458 DIFFICULTY OF DEFINING A LANGUAGE. chap, xxui, 



when one form of speech was lost, another was suddenly and 

 supernaturally created by a gift of tongues or confusion of 

 languages, as at the building of the Tower of Babel? Where 

 are the memorials of all the intermediate dialects which must 

 have existed, if this doctrine of perpetual fluctuation be true? 

 And how comes it that the tongues now spoken do not pass 

 by insensible gradations the one into the other, and into the 

 dead languages of dates immediately antecedent ? 



"Lastly, if this theory of indefinite modifiability be sound, 

 what meaning can be attached to the term languaa-e, and 

 what definition can be given of it so as to distinguish a 

 language from a dialect?" 



In reply to this last question, the philologist might confess 

 that the learned are not agreed as to what constitutes a lan- 

 guage as distinct from a dialect. Some believe that there 

 are 4000 living languages, others that there ai-e 6000: so 

 that the mode of defining them is clearly a mere matter 

 of opinion. Some contend, for example, that the Danish, 

 Norwegian, and Swedish form one Scandinavian tongue, 

 others that they constitute three different languages, others 

 that the Danish and Norwegian are one, — mere dialects of 

 the same language, — but that Swedish is distinct. 



The philologist, however, might fairly argue that this very 

 ambiguity was greatly in favor of his doctrine, since if lan- 

 guages had all been constantly undergoing transmutation 

 there ought often to be a want of real lines of demarcation 

 between them. He might, however, proj)Ose that he and his 

 pupils should come to an understanding that two languages 

 should be regarded as distinct whenever the speakers of them 

 are unable to converse together, or freely to exchange ideas, 

 whether by woi'd or writing. Scientificall}- speaking, such a 

 test might be vague and unsatisfaetorj^, like the test of species 

 by their capability of producing fertile hybrids; but if the 

 pupil is persuaded that there are such things in nature as 



