LANGUAGE. 



T ANGUAGE in its widest sense signifies 



J / any means by which one conscious being 



conveys what it thinks or feels to another. 

 Thus we speak of the language of the eyes, the 

 language of birds. But in ordinary usage we 

 understand by language the system of sounds 

 uttered by the human voice in the intercourse of 

 society articulate speech. The writing of lan- 

 guage does not alter its character in this respect ; 

 it only introduces an intermediate set of signs or 

 marks. The written characters do not convey the 

 meaning directly, they only indicate certain sounds ; 

 and it is these sounds that are still the immediate 

 vehicle of the thoughts. It is language in this 

 sense the communication of our thoughts by 

 means of spoken signs* that is the subject of 

 the present paper. 



Human speech is the result of a kind of tacit 

 convention as to the meanings of the several 

 signs, so that they are intelligible only to those 

 who have learned them. Such signs are in this 

 respect artificial. But distinct from this there is 

 a kind of natural language which is universally 

 understood without being learned, and which the 

 lower animals to some extent possess. It is made 

 up of the instinctive and untaught movements of 

 the body that feelings, passions, and desires give 

 rise to. These natural, outward signs of inward 

 mental states consist of the tones of the voice, the 

 play of the features, the movements of the limbs, 

 and the gestures of the body. Every conspicuous 

 passion or emotion gives a distinct expression to 

 these various organs, by putting them into the 

 state most in harmony with itself; and each differ- 

 ent expression tends, by an instinctive operation 

 of fellow-feeling, to call forth its proper emotion 

 in those who witness it. The howlings and con- 

 tortions of pain, the quakings of terror, the fixed 

 gape of astonishment, the waitings and tears of 

 wounded affection, the swellings of rage, the eager- 

 ness of pursuit, the cry of victory, the placid repose 

 of contentment, the outburst of the ludicrous, the 

 bending of reverential feeling, the urgent move- 

 ments of entreaty are all peculiar effects on the 

 bodily organs, characteristic of the several feelings, 

 and capable of communicating these feelings at 

 once, and independently of all instruction, from 

 one human being to another. But these signs are 

 by far too limited to express the wide variety of 

 thoughts and sentiments which the human mind 

 can entertain, and which require to be communi- 

 cated between man and man. Even in the most 

 perfect development of this mode of expression, 

 i.i the stage pantomime or dumb-show, it is very 

 obscure when it attempts to convey anything 

 beyond the most obvious ideas and feelings. So 

 far as it goes, however, it is the most pofwerful 

 means of impressing one man's feelings on another, 



* This is the proper etymological meaning of Language, which 

 is a French word formed from langue, the tongue. In classical 

 Latin the word is lingua ; but the old form was dittgua, and with 

 this the English tongue is evidently cognate. 

 54 



or of inspiring a multitude with a common enthu- 

 siasm ; hence it continues to be used along with 

 artificial speech, as is seen in the gestures, gri- 

 maces, movements, and modulations of conversa- 

 tion and oratory. It is the resource of children, 

 and of persons ignorant of one another's language; 

 and is partially employed by the deaf and dumb.' 

 On this we need not dwell longer, but return to 

 audible speech. 



We may occupy ourselves with languages for 

 two very different purposes. In most cases, the 

 object in studying a language is to be able to 

 understand it, and to speak and write it. When 

 the knowledge of languages is spoken of, few, we 

 apprehend, think of anything but knowledge of 

 this directly useful kind. From the time we begin 

 to lisp to the time we leave school or college, and 

 even after, we are chiefly occupied in learning our 

 mother-tongue, or other living or dead tongues ; 

 and until recently, the multitude of dictionaries, 

 grammars, critical commentaries, and the like, that 

 constitute so vast a bulk of the literature of the 

 world, turned almost exclusively on the right un- 

 derstanding, and the correct or elegant use of the 

 individual languages. 



But there is another light in which the same 

 subject-matter may be viewed. We may study 

 two or more languages, in order to compare them 

 with one another, and note in what they agree and 

 in what they differ. When a considerable number 

 of tongues are subjected to this kind of examina- 

 tion, it is found that some features are widely prev- 

 alent, and in some instances universal, or all but 

 so ; while others are confined to a narrower circle, 

 or, it may be, are peculiar to a single tongue. It is 

 the general facts thus arrived at by induction that 

 form what are called the general principles or laws 

 of language universal grammar as distinguished 

 from the peculiarities of individual languages. 

 Nor is this the only result of such comparison. It 

 becomes at once evident that any particular tongue 

 differs widely from one set, while it agrees exten- 

 sively with another ; and thus the known lan- 

 guages of the world can be classified, in much the 

 same way as minerals, plants, and animals are. 



In this process of comparison we do not take a 

 language as it was spoken at any one date, and 

 confine ourselves to that. Not only are different 

 languages compared with one another, but the 

 same language is compared with itself at different 

 times throughout the period of its known existence. 

 The historical method is thus conjoined with the 

 comparative, and it is this conjunction that has 

 shed the most light on the laws of language. All 

 languages are found to be undergoing incessant 

 change ; waste and repair of parts are constantly 

 going on, as in a living organism, the result being 

 a gradual change in the aspect and character of 

 the whole, so that, after the lapse of centuries, it 

 shall seem to the superficial observer a new tongue. 

 These changes do not happen by blind chance or 

 caprice ; they are found to take place on the whole 



