Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1860-07-19
sign Language.

A learned and brilliant lecture, by Hon.
George y, Marsh, on the Origin of Ian
guage," contains the following paragraphs on
sign language; 4y9Ng L}k.E
Many men pass through life without paus-
ing TO inquire whether the power ofspeeeh, of
which they make hourly usage, is a faculty or
an art--a gift of the Creator or a painfully ac-
quired accomplishments natural and uni
versal possession, or a human possession for
carrying on the INSTRUMENTATION essential
to social life. We may answer this query in
a general way, by saying that the use of arti-
cGlate language is a faculty inherent in man,
though we cannot often detect any natural
and necessary connection between particular
object and the vocal sound by which this or
that people represent it. There can be little
doubt that a colony Of children, reared with
out hearing words uttered by those around
them, would at length form for themselves
speech. What its character would be could
only be determined by the method of Pasm-
metichus, an experiment too cruel to be re-
peated by inquirers intelligent enough to be
interested in the result Va IA
1t is not improbable that language of man
ual signs would precede articulate words, and
it may be presumed that these signs would close
ly resemble those so much used as a means of
communication among savages, and which
are, to great extent identical with what
have been called the natural signs of the deaf
and dumb. Ifyou bring together two unedu-
Gated but intelligent deaf mutes from different
countries, they will at once comprehend most
of each others signs, and converse with free
dom, while their respective speaking country
men would be wholly unable 10 communicate
at ALL And it is often observed at deaf and
dumb asylums, when visited by natives OF
Polynesia or American Indians, that the pu-
pills and the strangers very readily understand
Q eIch other, nature suggesting the same sym
dc af mute to both alike express the notion Of
party in general, aud especially the frater
nal relation, by joining and extending the two
fore fingers. The all-observing Shakespeare
must have remembered this, when he
made Fluellen say, "as like as my
fingers is to my fingers" In this in
stance, q, as & also. when the savage and
the deaf mute both express the speaking
of truth by passing the extended index direct
ly forward from the lips, and the utterance Of
falsehood by carrying it crookedly sidewise
there seems TO be some natural analogy be-
tween the gesture and the thought So the
coincidence, by which they agree in moving
the hand by a rapid circular or spiral motion
over the top of the hand, to indicate cool
though less familiar, is equally explieable; but
there are signs common to the savage and the
deaf mute, or at least mutually intelligible 70
them, which are apparently arbitrary, and
without any discoyerable relation to the thing
| signi6ed
Trained, as We are, to a grave and impas
stoned manner, it is difficult for us to realize
that the movements and gestures with which
Italian vivacity accompanies its social inter
course, are all really significant But, though
in the cultivated circles Of Italy, and other
countries of southern Europe, manual signs
are less resorted 10, yet telegraphic commune
cations by hands, face, feet, the whole person
in short, are everywhere kept up, as qpalfca
tious of animated oral discourse. A for
| eigl or, therefore, who understands no Jan
gaage but that addressed to the ear, loses
much of the point Of the lively conversation
around him. Among the lower classes in the
| Mediterranean countries, the use Of signs
with or without words is very general II
you ask an Italian servant, who has returned
empty handed from the postotlice, whether he
has letters for you, he viii probably reply by
moving his upHfted fore-fnger slowly back
and forth before his nose Greek, under sim
liar circumstances would throw back tho
head, elongate the face, rollup the eyes, and
give clnck with the tongue, not unlike the
note Of setting hen. Yon see the coachman
servants and others of the lower classes in IL
ally, constantly communicating by signs, SONG
times, indeed, throwing in a word, but oif&
expressing whole sentence in silent 90
ture: and in conversation, especially on sub
jccts where caution is Necessary, speaker
will often stop in the middle Of period ans
finish his remarks in dumb pantomime. Ital
ian scholars have shown that the sign-languag'
ofmodern is very closely analogous to tina
ofancient Italy 70 which the classical writer
often allude, and lis origin dates back very fa
into the night Of time In an artistic point o
Iyiew, knowledge Of these signs is of eonsid
cradle Interest for il seems 10 interpret mnel
Of the action in the pictorial compositions o
Italian master which would be otherwise hard
! " Ineligible.
i The language of gesture is so well under
stood IN Italy that when King Ferdinand re
turned to Naples, after the revolutionary move
ments of 1922, he made an address 10 the laz
zarcni from the balcony Of the place, who'll
by signs which, in the midst ofthe most u
lmultuous shouts, were perfectly Ineligible b