The topic of the connection between music and language, which I have already talked about here, keeps coming up for some reason…
Today, I came across this very interesting article in my Twitter time line: Music Underlies Language Acquisition, Theorists Propose. The article basically says that contrary to common belief, music is “not dependent on or derived from language”, but rather that “spoken language is a special type of music” – “music comes first and language arises from music.”
Would it then maybe follow that especially musical people are particularly gifted for languages?
What do you think?
As a student of semiotics (well, I used to be) I spent considerable time on the issue of whether music can be regarded as a sign system (similar to languages). My idea at that time was that it is intonation that conveys the significance of a musical utterance, e.g. the rising perfect fourth is clearly a call (invocation), a descending minor second is typical for a "sigh" pattern, think B-A-C-H. So the connection is between music and speech, not necessarily between music and language. As for gifts for languages and musical talents, the answer would probably just refelct one's own personal preferences…