CLXIV ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT [eth.ann.20 



tongues; they also differentiate more thoroughly specialized 

 parts of speech, and they also integrate and differentiate mean- 

 ings. The process of evolution in language, therefore, is the 

 integration of distinct languages and the differentiation of more 

 specialized elements. 



Many of the nations of Europe and America speak lan- 

 guages which are held to be cognate, and thus most of the 

 more highly developed languages of the earth are said to 

 belong to one family. These tongues are called Aryan. Lin- 

 guists have devoted great labor and profound scholarship to 

 the task of discovering a pnmitive Aryan speech on tlie theory 

 that this suppose*! ancient common speech has been differen- 

 tiated into the tongues of the Aryan nation, the theory being 

 that of a single people inhabiting some limited locality in 

 Europe or Asia. Opinions that were held of the degeneration 

 of mankind gave rise to the theory, and scholars began the 

 research by assuming degeneracy of speech, and by assuming 

 the multiplication of tongues with the lapse of time. Research 

 which has been pursued with so much labor and learning has 

 failed to discover either the land or the people, but has for- 

 ever resulted in the discovery of more and more diverse ele- 

 ments in ihe s])eecli of the Aryan nation until few scientific 

 linguists remain to speak of the separation of the Aiyan 

 tongues. 



The course of history has been continuous in the integration 

 of languages, and no language can be found at the present time 

 that is not a compound. Through this compounding of lan- 

 guages many tongues of to-day have condmon elements, and 

 the hio-her the lano-uaffe the more diverse are the elements that 

 have been incorporated. Yet men will still seek to solve the 

 Aryan jjroblem! 



Gesture Language 



Gesture language, like oral language, has it foundation in 

 natural expression and emotional language. In the earlier his- 

 tory of speech it was ancillary thereto, and yet as language it 

 remained more rudimentary and hence it retained more of the 

 characteristics of natural expression. As tribes developed 

 speecli independently, every one for itself, gesture language, 



