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Why were the “bowwow” and “pooh-pooh” theories of language origin criticized?

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Austrian postage stamp featuring a portrait of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, with German text above and below, and a denomination of 5 schillings. — Philosophy of language An Austrian stamp depicting Ludwig Wittgenstein.

The "bowwow" and "pooh-pooh" theories are speculative hypotheses regarding the origin of language that have been widely criticized for their inadequacy.4

The "bowwow" theory suggests that language originated from the imitation of natural sounds, such as those made by animals, birds, or environmental phenomena like thunder.12
The "pooh-pooh" theory proposes that language began with instinctive interjections—emotional cries or sounds—that gradually acquired specific meanings.3

These theories have been criticized by scholars, including the 19th-century philologist Max Müller, for failing to account for the complexity of human speech. Critics argue that treating onomatopoeia as the essence of language is a gross oversimplification. While imitative words exist in many languages, they represent only a small fraction of vocabulary and cannot explain the development of the sophisticated, recursive systems that define human communication. Consequently, these theories are viewed as insufficient to explain the origins of the structural and symbolic nature of language.452