Essay On International Language

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American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once shared his sentiment that ‘music is the universal language of mankind,’ and today many share his belief. I, myself share this belief to an extent. I believe that music is a form of communication that surpasses language and cultural barriers, but I do not consider it a language. Language by definition is the system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other while music is sounds that are sung by voices or played on musical instruments. Music though is somewhat international as it does reach beyond national boundaries. In this essay, I will explain further on why I think music could be considered ‘a kind international language’ even though it is not a language. I will narrow my points to how music could be our earliest form of communication and how language is…show more content…
This idea, first proposed by Charles Darwin, is called proto-music theory. It suggests that music is actually older and more instinctual to us as a species than human speech. Charles Darwin believed that "before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate language, men and women endeavoured to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm." Darwin drew attention to humans' instinctive ability to respond to music; we don't need to be trained to do so, as we do with language. Semantic language gradually developed out of this proto-musical system as our brains grew and developed. Past studies by Charles J. Limb and Allen R. Braun on the similarities between music and language have also shown that when musicians play music, their brains show activity in places that normally light up with spoken language. In light of this, I still believe that music is something that transcends national boundaries, but I still do not consider it as a

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