The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-01-15
THE GROWTH OF ENGLISH
ENORMOUS EXTENSION OF THE
LANGUAGE.
Statistics Showing the Increase which
Has Taken Place During the Pres
ent Century-Leading Language.

We all know, says the st. Louis
Globe Democrat, that the English lam
guage has been growing at remark
able rate during this century, and that
it has been spreading over the whole
globe. But few however really COM
prehend how rapid this growth has
been. At the opening of the century
French was spoken by 31,000,000 peo-
pie, German by 100000 Russian by
80, 900, 900, Spanish by 27,000,000, Eng
lish by 21.0O0,0O0 and Italian by 49,
100000. Today English is the Ian
guage of 10000. 900. French of 10000
600. German of 7O,0OO,0OO, Russian of
75,OO0,O0O Spanish of 45,000,000 and
Italian of 35,000,000. In other words,
during the present century English
has not only risen from the fifth place
to the first, but has gained enormous
w on the rest in relative magnitude,
expanding from about thirteen per
cent of the total over 30 per cent.
With this increase of the English spea-
king people the language itself has
kept pace.
Concurrent with the growth of the
language there has been an equal, if
not greater. increase in knowledge.
Three hundred years ago one man
could know all there was to be known.
Today one man can know thoroughly
only one small branch of one science
This increase of knowledge has been
most rapid during the last part of the
present century.
More than any other cause, the pro-
gress of modern invention and science
has brought about an enormous cN-
tension of the language. Thousands
of technical words and expressions
now in common use would never have
been coined but for the innumerable
parts of the never ending list of new
inventions in mechanics and discover
les in science. In no better way can
this rapid increase in knowledge, and
thereby in the number of words used,
be realized than by "A comparison of
the first reference books with those Of
the present day.
The earliest English dictionary pub
lished was DR.. Bullokar's, which APP
peared in 1916. 1t is little bit OF a
book with some 200 pages, and having
about 5000 headings. This is the be-
ginning of works of reference in the
English language. One page which il
lustrates the march of progress is that
which has meteor, metropolitan, MINI
ic, mineral, etc, on it. Mineral is
defined by DR.. Bullokar as anything
dug out of the ground" According to
this a pebble. Il worm or a mole dug
out of the earth would be mineral.
Some of the omissions are still more
interesting. There is no maid minis
ter. MILL milk. mile, might, mighty,
mid or middle. and, apparently, if we
can judge by the omissions here, they
had no mind cure and no millionaires
in those days. Now this one page of
Bullokar's work covers all the words
in the language from meteor to MINI
YER.
When DR.. johnson wrote his cele-
brated dictionary, it took fifteen large
pages to cover the same space. The
best work of the present day-the
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia-
requires forty-seven pages to cover
this alphabetical range. which shows
how enormous has been the increase Of
the past $50 years.
In Bullokar'S work there is but one
micro word, microcosmus. In DR..
JohnSon'S work. written a century and
half later, the micro words have IN
creased so as to cover one column. Mi
croscope, which was not in DR.. Bull
lokar's work, appears for the first
time in DR.. Johnson'S. In the Centu-
ry Dictionary and Cyclopedia these
micro words cover six pages. Anoth-
er word which may be quoted as a
very good illustration is take. The
Bullokar work omitted it entirely. The
Century devotes to it exactly four pa
ges, and in the course illustrating its
various uses the latter work contains
2S6 quotations.
Comparisons of this description will
be interesting to every one to whom
they may be possible. Unfortunately
but very few public libraries contain
any of those old reference books. Pub
LEGATIONS in those days We're few and
far between, and but few examples of
the Old time DrPSSWOr< are now ex-