The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-02
LANGUAGE.

One merit-mark, at least, to earn,
! One sunbeam in the wilderness.
LANGUAGE.
AN ESSAY READ BEFORE THE TEACHERS
ASSOCIATION, AT NORTH EAST, NOVEMBER
21sT, 1874.
The words that make up our stock of
written and spoken language have histories,
many of them, that if it was possible to
truly and fully write them, would pour a
flood of light into many dark corners of
history, would reopen the records of buried
centuries, and bring again to view the
struggles in which they had birth.
Could we take many of the simple words
of daily life and trace them to their origin,
we would write some of the most important
chapters in our planets history. They
are little things, but in the hand of the
accomplished linguist they have been COM
PEELED to tell something of their histories;
and as yet we know little of what it may
Philology is yet young. At some future
time when the tendencies of this cosmo-
politan age have softened down the antipa-
thies of nations; when the press and tele-
graph, the century's great missionaries,
shall have paved the way for universal
language it is possible that the past history
of language may be more fully written.
For one who has not yet mastered his
mother tongue, if indeed that be possible,
to dare to have an opinion upon the origin
of language may be presumption, but all
opinions sustained by the reason, are
worthy of consideration, it is only those
for which no reason can be given that are
unworthy of regard.
The vocal organs of all races are the
same, and no tribe has yet been found
without spoken language, no matter how
diverse it may be from the classic tongues
of literature; yet the polished language of
Greece and Rome, or the cultivated ones of
to-day, have been developed from the same
barbarous origin. Once Greek was spoken
by tribes as barbarous as any that can now
be found on the plains of Asia. When
Caesar landed in Britain, it's people were rs
uncivilzed as any that can now be found
on the islands of the Pacific, or in the
wilds of Central Africa. At sometime in
the future the dialects of New Guinea, or
of Borneo may take their places as the
languages of literature. Each dialect is
modified by those with which it comes in
contact, until in the process Of time, a
language is built up; but that, too, is ever
changing. 1t is said that one may to day
visit some, of the Pacific islands and famil-
iarze himself with their languages, and
returning in twenty years find his learning
Anticipated and useless. The process of
change in civilized tongues is more gradual,
but equally sure. To us the English of
Alfred, or of Ethelred is little more intel
ligible than the Cherokee of Sequoyah.
AS nations rise and fall-as rulers change
even language too must change.
What was the origin of our race This
is a question easy to ask, but impossible to
answer. When did it appear on earth ?
The archaologist may explore the bone
caves of France, or Italy, the remains of
the Swiss lakes, or most mysterious of all,
the mounds of our own land, and after all,
must make the humiliating confession of
his incompetency to solve the problem of
the early history of humanity. How many
centuries have elapsed since huma nifty be-
gun its struggle, is one of the worlds
hopeless mysteries. All we know is that
he is here; that from the earliest records
he has been struggling with the same
problems as the men of to-day.
There is little doubt that the cradle of at
least the white races was in Asia, that from
the mystic Iran the pilgrimage west and
south begun. Whether China, Africa, or
stock from the same origin it is safest to
allow the ethnologist to decide. Certain it
is, that before the dispersion language
was developed. The vocal organs could
not exist without use, and the primitive
man was not long learning his capacity.
1t is reasonable to suppose that the earli-
est language was merely an imitation of
/ the sounds of natural life around them.
extent, of even our modern English. The
wind hoacls, the dog barks, the eagle screams,
! the hail rattles; to designate something
soft and gentle some soft musical sound is
used, while harsher sounds are represented
by something reugher and more boisterous.
Nature gave all races the same muscles,
yet no two have developed them precisely
alike; SO, no two languages have grown up
precisely similar, yet the vocal organs are
so much alike that all languages have
something in common.
In the early ages, languages must have
been very rude. The wants of the men
who filed the bone caves must have been
few and the language equally simple, but
as the stock of needs and ideas increased.
the stock of words increased. until in time
a spoken language grew into form much
like those spoken by the more barbarous
tribes today. The earliest language was
rude and imperfect, spoken by small
number of persons who constituted a tribe.
Their dwellings, were rude huts, their food
roots and berries, or such animals as they
might be fortunate enough to capture;
rough skins served as clothing, their weap-
ons were clubs and stones, their sole object
to secure sustenance while the whole crea-
ton lay open unexplored before them
How, from such an origin, have sprung the
multitudinous languages spoken through
out the world?
The progress of society is sufficient an