New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-12-04
A word OR TWO ABOUT WORDS.

An Interesting lecture with the above title
was delivered last evening At Stonway Han by the Rev
Alexander T. Thompson d. D., under the auspices OF The
General Society OF Mechanics and Tudcsmcn The At
teudence was good, and The lecture received with
frequent expressions OF appreciation. The lecturer pre-
luded his remarks by saying that De ala not desire to
have any words with his audience IN pugnacious SENSE
bat proposed 10 words and languages ia
scietHc colOguia manner. arranging certain facts 10
carry certain convictions. and skrmlshing about the out
the old saying, that may look upon king" lilo
alluded 10 the fact that language the distinguishing
feature Of The superiority or me human over inc Due ere
alton OuE0her powers shared by animals 10 greater
uI less bnt the use OF words was denied them.
Commencing at the lowest grades OF me- tat OF she tg
etabcs, 10 power OF sound Is 20 De found BeNltehug
beauty and immense utility are found in the world Of
flowers aud OF forests hut 10 voluntary sound, save IN
poetic fancy One grade higher m he IS observed mat
animals possess the power OF ntel-ple Iahgudse-lhai
trlatc involuntary. and instructive, 90 De sure, but su
language sufficient TO indicate unnls3baily such emo
pics talk be sure, but only borrow words and Keep
item to show occasionally, without knowing What they
words a. vehicles Of his thoughts Words, De continued
have been called the counters Of wise men hut the money
az fools gam II has been ptetuy said that words
were women and deeds were men, and ne remarked
human nature is perfected oly wien these fse
question OF tho origin Of language stating
way Of fually determining the facts. The linguistic
is growing vigorously although as yet u 10 very
young, aud the strata Of linguistic history Viii soon c
nonstrated. lie claimed that the Bible would be found
10 be the final appeal IN most OF TIE Questions involved
ont bhliOatry on the ono hand morbid unrcas0nHg
lkCpteism on The other The first historical record
Language was Wien Adam ngluct the animals in Eden.
IL what Language he tcn sakc has Afforded topic for
endless discussion. IL was always orthodox tosay that
Adam sake in Hebrew, TIL certain Dutch the0loelan OF
excessive patriotism grayey announced that the prmcyal
tongue vas Dujc6. musty Persian tradition
has il that the celestial language IS
Turkish the primitive terrestrial Persian, ana the
language Of Inferno Arabic. Another author whose ma
tionalty was evident, claimed that God spoke Ia
Swedish Adam In Danish, and the Deyi Ia French Ger
tain 10 is that whatever language was IN htue tdk
between the serpent and our common mother has caused
Us all an endless amOdnt Of trouble. SQWe 81 hf cQues
advanced % explain the inception Of language were mon
TONED. One had been Called the "b0V-wOw theory"
and held that The fQuudaOQ principle OF Language was
aily between sense and sound as In such words as
wbz buzz crack, snap, raw, sc. Another theory had
been nicknamCd the "pOoh-pOOh theory" aud
was that the whole family OF words grew cot
Of the instructive interectOns caused by emo
tious as Sudden shocks OF grief, uEoXpectol
blows or accidental discovery Of good news. But
these theories though specifically plausible enough
efficient and the latter is degrading III that The Drues
haye International language equal to own. An in
genous but terribly cruel experiment was once ted 10y
~ Fgvptan tyrau that OF isOlatihg intelligent child
from human society from his birth 20 see what form his
utterances would have, but the experiment
only proved the brutality OF the monarch
The relation Of language TO history was discussed AT
length ia instructive manner aud some striking
anomalies Of modern compared With ancient phasc0
bgy pleasIugly discussed