THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE 51 



slowly developed and expanded into its present con- 

 dition. 



The sources from which our evidence for this con- 

 clusion have been derived are three. 1. The study 

 of the records of ancient language as they may be 

 found in the oldest literature. The older the liter- 

 ature the more significant it becomes as being nearer 

 to primitive language ; and naturally Sanskrit, repre- 

 senting, as it does, the oldest language with a 

 literature, is called upon for the largest number of 

 facts. But all written languages offer collateral evi- 

 dence. 2. The comparative study of existing as well 

 as ancient languages. As numerous languages com- 

 plex as well as simple are compared, an immense 

 wealth of information has been obtained as to the 

 meaning and development of speech. 3. The study 

 of child language, compared with simple languages. 

 It is possible to doubt the cogency of this last line of 

 evidence. Biologists in general have learned that 

 embryology repeats past history; and possibly we 

 might expect that it would do so here, so that the 

 child learning to talk would give a sketch of prim- 

 itive man developing language. But the cases are 

 not parallel. The child of to-day learns to speak by 

 imitation of his elders, and primitive man could cer- 

 tainly not have at first thus acquired his language. 

 In other words, the child gains his language through 

 social inheritance rather than by organic inheritance, 

 and it may well be that the law of embryological 

 repetition, which holds for organic heredity, will not 

 hold for social heredity. Still, it will be not without 

 significance to compare the development of speech 

 in the child with what appears to be the development 

 of language in the race. 



