The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1903-02-17
Prof. Buck Finds That 40
Tongues Arc Spoken In City.
AHEAD OF CONSTANTINOpLE.
Investigator From University Presents Some
Amazing Facts In Regard to Foreign Pop
uIatIon Interesting Statistics.

Chicago, Ill. Feb. f7-constantinopie.
with its mature reputation as the frst
cosmopolitan city OF the world. will now
please pass the palm TO Chicago. As an
illustration OF the bewildering melange OF
races the sultan's capital may be good
enough for the comparative degree. but
for the superiative there is now none but
Chicago.
SO says a University or Chicago pro-
fessor, Carl Darling Buck, OF the COM
parative philology department, tn q pam
phlet, the publication OF which Is an
nounced as a part OF the series OF de-
cennial publications. The pamphlet is
entitled "A Sketch of the Linguistic Con-
dltions OF Chicago" and awards first
honors in cosmopolitanism to this city
on the score OF there being II languages
besides English spoken by permanent col
onies OF more than 10000 persons each.
and in all some 40 different tongues.
CHICAGo's CONFUSION OF TONGUES
Professor Buck disposes of the claims
OF Constantinople and Cairo in single
paragraph. Their cosmopolitanism is
merely transient. while that Of Chicago
is enduring. Travellers who have gone
into ectasies over the spectacle OF the
hordes and hordes OF strange visaged
races trampling all day the rickety old
bridge OF the Golden Horn between Stam-
boul and Galata may know that Chicago
hold dozen such parters where they
confusion of tongues Is the worst since
Babel.
In fact, Professor Buck calls the lin
guistic situation which obtains in Chica-
go IAN unparalleled babel of foreign
tongues" and then he continues:
II say unparalleled babel with all due
regard TO claims OF Constantinople, Cairo
and other cities OF the Orient, past and
present. In antinople, with the het-
erogeneous constituency OF the army and
the harefn, augmented by the ranks OF
European officials and visitors. the num-
ber OF languages represented may on oc-
casions be as great as in New YORK or
Chicago. But ii must be remembered that
only few OF these languages are
spoken by large bodies OF the population.
whereas in Chicago there are some four
teen languages besides English each OF
which is spoken by ten thousand or more
persons. Newspapers appear regularly In
ten languages and church services may
be heard in about twenty languages.
FOREIGN CITIES IN CHICAGO.
Chicago Is the second largest Bohe-
mian city in the world. the third Swedish.
the third Norwegian, the fourth Polish
the fifth German (New York being the
fourth In all there are some forty for
eign languages spoken by numbers rang
ing from half dozen to half million
and aggregatiing over one million
Professor Buck carried on his investi-
cations by temporary residence In the
various colonies in Chicago. which are
really little cities within the metropolis,
each speaking It's own language. clinging
to Its hereditary customs and In large
part governing itself. Besides the numer-
al statistics which he collected he stud
led the linguistic conditions OF the second
and third generations of foreign born per-
sons, finding that the children OF immi-
grants generally speak English as well as
their native tongue, but that the grand
children, as a rule. never learn the for
eign language and speak only English.
FIGURES ON FOREIGN RESIDENTS
Here are the nationalities which Pro
fessor Buck found In the city and the ap'
proximate number OF persons speaking
their native tongues.