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Show 162 EARLY HISTORY 0 F MANKIND. . h rammatical struc• formed, and the processes ?Y ~hic ~ar in a great meas· ture and inflections took their ns~ apG en placed in this ure needless, after the matter l~s re~dilv connect par· light. Th~ mental power.~ C\>Uarticular .,ideas, whether t.icnlar arbttrary sounds WL~h por interjections. As ~he those :~deas were nouns, velbs, d back into roots whteh words of all languages c~n ber~;~~e these sounds to have are monosyllables, w~ may Pd. 1 The clustering of aU heen monosyllabic accor. n~g f·com ound idea, and two or mor~ toget~efl tofex~r~s additiotfal syllahles exthe f?r;.nahon of In ec wn:s h y re ositions as of, by, and pressive of pronouns. and su~ld por ~ight occur as matters to, are proce~ses ~hich w_o lt f a mental power called o f course, b e1 nOo' s1mple resu so ·t· 1 d. t d by external nccess1 ws. int~ action, and part. Y Ir:c ~nd it in very differen~ deThB power, howe~e.r' .asd ~~duals so would it be in differgrees of endowmen tn In tl~l ati~ns or branches of the t d -.u ·ees of endowmen tn n ' . d d en cor . ce we find the formatwn of wor s, an human fam1ly. H.cn ·r nand graminatical arrange· the pr~cess of t~en· .co~pt~sl w of development in ditn~rent ment, In very dr~feren s agesa lan<Yua e composed of a l~~'i~~d ~:~b~;~~~~n~~;fllables,t ~~~~h ~t~~:t~l!t~~~ b ·e vanal1ons o accen , . t" use y mel . rer of clustering or Infiec lng; never yet attained the pov. t. the third part of f this Immense na 10n- . . tho language 0 b . d to be in the condition of 1n· the human rac:-:~ay 1 ~:~ricans so inferior in civiliza· f~lncy. The a ong~~~er hand, a 'language of th~ mo.st hon, have, on the . . d erha s even exceeding, In elaborately composite lun ' P p t fi d European . h 1- fres of the mos re ne . tlus respect, t e angbuato ~ out of many facts tending t. These are u a lew t na wns. . . a great measure independen to s~o~. th~t langu~~e ls. lll vance a.nd development are of civtllzahon, as {ar as ~ts 1:~ help to prove that cultivated concerne~. Do t ley no. a_ . the oriuination of language? intellect IS .not neces~a~) t foL ur obse~vation afford equally . Facts daily pres.et~h~ al~n~st infinite di versificatio~ of s1mplf~ reason~ f~l . bl f d that wherever society language. It lS Inva~·Ja . y o~~no-ua rre' tencls to be uniis at once dense and Iefined, ~\. {' and to undergo furrn throughout the ·whole pfopt.u a:> wnw, herever on the f·e w c h anges I· n the course o nne. ' .t . d and barbarous people, we contrary' vv~ h~\~tc ~ sea~ r~~nlparatively rapid alteration~ have gre1.t dtveiSI es, an EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. 163 of language. Insomuch that, while English, French, and German are each spoken with little variation by Inany millions, there are islands in the Indian archipelago, probably not inhabited by one mil.lion, but in which there are hundreds of languages, as diverse as are English, French, and German. It is easy to see how this should be. There are peculiarities in the vocal organization of every person, tending to produce peculiarities of pronunciation; for example, it has been stated that each child in a family of six gave the monosyllable fly In a different manner, (eye, fy, ly, &c.,) until, when the organs were more advanced, correct example induced the ·proper pronunciation of this and "Similar words. Such departures from orthoepy are only to be ch~cked by the power of such example; but this is a power not always nresent, or not always ofsuffi~ ient strength. The able and self-devoted Robert Moffat, in his work on South Africa, states, without the least regard to hypothesis, that amongst the people of the towns of that great region, "the purity and harmony of language is kept up by their pichos or public meetings, by their festivals and ceremonies, as well as by their songs and their c6nstant in.tercourse. '\Vith the isolated villages of the desert it is far otherwise. They have no such tneetings: they are compelled to traverse the wilds, often to a great distance from their native village. On such occasions fathers and n1others, and all who can bear a burden, often set out for weeks at a time, and leave their children to the care of two or three infirm . old people. The infant progeny, some of whom are beginning to lisp, w bile others can just master a whole sentence, and those still fut·ther advanced, romping and playing together, the children of nature, through the livelong day, become ha· bituated to a language of their own. The more voluble condescend to the less precbcious, and thus, from this infant Babel, proceeds a dialect composed of a host of mon~ grel words and phrases, joined together without rule, and in the course of a generation the entire character of the language is changed."* I have been told, that in like manner the children of the Manchester factory workers, left for a great part of the day, in large assemblages, under the care, perhaps, of a single elderly person, and spending the time in amusements, are fouud to make a great deaf of .,. Missionary Scenes and Labors in South Africa. |