The morning call., 1893-08-13
THE EVOLUTION OF A LANGUAGE.

Originally slang was synonymous Win
the patter of thieves. 1t was the argot
which they used ia conversation with each
othe- to conceal their meaning from out
siders. Thus Dick Hertteralck BIDS Els
mate "dowse the gim." meaning that he
shall mt out the light. From thieves the
employment of slang spread to other
classes. Horse-j jockeys had their slang.
collage students theirs, clubmen theirs.
politicians theirs. Sometimes the words
used were absolutely new. such, for IN
stance, as gerrymander, bun cOmbe. mug
wump, bulldose. In other cases old words
were twisted out of their original signlh-
cation, as rum for queer. tight for drunk,
pard for partner. We say in this State
that we will vamos the ranch when we
mean that we will leave the place. Some
of these slang expressions ingenious phi
lologists have traced to an origin. as bum
combe. to a county in North Carolina;
gerrymander, to political operation of
Elbrldge Gerry in New England; mug
wump. to an Indian phrase; but the ety.
mology in some Instances seems fanciful.
Professor Brander Matthews says that
words get threadbare and dried up and
eyaporated, and that people long for new
phrases which are vigorous and juicy. A
new slang word, if it is not indecent,
strikes the ear as the hammer strikes the
anvil and draws out spark. How long 1t
lives will depend on its applicability and
its picturesqueness. Some slang phrases
run their course in generation or in few
years. They become simply vulgar, and
are eschewed by persons of education.
Others again establish footing in the
language, and after time are not ashamed
to appear in classic society.
Languages are built up by degrees New
things require new names and old things
fall into disuse, so that the words which
described them become obsolete. The
reader of Sir Philip Sidney, who was
master Of the classic English of his day, is
surprised to find how many words he uses
that have lost their significance. 1t is
curious to note how many modern words
are not to be found in Shakespeare. The
tongue has grown since he lived. Just be-
fore his death. Lord Tennyson, commenting
on the evolution Of the language in which
he wrote. declared that the time would
come when the average English man would
be no more able to understand his poems
d SlUoSdIS tudu ITO WAS HOW dUlc
to read Chaucer. The French Academy
was charged with the duty of compiling its
dictionary in order to fix the language, and
it was high time; one may DE a pretty
good French scholar without being able TO
understand Rabelais. But notwithstand-
ing the dictionary. the French language
has undergone many changes since Louis
the Fourteenth's time. Boileau would
have been staggered by Zola's appropria-
tions from the vocabulary of slang. There
is one language which may be said to have
lasted for couple of thousand years; it is
the Greek; but if an American professor
of Greek fresh from the perusal of Thucy-
dides and Eschylus should 60 to modern
Athens he might be embarrassed to find
enough Greek in his memory to order
dinner. But on grander theme he might
not be much at fault.
There was mamie was German and
probably a cousin Of the professor who
undertook to write the history OF the
world and died just after he had got Noah
out of the ark-who undertook to create
language, complete with words. grammar
and syDtax. But Volapuk. in spite Of the
reasons for its existence, seems to have
died out Languages. like Topsy, are not
created; they grow.