The daily Alaskan., 1916-02-10
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''parlor" attracted my attention. It
 struck my eye without eVodng an
 image and it certainly looked queer
 Just the word in its stark naked
 ness, D.G you ever experience thRtY
 The ultimate stupidity of words
 apart from their meaning9 After all, of the many mysteries of life, language is the most fascinating. A
 consideration thereof takes you
 back to the very beginning of
 things. .
 Of course ideas must have come
 before language When Om, h
 the days of prehistoric man, one day wandered a little further from
 camp than Ud his pal, he had new ! experiences which he desired to re- late. ue pieced out bis meager stock ol gutturaIs with gestures, and as his experiences and con tacts multiplied his stock ot gut
 urals incl eased and # apt to de- scribe, became part of his perman- eut stock of language. Thus was the first urge for expression satis- fled.
 That's why We speak of Ian gu-ge Icing fluid. 1t has grown b. s.su-g, borrowing and adapt a.- ..- must continue so to de t..... -- 1t takes its place among ... u-.- languages of our fath- ,... .-..- age crystallized beyond ....-.. s.uiU. The correct use Of -..-..-- AS a beautiful and satis- a.-- .--ay. The meaning of words not always the same. The coayeAl often varies the meaning md gr.Igs out subtle shades of which the dictionary takes no count
 The lAost obnoxious Prig on earth Is J1o language fOrmaIist who in s.sts on lhe absolute permanence oI Lelu,t ous of words. or course there 4Ie lots Of words whose pgr4aa=ace oI definition is fixed. The a.ctto-ary Is full of them. I-ey .re generally marked obs, meaning ooselete, or that they have acquired a permanent place in the discard.
 Slang. 50 frequently objected to by t1e precisian, is nothing but fluid .dtom, to be tested and is sat istactoyy, for our needs, is apt to become 8 part of our stock of idea eNqressors. Don't think that for q moment l uphold the use of slang, 1 Shades ol Noah Webster forbid. For 4 Ia.r Ile precisiaD more than l ] aI wl4ug to confess. He or she l ls generally So disgustingIy right 1 Slang IS said to be vulgar. But just l remember that vulgar" originally ! mean. "cg the common people or l the common herd" And the com 1 -.-a lc-d uses much more language ] ia tl> yulk than the uncommon l herd.
 h 14cs the main difference be ! lvye- the common and the uucom- l mon herd is this. Where two or ] t-.so' U5 Us arc gathered together ! -aL decide that We are in some ! way uncommon and insist upon t l i4 season and out, the rest of mankind tor the sake Of peace, are 1 apt 10 let us have our own way 1 --G We become "of those apart"
 But We have wandered far from ] bedrock. looked up the word 1 Uaglor and found that is was de- rived from the French "parler" - speech Then for the first time l ] realized the delicate irony of call iag a barber shop "TOnsorial Parl.E" In New York they have "NougisLmeut ParIors," Down the street We have aD eS-Oyster Par lyg. he poor silent oyster.
 The first sounds to be used 1 must have been simple limitations ] of sounds Cf nature. We still have [ some Of these in our language. Surprisingly few. ] recall these. l "-.s-..g a sibilant sound made 1 <. -.-..a.ag rushing through the ! .-. Imagine that when Om want |.
 -a quiet he used the si- ]
 We still retain this in ]
 . .- Ha.5ht.
 ......- ID wood" This seems . ......aely stupid combination of . letters 10 me. It comes from the { "wudu." But V hat . will always bother me is why the l called 1t "wudu." l expect this will have to take its ! place among the other 50,7S2,s& ! la HH !