Re: Richard Paget theory : (Origin of spoken language) Tongues copied the gestures of Hands

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".