ProetryPlace Blog 47

Shadows at the Dawn

(The First Linguist)

    Have you ever wondered when, how and by whom in the course of humanity’s evolution, the first word was spoken? If you have, as I have, we are not alone!

    Theories on the origin of speech abound, but there are no clear answers on the subject, nor will there likely ever be. At one time (1866) the Linguistic Society of Paris banned debate on the subject at its meetings as being not only too contentious but totally futile. Most experts now agree that, interesting as these theories are, we do not and probably cannot come up with a definitive, meritorious answer.

    So why think about it? Why commit effort, manpower and brainpower to the issue?

    Speech and language ability are, among other traits like bipedalism, what distinguish humankind from all the other animals. Yes, other animals communicate with vocal utterances, though none by quite the same mechanism as humans use. Whales emit sonic squeals or songs that carry long distances in the ocean and communicate with other whales. Elephants on land communicate through low-frequency, inaudible (to humans) rumbles. The varied, cheery chirps of birds have been interpreted to have specific meanings to other birds. But none of these comes remotely close to human speech and language capabilities.

    Early humans could not talk. While the history of humankind reaches back two million years or more, it is likely that extinct earlier forms of the species, Homo habilis and Homo erectus, advanced as they were over co-existing ape-forms, could not offer more than grunts and squeals, imitative sounds and signs as a means of communication. Anatomical evolution of speech organs, e.g. the larynx, mouth, throat and head, were prerequisite. Evolution of the brain seems certainly to have been prerequisite also, along with cultural or societal changes as the population grew, aggregated and dispersed across the planet.

   The history of speech and of Homo sapiens may be one and the same. The ability to speak depended on the evolution of the physically and mentally advanced human species; the survival and advancement of the species depended on  its ability to pass on detailed instructions, coordinate cooperative efforts, and to articulate abstract ideas. The rise of Homo sapiens began fewer than 200,000 years ago. Our ascendency to the premier species on earth was complete by 50,000 years ago.

    But what of that first word? At some instant in time, with the evolutionary prerequisites in place, an individual must have synthesized a word that represented a thought, a concept, something beyond the grunts and yelps of warning or fear or joy.

    Words are verbal icons. They are noises (or marks on stone or paper) that represent something either real or imaginary. Some say that language was invented to enable humans to lie, to represent as a sound an abstract or unreal idea. We can probably be confident that the perpetrator of that first word did not sit down, staring absently into the embers of a dying fire and think, “Today, I will invent language!” He or she probably did not consciously think at all, yet an all-important thought process occurred, an electro-chemical process in the brain that had not occurred before, but would be repeated in all surviving generations.

     Following is my prose poem entitled Shadows at the Dawn.

Homo X, with dreadful reverence,

draws up his muscled arms

points ahead toward the east

extending long and bristled fingers

toward the magical aurora

and as the golden rim appears

raises voice to sustain a sound

o o o o  o o o  o   o

a simple sound

suffuse with complex, primitive emotion:

awe and gratitude, fear and pleasure.

The small band of huddled beings

emerging from the cavern’s mouth

sends forth a joyful, manic chorus

across the grassy plain

into the distant shadowed forest--

O O O O O O O  O  O   O . . .

They stand erect and elevate their arms

join their fingers above their dimly lighted faces.

Another day to hunt and forage.

Another day to risk at living.

Homo X leaps upon a high flat rock

his place of honor, his platform to survey

and lead the morning mystic ritual.

The first bright rays surmount the trees, illuminate

his fearsome face, his massive chest, his extended limbs.

An unforetold, unwanted force stirs within his brain,

a mindful recognition.

A self-awareness rises.

His furtive eyes dart and race,

take in the full extent of his own being.

His strong hands press against the turmoil in his skull.

A sound stirs within his throat--

Aaah Aaah

The sound persists within him, seeking to escape

forcing his wide lips to part

then bursts forth to startle and bewilder

the others and himself. Ah!

And then another even stranger utterance. Ya!

A simian smile distorts his face.

With lips parted and drawn back

ahya he whispers, ahya, then shouts

Ahya. Ahya. Ahya!

He whirls about to face the fearful group.

Sunlight exaggerates the shadow of his broad shoulders

and makes serpents of his upraised arms upon the ground.

He points a finger at his chest

and now forcefully, willfully,

directs his voice to make the utterance—Ahya!

With wonder in his newfound power—Ahya. Ahya.

Comprehension grows. The notion of self comes clear.

He jumps with simple joy, high in the still air,

returns to his haunches, springs high again, again.

He beholds the sunlit, shadowed brows

of his gathered species-homo family.

They stare agape in fearful apprehension.

Homo X descends

from his altar of enlightenment

pervaded with new understanding

a new connection fused, a virgin neuron pathway

somewhere within his primal brain.

Turmoil and confusion dissipate.

He grasps the hand of each fellow being

to place it against its own naked breast and,

eyes ablaze, speaks the magic syllables—

Ahya.

First one,

then two or three,

not comprehending

but submissively compliant

attempt the sound

Aah. Aah.  Ahya. Ahya.

The glimmer of thought ascends

displacing shadows of ignorance.

They slap their arms, their chests,

their now wide-eyed faces

acknowledging with ape-like grins

their dawning understanding

their coupling of thought and sound.

A word is born

One simple utterance

Within it the seeds of human perception

communication, language, intelligence.

Within it an infinity of unimagined worlds.

Richard Allen Anderson     http://richardandersonblogs.blogspot.com