, 2000).
Interestingly, most vocabulary today his
highly influenced by technological terms particularly related to computer and
internet communication. Let’s take a look to the following example, people will
just understand when others say “if you can’t reach me at the moment, just sms
me”. The terms of SMS which is the short for Short Message service has been
used as verb in that expression, but people still understand, anyway. Another example is “The classroom activities will be videoed for documentation”. In a
glance, the word ‘video’ refers to a tool used for recording and it should be a
noun instead of verb.
Furthermore, in terms or
written language, language has also been changed. Long time ago there was no passive construction in English grammar.
For instance, people said my hose is painting rather than my house is being
painted. But later on when the old people died and changed by next generation,
the passive form is used (Trask, 2000). It might also be possible in next ten or hundreds years the
grammar of English would change. For example, people today use future perfect
tense or future perfect continues very infrequently, that would be possible
those patterns would vanish. Besides these grammatical issues, people today
tend to write words by omitting the letter which is not pronounced. Such as in
the word ‘through’, the ‘o’ and ‘gh’ sounds are omitted. And write the word
‘thru’ instead. Even though, it is still informal language, but it might be
formally accepted someday.
CONCLUSION
For many decades the
language change has been considered as the mutilation or the decay of the
language as said by Curtius as cited in Yule (2006 p.192). The fact that
languages across the globe have connection one to another, would make possibilities
for them to develop. No one can stop language change. The best thing could be
done to preserve the existing language is through written record. On one hand
we can still trace the existing language in the future without blocking the
changes of the language. This change does not mean to disfigure to mutilate the
language but it simply to enrich the elements in the language itself. Let it be
dynamic.
REFERENCES
Aitchison, J. (2000). The seeds of speech : Language origins and
evolution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Aitchison, J. (2001). Language change : progress or decay? New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Aitchison, J. (2003). Language change: Hodder Headline.
Gil, J. (2008). How
English Works - Study Guide. ESOL 8705. ,
Flinders University.
Hudson, G. (2000). Essential introductory linguistics.
Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers.
Ruhlen, M. (1996).
Language origins. National Forum, 76(1),
28.
Trask, R. L. (2000). Written Record of Language: Icon Books.
Yule, G. (2006). The study of language (3rd ed.).
Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
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