Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-03-02
COMPOSITE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
IL Excels All Other in Vocabulary and
Energetic Breyity.

In the Metaphysical Magazine for
November there is an entertaining ar
ticle by DR.. Alexander Wider ON the
English language, in which the high
ly composite character of our speech
is brought INTO prominence, together
! with some of its irregularities of
spelling and pronunciation, With
great propriety DR.. Wider quotes
from the "Pickwick Papers the al
| legged remarks of The parrot that 1t
was addin' insult to injury ven they
not only took him from his native
land, but made him talk the English
langwidge afterwards The foreign
er finds some difficulty in acquiring
our tongue, Notwithstanding Is con
else simplicity and dlrectness. But
The same may be said of other Ian
guages. All present difficulties OF one
kind or another, without Offering an
equal reward to the learner, The
French abounds in confusing idioms
and has supertiuous verbs, pronouns
and participates TO embarass the Eng
lishman. The German, IN turn, seems
loaded with redundant clauses and
clumsy expressions. Ruln possess a
great superiority Of vero-endlngs tina
perpleN student accustomed TO Eng
lish simplicity, Italian and spanish
may be more phonetically spelled, hui
French and German must to some ex-
tent share with English the odium of
employing letters in writing which
are MOI employed in speaking or using
the same letter to denote several did
ferent sounds, But variations occur
in all languages, Even the Latin
upon which lh2 grammarians have
worked lheir wiIl-sometimes shows
various spellings of the same word
1t will moi be asserted that English
is the most musical of tongues, but il
would moi he dlIileult to maintain
that it eAceIs all other languages in
variety of vocabulary and energetic
brevity OF uttemnce
English is spoken by l2OOOOOOO peo-
pie OF mixed race, living in all parts
Of the globe under most diverse cir
cumsiances, It's history accounts for
its form, the latter indicating the
abrasion consequent upon the friction
OF Aorman, Saxon and other modes
of speech. The vast number Of words
derived from foreign sources is a re
suit of the large life OF people who
in war, or commerce. have girdled the
world with lneir activities. The word
punch, for example, has a variety
of meanings due to its numerous orr.
gins. AS formed from the lllndustani
PUMA, five, il means drink OF five
| ingredients, As coming from the
Latin pungo il may mean to pertorate,
or am instrument for perlorallng III
from plmio, il means TO punish, beat
or assault All The puppet show
'Punch" gets his name from Punchl-
nello, chickeu or builo0n, "lig"
formerly meant girl, and its present
| application to the inIanlqIe swine is
a "reminiscences OF oar ancestors ap-
probation of the beauty OF the young
porker. Originally imp meant only
a child or branch. lis present use in
rhe sense OF devil does not, however
prevent The employment OF the word
in both senses when the bad boy-the
scourge Of many neighborhoods-ls
under consideration.
"Sn," it is interesting to know, was
the wife Of Loki, the Scandinavian
genius of evil, and Hell was his
daughter and mistress of the Under
world. Our conception oil the former
as moral bactefiun or hamartla, in
the Greek Testament TRANSLATED SIM,
which means simply missing The
mark, or failure, "Conjure may be
from the Latin verb to enlreal or the
lIindllslani word to bewltch, which
the Gypsies brought from India. The
Romans were in doubt whether re
ligion' was from religere, to recon
slider, or religare, to bind, "Superstl-
ton originally meant ininltive per
ception-sometbmg beyond ordinary
perception. A "bhaga" is a god in
India, and among the Slavonians, but
a bogy with us, l'be "dcva" is deity
to the Hindu and a devil to The Par
sees: we borrow both forms Magic
was once in honor, meaning holy rites
in the worship Of MIhras and learn
ing generally but is now IN worse
odor even than "wIchcraft' when
originally meant superior wisdom. AS
troIogy gives us several words which
are reminders Of the time when mans
life was supposed TO be governed by