论语言的起源 (1781)

论语言的起源（法语：Essai sur l'origine des langues）是让-雅克·卢梭的作品，最初写于1754年，在1762年的《爱弥尔》一书中提及，但直到作者死后的1781年才出版。卢梭原本还打算包括《论戏剧的模仿》和《以法莲的利未人》。卢梭在序言中写道，该文原本包含在《论人类不平等的起源与基础》中，因为太长而被删去。

在这篇文章中，卢梭使用与第二讲演集类似的语言形式，对语言的起源进行了叙述。卢梭写道，语言起源于温暖的南方，然后才迁移到较冷的北方。在形成之初，语言是音乐性的，具有情感的力量，而非理性的说服。然而，北方寒冷的气候剥夺了语言的激情特征，将其扭曲为现在的理性形式。

雅克·德里达的《论文字学》第三章批判和分析了卢梭的散文。

Essay on the Origin of Languages (French: Essai sur l'origine des langues) is an essay by Jean-Jacques Rousseau published posthumously in 1781. Rousseau had meant to publish the essay in a short volume which was also to include essays On Theatrical Imitation and The Levite of Ephraim. In the preface to this would-be volume, Rousseau wrote that the Essay was originally meant to be included in the Discourse on Inequality, but was omitted because it "was too long and out of place". The essay was mentioned in Rousseau's 1762 book, Emile, or On Education.

Overview

In this text, Rousseau lays out a narrative of the beginnings of language, using a similar literary form as the Second Discourse. Rousseau writes that language (as well as the human race) developed in southern warm climates and then migrated northwards to colder climates. In its inception, language was musical and had emotional power as opposed to rational persuasion. The colder climates of the north, however, stripped language of its passionate characteristic, distorting it to the present rational form. In the later chapters, this relation is also discussed in terms of music, in ways that resonate with observations that Rousseau makes in his 1753 Letter on French Music.

Chapter Nine of the Essay is an explication of the development of humankind, eventually inventing language. As this format closely adheres to that of the Second Discourse, some have discussed whether one account ought to be read as more authoritative than the other. As the text was initially written in 1754, and was sent to the publisher in 1763, it appears safe to argue that the tensions between the Essay and the Second Discourse were intentional.

The third chapter of the second part of Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology analyzes and critiques Rousseau's essay.