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Susan L asked in Society & CultureLanguages · 1 decade ago

Did man create language, or was man created already knowing language?

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Some really good answers above !

    My own take :

    I don't know Who Created man; I don't know whether there is a God, altho' there is Something that probably created the whole universe, etc.

    I find Darwin's theory of Evolution & a lot of embryological research, etc. do seem to question the Creationist view. One can see the evolutionary linkages between most forms of life on earth.

    The Capacity for speech & sound is part of man's make-up. We do have a larynx [voice box], etc., which has become better during the evolutionary process.

    So the capacity is innate.

    Also, the recognition of sounds & syllables, tones & rhythms, is appearing to be innate too [as pointed out by one poster] - a Universal Understanding - or Prosody [sounds & emotional intonations that are recognizable & imbibed even during the foetal stage].

    However, Language(s) as we know it, speak it & hear it, was created by man.

    Within about 6 months of exposure to a particular language, the infant stops recognizing the universal features & nuances of sound, emotion, gestures & facial expressions & becomes acclimatized to his/her Specific cultural inputs, mainly & initially, in the form of language.

    This shows that language is not inherent ; it is Acquired gradually through Socialization.

    Language has to be Learned.

    A case in point is the language-development of Feral children [those reared by wolves, etc.] - these kids have no linguistic skills, only feral sounds.

    That's my 2-bits :-)

    Edit : I did some research on the origin of language. Turns out, I was focusing more on the verbal & grammatical aspects of language, the rules of linguistics, the diverse manifestations, etc.

    However, if you take language to include the entire gamut of communication, then it becomes hazy.

    Like I pointed out above, the paraphernalia - genetic, neuronal, physiological, anatomical, etc. is innate. But linguistics or the verbal modifications that have evolved are created by man, I believe, although there is no convincing proof either way.

    I say this, because extensive & in-depth research has shown the even song-birds pick-up & incorporate various sounds in their songs & their songs can have individual nuances too, thus leading to their identification. And these new elements are sometimes incorporated by neighbouring birds in their songs & thus these cultural memes are "transmitted" through generations / regions, etc.

    A part of their vocabulary seems to be either inherent or picked up from their parents at such early stages that it becomes difficult to tell how much is learned & how much innate.

    Great question !

  • 1 decade ago

    I think that man created language. In primitive times they discovered ways of communicating, and that evolved over the years, to be constantly creating and updating language.

  • bander
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    In most religions there is a divine source who gave man the ability to speak. In Hinduism the goddess Sarasvati is the one who created language and passed it to man. Adam (Genesis 2:19) gave names to all living creatures. Some have put this to the test. An Egyptian pharaoh took two infants and kept them with sheep far from hearing human voices. A mute person took care of the infants until they reached the age when they could make some recognizable utterance. The first word they uttered was" bekos" , a Phrygian word for bread. He concluded that Phrygian was older than the Egyptian language. King James IV of Scotland is reported also to have done a similar experiment and the infants spoke Hebrew. Regardless of the authenticity of such claims, the process is known in linguistics as the Divine Source hypothesis.

    Evolutionists, however, believe otherwise. Language accordingly must have started as primitive utterances echoing natural sounds (onomatopoeic) which is the source of such words as hiss, wow, shoo, cough, shush, etc. Onomatopoeia was perhaps followed by a stage in which speech became endearing. This is the era of "primitive speech" as the noted Danish linguist Otto Jespersen had called it. Here is some of what he said: " The genesis of language is not to be sought in the prosaic, but in the poetic side of life; the source of speech is not gloomy seriousness, but merry play and youthful hilarity... In primitive speech I hear the laughing cries of exultation when lads and lassies vied with one another to attract the attention of the other sex, when everybody sang his merriest and danced his bravest to lure a pair of eyes to throw admiring glances in his direction. Language was born in the courting days of mankind".

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Man created language. (Man was never created)

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    God created man

    man created women

    now both r created language for communication

    ha ha ha ha

  • 1 decade ago

    Modern Man (Homo Sapiens) developed spoken symbolic language and passed it on by cultural means. But there is a controversial theory proposed by linguist Noam Chomsky that we are all born with a universal grammar, and that children need only learn certain local features of their native languages.

  • Tony B
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    Your whole premise is incorrect! Man was not created. But he did create language. Who else?

  • 1 decade ago

    Language is learned.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    It's easier to control someone who's confused, they're not coming up with a way to let you know if they want some, because they want you in the dark... it makes you easier to use, and the can avoid consequences by saying it was foul play. EDIT: I saw that comment too, laughed my ******* skull off... I had to say something... man, lol.

  • 1 decade ago

    Men created it, took him a few thousand years

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child

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