Language

in general, any means by which facts, ideas, sentiments, or emotions are consciously communicated. An involuntary cry of pain, the bark of a dog, the wailing of a hungry infant, may all be heard and may attract our attention, but are not language. If, however, the cry is uttered consciously to call us, if the dog barks that we may hear and open the door for him; if the child cries, having learned that, if he makes noise enough, food will be given him, these sounds become, properly speaking, language. In the restricted sense in which language is a branch of scientific knowledge, it may be defined as human articulate speech. Specifically, a language is the whole body of articulate utterances by which the members of any particular community or portion of the human race communicate with each other.

Various theories have been advanced as to the origin of language. That it was a direct gift from the Creator, that it was a conscious invention of man, that it was a spontaneous product of human nature,--these are the three theories that have held sway. The last of these is the one now accepted. If we imagine a group of children who have not yet learned to speak as being excluded from companionship with persons who can talk, it is not difficult to suppose that, in the course of years, a crude language, beginning with gesticulation and the simplest sounds, would grow up among them. Just so did the languages of the world have their beginnings. What were the first spoken words, how they came to be used, can not be known, although scholars will never cease to speculate upon it. According to one theory the first words were imitations of natural sounds. Max Muller called this derisively the Bow-wow Theory. Others suggested that the earliest words must have been ejaculations called forth by strong emotions. Muller called this the Pooh-pooh Theory. Muller himself maintained a theory of typical sounds,--that an "instinct of speech" led to the first utterance which was a "sonant sign" of the consciousness of some common act. When this theory was advanced, Muller's friends called it the Ding-dong Theory.

Whatever the truth concerning its beginning may be, it is certain that from the first gesture or sound by which one human being sought to communicate with another, language has been a thing of continuous growth. As increasing numbers caused people to push out in search of new homes, new dialects arose, which sometimes, after centuries of use, growth, and change, became distinct languages. There is no indication, however, that all languages had their origin in one locality. In fact, evidence is in favor of the view that there were many different beginnings, from each of which different dialects and different languages arose.

For centuries languages were studied for practical ends, merely as a means of communication, or for the acquisition of knowledge through the medium of language. For less than a hundred years language has been regarded as a science proper; that is, a branch of knowledge in which it ceases to be a means and becomes itself the chief object of inquiry. The ultimate aim of the science of language is to learn the origin, mode of growth, and relations to each other of various languages.

In 1816 Franz Bopp, a German writer, later a professor in the University of Berlin, published a comparative grammar of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Persian, and German languages. This work laid the foundation for the comparative method of language study. Jacob Grimm at about the same time was at work on his Deutsche Grammatik, in which he treated the German language historically. Other names prominent as landmarks in the development of this science are those of Max Muller, William D. Whitney, Humboldt, Steinthal, and Schleicher.

The later and more detailed study of the science of language has proven many conclusions of earlier scholars to be groundless, and their classifications often inaccurate. The subject is one of such vast extent, involving details of such a complicated nature, that statements of a general or popular character are well nigh impossible. Consequently late works on the science of language are for the most part of interest to the advanced student only.

Various classification of languages have been made which, although somewhat loose, and liable to change as investigations progress, are still of interest and value. Classified according to their structure, the thousand or more languages of the world fall into three groups:

To the first class belong languages which are largely monosyllabic. The Chinese is the principal language of this class. It has no grammar, since a word becomes a part of speech by its position. For instance, the word ta may be noun, adjective, verb, or adverb, meaning respectively greatness, great, to be great, and greatly. In speaking the Chinese language, voice inflection is of importance in giving the proper meaning to a word.

The agglutinative languages form the largest of the three classes. To it belong those languages in which root words are united by juxtaposition only. That is, suffixes, prefixes, or infixes may be used; but in the new word the force of each syllable is still evident. For example in the word garrulity, we do not think of the meaning of the several parts that go to make up the word; in talk-a-tive-ness, which means the same as garrulity, the separate value of the syllables is noticeable. Talkativeness is an agglutinated word. Many English words once classed as compounds, as foreground, moonstruck, warehouse, are agglutinated words. In such expressions as Pussy-wants-a-corner, never-to-be-forgotten, penny-in-the-slot, jack-of-all-trades, we find words "glued" together after the agglutinative fashion. Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress forms agglutinated words for many of his proper names as: Mr. Hategood, Mr. Facing-both-ways, Lord Fair-speech, Mr. Hold-the-world, Great-heart, Faint-heart, etc. Dickens does the same when he names Mr. Squeers' school Dotheboys Hall. In the humorous columns of our daily papers many proper names are formed in this fashion,--the Newlyweds, Mrs. Stay-at-home, Mr. Gotrocks, Mr. Henpeck, Mrs. Newrich. Mr. Get-rich-quick, etc. In languages of the agglutinative class, however, the words of this kind are not the exception, but are so prevalent as to form the most noticeable characteristic of the language. The various dialects of the American Indians are agglutinative, as may be seen from such Indian names as Hole-in-the-day and Man-afraid-of-his-shadow.

Inflective languages are those in which words undergo what is called internal change. Inflect means literally to bend, that is to change the form of, to vary. Nouns are varied by declension, verbs by conjugation, and this, not by the addition of syllable merely, but by change within the words themselves. For instance, man becomes men in the plural, foot becomes feet, give is changed to gave for the past tense, ride to rode, sing to sang, etc. Inflected languages contain both monosyllabic and agglutinated words, but besides these many words, the parts of which are so united or grown together as a result of internal changes that the separate elements do not stand out with distinct meaning. For instance, the word ostensible is made up of three words, ob, meaning before, tenere, meaning to stretch, and the suffix, ble, implying ability. In speaking the word, these parts and their separate meanings are neither recognized by the ear nor perceived by the mind.

In the historical study of languages, certain ones were found to be related closely. For instance, the root sta, signifying "stand," is found with slight variations in a number of distinct languages. When many such roots are found to be common to two or more languages, it is regarded as a proof that these languages sprang originally from some common stock or parent tongue. Such languages are said to belong to one family. Many such families exist, but only the more important have as yet received any degree of thorough investigation. These are:

1. The Indo-European, comprising most of the languages spoken in Europe, and some of those of Asia, including the great peninsula of India. Most of the dominant races of both continents, in ancient and modern times, have spoken languages belonging to this family. 2. The Semitic, including the languages of the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Syrians, Arabs, and Abyssinians.

Other families of somewhat less importance are the Hamitic, represented by the Egyptian and the Coptic; the Southeastern Asiatic, represented by the Chinese; the Ural-Altaic, or Turanian family, including the Turkey and Tartar languages, the Mongolian, and the languages of the Finns and Lapps; the South African; the Central African; and the American. The latter family includes the many dialects of the American Indians.

The family of special interest to the English-speaking student is the Indo-European, called also Indo-Germanic and Aryan. This family is divided into groups; the groups are subdivided into branches and perhaps sub-branches. The following classification, while not complete, will serve to locate the languages most important to the student of history and of literature:

INDO-EUROPEAN.

Of the languages in this family, the most important are: Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Scandinavian, German, and English.

In the ancient Greek and the Latin we find the highest development of ancient thought and culture. The ancient Greek is one of the most perfect of languages. Its words are full of significances; its phrases and idioms are elegant and forcible. Both in poetry and prose it is refined, musical, majestic. Many dialects were spoken,--the Aeolic, Ionic, Doric, and Attic being among them. In the course of centuries the language declined, and after the fall of Constantinople, 1453, ceased to be the medium of official communication. A dialect which had survived among the common people took the place of the ancient language and is the foundation of the modern Greek.

The Latin language was formed, it is believed, from the Indo-European dialects. It was influenced largely by the Pelasgians from Asia, who settled in northern Italy a thousand years before Christ. As the Pelasgian was also one of the primitive sources of the Greek, the two languages, Greek and Latin, are related closely. The similarity was increased by later intercourse between the two nations. The Latin language, however, differed from the Greek just as the two nations differed. The Greeks were imaginative and speculative; the Romans, active, practical, dignified. As the Roman empire was extended the Roman language took the place of that of conquered nations, or else gradually affected these languages, so that we find nearly all European languages showing traces of Latin influence.

The Italian language, that is the literary language of Italy, is the Tuscan dialect, an outgrowth of the Latin as spoken by the common people. Florence was to the Tuscan tongue what London was to the language of Wessex. Such early Florentine writers as Dante and Petrarch gave to their dialect a national character. "Of this language, it may be said that for flexibility, copiousness, freedom of construction, and harmony and beauty of sound, it is the most perfect of all the idioms of the Neo-Latin or Romanic tongues."

The Spanish language is spoken in Spain, Mexico, and a large part of South America. It has its foundation in the vulgar or popular Latin, influenced powerfully by the conquest of the Visigoths, a Teutonic people, whose language so affected the development of Spanish that it is estimated that one-tenth of the words in the language are of Teutonic origin. The Iberian or Basque tongue of an earlier race which had inhabited Spain had its effect also, while the invasion of the Moors brought in many Arabic words which became incorporated in the language. Several dialects developed, but by the middle of the twelfth century that called the Castilian became a written language. By the beginning of the thirteenth century appeared the first epic in any Romanic language, The Poem of the Cid. From this time, Castilian or Spanish was the national language, although other dialects are still spoken. Portuguese was at one time a Spanish dialect, but has gained recognition as a distinct language.

Modern French, like Italian and Spanish, is a Romance language; that is, it is based on the Latin tongue. The Celtic and the Norman are the other elements of importance. Latin became the language of France, or Gaul--as it was called in ancient times, after Caesar's conquest of that country. The people of Gaul were called by many names. The Romans called them Galli. Welsch, Wallons, and Kelts or Celts were other names given them. In time they came to call themselves Romans, and their language, affected by the Latin, was called the Romance. Other elements had been introduced by northern invaders. By Charlemagne's time three distinct dialects existed. Charlemagne and his court used German. Latin was the written language, and the Romance was the dialect of the people. Gradually the Romance spoken in the south was more and more affected by the Latin; that of the northern tribes by the German. The two dialects were called Langue d'oc and Langue d'oui. Langue d' oc means language of 'oc', the word used in the south for 'yes'. Langue d' oui is language of 'oui', the northern word for 'yes'. After the Norman invasion the northern tribes--the Roman Wallons as they had come to be called--absorbed the language of the Normans, and Norman French was the result. By the twelfth century the Langue d' oc had come to be called the Provencal; the Langue d' oui, the French. The Provencal is still spoken by the common people in several provinces, but gradually the French became the established language of the nation. In the seventeenth century the French Academy fixed a standard of pure French, and, through its influence, the language gradually acquired a precision which has led to its being adopted as the court language in many countries.

The Scandinavian languages belong to the Teutonic group; they include the Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. The Danish has been much affected by the German. The Icelandic is the Old Norse. Iceland was colonized by the Norwegians in the ninth century, and the Old Norse language kept alive in this isolated island is almost unchanged after 1,000 years. The entire history of languages can scarcely show another circumstance so strange as this. Norwegian long existed only in the dialects of the peasantry; Danish being the official language of Norway. Bjornson and Jonas Lie wrote in Norwegian and have done much to make it a literary language. The subject is exciting considerable interest among patriotic Norwegians, and effort is being made to give to the Norwegian its proper place as the official language of the nation. Swedish is the most musical of the Scandinavian dialects.

The High German, or German proper, has passed through three periods. The Old High German was spoken from the seventh to the eleventh century; Middle High German from the eleventh century until the Reformation, and the New High German, which was established by Luther, is at present the literary language of the country. "No modern language equals the German in its productiveness and its capacity of constant and homogeneous growth, in its aesthetical and philosophical character, and in its originality and independence."

So far we have considered languages whose growth has been of two different kinds. The Romance languages--Italian, Spanish and French--are based upon the Latin, with numerous elements from other tongues. The languages of the Teutonic group--the German and Scandinavian--are, for the most part, of homogeneous growth; that is, they have developed with little influence from outside. We come now to our own tongue which is the most composite of all composite languages.

To get any idea of the various elements entering into modern English, a few brief facts of England's history must be borne in mind. The earliest inhabitants, we learn from Julius Caesar, who invaded the island about 55 B. C., were Celts. The Romans, not under Caesar, but 100 years later, made another invasion and occupied the island for 300 years. Then came the conquest by the Teutonic tribes--the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who held undisputed sway until about the middle of the eighth century when the Danes began invading the land. These invasions continued at intervals for nearly three centuries, when for a time the Danes gained the ascendancy. Shortly after, in the eleventh century, the Norman conquest occurred, bringing in the Norman-French language, made up, as we have seen, from the Latin, Celtic, German, and Norman tongues. Thus we find the elements of the English language. Its real basis is the Anglo-Saxon, the language of the earliest Teutonic invaders, affected to a slight degree by the Celtic and retaining a few words left from the early Roman occupancy. This language, called the Anglo-Saxon or the Old English, was spoken until 1066, the time of the Norman conquest. During the eighth century, Christianity was brought to England by Roman missionaries, and the Latin used in the church service and by the priests in conversation and writing brought new words into the language. The extent of the Danish influence is difficult to determine since the Danish is also a Teutonic language. For 200 years after the Norman Conquest two distinct languages were spoken--the Anglo-Saxon and the Norman-French. By the middle of the thirteenth century they had begun to coalesce, and by the middle of the sixteenth century we have what is called usually Modern English. The language spoken during the period from the Norman Conquest to the middle of the sixteenth century is called Middle English. Scholars who are interested in investigating the inflectional and grammatical changes the language has undergone frequently divide its history into four or five periods instead of the three mentioned above.--MARY BLANCHARD MURPHY.

The English language, by its remarkable combination of strength, precision, and copiousness, is worthy of being, as it already is, spoken by many millions; and these the part of the human race that appear likely to control, more than any others, the future destinies of the world.--Hetta.