Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/383

Rh their minds; but the many derived from their toilsome labors absolutely no fruit. On the contrary, this mill-horse toiling up and down, and round and round, ever treading the same old tracks of declension and conjugation, ever "parsing" and translating without being able to see whither it all tended, could serve only to dull and deaden all the faculties of the mind, and to stamp out all originality.

The old school in language had a theory of the origin of the various tongues of mankind: they all sprang from one—the Hebrew. Whether true or false, this theory was unproductive of results which could, by any possibility, inform or instruct the mind, for it was at the same time affirmed that the descendants of the Hebrew language were purposely so distorted that human ingenuity would ever fail to show a connection between the children and the parent, or between the children themselves. But, by the researches of modern scholars, even the arbitrary (for so they, till recently, seemed to be) modifications of words, as found in declension, conjugation, and the like, have been traced to their sources, and good reasons ascertained why they are thus and not otherwise. In this way caprice is eliminated from language, and law set up in its place; language is made amenable to scientific treatment.

Prof. Whitney's book outlines with wonderful clearness the science of language; and in the deservedly popular series to which it belongs there is not one volume which surpasses this as a simple and lucid exposition of a scientific theme. His method is to start from obvious, familiar truths, to exemplify by facts that are well known, and hence he is always, in his speculations, within easy reach of the reader. This commonsense mode of treating his subject is seen in Prof. Whitney's discussion of the question, How is language obtained by us? "There are few," he says, "who would not at once reply that we learn our language; it is taught us by those among whom our lot is cast in childhood." And this reply the author accepts as the true one, rejecting two other answers: that language is a race-characteristic, and as such inherited from one's parents, like the physical constitution; and that it is independently produced by each individual, in the natural course of his bodily and mental growth. The author then proceeds to show that language is not inherited, and that it is not evolved by the mind of the individual, but simply learned, acquired by hearing and practice.

As an illustration of the influence upon language of conservative and alterative forces. Prof Whitney very happily selects a verse (Matthew xii. 1) from the Anglo-Saxon Gospels and compares it with the same verse in our modern English: "Se Hælend fôr on reste-dæg ofer æceras; sôthlîce his leorning cnihtas hyngrede, and hî ongunnon pluccian thâ ear and etan." Modern version: "Jesus went on the Sabbath-day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat." In the Anglo-Saxon version it is not easy for the ordinary English reader to recognize the words as familiar, and yet, by translating it as literally as we can, we find that almost every element in it is still good English. Thus: The Healing (one) fared on rest-day over (the) acres; soothly, his learning-knights (it) hungered, and they began (to) pluck the ears and eat. By means of this one passage Prof. Whitney indicates all the change-influences to which language is subject. These are: "I. Alterations of the old material of language; change in the words which are still retained as the substance of expression; and this of two kinds or sub-classes: 1. Change in altered form; 2. Change in content or signification. II. Losses of the old material of language, disappearance of what has been in use; and this also of two kinds: 1. Loss of complete words; 2. Loss of grammatical forms and distinctions. III. Production of new material; additions to the old stock of a language, in the way of new words or new forms; external expansion of the resources of expression." Five chapters of the work are devoted to an exposition of the influence of these various causes upon language.

We have not space for more than mere mention of the titles of the remaining chapters of the work, viz.. Dialects; Indo-European Language; Linguistic Structure; Material and Form in Language; Other Families of Language: their Locality, Age, and Structure; Language and Ethnology; Nature and Origin of Language.