Golden Age, November 23, 1932
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Golden Age
A JOURNAL OF FACT HOPE AND COURAGE
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in this issue
THE WORLD’S LANGUAGES ASSORTED ITEMS HARDSHIPS AMONG MINERS
PAY ROLL OF R. F. C.
BOOM OF SCHWANENKIRCHEN OBEDIENCE IN FACE OF DANGER AN M. D. ON ALUMINUM iiiiiiiiifiimiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiitiiiiiii every other WEDNESDAY
jive cents a copy one dollar a year Canada & Foreign 1.25
Vol. XIV - No. 344
November 23, 1932
C O NT E NT S
LABOR AND ECONOMICS
Increased Unemployment in Europe 109 The Depression in Arizona . . . 109
SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL
The World's Languages ... 99
Assorted Items.......109
Jesuits May Not Teach in Spain . 109 Boys Better; Girls Worse . . . Ill Submarine Disasters Since War . 113 Wild Boys in America Soon . . . 114 Self-Sustaining Relief in Canada . 115 More than One Percent Right . . 116
MANUFACTURING AND MINING
Canada Again Second on Gold . . 109 River of Electric Bulbs .... 114 Hardships Amongst Coal Miners 116
FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION
The House of Lords.....109
2,000,000 Bushels via Hudson Bay 109 Militarism Retards Aviation . . Ill American Trade Goes to Britain . 113 Electrification of Pennsylvania . 113 Big Business During World War . 114 Great Lakes Seaports.....115
Pay Roll of Robbery Finance
Corporation
The Boom of Schwanenkirchen 118
POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN
What Christ Would Find . . . Ill German Reparations Luckenbach’s Affidavit on Silver . 113
United States Chamber of Commerce 114
AGRICULTURE AND HUSBANDRY
World's Largest Plow
Return to Farms in Canada . . .110 Money in Raising Wool .... 113 Package Bees from the South . . 114 Blessing Hidden in a Flood . . . 114
SCIENCE AND INVENTION
Growing Plants in Chemically
Fed Water........110
Cunard Coal and Oil Mixture . .110 Mapping the Floor of the Ocean . 113
HOME AND HEALTH
Uses of a Lemon.......109
500 Children Foolishly Blinded . 109 Teeth of Eskimos Giving Way . .110 Sight Restored After Twenty Years 110 M.D. ’s Experience with Aluminum 126
TRAVEL AND MISCELLANY
18,523 Hotels in U. S. and Canada 109 Veterans’ General Counsel Resigns 115 A Flourishing Lottery Business . 116
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
The God of Salem G. Bland . . 112 Spasmodic Sanctity in Canada . .112 The Sunday Morning Disturbers . 115 Insure Your Soul for Two Bits . 118 Obedience in the Face of Danger 122
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(ike Golden Age
Volume XIV Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, November 23, 1932 Number 344
The World’s Languages
LANGUAGE is a means of communication between intelligent persons or creatures. It is the vehicle of thought or of ideas. It may be either vocal or signified in other ways. Basically, however, language means speech, and has to do with the spoken word and thought rather than the representation of the thought in some other form. When these words and thoughts are represented by marks upon paper, stone or some other medium, we have another form or expression of the language, but the basis of such signs and symbols usually is the spoken word.
This thought is conveyed in the word “language” itself, which is derived from the Latin lingua, meaning the tongue. There are in existence some fairly complete sign languages, consisting of gestures made by means of the hands or otherwise. Among the Indian tribes of America there are a number of vocal languages; but there is but one universal sign language among them, by means of which they can communicate with tribes they would not otherwise understand.
There are three or four thousand languages in the world. One authority indexes 6,760 named tongues and systems of writing. The greatest diversity of languages is found among savage tribes, such as live in Africa, Australia, and the East Indies. There is also a great variety of languages among the American Indians and Eskimos. Among the more civilized peoples languages are more permanent and uniform, being preserved in written records. Large communities bound together in mutual interests preserve the general form of the language through constant intercourse, whereas among the savage tribes isolation of one small group from another tends to create differences and accentuate them.
In Asia there are more than 900 languages, in Europe 600, in Africa 275, and in America 1600, but not all of these languages are printed. In Europe, only 34 languages are printed and officially recognized, the rest being merely dialectal differences or ancient forms of speech preserved by small communities, the members of which are as a rule able to read and speak one of the 34 printed languages.
The confusion of languages which took place at Babel has continued since, and languages have appeared and disappeared in constant succession. Hence we have with us today the remains of many dead languages which are preserved only in records of stone or parchment or some other medium.
The Goths, the Greeks and the Latins of Europe in the early dawn of history spoke languages no longer used except for cultural and scholastic purposes, and if some early Latin should make his appearance among us today and hear the most fluent speaker of that ancient tongue he would be unable to understand a word. If the same Latin scholar should, however, write down on paper the words he used, the ancient user of that language would stand a better chance of grasping his meaning.
Philologists with evolutionistic leanings have tried to demonstrate that originally man had no language other than grunts and growls, and that gradually, after millions of years, he. learned to make distinctions in his grunts and growls, so that a short growl or a high-pitched grunt began to have some particular kind of meaning, and so gradually mankind learned to speak and to talk of the stars and the depths of the sea, of life and of death, of truth and of goodness, and of an infinite number of things of interest.
But this idea is so preposterous that even scientists, who unhappily seem more prone to wild speculation than the ordinary mortal, have largely abandoned the idea. They either give up hope of ever finding out the origin of language and speech or they accept what shou'd have been accepted at the outset, the Bible's assurance that originally God created man endowed with the gift of speech, and that subsequently the confusion of languages took place because mankind turned away from God.
So far from the present-day languages’ having arisen from a lower level, the opposite is found to be the case. The ancient languages, now preserved only in written form, are more complete in their forms than those of modern times. The further back we trace the languages of the race, the more beautifully clear and perfect they are found to be.
Sources of Languages
The immediate origin of certain languages, such as French, German, Dutch, Spanish, is not hard to trace, but the problem of the relationship of all languages one to another, and their origins and sources, is so complex and involved that scholars are able to arrive at only a very partial conclusion on the subject.
It is known, for instance, that the languages of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and some other countries are mainly of Latin origin; and it is also generally conceded that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and many other European languages, together with some in western Asia, have a common source, Sanskrit being the most ancient of a large family of languages.
On the other hand, there are many languages about whose source there is no definite knowledge or even a hypothesis. For the most part philologists have looked for origins in India and western Asia, but much uncertainty still exists even in the minds of scholars as to the exact beginnings of modern languages.
Constant Change
Whatever may be uncertain in this matter of languages and their relationship one to another, one thing is most definitely established: that there is a constant change going on. As a result, books written a few hundred years ago in the best language of the time, or presumably the best, are today not altogether intelligible, and we have need of glossaries and dictionaries to aid us in understanding just what was meant by the writers. Shakespeare and other authors of his time serve as an example. Most of the editions of Shakespeare issued today have copious footnotes to aid the reader in understanding what he wrote.
Changes in language are due first of all to carelessness in the pronunciation of words, so that in time they acquire a decidedly different form. Changes also result from the wrong use of words. This in certain instances has brought about a complete change in meaning. An illustration in point is the word let, which at one time meant to hinder, while today it means exactly the opposite, not to hinder. Numerous instances of such changes might be mentioned. They all go to show the tendency of mortal creatures to do things inaccurately, imperfectly, and the result is constant misunderstanding and disagreement. Further, groups of people who at one time had the same language have gradually drifted apart in mutual understanding, and the result has been a number of languages where formerly but one existed.
Such a process of separation we see taking place among the Scandinavian people, with languages so similar that they could easily be combined into one, but where national prejudices are tending toward separation and consequent accentuation of differences.
To preserve a language in its original form without change or addition is a practical impossibility, and, it might be said, an undesirable proposition. Where peoples grow and expand in their activities and enlarge their fields of thought and observation, new words and variations of old words are both necessary and desirable. No doubt man has been given the ability to naturally and easily increase the scope of language to meet his growing requirements.
Where this is not done the result is a failure to progress. A people may even retrogress, or go backward, and lose much of the scope and depth of their language through failure to maintain the standards and ideals to which they have attained, and their language become proportionately impoverished.
Philologists say that the language of each people reflects its history, its environment, its development; and this is undoubtedly true. Additionally, the language of a people, the words and forms that predominate in it, reflect the attitude and character of that people. In the Semitic languages the use of the metaphor is common, indicating that these peoples are given to the use of picturesque and figurative language, illustrating their thoughts and ideas most interestingly from nature.
The Indo-European languages, on the other hand, are said to be more philosophic, especially as represented in their higher literature. Unfortunately, however, the Europeans do not seem to have gotten very far with their philosophy.
The needs of the people play a large part in determining the form and style of the language used. For common, everyday and practical ends, a common and practical language is developed. People concerned largely with the business of making a living are not particularly concerned with the style and finish of their speech.
“You know what I mean/’ sums up their philosophy of the matter. The fact, nevertheless, remains, that very often others do not know exactly what they mean, and they experience considerable difficulty in making themselves clearly understood in matters that lie outside of the more common phases of life.
The number of words at the command of an individual is said to be his vocabulary. The vocabulary of each human creature, in all probability, differs in some degree from that of every other human creature. In a sense, therefore, each man has his own language, and his own way of expressing himself.
While the extent of a man’s vocabulary may not be an index of his intelligence, it is a fair gauge of his mental equipment. One six-year-old boy was found to use more than 2600 words. A Swedish peasant, according to careful investigation, possesses at least ten times that many words.
American college students show an average vocabulary of something less than 60,000. On the other hand, those who cannot boast of an elaborate education need not therefore plead guilty to a limited vocabulary. Many savage tribes make use of a large variety of words, totaling as high as 30,000.
Nations having constant contact with each other inevitably influence each others’ languages. No language is free from foreign elements. As a simple illustration, the names of animals as used by other peoples are adopted by a nation if that animal is not known at home, such as kangaroo, zebra, and aard-vark.
Of the many languages spoken in the world, it will be possible to consider only the most prominent, and some of the more unique and interesting. The language that has been termed the eldest language of the Indo-Germanic tongues is Sanskrit. The discovery of this language, now no longer spoken, made possible a great advance in knowledge.
The similarity of this ancient language to the classical languages, though there is a wide difference in geographic location, made it clear that Latin was not a Greek dialect, but a sister language derived from a common parent. Of the Sanskrit it is said that it is the richest of all languages. Its words are most harmonious in sound and sense and in the way they combine one with another. The beautiful language of Greece pictures but faintly the grandeur of Sanskrit, though related to it.
Latin, also a member of this language family, is coarser and sterner far, and represents still less of the beauty of the original unknown parent language of which Sanskrit is the elder, and the noblest offspring. No other language is as rich, regular and systematic as the Sanskrit, nor does any other language have an alphabet that so accurately expresses its sounds.
Closely related to this remarkable language is the language spoken by the Gypsies, the same the world over, though they are scattered among numerous nations. The similarity of the language of the Gypsies to Sanskrit made it certain that their origin was not Egyptian, as had been universally supposed, but that they came originally from India.
The present languages of Hindustan, approximately thirty all together, are degenerate forms of Sanskrit and have lost much of its beauty. Sanskrit was a spoken language some 1500 years before Christ. It is now preserved only in the Vedas, the sacred books of India.
Indo-Germanic
Indo-Germanic is the name given to a family of languages which stretches from the south of the Indian peninsula to the most western bounds of Europe. Earlier writings refer to the family as Indo-European, but the objection to this term was that not all European nor all Indian languages are members of this family, and that some languages found neither in Europe nor in India are members of it. Consequently the term Indo-Germanic has been selected as denoting the terminal links in the chain, without attempting to define or suggest its geographical extent. Turkish, Hungarian, Basque, Lapp and Finnish are not members of the Indo-Germanic family of languages.
The Indo-Germanic languages have spread over the vast territory stretching from the mouth of the Ganges to the British Isles and Scandinavia, and thence to the Americas. They comprise the Sanskrit, Zend, Old Persian, Greek, Latin, Lettie, Slavonic, German and Keltic families of tongues, all having remarkable resemblances and similarities.
One writer says, “There is indeed a wonderfully scientific and artistic unity of plan in the structure of the Indo-European type of languages, as also in that of the Semitic: and the argument is conclusive from the unity of analogies here, as in nature, to unity of authorship, and that authorship divine.”
Indo-Germanic languages are distinguished by the inflectional changes in the form of the root words, as illustrated in the following example: beauty, the noun; beautiful, the adjective; beautifully, the adverb; beautify, the verb, present tense; beautified, the past tense of the verb; and so on.
It is difficult for some of us to imagine a language in which there are no such variations of form and where each word has its own unalterable form, unrelated in form or structure to other words of similar or allied meaning.
Yet there are such languages, as, for instance, the Chinese, in which each word has but one syllable, and stands by itself, having no related words of similar but modified form. In Chinese a change in thought or tense is indicated by a change in tire arrangement of the words or a change in the pitch in which a word is spoken.
The Indo-Germanic languages also have suffixes and prefixes which modify the meaning of words, but no such arrangement is observed in Chinese, where modification of meaning must be expressed by the use of additional words or entirely different words. These suffixes and prefixes, while they may be added to a large variety of words, have no meaning when standing by themselves. Pre itself is an example, as in prevent, preserve, present and preside.
In this respect the Indo-Germanic languages differ from languages that are called “agglutinative”, of which Turkish is an example, in which words are linked together, sometimes in a long string, to form other words of different or extended meaning, an arrangement which is met with in English to some extent, as in manfully, carelessness. In Chinese, however, even this simple method of word formation is not employed. Each syllable stands separate and distinct and makes no connection with other syllables, but expresses a complete, fixed, unvarying idea.
It is interesting, too, to note that in the IndoGermanic languages compound words are frequently met with, such as schoolhouse, upstairs and cornerstone, a peculiarity which is not found in languages outside of this group. There is in some of them but little distinction between the verb and the noun, and others have lost or are losing their inflection, and are beginning to resemble Chinese in that the meaning of a word must frequently be determined by the context. An example of this in English would be the word “bear”, which when pronounced does not show whether a verb or a noun or an adjective (bare) is meant, unless circumstance or context makes the meaning clear.
Greek
In the front rank of the Indo-Germanic languages is Greek, which has made its influence, widely felt and which has spread far beyond the narrow confines of the little country that saw its origin. The domain of this language increased as the military power of Greece conquered the world, and it became coextensive with the colonies of that busy people. The pronunciation of Modern Greek is entirely different from the ancient language, so that the writer of the ancient classics would be unable to understand the modern Greek though he would probably have little difficulty in reading his newspaper. Greek has been used continuously for 2700 years.
The claim is often made that Greek is the most nearly perfect of languages. Some students aver that classic Greek even surpassed the Sanskrit in the variety and exactness of its forms and in phonetic beauty. The Greek in which the originals of the New Testament were written was the language spoken by the common people, rather than that used by the learned.
Latin
It was at one time believed that Latin was a dialect of Greek, but subsequent studies have made it certain that this is not the case. It is a sister language, having a common parentage with Greek and with the older Sanskrit. Although in respect to time Latin historically comes after Greek, yet it has exercised a wider influence in the dominant nations of earth.
The triumph of Rome over the nations of the world was naturally followed by the expansion of Roman influence, literature and language. It spread over France and the Spanish peninsula, over vast stretches of what is now Germany, and further to the English isles and the Scandinavian peninsula in the far north, sweeping everything before it.
As preserved today in numerous books and records, Latin represents the speech, not of the common people of the Augustan age, but of the elite and the learned. The characteristics of Latin are gravity, strength and energy.
It may be said that Latin, which was the dominant language of the world for so long a time, is still the most influential of languages. When it is recognized that the languages of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and some other countries are derived directly from the Latin, and that English has a large percentage of Latin in its vocabulary, it will be seen how widely diffused is this ancient tongue as represented in its modern dialects, which have gained the status of languages.
Spanish is spoken in all of South America and Central America; English is the language of all of North America, of Australia, of portions of Africa, and the official language of India, and is now becoming the secondary language of many countries the world over.
Latin, too, is preserved in the law books of England and America, which are replete with Latin formulas. Doctors and pharmacists the world over use Latin in their business, whether for good or ill; botanists and students of every shade and hue find some use for the old Latin language, and the books of writers of note until modern times were all written in Latin, and can be fully appreciated by those only who can read them in their original form.
In Europe Latin is far more common than in America, and it is easily acquired by students of nations who trace the descent of their language to the Latin. Latin has been proposed as the official secondary language of the world, but in the minds of many persons there must be an involuntary distaste for a language which has been the instrument of one of the most predacious of nations and the most predacious of churches.
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French
Italian is the modern form of the ancient Latin, its most direct descendant. It is spoken by approximately 45,000,000 people. Its use in matters musical is a matter of common knowledge. The Italians are as proud of their language as most other people are of theirs, although why anyone should be proud of the particular language he has happened to fall heir to is rather difficult to determine.
All languages today are certainly corruptions of more ancient forms, and even these, it would be well to remember, are in their diversity marks of divine displeasure, Jehovah’s judgment upon the ambitious scheme of haughty men.
In Italy a vigorous campaign is being carried on to purge the Italian language of all foreign words. There is a tax levied on all hotels, shops, stores, etc., which display signs written in any language other than Italian. The papers propose to banish foreign words altogether.
Spanish is widely diffused, being spoken in large stretches of territory in the Western Hemisphere. More than 55,000,000 people use the Spanish tongue. Of all living languages Spanish is said to be the most majestic in sound and movement. Portuguese, closely related to Spanish, is spoken by 30,000,000 people. Some say it is even more beautiful and musical than Spanish. Brazil is the only South American country which does not speak the Spanish language. Portuguese is the language there used.
French is spoken by 60,000,000 people, and after a fashion by a good many more. French is one of the official languages of Switzerland, which, having no language of its own, makes use of German, Italian and French. French is also the official language of Belgium, which was at one time half Dutch and half French, but where the Dutch language is being crowded out by the French.
French may be called the 'polite’ language. It is considered beautiful and precise. Some of the most beautiful passages in all literature have been written in French, and undoubtedly some of the most ugly. French is a pleasing reproduction of the old Latin. It has a smaller mixture of other elements than the Spanish, and more than the Italian. There are something like four hundred and fifty root words, with many derivatives and compound words, of direct German origin.
French has modified English to some extent, by its effect upon the Latin elements in that language and by direct introduction into it of many French words. On the other hand, French is making use of many English terms, and is gradually absorbing them into the language, sometimes with laughable modification of sound, as in “kneekerbookers”.
The World War and the popularity of Lindbergh have both contributed to the addition of English words to the French language. The Acadians in the Evangeline countryside spoke the French language almost exclusively until very recent time, hut it is now being replaced by the use of English, the language of the rest of Canada.
In France, as in many other countries, there is a wide gulf between the speech of the educated classes and that of the rest of the population. In fact, the disparity is said to be so pronounced as to constitute them almost different languages. A university teacher of France recently listening to a group of Parisian workmen (not foreign) could not understand them!
German, Russian, Slav, and Others
Most noted of the Germanic tongues, aside from English, is German. Before the war it was considered a comparative necessity to the educated man to have a knowledge of German. It was and is important culturally and commercially. It is the language in which the discoveries and guesses of some of the world’s most noted scientists, philosophers and thinkers are recorded.
Deutsch, the name by which the Germans call themselves, allied to the name “Teutons”, is derived from the Gothic thiuda, meaning “nation”. It is similar to the word “Gentile”. The present form of the High German became fixed when Luther employed it in his translation of the Bible, which is still recognized as the standard version in Germany.
German is spoken by approximately 90,000,000 people, and understood by perhaps 20,000,000 more. It is not as widely studied as before the war. In England this is notably the case. It was found that British students, in choosing the language they would study, preferred French to German by 13 to 1. In Poland students forced a restaurant owner to change his German sign to Polish, by filling his restaurant and ordering nothing but water. When the sign was finally changed they all came and ordered big dinners.
Other Teutonic languages are Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic and Finnish. Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands and the northern part of Belgium. In the latter country it is called Flemish, but it differs little from Holland Dutch. The proper name is Netherlands, and not Dutch, the latter name being a corruption of Deutsch, which means German. The language of the Netherlands is very similar to the German, and inhabitants of either country can learn the language of the other with comparatively little effort.
The Boers in South Africa also speak Dutch, but, they being separated from their native land by so great a distance, differences have developed which have constituted South African Dutch practically a separate language. Additionally, Dutch is spoken in Dutch Guiana, and it is also the official language of the Dutch East Indies. It is estimated that some 15,000,000 people speak the language.
Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish are much alike, and it would seem that these countries would be mutually benefited by striving for uniformity rather than stressing minor differences. These languages are descended from the Urnordisk. Iceland is striving to keep alive the Old Norse.
Kindred to Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse is the Friesic or Frisian language once spoken generally on the Elbe, along the northern shore of Germany and of the Netherlands and in southern Denmark. All together there are now about 30,000 or 40,000 people who speak this interesting dialect, in which are found many similarities to English. An energetic society of scholars has held periodical congresses and otherwise encouraged the study and use of the language.
Lithuanian, of all the living languages most antique in its forms, is of great value to the etymologist. It resembles the Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, and serves as an interpreter of many words in other languages whose relationship to the history of language would not otherwise be understood. On the shores of the Baltic sea the Lithuanians, like the Icelanders, have been outside of the path of emigration, and thus their language has suffered little change and preserves remarkably its original character.
Slavonic Languages
This group of languages comprises the Serbs and Croats, the Slovenians or Jugo-Slavs, the Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbo-Lusatians, Poles and Russians. Russian, originally an Indo-Germanic language, has a large vocabulary not derived from the Indo-Germanic source.
The Slavonic languages cover a large portion of Europe and Asia and spread even into North America. The Russian is the most extensive of the Slavonic languages, and is with the Servian the most harmonious of all.
While these languages agree remarkably with Greek, the resemblance of the Russian to the Latin is very noticeable. All of them have, in fact, a considerable element of Latin in them, though for the most part they make use of Greek characters in writing.
There is considerable similarity between Russian and Polish, so much that each can read the other’s language with a little effort. The Russian, too, can quite easily comprehend the ancient Bulgarian. There are 37 letters in the Russian alphabet, but two of them are not often used. The Bolshevik minister having abolished the use of the useless hard sign and ye and y, the Russian is now considered the best phonetic language of Europe.
The Russians are, as a rule, the best natural linguists, their language having, it is said, the splendor of the Spanish, the vivacity of French, the strength of German, the tenderness of Italian, and the richness and powerful conciseness of Greek and Latin.
Russians, having a real admiration for American efficiency, though not for American political institutions, have coined some interesting words for everyday use, among them fordizat-zia, which might by us be rendered “Fordiza-tion”. It signifies efficiency, standardization of labor, mass production. They also have ameri-kanizatzia, which you can figure out for yourself, as well as “shtorm”, “briz,” “visky,” “bif-steks,” “rostbif” and “puding”.
A campaign has been launched in Russia which may result in a great influx of schoolboys to that “happy” land. This campaign favors the scrapping of all grammatical rules. Just how Russia hopes to have a uniform language in all parts of its wide domain without some grammatical standards is not quite clear. A practical argument in favor of the proposition is that it would result in a saving of $10,000,000 a year, which is something.
The Servian, Croatian and Slovenian languages are included under the general title of Servian or Illyrian. One writer remarks, “When written in the Cyrillic character, as by those of the Greek church, it is called Servian; but when written in the Latin alphabet, as by the Roman Catholics, it is called Illyrian: so much do men like names and fight for mere words.” The Servians break down old words quite readily and reduce them to the pleasantest and easiest forms, so that the language is rich in vowels and very musical to the ear.
Here and There
Now as to other parts of the globe. The multiplicity of languages makes it impossible to mention even all the more important. But looking here and there we find a few more items of general interest. As already mentioned, there is a great variety of languages in the Americas. These are the languages of the original Americans, not of those who moved here from Europe. The Indian languages are many and varied and entirely divergent one from another, though they may be classified under one head, and be called a family of languages, because they show a general relationship. The main divisions of these many languages amount to 51 in South America and 56 in North America.
There are three main divisions of the Semitic family of languages. They are the Hebrew, the Aramean and the Arabic. Hebrew is the language of the Jews, being used by them from the days of Moses until the time of Nehemiah, after which it experienced many modifications and changes. Hebrew is now being revived in its purity, being used and taught in Palestine as the accepted language of the Jews who have returned there. It is the language in which the Old Testament scriptures were originally written.
An attempt is being made in Jerusalem to modernize Hebrew by the printing of a Hebrew supplement in Latin characters in an English weekly paper.
Arabic is a language of considerable importance and wide influence. The Koran and the religion of Mohammed, which enlisted the aid of the sword in making converts, made Arabic one of the world’s great languages. It is rich in words and grammatical forms and is said to be adapted for business as well as for society and abstract subjects; A number of dialects have developed from the original Arabic, which, however, do not differ more from the original than French and Roumanian do from the Latin. In writing Arabic, vowels are not represented.
There is a close relationship between Aramean and Hebrew. Kemuel, a nephew of Abraham, is called the father of Aram, in Genesis 22: 21, and Jacob is referred to as an Aramean, in Deuteronomy 26: 5 (R.V., margin). Syriac is one of its chief dialects. It is probable that the native tongue of Jesus was the Galilean dialect of Aramaic (Aramean), widely used in Palestine in His day.
Other Language Groups
There are still other families or groups of languages, all having subdivisions. These groups are Hamitic, Chinese, Turanian, Mongolian, Central African, South African, and others. In the African Sudan there is a perfect babel of languages. There are no books of any kind, and no teachers. The intonations of each word determine the meaning, and a wrong intonation often completely changes the sense. In one of the tribes seven different tones are used.
It is said that the Hausa Negroes of the Sudan, a highly developed people, speak “the most beautiful language in the world”. However, as this claim has been made for other languages as well, we shall have to take this statement with a grain of salt. Their language is very euphonious and represents in reality a mixture of many tongues, which has been compared to a mosaic of varicolored stones. The beautiful and singular sounds of the Hausa tongue are used by 20,000,000 Africans.
Chinese, as previously mentioned in this article, is one of the most unique and singular of languages. It is in a class by itself. Every word has just one syllable, and is represented by a distinct and separate sign and not by a group of signs or letters with phonetic values. While each sign represents a word, the pitch in which it is spoken determines its exact meaning when spoken. Thus various characters may represent a word pronounced in the same way, but at a different pitch to denote the meaning.
It is claimed that Chinese is the oldest of writing systems, and while adequate for the early history of the people, it has limited the growth of the spoken language. The Chinese have, however, managed to collect a vocabulary of 80,000 words, although many of these are now obsolete.
While they have a common written language, there is no standard spoken tongue, as the 400,000,000 subjects of the vast empire use a large number of variations in sound and arrangement of the written language. Thus educated Chinamen from different parts of the country can converse with each other, as a rule, only by means of pencil and paper, or by writing in the sand with a stick. They would never understand each other otherwise.
Chinese has no alphabet, of course, though an effort is made now to represent the language in a modern way, both by selecting a number of characters from the thousands of Chinese word symbols and by using the Roman alphabet for the purpose.
In Japan a language is spoken which some students say resembles the Hebrew rather than the Chinese, though the resemblance, we may be sure, is not very great. The system of writing used by the Japanese represents, not the idea or the word, as in Chinese, nor the sound, as in European languages, but the syllables. Thus a number of signs may be required to denote a word, and the same signs appear in different arrangements to express a different thought or represent a different word. The Japanese have many Chinese words in their language, and the Chinese in turn have borrowed from the Japanese, absorbing such borrowed words into their own language and thereby enriching it.
The Koreans speak a language which resembles Japanese and which also has many words borrowed from the Chinese. They have an alphabet, the letters or characters representing the sounds and not the words or syllables. There is a plan under way among educators to reform the systems of writing of China, Japan and Korea so as to make them uniform, which would simplify the task of learning the languages and be an advantage in other respects.
In our survey of languages we have reserved English until the last. Though a language belonging to the Indo-Germanic group, English is a polyglot language containing elements and words from numerous other languages. In its composition there is much Latin and Greek, German, French, Scandinavian and Spanish, as well as borrowings from the most diversified list of languages. The percentage of foreign words has been variously estimated, the Latin element absorbed into the language, directly or indirectly, being placed as high as over sixty percent
Basically, however, the English language is Anglo-Saxon, a Germanic combination. The original Britons were Celts, who were attacked by the Saxons or Teutons from the fifth to the eighth century, and these Saxons were afterward vanquished by the Normans. Each of these events left its imprint upon the language.
The Celtic people led the way of emigration through the wildernesses of early Europe and inhabited the greater part of it in early historic times. They were found by races that followed them, and either driven back or absorbed. Their last footing was in the British Isles, and Celtic is now the most westerly representative of the Indo-Germanic family of languages.
Irish is the most important of the Celtic languages, which are spoken by approximately 3,500,000 persons. Scottish-Gaelic, Welsh and Breton are dialects of Celtic. There are many remnants of Celtic in modern English. The language is in several respects like the Old Egyptian, which is of the Hamitic family, but Celtic is of Indo-Germanic origin. This resemblance points to a common source of which we have no historical knowledge outside of the Bible.
Old Saxon, another progenitor of English, was formerly spoken in the north of Germany. If William the Conqueror had never crossed the English Channel the speech of England might have been a mixture of Scandinavian and German. But for 300 years after his advent the language of the court and the nobility was French, and the result was a merging of the French and Anglo-Saxon, and a great many of the words in English today trace their history back to the time of the Norman conquest.
As German is a language which throughout has fewer admixtures of other languages in it than any other European tongue, so English has more than any other. Europe is composed of two language groups, the Romanic and the Teutonic, and these two divisions are remarkably combined in the English language.
Though it is more difficult to master than other modern languages, it has numerous advantages, one of them being its wide scope. As may be expected, there are many dialects of the English, and the differences between these are particularly marked in England. There are also variations in America, where the speech of the South differs considerably from that of the North, though not to a degree that prevents mutual understanding.
Other sections of the vast reaches of the United States also have their local peculiarities, but the effect of the radio, the automobile, the bus and other means of transportation is gradually toning down these differences in both England and America, and the constant intercourse between all parts of the English-speaking world promises to contribute to the attainment of a uniform pronunciation. Another factor in this leveling-up process is the motion picture.
The written language is the same in all the English-speaking nations, and the spoken language is more nearly uniform than that of any other widely diffused language. Tn the case of Spanish, for instance, it is contended that the various nations of South America, though all speaking Spanish, often find it difficult to understand one another; and the 400,000,000 Chinese cannot in any proper sense be said to have a common language.
America has made its contributions to the English language, and while its innovations are not always immediately welcomed in England, yet gradually Americanisms find their way into English in other lands, probably as a result of the distribution of American books, periodicals and motion pictures.
One admirable quality of the English language is its directness and brevity. Take, for instance, the headline, “Jap King Takes Crown.” A Finnish reader would make use of the word valtaistiiimelleiisettamisjubla, which means only “coronation ceremony”, and which still would not indicate where and to whom it happened. Other languages have similarly cumbrous expressions, which would cause one to doubt the supposed difficulty of learning English, especially for people who have mastered languages so involved and formidable as some other European languages appear to be.
One advantage which English has over the majority of European tongues is that its adjectives and articles have no gender, number, person nor case. What a convenience this is is realized only by one who attempts to learn a foreign language where he finds that he is powerless to use a noun until he knows the gender and determines what particular one of the varying forms of adjectives or articles may be used with the noun.
The best examples of pure English are the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. The latter, however, have a larger number of obsolete and archaic expressions, while the Revised Version of the Bible brings that wonderful book into closer harmony with modern English and still preserves the admirable simplicity and beauty of the earlier King James Version. In England and America, as in other lands, the translation of the Bible and the works of prominent writers have served to preserve the language.
American talking pictures are having their effect upon people of other than English-speaking countries. Tn Scandinavia, where English is taught in the schools, there is amazing interest in American talkies. In the movie houses people are most attentive in their effort to understand and to brush up their pronunciation of English.
French is giving way to English as the official language of the diplomats in Washington. This is due partly to the increased importance of Washington in international affairs and partly to the fact that few American politicians speak any foreign language sufficiently well to understand the themes likely to be discussed.
English, too, is becoming the language of the Philippines, supplanting Spanish as the common language. The adults as well as the children are eager to learn English.
An interesting experiment in Stockholm showed that while few people were acquainted with French, German, Italian, Russian and the artificial languages of Esperanto and Ido, there were many who had some understanding of English.
In French schools English is superseding German, while in many other countries it is being taught as a secondary language.
Universal Language
English comes nearer to being a “universal” language than any of the other languages of the world. In geographical extent it is unrivaled. Efforts have been put forth to create an artificial universal or international language. These efforts have met with indifferent success, though much attention has been given to make such artificial languages both simple and uniform in construction, spelling and pronunciation.
Yet so attractive has been the appeal of a universal language that from the 17th century to the present more than 800 have been formulated. Chief among these are Volapuk, Esperanto, Spelin, Mondoligue, Universala, Kosmos, Novilatin, Idiom Neutral, Ido and Ro. Volapuk was received with much enthusiasm, but this did not continue.
Esperanto has many enthusiastic supporters. It has made considerable progress as an international language. The simplicity of Esperanto grammar is remarkable, having sixteen fundamental rules with no exceptions. It is easy to learn, even without the aid of a teacher, a proper textbook being sufficient for the average student. In Russia 170 newspapers use Esperanto, and in Japan a newspaper with a circulation of hundreds of thousands is reported to have an Esperanto column twice a week.
Nearly a hundred periodicals are working together to advance the Esperanto cause. In scores of European cities there are Esperanto policemen assigned to be of service to travelers. At Esperanto gatherings it is impossible to tell the nationality of the individuals when speaking Esperanto, so much alike is the pronunciation of it by Italians and Norwegians, Russians and Englishmen.
An Esperanto edition of The Golden Age appears twice yearly. Though it is the most widely used artificial language, Esperanto can boast of no more than 5,000,000 who speak it, and that figure is probably exaggerated. This is the result of forty years of effort.
During that same period of time English has gained 100,000,000 adherents, making a total of about 300,000,000 souls who can speak that language to some extent. English has thus far the advantage over other languages. In this language, too, the Bible has had its widest distribution, and the Kingdom message now going forth to all nations has had a larger circulation in English than in other languages.
To aid still others in gaining a knowledge of English a system has been devised which will enable a person to readily learn the basic parts of the language. The system is called ‘basic English’. Its originator estimates that 500,000,000 have some knowledge of English and that the number is increasing. It is his claim that in English only is it possible to make a basic word list covering the essentials of everyday talk short enough to make it attractive to the average person, who, as a rule, is not too studious. The list contains only 850 simple words. But the ultimate world-language will probably be something different from anything that is in existence today.
The ideal of a common language for the 2,000,000,000 inhabitants of the world is a pleasing one. No doubt the time will come when all nations and kindreds will again be of one language and one speech, for the power of the Christ of God, already operative in the earth, will ultimately draw the whole world into one vast brotherhood composed of all the well-disposed, while the evildoer shall be cut off.
On account of the continuity of the history of Abraham back to Adam as recorded in the Scriptures it is inferred that the original language of man was Hebraic or Semitic.
We get some faint idea of the powers of the angels and other spirit creatures when we reflect that they are familiar with all of the languages spoken today as well as hundreds or thousands of tongues once spoken but no longer in use.
Assorted Items
Uses of a Lemon
European Increase of Unemployment
THE juice of a lemon, in a little water, without any sugar, is a great help in cases of extreme fatigue, headache, heartburn, dyspepsia, fevers, colds and rheumatism.
The House of Lords
MEMBERS of the House of Lords own more than one-tenth of all the land of England, Scotland and Wales. Between them they hold 1,298 company directorships, of which 356 are chairmanships.
Canada Again Second on Gold
CANADA is again second on the list of gold-producing countries in the world, the United States remaining in third place. Canada’s gold production surpasses even its coal output in value.
500 Children Foolishly Blinded
THERE are now in schools for the blind in the United States 500 children who lost their sight through the use of fireworks, air rifles and other devices for projecting missiles. Every July Fourth adds about 70 more.
You Will Be Glad to Know This
SECRETARY OF War PATRICK J. HURLEY Said I “We have cared for the needy, we have averted panic and catastrophe. The United States is tranquil, solvent and confident.” You will be glad to know all this; and it is news.
18,523 Hotels in United States and Canada
IN THE United States and Canada there are 18,523 hotels with 25 or more rooms each; average number of rooms per hotel is 96. The money invested in hotel properties is set at $5,000,000,000.
An Extraordinary Surgical Operation
TN HAVANA a man in ill health stabbed himself, with the intent of committing suicide.
The knife pierced a tumor, the cause of the man’s ill health, and the man, instead of dying, is on the road to recovery.
Timber from the Bottom of the Tree
fpiMBER from the bottom of the tree is stronger than timber from the top. In the case of redwood the difference is estimated at about 15 percent. The timber at the bottom is heavier in proportion to its bulk.
EUROPE’S unemployed have increased 50 percent in a year. The six major industrial nations, Great Britain, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy had at the end of June almost 12,000,000 of unemployed, half of whom were in Germany.
Two Million Bushels Through Hudson Bay
DURING this season of navigation two million bushels of wheat have passed through the Hudson Bay route to England, saving about a thousand miles in transportation. This is the first time the route, has been used in a large way.
Salaries on the Pennsylvania
THE twelve highest officials on the Pennsylvania Railroad receive aggregate annual salaries of $531,000. The smallest salary in this group is $31,500 per year. There are 88 other officials whose salaries are $10,000 per year or in excess thereof.
Growing Alders to Stop Forest Fires
EXPERIMENTS in the state of Washington show that the best fire preventive is to crisscross forests with growths of Oregon alders, planted for the purpose. The alders do not burn, and constitute a natural wall against the rush of a forest fire that gets out of hand.
The Depression in Arizona
Martin Moran, in The Labor Age, referring to the closing of the Superior mine in Globe, the last big mine in Arizona, said: “There is not a farmer or fruit grower in Arizona that can hang on. Half of the people are engaged in mining, and the other half live off them. Now they are both flat. National concerns with big branches here are closing their plants and warehouses, then vanish.”
Jesuits May Not Teach in Spain
UNDER the terms of the decree published in Spain on January 24 the Society of Jesus was not only dissolved as an order, but they are forbidden to live in brotherhood even in a private manner. They are thus debarred from continuing their instruction of children as they had planned. The property of the order has become the property of the Spanish state and will be used for educational purposes.
Bartering Eggs and Butter for Other Foods
N AGED couple near Cazenovia, N. Y., have maintained themselves for a year entirely by barter. As needs arise they take nicely wrapped eggs or butter to town and shop around until they find where it can be bartered for other necessities.
Growing Plants in Chemically Fed Water
VERY encouraging results are reported from Berkeley, California, as coming from the growth of plants in chemically fed water. The plants grow astonishingly, and may be moved at will from one tank to another without suffering harm.
Independence in Ohio
RATHER than beg from door to door 104 jobless men near Cuyahoga Halls, Ohio, plowed and cultivated 36 acres of land on which to raise their food. They even plowed it with a plow pulled by men until a public-spirited citizen loaned them a horse to finish the job.
The Non-League Pen
ON THE Assembly floor of the League of Nations is a place of a few square yards roped off for the Americans and such other nations as are not technically members of the League but have their representatives present at every session. It is jokingly called “The Non-League Pen”.
Cunard Coal and Oil Mixture
THE Cunard Company have devised a new fuel, 60 percent oil and 40 percent coal, the latter ground to minute fineness, which it is believed will remain stable, will not pollute either sea or shore, and in case of fire can be quenched by water. The new fuel cannot be told from crude oil by either appearance or odor.
Nikola Tesla's Boyhood Ambition
"VX7" HEN Nikola Tesla was a boy of nine years ’ » of age in the mountains of Austro-Hun-gary he built a turbine water wheel and connected it with all kinds of boyish machinery. At that time he said to his uncle, “Some day I am going to America and I will run a big wheel at Niagara Falls.” His uncle replied, “You will never see Niagara Falls.” But Nikola Tesla was the man that put in the great hydroelectric development at Niagara Falls.
Teeth of Eskimos Giving Way
GENERATION ago the Eskimos were famous for their excellent teeth. In mistaken kindness the missionaries brought in sweets and canned goods, and the result is that the rising generation are exhibiting the same tooth troubles as the rest of mankind.
One Train per Day
fPHE president of the Railway Executives’ J- Association has made the statement that on 42 percent of the railroad mileage of the country only one train is being run daily. Last year 66 percent of the equipment on the Great Lakes was tied up at the docks on account of old Mr. D. Pression.
Sight Restored After Twenty Years
Jacob Lieberman, 87 years of age, blind for twenty years, has had his sight restored after a series of four operations for bilateral cataract. He expects to continue to live at the Jewish Home for the Blind, and will undertake to do their cabinet work for them, that being his trade before he lost his sight.
World’s Largest Plow
THE world’s largest plow weighs about one ton, and cost $2,000. It was specially designed to bring back to the surface the valuable topsoil which in Orange county, California, had been covered with sand from one to two feet deep. The plow turns a furrow 36 inches wide and 42 inches deep.
Return to Farms in Canada
CANADA is well pleased with a program extending over two years in which farm lands worth $11,000,000 have been sold and 45,000 men and women have been induced to return to the soil. In this campaign more than 4,000 residents of the city of Quebec alone went back to the farms.
British and Roman Empires
THERE is eight times as much territory in the British Empire as was ever in the Roman Empire, and five times as many people. The Roman soldier never got more than two thousand miles away from home, while the globetrotting Englishman is in every corner of the globe, and is usually the boss of everything that goes on in the place where he happens to be.
British Empire in Heart of New York
EW YORK city is admitted to be the heart of the financial world. In the heart of that great city Rockefeller Centre, Inc., is building a new city within a city which will cost $250,-000,000. In the heart of that city within a city is a British Empire Building, which will be devoted to British and Canadian governmental and business interests.
Militarism Retards European Aviation
enator de Brouckere, of Belgium, chairman of the League of Nations standing commit
What Christ Would Find
IN AN address at the Welsh Baptist church in London Lloyd George said: “If Jesus Christ came here today He would find the nations more imbued with a suspicion of each other, distrust, enmity, fear, revenge, hatred, than at almost any time in the history of the world.”
Newport Wants a Dictator
ornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., back from a visit to Newport, where he told his folks he did
tee on air transit, told the disarmament commission, while that useless congress was sitting, that the thing that is holding back European aviation and air mails is that European planes, instead of being built for civil use, as in America, are built for military purposes.
The Tail of the Glyptodonte
T EPUPEL, Argentina, there was recently discovered the tail of a glyptodonte, or
not want and would not accept their money, says that what the ultrarieh at Newport want is a military dictatorship in the White House, with Wall Street in the seat of power. They do not care who gets in, so long as it is a man they can control.
Electric Heating of the Brain
PROMINENT Viennese physician claims to have had good results in the treatment
huge armadillo, which must have been all of sixteen feet in diameter when he was alive and in good health. Now only his tail was found, but it took several men to lift even that, as it was four feet ten inches long, and one foot ten inches in diameter where it joined the body.
Andean Volcanoes Active
OLCANOES in the Andes are unusually active. Both Argentina and Chile have
of nervous disorders by placing one pole of an electric current at the base of the brain and the other on the patient’s palate. The brain is thus warmed, and all the blood vessels dilated so that the blood can pass through them freely. It seems like a risky procedure, but may work.
Young People Quarrel over Property
adenko Stephanovitch, a wealthy resident of the village of Grabofnici, Yugoslavia,
been showered with heavy falls of volcanic ashes. In Chile these falls were accompanied by intense cold. The whole Andean region is earthquake-troubled. Mexico’s high volcano, Popocatapetl, is active, huge columns of smoke issuing from its cone.
Why Did They Steal the “Holy” Water?
LOS ANGELES subscriber sends us a clipping about four Belvedere (Calif.) youths
had no sooner died, recently, at the age of 127, than his younger brother, who was only 115, and his son, a mere lad of 96, launched into a court battle to see who should have his property. It certainly is a shame, the avarice that some young people show, even in the face of death.
Boys Better; Girls Worse
OING back over the record of the number of delinquents handled by the Children’s
who stole 25 gallons of wine from a layman; that tasted so good that they stole 20 gallons more from the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes; and then, according to the paper, they wound up the spree by stealing a quantity of “holy” water. The subscriber writes in here, in a suspicious and threatening manner, and wants to know what they meant by stealing the “holy” water. Now, how could we be expected to know a thing like that?
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