The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-30

languages and dialects are bound to
lapse into oblivion. unless preserved in
some artificial way. The question Is
whether it is worth while to try to pre-
serve them.
The English language has practically
absorbed many ancient tongues and va
| rieties of patois. 1t has superseded, in
every part of Great Britain, the dialects
| and languages once spoken by the in
habitants almost exclusively. The Gaze
| lie, the Welsh. and the Irish languages
were once commonly spoken in the
| Highlands in Wales, and in Ireland, by
| mobiles and by peasants alike. Nova
days there are many natives of these
countries who do not understand the
! speech of their ancestors, and most OF
the people speak English, whether they
know the ancient language of their hab-
| itat or not. Cornwall, Devon. Lanca-
/ shire, and Yorkshire had each dialect
amounting almost to a separate Ian
| guage; in fact. 1t used to be said that
| Cornish was so much like Low Dutch
that sailors from Holland, shipwrecked
on the coast of Cornwall, made them
| selves understood without difficulty,
speaking their native tongue. All these
languages and dialects have so nearly
passed away that the well-educated ma
tive of Great Britain prides himself on
having not even an accent.
The same thing has. of course, hap
pened on a much larger scale in this
country. Practically all Americans
speak that variety Of the English Ian
guage which some of them are fond Of
calling United States" The German,
the Irishman, the Frenchman, the Span
lard, the Russian, the Pole. the Hun
garian. all drop their native speech as
soon as possible and acquire the Ian
guage OF their new neighbors. They
are forced thereto by commercial nsces-
sity. There is no way that they can
make a living conveniently if they do
not know English. When there is a
large settlement of foreigners, all work.
ing people. they can get along without
English, but the moment man aspires
TO he well-to-do and more than ordi-
narily intelligent. he has to know the
common speech of America.
There is no question that English is
most convenient and useful Ian
euage for everyday life. The object of
preserving Gaelic, Irish. and Welsh is
purely esthetic. There are quaint, poet
ic. beautiful. or historic words and
phrases in these and other like Ian
guages, which express certain things
more picturesquely than one can ex-
press them in English-to those who
understand. 1t is with these as with
the Scotch dialect. To those who thor
oughly understand and enjoy the speech
of Burns and Scott Scotch words and
phrases are in some ways superior TO
English. Such words as bonnie, son
SIZE 'eldritch." express somehow or
other a meaning which the correspond
ing English word does not.
The matter is at all events, too large
a one to be handled arbitrarily, or to be
much affected by artificial devices. The
chances are that it will be settled in the
future much as 1t has been in the past.
The English language has gathered
from every source words whose useful
ntSS VI Dtdu-N tiitiil W
writers or speakers. When word has
proved indispensable. it has not been
given up: when 1t was made familiar to
the people through some fashion 1t has
remained in the language. Through
medieval learning, Latin words were in
corporated into all the European Ian
guages, by the thousand. Latin was
the mother tongue of the educated man.
He learned his English. French, or Ger
man from his mother or foster-mother;
his Latin when the university, which
he called his alma mater, gave birth to
his intellectual life. 1t was. therefore.
natural that he should in his speech and
writing weld the two together.
On the other hand. there are quaint
old-fashioned idioms which are floating
about in this country today which have
come down TO US from the English,
Scotch. or Irish peasant OF the eleventh
century; there are foreign-born words
which are our heritage from sea-roving
ancestors who brought back fragments
of Spanish, Hindoo, or Cape Dutch as
they brought back loot from seaports.
Language is developed after the usual
methods of evolution.