The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-05-18
TALK ABOUT TALK.
Prof. Emil seYtter Tells
Society People All
About English.

1t is seldom that o lecturer gives an au-
dience in this or any other city the re-
suits OF such earnest thought and pro-
found research as Professor Emil Seytter,
Phi. D., gave the hundred or more In the
Carteret Clubhouse yesterday afternoon,
In his lecture on "The Language We
Speak, From the fact that Professor
Seytter is familiar with seven modern
languages and as many dialects, Latin,
Greek aud Sanscrit, one may form an
idea of the fund Of Information on which
he was able draw. Best OF all. he Is not
only a linguist, but a conscientious and
devoted philoiogist, using the term In It's
best sense.
In beginning, the lecturer said that 1t
might seem presumptuous in a FOREIGNER
TO deliver a lecture upon the English
language, bar that he had chosen 1t TO
show the gradual formation. growth ana
development of a language not only Tor
its highly composite character. but DE-
cause 1T was INCIDENTALLY the Language OF
the future. He quoted the early uescrip-
tion of language as the dlrecG gllt OF
God. and on the other hand. Talleyrand>s
cynical remark that Language Is the
medium whereby man is enabled TO con-
ceaI his Thoughts" With this introduce
ton, Prof. Seytter began to speak OF the
tie that bound together all The nations OF
Europe. trst," said he. they were
like sisters in one home. Then one
| sister started out into the world to
seek her fortune. When she had gone a
little way to the south. she stopped III
India and took the name OF SaGscrlt.
Zsud, the second sister, went as Tar As
Persia. 4he Kettle sister travelled far to
the west; the Romano sister to
the shores of the Mediterranean all wers
scattered. but sisters still. Now, should
YOU wish to inquire the way home, you
should ask the sister who has wanderen
only a short distance away-Jhe Sanscflb.
With this setting of aliegoFy. the speaker
emphasized the fact thai the Sanserl6,
the .ssacred tongue of lpdia, is the near-
est approach to primitive language. IL
was less thai a Ii years ago When
the foreign lawmakers, searching Tor the
| ancIeut laws Of india and the mission
aries fer the religious traditions of
| he people. were forced to study the
Sanscrlt, the language of the Vedas. IL
soon became evident that the roots which
| liuguists had been valnly trying 10 trace
| back 10 the Hebrew, on the supposition
| that it was the original language, Were
| TO be found here. aud that this. 10 Faro
means. hitherto unknown toEga+ Was the
| oldest member OF the Indo-European
| family of languages.
A GRIM SUBJECT.
Then Professor SryJter
T "Grimn's Laws" those waking right-
mares to the average youth preparing Tor
college. He explalned their workings
| briefly, illustrating by u number of
fauiIiar words, TO show now a certain
consonaut in he Sauscrit. passing
through the various languages, Will
| chan 20 its sound. These caauges are SO
| regular That they have been
into a series OF canons by the liuguist, or
| rather IinsuIsls. whose lame they
bear. Tue change of oh (Sans CRU
| TO d WAS shown by the prog ress
from dhuitdT through the Greek, MugG-
I ter q aud d aeiag in~tercpau2e tple) Ger-
nlau. t~ocfter, English daughter The
word fa,ner races its peulgree from SIN
scrit pitfi, Zeaa pGitdr. Italian padre,
| Eatin pater, Greek p1tGr, Gothic UGtGf.
German cater, Saxon tdeder, Euglish
father. I'm his j~ourGeyInK througn
worus,v said he, "we tiud numerous IL
stances where Two words starting from
the root have become widely divergent"
| An example is apricot, which is traced
back TO the Moorish al bequq. which is
| known TO be a translation from the
| Greek p~rdckokkion, the early ripe"
From this very word we get directly
| through the French precoctoats, which
| nav Be seen to have a close relationship
| to the much travelled name of the fruit.
AS an amp of the interchangeable v
| and b, the lecturer told the story OF how
there came to be whales III the Manzan-
ares, the sickly little. stream that tries TO
| wash Madrid. One day it had managed
TO carry away a cask on its waters when
| the boys Oh the banks Called out "Une
| 10 Ilenatn The cooper mistook The q for
a b and thought they bud said "Une
| bGltena!s Ca whaleD so that ever since
there nave been whales in the Manzan.
ares.
So far. said The lecturer, The talk had
| been on the linguistic side of the ques-
ton, for the remainder OF he time IL
would consider its philo!oglcal aspect.
1.-The linguist. ".sald he. is to Language
as the botanist, who pllcks any Hover
andevery flower, Analysing and classify
ing purely for the sake of gathering ac-
| CITRATE data. the ~philologfst as the name.
a lover of word study, implies, chooses
/ his flowers from oaL of the garden OF
language. He takes from the lingulst
the facts. and classifications that be has
to give, but while using them, has regard
for the souls of words. their origin, their
pradua changes in meaning. and the
stories they have to tell" He spoke OF
The beginnings OF the human race, PROP
Persia, where lived q people cali
ing themselves Aryas. They were an
agricultural people. for the WORDS g
horse. dog, c0W are identical IN all the
languages of the Iudo-European family,
and must have come from a common,
S0uTces SO Lney uAai 1htlEy 1tFSs " uHCy
gave their descendants the words father,
mother, son, daughter, home. Prof.
Seytter described the successive waves OF
migration:-To India. on the south, then
the long journey Of the kelts westward,
then CT the Teulons, who pushed The
first corners still further toward the At
lantic; theu Of the SQlays, who pushed
along both their predecessors, until the
KeltS were, forced into, Scotland. Wales,
Ireland and Western FGance. the Teu=
tons occupied middle Europe and the
Sclavs Russia, Hungary aud kindred
countriea. Then Vortigern, king oE
Britaip,. Invited Aepgist and HoE4a,,
i Chiefs ut the Angles, apd SaxopA to help
MIN ddiive out the Picts and SesstS Ttes
1euton chiefs came over, drove out Picts,
SCOTS, and Britons too, and established
the Augio-SaxoA rule. palliag the qoHatry
Angle-Iand. Then The Danes gained
enough foothpld to place CaaA4te. upon
the tlsEoyler sspd ga9titain apl. existence
until in H66, Duke William of Normandy
won on tue, field Of Hastings the, title OF
C~opaueror. After this final CONQUEST. the
Norsila1 FRENCH element mixel up the
literatpre 80 much that poetry was often
writtsih iA t4Esss languages at opce. Ehen
after SO many years the, language began
10 grow towards its presslt EiGhness {
beauty.
In illustration, Miss LncY T.. Nelson
sang an adaptation Of -sSlsnlaer' ii Icor
men id, Stag Cuekn.Y COMMONLY sup-
posed to BE- the first exapaple Of. rtvpaed