Every human being’s natural tendency is to search for the origin. Perhaps it would be the origin of his own; Nor would it be origin of any current incident or the origin of other issues. On the basis of thoughts & imaginations for this searching origin different initiatives have been taken by the schools of different scholars of various ideologies.
Into the great festival of personal and organizational researches conducted on the basis of different viewpoints generated in the fields of linguists and various learned persons the field which has kept the scholars of different fields busy till today is that mysterious but visible field of language.
To end various debates of few centuries this is the very organization of linguistics in Paris that got glued to its efforts announcing — En 1865,elle avait informé ses membres dans ses règlements qu’elle ne recevrait «aucune communication concernant(—)l’origine du langage» [In 1865 the organization instructed its members that ‘no information and data related to(—)the original source wouldn’t be accepted]— has been compelled to withdraw its embargo over the uncontrolled curiosity of human mind towards the search of language-origin at the end of twentieth century.
Truly speaking, different nations’ mother tongues flown from the bottomless abyss do resemble dynamic time and tide the velocity of which led towards the absolute time like the severe velocity of cyclone! Just the influence of huge force of its vortex is realized; but beyond the reach! Human beings haven’t yet been discouraged in their sincere search till today; Leaving no stones unturned they keep trying in their respective fields.
The dedicated schools of scholars who are ahead till now in this exploration of theirs are anthropologist, archaeologist, psychologist, linguist etc. Although they haven’t found out the original source till today they have been able to establish a frame of the large tree with language-branches full of varieties.
The name of that large tree admitted by most of the schools of scholars is proto-indo-European language the source of which is still unknown though the source of its main branch indo-European language family and two main sub-branches—Germanic and Indo-Iranian along with other sub-branches such as Celtic, Italic,Baltic,Thraco-Illyrian,Hellenic,Thraco-Phrygian,Slavic,Tokharian,etc have found little bit logical base; but like small trees there are few languages that have branches-sub-branches have been enlightened with their own greatness through the ages.Whether these language-families such as Sino-Tibetan,Hamito-Semitic,Ural-Altaic,Malayo-Polynesian,Dravidian,Sudanese-Guinean,Bantu,American-Indian,Papuan, Caucasian, Japanese, Korean and Basque at Franco-Spanish bordered are connected at all with that large tree, Proto-Indo-European — that’s a mystery forever!
In unveiling this mystery are engrossed different scholars of various fields. Keeping pace with the opinion mentioned in the book ‘Humankind emerging’ by the archaeologist and anthropologist Bernard G.Campbell of England did say without any hope— “We don’t know at all and won’t be able to know when or how does the journey of language begin”
I think no such logical sign is still investigated as to be so pessimistic as till today near to the source of the flowing languages it’s beyond imagination for the human civilization to go as far as their imagination to go does merely two hundred years ago .In this modern era it wouldn’t be so illogical to hope so if it’s said: perhaps someday a unique source of inner-similarity among language families of the world (may be great universe!)would be discovered that would be a new horizon of some great union of the would-be global civilization!
If the sanguine and curious mind is let go free it would remain unsatisfied being guideless without getting any directions in the labyrinth analyzing multidimensional theories proposed by different learned persons in the world of multifarious languages.
So keeping the mind concentrated on some theoretical belief it would be obligatory to advance deep into thousands of language-family trees searching for the root of that first tree— Proto-Indo-European language family! Organizing this massive investigation isn’t just for satisfying curiosity! Efforts and researches in different fields of knowledge, having been done through the ages by the great poet Virgil(70 BC)of the distant past known by everybody another great Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus’s(65 BC) description is of great importance.He describes:
‘Cum prorepserunt primis animalia terris,
Mutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilla propter
Unguibus et pugnis, deln fustibus, atque ita porro
Pugnabant armis, quee post fabricaverat usus:
Donec verba, quibus voces sensusque notarent,
Nominaque invenere: dehinc absistere bello,
Oppida coeperunt munire, et ponere leges,
Ne quis fur esset, neu latro, neu quis adulter.’
(At first when creatures, speechless and low class primates having fought biting and gathering for fruit-vegetables and living places, arrived at the land, then engaged in fight with stick and at last fighting hand to hand did become a custom; such condition kept continuing until they became able to express their thoughts with sounds and kept using the names of everything. Then they prevented themselves from fighting and kept building up city walls around and implement the law that nobody wouldn’t be thief or steal or be adulterer. )
Although the description of Horace indicates indirectly little bit of Charles Darwin’s natural selection process in his theory of evolution and is illogical from scientific viewpoint, the original source of language is indicated in it. To picturize more clearly the analysis mentioned in the book ‘The Spirit of Islam’ by learned and Islamic think-tank Syed Amir Ali is of great importance:
‘The high table-land of Bactria (Balkh in arabic), appropriately styled by Arab geographers Umm ul-Bilâd, or ” mother of countries” is supposed to be the cradle of humanity, the original birth-place of creeds and nations.
Through the faint and shadowy light, which comparative ethnology throws on the infancy of mankind, we perceive groups of families congregated in this primeval home of the human race, gradually coalescing into clans and tribes, and then forced by the pressure of increasing population, issuing in successive waves to people the face of the globe.’
I think it wouldn’t be reasonable to be careless of this assumption generated from their research just saying it’s baseless !So, if the mind is let advance on the basis of monogenesis/monogenism theory it would perhaps be possible to establish an original source.
Modern researchers coordinating their respective fields of researches through the ceaseless researches and investigations have reached an apparent satisfying viewpoint with this logic that on determining different languages’ respective original sources it would perhaps be possible in some would-be future to establish a logical outline of an original— Proto-Indo-European—given by the researchers themselves that would be regarded as an original source of different languages originated in pre-historic era!
(To be continued)