Language Origins

I'm sure you all read the news about Quentin Atkinson's new theory on the origins of language.  Here is a link to the WSJ article which reports the original article - which was published in Science - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704547604576262572791243528.html

I know this has already caused some controversy from several perspectives.  I'd be interested to know though how this theory of the origin of language fits with data on Indian languages, particularly Sanskrit.  From the media reports, he seemed not to have focused much on Indian languages and was restricting the study to modern languages. 

If anyone has any thoughts on this topic, please do share them here.

Thanks,

Venetia

This forum is closed for comments
 

commented by Rod on May 11, 2011

One might say that

…the idea that modern verbal communication originated on that continent (of Africa) and only then expanded elsewhere.

and

…several variants of modern human language could have emerged somewhat independently in different locations, rather than solely in Africa.

 are not really contradictory or mutually exclusive statements.

The term “modern languages” seems out of place in an argument like this, however, because there were early protolanguages, then classical languages, and then modern languages according to recorded history. That languages are subject to the laws of evolution has been affirmed by almost everyone, including Sri Aurobindo.

In evolutionary theory there is also a generally recognized divergence between horizontal  and vertical lines of variation such that root languages may develop independently along the horizontal axis through the spatial radiation of groups while their leaps from prehistoric protolanguage to  fully developed mythopoetic sophistication would happen vertically within respective languages according to a process of more intense culturation. Apparently many languages have grown out of one or several common roots and then at certain points in their development have independently produced what are now known as their classical variants.

The more interesting question is what stimulates that mental leap toward highly sophisticated language development after twenty or thirty thousand years of meandering. Here is where classical and preclassical Sanskrit comes in with its mythological explanation of higher planes of consciousness that manifest through inspiration to create highly sophisticated forms of expression and language development at even very early periods of cultural development. In Sri Aurobindo’s terminology these would be periods of “descent” in which “the gods” or principles and powers of a higher mental illumination begin to dawn on an evolutionary humanity that is leaving behind the archaic stage of its social and cultural development.

 Sri Aurobindo’s book titled The Secret of the Veda is an elaboration of these ideas.

 

 

replied by Vladimir on May 11, 2011

Good points, Rod.

One might also say that

there are two origins of language. One is of the magic structure of consciousness, using terminology of Gebser (the word as a spell, curse, magic formula, etc.), and the other is of the mythical structure (the word as the expression of the Myth). One is a ‘knock-knock’ language, so to say, imitating outer reality in its sound and perception; the other is based on the internal articulation of meaning and inner perception of things emerging from the depth of consciousness. It seems to me that science is trying to link the magic structure directly to the mental bypassing or neglecting the mythical one, trying to trace the genealogy of naturalistic or materialistic origin of language. The failure is obvious.