glottogony

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek γλῶττα (glôtta, “tongue, language”) + γονή (gonḗ, “generation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡlɒˈtɒɡəni/, /ɡləˈtɒɡəni/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

glottogony (uncountable)

1. The genesis of language, i. e. the emergence of a system of verbal communication from proto-linguistic or non-linguistic means of communication.
2. The study of language origins.
   • 1995, Werner Winter, editor, On Languages and Language […] , Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 19:

     The origin of words is a question that now falls within the chapter of “glottogony”, resurrected after decades of inactivity. There are now quite a few glottogonic theories, some of which are also concerned with the origin of words as, for example, the one that argues that original words are connected with phonosymbolism, […]

   • 2020, Philipp Roelli, editor, Handbook of Stemmatology […] , Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN:

     The topic of glottogony has long been a taboo in linguistics, for the very good reason that it attracts boundless speculation: when Darwinism was freshly en vogue in the 1860s, linguistic debate was inundated with such proposals to the point where, in 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris banned the entire topic as a hopeless exercise […]

Derived terms

• glottogonic
• glottogonist

Related terms

• glottogenetic
• glottogenesis

See also

• cosmogony