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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Richard Paget theory : (Origin of spoken language) Tongues copied
 the gestures of Hands
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2024 12:22:07 +1200
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On 4/09/2024 9:36 a.m., HenHanna wrote:
> 
>         Do linguists support this Theory (of  mouth pantomime)  ???
> 
> __________________________
> 
> Richard Paget's theory was....
> 
>          that spoken language developed when people could no longer use 
> their hands (e.g.,   they were full)
> 
>           ...  that the tongues copied the gestures
> 
> 
> 
>  >>>   'Let us take, as an example of our supposed method of word or 
> speech formation, the sign for a simple action, that of lift up or be 
> up, as compared with to lower, or be down. The hand sign for up would 
> obviously be to point up with finger or hand, and we are to suppose that 
> this body pantomime was unconsciously accompanied by a corresponding 
> mouth pantomime.
> 
> Let the reader try the experiment for himself...of raising the tip of 
> his tongue to touch the roof of his mouth, as if pointing up to the sky.
> 
> If, while performing this tongue-gesture, the reader simultaneously 
> grunts, or blows air through his mouth, so that it passes out on either 
> side of the tip of his tongue, he will find that it results in 
> articulating a sound which might be written ULL or OLL in English, or aL 
> in the Latin languages.
> 
> AL (as we shall write it) is therefore a natural gesture-word meaning 
> up. It is satisfactory to find that it does in fact form the root of 
> words meaning up in a great variety of different languages'
                               ---------    Paget, Babel, p 31.

The part about AL? No.

T, D and N would be equally likely sounds made with the tongue in the 
same position.

He claims that AL "does in fact form the root of words meaning in a 
great variety of different languages". Universal claims like this 
usually don't get far when tested against statistical probability and a 
really wide sample of languages. (I can't find a copy of the book to see 
if he gives a list.)

And why would a very unusual situation like this (hands full, wanting to 
point UP) be the very origin of language? The whole thing about upright 
posture (as in humans, but not apes) is that we _can_ use our hands for 
all kinds of things, including pointing.

Most of the time, when we want to point at something, and can't use a 
hand, we move the head as if to look at it. I think some cultures may 
use a protruded tongue for this; and I think I've seen some serious 
argument that tongue-tip sounds may be significantly more used than 
others in general pointing words like "this, that, there".