CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Before the 19th century, the study of language was made. Sir Williams Jones (1786) suggested affinity of Sanskrit and Persian with Greek, opening the study of genetic relationship between languages. With this revelation of affinity, the birth of the school of historical comparative linguistics.
In the 19th century, Jacob Grimm, Rasmus Rast et al studied and established the existence of the indo-European language family. In the 20th century, the structural or descriptive school of linguistics is Ferdinand the Saussure, he believed in language “as a systematic structure, linking though and sound”.
Sources of Language
a. The Divine Source: In Hindu, tradition, language came from a goddess called Sarasvati, the wife of Brahma, creator of the universe. In most religious circles, there is a divine source who provides humans with language.
b. The Natural Sound Source: It is assumed that primitive words have the limitation of natural sounds which early men and women heard around them. For example, when an object flew by making a sound, man limited the sound and used it to the object associated with it. To substantiate this, it is observed that modern languages have some words with pronunciation which seems to “echo” naturally occurring sounds like splash, buzz, bang, etc.
c. Oral Gesture Source: There is a link between physical gesture and orally produced sound. For example, gestures of the body could indicate a range of emotional states and intentions. This, in linguistics is known as ‘paralinguistics or non-verbal means of communication’.
d. Glossed Genetics: This focuses on the biological basis of the formation and development of human language.
e. Physiological Adaptation: Use of human organs like teeth, mouth, tongue, pharynx, larynx, lips, brain, etc.
f. Interactions and Transition: Human beings use language to interact with each other, economically or socially to show hostility and pleasure, etc.
In transition, we use language or linguistic ability to communicate knowledge, ideas, skills, etc. it is a known fact that languages change over time. For example, English language has an origin from Anglo Saxon and the Romance languages. French, Spanish, Italian had their origin in Latin with the establishment of the principles, pro-theory of historical linguistics. It become certain that languages change.
Languages are grouped or classed into families because of their common decent from an earlier parent. Therefore, language can be traced as far back as human existence. For example, a romance language such as French can be traced back to Latin. Thus, they are genetically related. Changes in languages are gradual as evidenced in the history of English the middle English and modern English.
Languages can be classified typologically and genetically. For language to be classified typologically, there are regular patterns that are found in them. For example, patterns of vowels, word order: SOV, SVO and OSV.
Typological classification does not consider relatedness. For example, English and Yoruba languages are unrelated languages, but they have the SVO structure. In terms of typological classification, it has to do with structure.