Perhaps it is curious to the reader why I would make opening remarks at the closing of an essay. As it stands, what I have stated in the beginning has already opened up the can of worms that these remarks are concerned with. In the beginning, I personified language. Throughout the essay, I have referred to language by the third person pronoun she. This first step can make all the difference in what we might gain from a study of language.
Language is like a person.
More to the point, language is people, all people. Language is that thing which most obviously distinguishes us from all other organisms. This is seen not only in the act of speaking, but in the products of speaking that I have elucidated up to this point. As such, any serious inquiry into Homo Sapiens must begin with a careful study of language, as Percy suggests. Let us say that we encounter a person who, for one reason or another, peaks our curiosity.