The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-02-06
miscellaneous.
A SCIENTIFIC METROPOLIS,

-
I0c,ure by DIR. Welsse on PhllOlOgy and the POS
abilities Of Making New York scientlilC
Centre.
A lecture on "Philology and the op'
portunities New York Presents Tor l's
Study and CountenanCe" was delivered
Friday even'g before the Pathological So
ciety, in the Cooper Institute by Johh
A. Weisse, M. D., author of the work re-
Gently issued on the Origin, Progress
and Destiny of the English Language
and Literature" The speaker said that
during the middle ages and up to this
century, philoogy was almost limited TO
the study of Greek and LatiH' Only
within the last fifty years this important
science rose to its legitimate plane,Which
is to trace language by analysis and syn
thesis from its present composite stand
ard to its initials and roots, so as to clear
up protohistory and arrive at glmFses OF
prehistory. As the society desired him
to give an account of his recent work, he
would do so as succinctly as possible,and
add few remarks concerning the duties
of New York, its educational and COM
mercial advantages, and its various rehn-
ing and artistic societies. lie began his
analysis years ago of the English Ian
guage, with intent to show its inferiority
as compared with Greek, Latin, French
and German, but found, on investiga'
ton, that it contained the cream and es'
Bence of its predecessors and contempor-
aries; that its grammar is simpler than
any we have studied, and that its rec
ords and literature are more successive
and complete than those of any other
tongue. To trace its origin he would di'
vide the time from the arrival of the
Jutes, Saxons and Angles in Britain into
three distinct periods-Anglo'Saxon
from A, d. 449 to 1900, Franco. English
from 1900 to 1900, and English from 1900
to 1879. The advent of Christianity
among the Anglo, ,Saxons, A. D. 597, ad'
ded the first Latin words to the Anglo
Saxon dialect, as may be seen in King
Ethelbert's code of laws. Contrary to
expectation, he found that the Anglo
Saxons had not only written but YER
nacular literature before Italy, France,
Spain, Germany or any other medieval
nation.
Fourteen extracts and tables from au-
thors of the Anglo Saxon period from
597 to 1900 show 81 per cent Gotho-Ger-
manic, all Anglo-Saxon s per cent, Greco
Latin Including per cent French, and
traces of Semitic, which came into An
glo Saxon through the Bible. Twenty
two extracts and tables from authors of
the Franco English period from 1900 to
1000 yield 81 per cent Gothic. Germanic,
including 40 per cent Anglo-Saxon, AZ
per cent Greco Latin, including 43 per
cent French, per cent Celtic and traces
of Semitic. This period comprises the
Chanceran era, which enriched the
Franco. English vocabulary with thou
sands OF Greco Latin words for the new
wants of an expanding literature.
Fifty extracts and tables from stand
ards in all styles of writing, from Shaks-
pears to Tennyson. give 6S per cent Greco
Latin, including SO per cent French, 80
Gothic Germanic, including % of Auglo-
Saxon, 2 Celtic and traces of Semitic and
Sclavonic. Doubling this rather unex-
pected result from literature he, the lee
tuIer, examined Walkers and Websters
dictionaries, and by counting the words
of page in each of the twenty six let
ters, and tracing them to their origin,
then averaging them and multiplying
the averages by the number of pages in
in the dictionary obtained 70 per cent
Greco Latin, 27 Gothic GermaniC, u Sc
mitic, and onehalf Of one per cent Gel
tic and fraction of SclavoniC. In this
analysis he discovered that history, ju-
risprudence and the press use more
more GreCo-Latn words than sacred
writings, poetry, romance and domestic
subjects. Science ranks between history
and poetry as regards Greco Latin words
for Agassiz's Natural History" has AZ
per cent of Greco Latin, and Prof Tyn-
dall's AZ. From Apra Behn to Mrs. Som
erville, women have always used more
ADglo.Saxon than Greco Latin words,
this being attributable to the fact that
women receive no classical education
like men. The English language, the
speaker thought, gained more prestige
in the laying of the Atlantic cable than
by any other previous event. action or
ContrivanCe. After paying a ompliment
to the genius and energy of Cyrus Field
in connection with this enterprise, the
speaker went on to say that he based the
destiny of the English language on the
plain and simple fact that English now
rules over three hundred and eighteen
millions of people, or one quarter of the
earth's inhabitants,
Glanciug then at the great future of
New York, which is destined to be the
capital of the world, he considered that
no city stood 80 much in need of a phi,
lologiCal society, for here there are more
dialects spoken than in any other city on
the globe, from Irish to Japanese, Basque
to Russian; hence it is the most appro.
pirate field for comparative philolOgy,
and should be the seat of an active and
practical organization which should pur-
sue Gn6 bLuul6b 81 huSplClpualy DOsuh Wy
Dnponceau, Whitney, Haldeman, Hu,
bert, Bancroft and a host of others anx
ious to phonetic the Euglish language,
80 as to fit it more and more for its cub
lime mission among the progressive and
unprogressive races of the earth. When
we consider the strides the English Ian.
guage has made, we may safely infer
the time is not far distant when English
shall rule from Canada to Patagonia
America needs centre ofattraction and
diffusion like other countries. We