TIIK CONKI.ICT Ol' LANCtUAGES. 1 29 



and Latin or French, the foreign influence was strong enough 

 to add words but not to alter grammar. Moreover, each lan- 

 guage, as it becomes more developed, tends rather to empha- 

 size its grammatical peculiarities and at the same time to 

 adopt with greater facility new and foreign words. So, too, 

 with the individual, the grammatical forms learned in youth 

 persist, while the vocabulary expands or contracts according 

 to the favorable or unfavorable circumstances of his mature 

 years . 



A language, then, is mastered when the child has acquired 

 the fundamental grammar. This mastery we find to be very 

 early in life. The family environment affords his opportunity 

 to acquire the vernacular. The mother is the active influence 

 upon him. The process is imitation and repetition by a grow- 

 ing mind. In mature years his language acquisition is con- 

 fined to new words and perhaps increased rhetorical efficiency. 

 And these conditions recur from generation to generation 

 until some foreign influence interferes. 



With the vernacular thus safeguarded, under what condi- 

 tions may a foreign tongue affect it and what conditions 

 determine the extent of the influence ? 



Foreign influence may be vital or only dominative. It is 

 vital when it arises from a struggle for life, necessitating the 

 destruction of one or both communities or their amalgamation. 

 In such cases the whole social fabric is disturbed. The domi- 

 native influence, on the contrary, results from a struggle 

 simply for power — commercial, political or cultural — and 

 the homes of the contesting communities may not be dis- 

 turbed. The conflict is vital or dominative depending upon 

 the necessities of the victor. If the stronger community needs 

 the other's territory to live on, the struggle is vital. But if 

 the occupant is strong, the dominative foreigner can do no 

 more than rule, tax, teach and preach, and these acts are not 

 permanently effective unless the subject is tractable, industri- 

 ous and teachable. 



The vital influence mav be fatal. The strontrer communitv 



