Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/104

 versely, in large measure, that inscrutable soul of a language, which gives a marked element of individuality to a nation.

Furthermore, a tongue is influenced by local idioms, politics, conquest, colonization, commerce, and all the many reactions inevitably taking place between State and State. Words and idioms are exchanged. Imported exotic elements of speech rarely long retain their exact original meanings. Thus modifications occur slowly but irresistibly; new subtleties of meaning arise while the older disappear and are lost. Some States, such as Switzerland and parts of the British Empire, for practical political purposes admit several tongues; others, such as France, encourage a unity of language. As civilization advances, special departments of language are developed to facilitate the working of special institutions such as, for instance, the law, medicine, engineering, theology, art, and, in a word, science in its various fields, art in its many forms. All these evolve special nomencla-