The Origin of Species and of Languages

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the origin of languages is due, doubtless, to the gradual variation, selection, and combination of a few primary sounds, partly emotional, partly imitative; yet the process differs essentially from the Darwinian in one all-important respect— that it is carried on by the countless efforts of rational beings. No irrational animal, though capable of uttering emotional sounds that are quite intelligible to its fellows, and though in some instances capable of imitating both natural and articulate sounds in a remarkable degree, has ever formed a language, simply because it wants reason. Therefore the analogy, in so far as it really holds, seems to tell against the Darwinian theory, in as far as that ascribes the origin of species to reasonless variation and selection.