Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-09-28
The American Language.

Perhaps the most surprising pathological fact
of the present time the wonderful spread Of the
English speech, not merely by the extension o
the power of Great Britain and of the United
States, by which the English is carried on every
quarter of the globe, and made the legal, scho
astic and polite language Of vast territories, but
by the impulse which the labors of few eminent
scholars in France, Germany and the northern
European nations have given to the study of En-
glsh classical authors in their own tongue
Throughout Germany an immense impulse has
also been given to this study by the emigration
to the United States. One may travel thousands
of miles and find no market town, however small,
in which are not temptingly displayed at the
windows of the little book shops all sorts Of ele-
mentary works to assist the emigrant in the ac-
quirement of some few necessary phrases of the
Anserican language. Inevery we'll educated fam
lily, too, it is beginning to be as necessary to pos
sess such knowledge Of the English, at least,
as our boarding-school misses acquire of the
French, and the number who can read Shakes
pere. Byron, Scott and Cooper with pleasure, in
the original is far greater than the number with
us who can read Moliere, Gil Bias, and Paul and
Virginia. Perhaps the three men who, in Ger
many, have produced the greatest influence in
rendering our speech popular and necessary to a
complete education, are A. W. Schegel, (decea-
sed,) Gervus, and Jacob Grimm; the two former
as admirers, translators and critics of SHAKESPEARE,
the latter as phiologist. The latter, in re-
cent treatise, says:
1T possesses, through its abundance of free
medal tones, which may be learned indeed, but
which no rules can teach, the power of expression
such as never, perhaps was attained by any hu-
man tongue. Its altogether intellectual and sin
gularly happy foundation, and Development
arisen from a surprising alliance between the two
the Romancsaue-the relation Of which to each
other is well known to be such that the former
supplies the material foundation, the latter the
abstract notions. Yes, truly, the English lam
guage may with good reason call itself univer-
sal language, and seems chosen, like the people,
to rule in future times in still greater degree in
all the corners of the earth. In richness, sound
reason, and infexibility, no modern tongue can
be compared with it-not even the German,
which must shake off many weakness before it
can enter the lists with the English
We have always had an affection for our ma
tive tongue; if the French, Spanish German or
Italian each surpass it in some particular quality,
it is, perhaps, true that none of them possesses
such combination ut eXceIlencins; rs 10 WHICH
point, the testimony OF Grimm, the first philolo-
gist of the Continent, has great weight. Whcth-
er this speech is destined in our country, through
the want of homogencity in the population, to be
changed to confusion of tongues, so that hereaf
ter an American will, like the fool in Shakespeare,
be thought to have " been at Il great feast oflan-
guaccs and have stolen the scraps" is ques-
ton for time to determine. We know of no
safeguard against this but the adoption of some
method Of writing English as it is spoken and
the spread Of schools, until, as in NewEngland,
he who cannot read and write shall be looked
upon by every child as curiosity and wonder.
New York Tribune.