World eBook Library | Read eBooks online

An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

The Canterbury Tales (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
Psychology and Pathology of Speech Devel... (by Conradi, Edward)
The Science Of Language Vol I (by F. Max Muller K. M.)
National Symposium on Learning Disabilit... (by Department of Education)
The Principles of the International Phon... (by International Phonetic Association)
A Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Lan... (by Hoernle, August Frederich Rudolf)
Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tal... (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
The Tower of Babel, A Poetical Drama (by Alfred Austin)

The Words of the People: An Exhibit on Language

From the oldest forms of writings with pictographs and Cuneiform in 3500 B.C. to the generation of the first alphabet; of all the strides that we have made in technology, Language has been the single most important "invention" since the dawn of man. In fact, language defies time. Language is the greatest man-made achievement. Tone, intonation, inflection, the tongue, the throat, the breath and the brain: all lifeforms have some form of communication. The proceeding Collections in "The Words of the People: An Exhibit on Language" includes the most significant books on the subject of language.

Language, Literature, Children's Literature, Hawaiiana, Poetry and more.

Language and Learning

The root of the word language comes from the Latin term lingua, meaning "tongue." This definition’s attention to the human tongue highlights this muscle as the primary tool used by the body to shape combinations of uttered sounds to form the words of a spoken language. However, we can examine how languages also have a life of their own beyond an individual body. The “Words of the People: An Exhibit on Language" illustrates how language can be studied through its human biological and cognitive properties, as well as through its temporal and relational nature.

Language depends upon social customs and the ability for other humans to learn and adapt to social stimuli. The Science of Language Volume I, details theories on how early humans created words through vocalizations with the speech organs such as the throat, nose, tongue, palate, teeth, and lips, producing thousands of sounds. However, a typical language group utilizes only a limited number of sounds, usually between 10 and 60, which are interpreted aurally (The Science of Language, Volume 1, K.M. Max Muller).

In The National Symposium on Learning Disabilities in English Language Learners, proffers that the capacity to learn a language is based on individual factors, such as neurobiology, and contextual factors, such as environmental and social support (U.S. Department of Education, The National Symposium on Learning Disabilities in English Language Learners, U.S. Department of Education). Edward Conradi, a Professor of Psychology, wrote a thesis titled Psychology and Pathology of Speech Development of the Child. In this work, Conradi details how the various sounds a child makes after birth becomes the foundation for learning his mother tongue (Conradi, Psychology and Pathology of Speech Development of the Child, Edward Conradi). Later, the author became the President of the Florida State College of Women, the first women’s college in the south approved by the Association of American Universities (“Edward Conradi,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Perhaps it was through his studies in child psychology that Conradi believed all people should be given the opportunity to develop their language, and contribute to their culture and society.

Language Across Time

Writing allowed particular languages to be remembered for longer periods of time. The oldest writing is traced to the Sumerians, whose records go back to at least 3500 B.C. They used a form of picture writing that told a story or gave a message. The use of pictures as a writing style became so highly developed that it could express abstract ideas. Many present-day Asian countries such as China continue to use this form of writing (“Language,” World Heritage Encyclopedia and "The History of the Alphabet," World Heritage Encyclopedia).

However, alphabetic systems of writing differ from picture writing because they are not static. Alphabetic writing is comprised of symbols, such as letters of the alphabet, that represent a vocalized sound (“Language”). Alphabetic writing changes to reflect the evolution of spoken language (“Language,” World Heritage Encyclopedia and "Letter Alphabet," World Heritage Encyclopedia). The Canterbury Tales was told by storyteller and poet Geoffrey Chaucer is an example, The original writing of this work used different spellings, reflecting pronunciations of words according to the vernacular of Chaucer’s time. However, when the work was written in later editions, the spellings of words changed to reflect pronunciations during those times (The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer). The International Phonetic Association (IPA) has transcribed words in this book, using symbols to demarcate specific speech sounds. The Principles of the International Phonetic Association, 1912 chronicles the history of the IPA, creating a tool often used in dictionaries to assist readers in the pronunciation of words as they are spoken in their contexts (The Principles of the International Phonetic Association, International Phonetic Association).

The Great Vowel Shift

Before Modern English, there were "Old English" and Middle English." In 1550 A.D., a documented event called "The Great Vowel Shift occurred.

Language Families

The Tower of Babel: A Poetical Drama by Alfred Austin is a dramatization of a biblical story that tells us that all languages were at once one. However, a heavenly intervention confused people’s languages and scattered them around the world (Tower of Babel, Alfred Austin). Despite the differences of today, it is possible to examine the relationships between languages. One way to classify these relations are through the concept of language families, or a group of languages that are related through descent from a common ancestor, or proto-language. Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, or branches of the language family. For example, the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romance and Indo-Iranian languages are phylogenetic units of the indo-European language family (“Tower of Babel,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

Different languages can also transform one another when they come into contact. These are called "Sprachbund." The book, A Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages, With Special Reference to the Eastern Hindi, Accompanied by a Language-Map and a Table of Alphabets details how the Indian Subcontinent is a Sprachbund, or "...a geographical region that has several languages that feature common linguistic structures due to language contact and not common origin..." (A Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages, With Special Reference to the Eastern Hindi, Accompanied by a Language-Map and a Table of Alphabets, August Frederich Rudolf Hoernle). "Language Isolates" are languages that have no known relatives, such as the Basque language (“Basque Language,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). "Contact Languages" are created when languages that do not come from a single ancestor come into contact to create "mixed" or Creole languages (“Language,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Hawaiian Pidgin, for instance, is an example of a Creole. Of note: Hawaiian Pidgin is the only known language in history to be created by children. On pineapple, coffee and sugar cane plantations in Hawaii, there was such a diversity of workers that the children (in order to be able to socialize together) unconsciously created a Creole that is still spoken widely in the State of Hawaii. Hawaiian Creole is a mixture of "loanwords" and phrases from over a dozen languages, including Hawaiian, Modern English, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Portuguese.

Debates on the study of language revealed its multi-dimensionality. Language has been studied biologically and cognitively, as an action of the vocal chords to create sounds with the use of the tongue. Languages function as organisms that survive over time through becoming a written language, or a spoken language that endures as a descendant of a proto-language. Spoken language can also dynamically transform by taking on the properties of other languages it is in contact with. The “Words of People: An Exhibit" on Language” features language as a multi-dimensional subject that covers the biological, historical and cultural aspects of human communication.

Works Cited

Austin, Alfred. The Tower of Babel, A Poetical Drama. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1874.

"Basque Language." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Macmillan, 1910.

Conradi, Edward. Psychology and Pathology of Speech Development of the Child. Volume 11. Pedagogical Seminary, September, 1904.

Department of Education. The National Symposium on Learning, Disabilities in English Language Learners. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, U.S. Department of Education, 2003.

"Edward Conradi." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

"The History of the Alphabet." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Hoernle, August Frederich Rudolf. A Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages, With Special Reference to the Eastern Hindi, Accompanied by a Language-Map and a Table of Alphabets. London: Trubner and Co., 1880.

International Phonetic Association. The Principles of the International Phonetic Association. Paris: Association Phonétique Internationale, 1912.

"Language." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

"Letter Alphabet." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Muller K.M. Max. The Science of Language. Volume 1. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1899.

"Tower of Babel." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Language Collections

Learn more about the evolving nature of languages in these collections:

Top 100 books on Language

From Ritual to Romance (by Weston, Jessie L.)
Course in General Linguistics (by Saussure, Ferdinand)
The Esperanto Teacher a Simple Course fo... (by Fryer, Helen)
Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Chara... (by Amad Ibn Ali Ibn Washiyah, Ahmed Ibn Ali Ibn Al Mu...)
An Elementary Spanish Reader (by Louis Marie Auguste Loiseaux)
Poetics (by Aristotle)
Language, an Introduction to the Study o... (by Sapir, Edward, 1884-1939)
Around the World in Eighty Days (by Verne, Jules)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
The Betrothed (by Alessandro Manzoni)
The Land That Time Forgot (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
Anne of Green Gables (by Montgomery, Lucy Maud)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A (by Joyce, James)
The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)

Top 100 books on Education

Aesop's Fables (by Aesop)
The Organization and Administration of a... (by Lefevre, Arthur)
Science and Education (by Huxley, Thomas Henry)
The Sixteen Satires of Juvenal (by Juvénal)
New Hampshire : a poem with notes and gr... (by Frost, Robert)
The Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato (by Plato)
Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
William Shakespeares King Henry Iv, Part... (by Shakespeare, William)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Free Military School for Applicants for ... (by Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regim...)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
The Divine Comedy : Inferno (by Alighieri, Dante)
Critique of Practical Reason, The (by Kant, Immanuel)
Moby-Dick or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
Trojan Women, The (by Euripides)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

Mr. Rabbit at Home (by Harris, Joel Chandler)
The Story of Hiawatha
Denslow's Three Bears (by Denslow, W. W.)
Raggedy Andy Stories : Introducing the L... (by Johnny Gruelle)
The King of the Golden River, Or the Bla... (by John Ruskin)
The Green Fairy Book (by Lang, Andrew, Ed)
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (by Potter, Beatrix)
The House That Jack Built (by Caldecott, Randolph)
The Dutch Twins (by Perkins, Lucy Fitch)
Little Mary; Or, The Picture-Book
The Green Fairy Book (by Andrew Lang, Henry Justice Ford)
Little Tot's Picture Book (by Sheila Thibodeau Lambrinos Collection - York Unive...)
The Little Red Balloon (by Hofman, Caroline)
Three Blind Mice (by Ivimey, John William)
The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (by Caldecott, Randolph)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

The Deerslayer, Or, The First War-Path :... (by Cooper, James Fenimore)
The Iliad (by Homer)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Mansfield Park (by Austen, Jane)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The (by Twain, Mark)
Robinson Crusoe (by Defoe, Daniel)
Wuthering Heights (by Bronte, Emily)
Emma (by Austen, Jane)
The Napoleon of Notting Hill (by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith)
Black Beauty (by Sewell, Anna)
Democracy in America (by Tocqueville, Alexis De)
Sons and Lovers (by Lawrence, D. H.)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famo... (by Defoe, Daniel)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Pollyanna (by Porter, Eleanor H.)
The Railway Children (by Nesbit, Edith)
Coral Island, The (by Ballantyne, R.M.)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
The Tale of Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
Journey to the Interior of the Earth, A (by Verne, Jules)
The Orbis Pictus of John Amos Comenius (by Comenius, Johann Amos)
Through the Looking-Glass (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Story of the Treasure Seekers (by Nesbit, Edith)
Little Women (by Alcott, Louisa May)
Call of the Wild, The (by London, Jack)
The Happy Prince and Other Tales and a H... (by Wilde, Oscar)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, John Meade)
Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, The (by Pyle, Howard)

Top books on Shakespeare

Comedy of Errors, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It (by Shakespeare, William)
William Shakespeares King Henry Iv, Part... (by Shakespeare, William)
Troilus and Cressida (by Shakespeare, William)
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shake... (by Shakespeare, William)
Measure for Measure Shakespeare (by Shakespeare, William)
Othello (by Shakespeare, William)
King Richard Iii (by Shakespeare, William)
The Winter's Tale (by Shakespeare)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by Shakespeare, William)
Winter's Tale, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Twelfth Night or What You Will (by Shakespeare, William)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)
Squashed in the Middle : Preformed by Wa... (by Elizabeth Winthrop)
The Wolf and the Lamb : Preformed by Wal... (by Eric Carle)
Green Eggs and Ham : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from ... (by Gerald McDermott)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)
Loony Little: An Environmental Tale : Pr... (by Dianna Hutts Aston)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ... (by Dr. Seuss)
The Cow Who Clucked : Preformed by Wally... (by Denise Fleming)
The Lion and the Mouse : Preformed by Wa... (by Eric Carle)
The Beckonong Cat, Based on a Japenese F... (by Koko Nishizuka)
The Treasure : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Uri Shulevitz)
Olivia...and the Missing Toy : Preformed... (by Ian Falconer)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Ka Mo'Olelo O Lonoikamakahiki (by Abraham Fornander)
Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Annual Report of the Governor of Hawaii ... Volume Year 1959 (by Hawaii. Governor)
Guide to Newspapers of Hawaii, 1834-2000 (by Helen G. Chapin)
Hawaiian Canoe-Building Traditions (by Naomi N. Y. Chun)
Kahea Loko (by The Pacific American Foundation)
Life in Hawaii : An Autobiographic Sketc... (by Coan, Titus)
Wai'Anae: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Kulu Wai Liilii : He Mau Mele Hoole Waio... (by Mission Houses Museum Library)
He Wahi Mooolelo No Batimea Puaaiki, No ... (by J. S. Gelina)
Ehia I Loa'a (by University of Hawaii At Hilo)
Pehea 'O Ia E Holo Ai (by Lilinoe Andrews)
Hawai’I Island Legends : Pikoi, Pele and... (by Mary Kawena Pukui)
A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language (by Lorrin Andrews)
He Malaai Ka'U (by William H. Wilson)

Top books on Poetry

When I Was King: Poems (by Henry Lawson)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience and... (by Blake, William)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (by Robert W. Service)
Poetical Works : Volume 1 (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
The Collected Poems (by Yeats, William Butler)
One Hundred Poems of Kabir, Tr. By Rabin... (by Kabir)
The Poems Of Robert Frost (by Frost, Robert.)
The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (by Rilke, Rainer, Maria)
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Collected Poems of John Keats : Volume 5... (by Keats, John)
Poems by Currer, Ellis, And Acton Bell (... (by Bell, Acton)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (by Hughes, Langston)
The Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
Leaves of Grass (by Whitman, Walt)
Poems (by Owen, Wilfred)

Yiddish Book Center

Sefer Gan Yehudah (by Lazarov, Y. L. (Yehudah Leyb))
In Geo : Vol. 2 Volume Vol. 2 (by Organización De Escuelas Laicas Israelitas Zwischo...)
Tsvey Noveles Mi a Shmits (by Goldenstein, Haim)
Y. M. Vaysenberg Zayn Lebn Un Shafn, 187... (by Weissenberg-Akselrod, Pearl)
In Ṭog Ṿos Fargeyṭ (by Ben Mosheh, M.)
Ale Verk Fun David Frishman : Vol. 3 Volume Vol. 3 (by Frischmann, David)
Shvebelekh Kinder-Lider Un Poemes (by Vaserman, Shneur)
Vandervegn (by Yudika)
Iber Amerike (by Hirschbein, Peretz)
Kinder-Deklamaor Far Shul Un Heym (by Halevi, Aharon)
Der Novi (by Asch, Sholem)
A Manual and Grammar of the Yiddish Lang... (by Mazin, J. (Jacob Raphael))
Yidishe Folkslider : Volume 2 (by Prilutski, Noah)
Shayn Un Opshayn (by Fefer, Itzik)
A Brunem Baym Veg Dertseylungen (by Dluznowsky, Moshe)