COMPOSITION-RHETORIC

LITERATURE

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Place of Language in Life. — If human beings were unable to speak or write to one another, what would our lives be like? How could business be carried on, had men no means of explaining their wishes; how could ships be guided across the ocean, if the captain were not able to direct the work of the sailors; how could we get food and clothing, if we lacked the gift of language? Without it we should be in the condition of animals, deprived of nearly everything that gives us comfort and happiness. The power of communicating with other people is one of our most precious possessions, an inheritance which we should learn to value highly. We pride ourselves upon our reverence for the opinions and ideals of our ancestors, and try to carry out the doctrines incorporated in the Declaration of Independence; ought we not to feel pride also in the language which has been handed down to us from our forefathers; ought we not to try to preserve it from

injury and pass it on unharmed to the generations that come after us?

In order to appreciate our English tongue and to use it properly so that it may be kept from injury, we ought to know something about its history and the rules that have governed and still govern the use of the English language. Language deserves to be studied as a man studies law, or medicine, or machinery. No one would be permitted to run an engine, or build a house, or shoe a horse, or practise medicine unless he had had some training and experience which would fit him to do that work satisfactorily. So it is with speech; if we wish to speak or to write accurately, we need to regard language as a very delicate instrument, capable of being harmed by careless workers, but also capable of performing wonders when used skilfully. Knowledge of his tools and continual practice with them are essential for any successful workman, be he artist or artisan.

History of Language. In studying the history of the English language, we must turn back from the beautiful poetry of Shakespeare and of Milton to the period when no nation had a literature, the period of savage man. It is almost impossible for us, with our well-developed English language, to imagine a state of being where the only means of communication were the sign, and gesture, and symbol. A foreigner who cannot speak the language of the

country which he visits, indicates the fact that he wishes something to eat by pointing to his mouth; surprise is often expressed by throwing up the hands, lifting the eyebrows, and giving the countenance a suitable expression of incredulity; other gestures are frequently observed, even to-day. We are asked by the students of language to picture mankind, during early days, creating, in the process of time, a speech which was a rapid sing-song accompanied by vigorous gestures. They talked with little expectation that they would be understood, and what they had to say was perhaps not very clear even to them. From that ancestral chattering to the language of to-day, what a wonderful advance! We have a vocabulary of over 400,000 words, our libraries are crowded with books, we can find expression for any ideas, and we can listen to the reading of poetry or prose, with keen delight in the genuine music of our speech.

The ancestor of English and of certain other languages is Indo-European, spoken more than four or five thousand years ago by a race that lived somewhere in Asia or in Europe, scholars do not know just where. The descendants of this race scattered over Europe and Asia; little by little their ways of speaking began to change, and we find that the eight languages developed from Indo-European are all slightly different one from another, yet closely connected. These eight children were represented by

the following languages: -Indo-Iranian (the language used in India and Persia), Armenian, Greek, Albanian (spoken in ancient Illyria), Latin, Celtic (spoken in Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal), Balto-Slavic (spoken in Russia and related districts), and Germanic (spoken in Germany, Denmark, Holland, and the Scandinavian peninsula). In the course of time each of these eight languages became divided into numerous other languages, as tribes migrated, and we have to-day scores of languages bound together in family groups. Each group possesses certain common characteristics and also various unlikenesses. The Latin family and the Germanic family have had most influence upon our mother tongue. The descendants of LatinItalian, French, Spanish, and other less important tongues are called Romance languages because they grew out of Roman speech in colonies governed by the Romans. The Germanic languages of to-day still show close relationship, both in grammar and in vocabulary. Students of German will find many correspondences between German and English.* It is said that English sailors going into Dutch ports can often understand the Hollanders, since the languages are so much alike.

The English Language. Many scholars consider English the most highly perfected language in exist

*fisch-fish; buch-book; gold-gold; halb-half; kaltcold; sonne-sun; mann-man; vater-father; zwei-two.