The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1886-11-04
LiNGUAL plvERSiTiEo.
A Puzzle in Science-Languago In.
stinct in Children.


stinct in Children.
No puzzle Outstanding in science has
been greater than how to account for
the variety of languages among men.
1t is easy enough to explain the divers
ity that exists among various dialects
of the same stock; as that. taking the
most familiar case, between French,
Italian, and Spanish; or in wider sense,
among all the sixty languages of the
Ayran or Indo-European stock, the
twenty of the Semitic family (Hebrew.
Chaldaic, ETC. }, the 168 of the great
south African stock, the thirty-fve of
Algonquin Qndian) stock, and SO on.
These groups offer comparatively slight
variations within themselves, but the
moment we 60 beyond single stock
the several groups seem to have moth
ing in common. The parent stock in the
Aryan group, for instance, is absolutely
separated from the Semitic, that from
the Chinese, and SO on. OF these last
two it was said by William Won Hum
boldt-who was not inclined to super
natural explanations-that it was easier
to believe that each came by some d.
rect communication from heaven than
that either could have been developed
out of the other. And as there are es-
timated to be about two hundred of
these utterly distinct and remote parent
stocks, the difficulty of accounting for
them has hitherto seemed almost insup-
cradle. Yet all this while, Mr.. Horatio
Hale thinks, the real solution was one
of the simplest things in the world. and
lay close at hand-namely, in the nur-
sery. Some observations made by
woman and recorded-not, unhappily.
at once. but long after-gave the key
to the whole mystery. The solution is
to be found, according to Mr.. Hale, in
what he calls "the language-making
instinct of very young children
There were born near Boston, in 1860.
twin boys who were particularly devot-
ed to each other They began to talk
at the usual age, but the language they
talked was not even SO near to English
as is usual in such cases-in fact it was
not English at ali. They made up
jargon of their own, and entirely re-
fused to speak anything else. Their
mother could not really understand it,
but only guessed at what was essential;
yet they perfectly understood one an
other, so that it was for all purposes
of communication complete language.
At last they were sent to school, where
they learned English as a foreign
tongue, and forgot their own prattle,
only one word of which, unluckily,
was preserved. The matter was not
made public till eighteen years after
ward, when it was described by Miss E.
H. Watson of Boston.
1t happened. fortunately, however,
that in the interval between these facts
and their record a series of more ex-
act observations was made and pub
lished by an Albany physician. DR.. E.
R. Hun. In periodical of small cir
culation, The Monthly Journal of Psy-
Geological Medicine, he gave what Mr..
Hale calls "a clear and scientific ac-
count of something more of the kind.
1t was language contrived by little
girl 4 years and months old, in con-
nection with her brother of 8. "About
twenty of the words are given. most of
which are used in several allied accepta-
tions, as mea. meaning both cat and
furs; migno-migno. water, wash, bath;
pau, soldier, music; odo, to send for, to
go out. to take away; waia-waiar,
black, darkness, negro. The Ian
guage had its own forms of construc-
tion, as in mea ,oata-s0aiar dark furs,'
literally .furs dark when the adjec-
tive follows its substantive. DR.. Hun
says the children talked in this way
with the greatest rapidity and fluency.
Wentworth Hsgginson, in
Harper's Bazaar.