Read more
First Published in 1959
The history and origin of language deals with one of the most important and most fascinating subject matter of all human historical problems-that of the origin and development of language. It is the first attempt to solve it, not by
a priori methods, but by marshalling and analyzing the whole of the evidence. It is a work of great originality by a scholar who has written other well-known sociological works, and the treatment is that of the sociologist. Dr Diamond writes for the intelligent layman as well as the linguist.
He first seeks the true nature of language and its true function and structure in modern society and traces the paths along which language has developed and changed in its known history, both in the forms of its words and in their meanings, examining for this purpose many languages of civilized and primitive peoples. These paths he then pursues backwards with the aid of data from human physiology, the language of children, and observations of animal behaviour, and shows how all these paths converge to one beginning and deduces how language originated-both the form of its first words and their meanings. He finally shows relics of these earliest words and meanings in languages which still survive. The arguments are cumulative and many sided, and the case made is convincing. This is a must read for scholars and researchers of linguistics.
List of contents
Synopsis 1. Introductory
2. The Sentence
3. The Vocabulary and the Parts of Speech in English
4. The Vocabulary and the Parts of Speech in the Different Languages
5. The Origin of the Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs in English
6. The Origin of the Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs in the Classical Languages
7. The Origin of the Nouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs in the Languages of the Simpler Communities -The Pronouns
8. Grammar
9. The Request for Action
10. The Infinitive
11. The Third Person Singular of the Aorist Indicative
12. Animal Behavior
13. The History of Meaning
14. The History of Meaning (Continued)
15. The Earliest Words
16. The Earliest Words of Children
17. The Larynx
18. The Origin of Language as Displayed in Semitic and Bantu
19. The Origin of Language as Displayed in Semitic and Bantu (continued)
20. Theories of the Origin of Language
List of Abbreviated References Index
