Henno Martin

“All we’ve got to do now is to trace the development of language in the same way and then we’ve really and truly progressed from the insect-eater to man.” “Let’s see. When does an animal emit a sound? In pain or in surprise; in anger, or on recognizing danger.” “Take the recognition of danger: the springbok whistles; the baboon roars. Each recognition produces a feeling based on experience. The tone will differ according to whether the object recognized by the baboon is a snake or a leopard. Recognition is based on recollection. Where an animal relies on its eyes recollection consists primarily of pictures. Animals which live together in herds experience the same things together; isn’t it therefore possible that the same sound produces the same picture in the recollection of all of them? And oughtn’t we to look for the beginning of word formation there?” “So long as the shock of the experience produces the sound, as in the case of the baboons, we can’t talk of word or language. But with growing intelligence and the capacity to learn, children increasingly imitate—in play—the behavior of the adults and also the sounds they make. In play the sounds are separated from the experience which produced them, and by association they call up the appropriate picture or pictures in the mind. Thus pictures can be conjured up again and again merely by the repetition of the appropriate sounds. In short, children can play with danger—without danger. In this way and because of the long duration of childhood, speech can develop from children’s games.” “Deliberately reproduced pictures in the mind represent the beginning of thought. Thus thought and speaking are twins; they develop hand in hand. As soon as a certain store of words has been collected pictures can be conjured up and linked together at will. What the thinker has not yet experienced in reality he can now experience in thought and at the same time he can foresee future experiences. Life no longer consists merely of past and present as it does with animals; it has a future too. Thus with speaking and thinking man creates a new dimension for himself. It’s astonishing what life can produce with an unburdened childhood at its disposal. “Yes, it’s quite true: without a protected childhood in which there’s time for play, mankind would probably never have risen above an animal existence. And perhaps in the future the playing of children will be recognized as more important than technical developments, wars and revolutions. Woe betide the people which forces its children and their games into the strait-jacket of adult politics!”
― Henno Martin, The Sheltering Desert: A Classic Tale of Escape and Survival in the Namib Desert