Bow-wow theory

{{Short description|Theory on the origins of human language}}

File:Max Muller.jpg introduced the term "bow-wow theory" as a sarcastic term, as he disapproved of the idea.]]

A bow-wow theory (or cuckoo theory) is any of the theories by various scholars, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Gottfried Herder, on the speculative origins of human language.{{Cite book |last1=Moran |first1=John |last2=Gode |first2=Alexander |title=On the origin of language |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1986 |isbn=0-226-73012-3}}{{Cite journal |last=Corballis |first=Michael C. |date=1999 |title=The Gestural Origins of Language: Human language may have evolved from manual gestures, which survive today as a "behavioral fossil" coupled to speech |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27857812?casa_token=nk93WSDT59gAAAAA:ERWUOd9jR1vegFYUkFO3RtbgIJxj5d9U0nowZXnkhvpfiKdnn_rcVvvZL3eH_gLzoEqVhhV2wiy4zrbTTtYGtWOaPs5OH39uYZquwDvBRieX5Tns |journal=American Scientist |volume=87 |issue=2 |pages=138–145 |issn=0003-0996}}

According to bow-wow theories, the first human languages developed from onomatopoeia, that is, imitations of natural sounds.{{Cite journal |last=Thorndike |first=E. L. |author-link=Edward Thorndike |date=2 July 1943 |title=The origin of language |url=http://www.psych.yorku.ca/gigi/documents/Thorndike_1943.pdf |journal=Science |series=New series |volume=98 |issue=2531 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1126/science.98.2531.1 |pmid=17747316|bibcode=1943Sci....98....1T }} The term "bow-wow theory" was introduced in English-language literature by the German philologist Max Müller, who was critical of this idea.{{cite journal |last=Sprinker |first=Michael |orig-date=January–March 1980 |title=Gerard Manley Hopkins on the origin of language |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |date=1980 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=113–128 |doi=10.2307/2709105 |jstor=2709105}} Despite its simplicity, this theory highlights the human tendency to mimic natural sounds.{{Cite book |last=Yule |first=George |title=The Evolution of Language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0521677363}}

Bow-wow theories have been widely discredited as an explanation for the origin of language. However, some contemporary theories suggest that general imitative abilities may have played an important role in the evolution of language.{{cite book |first=Bertram F. |last=Malle |title=The Evolution of Language out of Pre-language |location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins |year=2002 |issn=0167-7373 |url=https://brown.academia.edu/BertramMalle/Papers/665483/The_relation_between_language_and_theory_of_mind_in_development_and_evolution_2002_ |chapter=The relation between language and theory of mind in development and evolution|page=265 |doi=10.1075/tsl.53.14mal |hdl=1794/962 }}

In the humorous typology of what he considered to be fanciful theories on the origin of languages, Max Müller contrasted bow-wow theory with pooh-pooh theory, which holds that the original language consisted of interjections; and with ding-dong theory, which posits that humans were originally a kind of improved bell capable of making all sounds.{{cite journal|title=La science du langage d'après Max Müller|journal=Revue des questions scientifiques|volume=50|year=1901|pages=544|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjwiAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA544}}.

However, Müller was at one time attracted to the ho-hiss theory, which held that grunts were also the origin of singing.{{Cite journal |last=Schrempp |first=Gregory |date=1983 |title=The Re-Education of Friedrich Max Muller: Intellectual Appropriation and Epistemological Antinomy in Mid-Victorian Evolutionary Thought |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2801766 |journal=Man |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=90–110 |doi=10.2307/2801766 |jstor=2801766 |issn=0025-1496|url-access=subscription }}