Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1899-12-14
THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH.
Some Interesting Facts Regarding
che Growth and Development
of Our Language.


them, as He did in other respects, to en-
large and improve it as their future
necessities should require. These rudi-
ments Of speech must have been poor
and narrow. Let US suppose period
existing before words were known.
Men could have had no other method Of
communicating their feeling than by
cries of passion, accompanied by mo-
tons or gestures, just as to-day two
men woald endeavor to make them
selves understood, if, ignorant Of each
others language, they were thrown to-
gether upon a desert island. Conse-
quently those EXPLANATIONS, called br
grammarians 'interjections," were
undoubtedly the elements Of speech.
Finally names began to be applied to
objects, the names corresponding as
nearly as possible to the nature of the
object named. When the objects were
those in which, sound or motion were
concerned, the imitation by words is
obvious; thus, one sort Of wind is said to
whistle" and another to roar" a ily
to buzz hail to rattle" a stream to
"How,' etc. But where neither noise
nor motion is concerned this analogy
becomes more obscure, although it is
not entirely lost. But as towns increase
in every nation words deviate more
widely from their primitive root ana
lose all resemblance in sound of the
things signitied. For Instance, what an
amount Of history is wrapped up in the
word pagan" The word, we learn
from Gibbon, is remotely derived from
q word in the Doric dialect. signifvinp
a fountain Tie rural neie hborhood
which frequented this fountain came
to be known as "pagans." Soon
pagan" and rural" became nearly
synonymous, and the meaner class ac-
quired that arpellation which has been
corrupted in the northern languages Of
Europe into peasant" Words as we
now use them are symbols rather than
limitations.
! Language in its infancy being ex-
tremely barren, the mode Of speaking
by natural signs could not be ut once
abandoned, and conversation was in
termiSed with many gestures. Later
what had arisen from necessity con
tinued to be used for ornament. In the
Greek and Roman languages particuz-
larly musical and gesticulating pro-
'nunclation was retained in marked
degree. Without considering this, we
should be at loss to understand sew
eral passages of the classics relating to
public speaking and theatrical enter
tainments Of the ancients. The actions
of orators and players were far more
vehement than those of the present
day. To US Roscius would appear
mailman. On some occasions the acting
and speaking were divided, one player
speaking the words, while another ex-
pressed the corresponding motions.
Cicero tells US that it was a contest be-
tween himself and Roscius whether he
could express sentiment in greater
variety Of phrases, or Roscius in
greater variety Of intelligent gestures.
Finally gesture engrossed the stage en-
tirely. and under the reigns OF Augustus
and Ilbcrlus pantomi1ne was the favor
tie entertainment Of the public. The
passion for gesticulating became SO vio-
lent, in fact, that laws were made pro-
hibiting senator's from studying the art.
The order in which words are arranged
n a sentence differs greatly il ancient
and modern tongues, and the considera-
ton Of this serves still further to IN
fold the genius Of language. Suppose a
savage earnestly desiring some fruit
held by smother. unacauainted with
words, he strives to make himself IN
dcrstood by pointing eagerly at the
fruit, at the same time utteringa cry.
Next, let us suppose him to have ac-
quired q few words. The first word
which he would utter would be the name
of the object desired, because his mind
IS concentrated on that subject Thus,
the primitive man would express HIM
self in the Latin order of construction:
fruit give me-" "Fructum da mihi. .
AS language grew more copious it grad
ually lost the tgurative style which was
It's early character, and the metaphor
zeal mode Of expression finally gateway
to the more simple style of to-day.
There is probably no language more
copious than the English, which was
spoken after the Norman CONQUEST in
1906. 1t is mixture Of Anglo-Saxon
and Norman-French, and contains
something more than 1000 words, 90
900 Of which are Of Latin origin, and
14,eo0 Of Teutonic extraction. IN
Chemistry few names have come down
to us from the languages Of the civil.
lied nations Of antiquity. For example,
the root Of the word ammonia is more
than 1000 years old; ammon, from,
which it is derived, having been the
name of one of the gods worshiped by
She ancient Egyptians, from whom the
Romars transmitted the word to us.
IN tie ninth century the Arabians
were the most DISTINGUISHED chcr;e4s