Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-06-06
THE UNIVERSAL TONGUE.
why English WIN nm An Probability Be the
Language of the Future.

why English WIN IN All Probability Be the
Language of the Future.
In these post-centennial days it is
interesting to remember that with the
first colony established in Virginia the
Anglo-Saxon, hitherto penned up
almost entirely within his island
stronghold, began that career of ac-
QUESTION, conquest and assimilation
which must end in anglicizing every
country that is not already civilized,
and in all probability will make En-
glish the universal language of the
future. For it takes no prophetic
vision to discern that the adoption of
a universal language will be one of the
forerunners of that federation of man
into which all Nations will ultimately
merge.
Even now the need of such lam
guage is acutely felt, and has given
birth to such anomalies as Volapuk
and its limitations. But Volapuk can
never supply the need. A language
can not be deliberately invented; it
must grow and develop as part of the
heritage of a nation, strengthening
| with its strength and embalming all
its glories and traditions.
The universal language of the fu-
ture, therefore, will be either some
natural outgrowth of current Ian
guages, formed through the processes
of corruption and phonetic decry
| which are familiar to etymologists, or
else some language already in ex-
| istence.
In a generation when the masses are
| educated, where the majority can read
| or write. and where there is perpetual
| INSTRUMENTATION, language loses
| its Elasticity; it crystalizes into forms
which are no longer subject to cor
ruption- The dictionary. the locomo.
tive and the telegraph are effectual
barriers against the disintegration as
we'll as the further evolution of a Ian
guage.
The language of the future, there
fore. must be found in some tongue al
ready existing. Now, there are two
ways in which a language impresses
itself on the outside world-the red
hand of conquest and the intellectual
ascendancy of the race that speaks it.
1t was in both these ways that the
Romans made Latin enter as an i'm.
pOrtant factor into all the modern Ian.
guages of Europe and survive for ages
as the scholastic tongue of the de.
scendants of those barbarians whom
by arms or by intellect they had con.
| quered.
| As France was for years the greatest
of the nations of Continental Europe,
the most polished, the most civilized
the most advanced, its language be
came the court language of European
nations and is still understood of al
educated men.
But the Anglo-Saxon is now domin
ating the world. He has thrown {
girdle around the earth, and from the
cramped little island in which hi.
language took it's birth it has invaded
the remotest corners of the globe.
| Gibraltar. Malta, the Isthmus O
Suez, Alden. Ceylon, Hindostan. Aus
tralia, New Zealand and the West In
dies form a continuous belt which
connects the Anglo-Saxon of the OLE
World with the Anglo-Saxon of thu
New. 1t is only a question of time
before the continent of Africa, who's,
most hourishing States are English
whose wilds have been penetrated by
| Anglo-Saxon explorers, will become
as English in its language and tradi
tions as the continents of Australia
and of North America are to-day.
And as the United States is the LAND
of the future, the land of promise for
the older nations. the meeting ground
Of all races wherein they shall be
fused into higher and nobler civili
cation. it becomes vast center fol-
the diffusion and the perpetuation o.
the language which it speaks.-N. Y
Herald.