Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/134

 linger there almost entirely visible beneath the form of some monstrous word.

—Les Misérables.

One of the elementary principles of linguistics is the tendency and ability of every living language to absorb words and phrases from outside sources, including other languages, without losing its individuality and its essential [sic]characteritsics. There is no fact better known than the fact that in all languages additions are continually made to the vocabulary by the legitimization of slang and dialectic words and phrases. Among the thousands of slang words that live for a day, there are some that have sprung into favor and have become immortal. Now these words, when once formally adopted, are just as much a part of the body of a language as are the other words in accepted use in that language before their advent. Just as the Latin language adopted and was enriched by words imported into Rome from the Roman provinces and colonies, so have modern languages become likewise enriched and enlarged by importations from distant points. The comparative philologist and the educated linguist do not deny, but recognize, the fact that evolution and devolution are both continually going on in every language, causing more or less marked changes which become appreciable at the end of a sufficiently long period of time; neither would they deny that, when the transformation due to these causes has become sufficiently great through dialectic segregations, the resultant language—which is at first only a dialect—may, in time, become a