Kansas University Weekly.
343
Dr. Holmes's Lecture.
Notwithstanding the threatening weather last Monday evening, a fair-sized audience heard Dr. Holme's lecture given at Music Hall on "Some Theories as to the Origin of Language." The Profesor is a pleasing speaker. Below is an abstract of the lecture:
Language, an invention of man and like any other art, handed down from generation to generation. Close analogy between Science of Language and Geology. The investigator must start with man without knowledge of language but in possession of his intellectual and bodily powers. Changes occur before our very eyes, hence language a product of time and must have had some beginning. The further back languages are traced, the greater their resemblance. Every individual speaks his own dialect. Some alphabets exhibit sounds wanting in others. Greatest differences seen in the combination of consonants possible with different peoples. Simplest formation of syllables in Chinese. Greatest heaping-up of consonants in Polnish. Italian, the most euphonious.
Origin of sound lies in the reflex-sounds or expressions which correspond to the innertemper or the impressions. What these reflex sounds or root words were, determines the correctness of one of the following theories as to the origin of language:—(1) Onomatopoetic theory, which holds that the first names of objects and actions were imitations of natural sounds; this theory has been called the "bowwow" theory. (2) Interjectional theory, which claims that language arises from involuntary sounds uttered as a result of emotion; this has been called the "pooh pooh" theory. (3.) Max Mueller's theory (borrowed from Heyse of Berlin) that words arise from the
characteristic ring given out by objects in nature when struck; this has been dubbed the "ding-dong" theory. Onomatopoia, the principal factor in the creation of language, but should be broadened to be correct. Mental condition and voiced sound stand in interchangeable relation to each other. Language originally expressed the feelings in voiced sounds. Three elements in the formation of language: (a) content or perception; (b) mental condition, the inner language-form which is the creating-power in language; (c) articulated sound or outer language-form. Two activities of the inner language-form: (a) Primary activity of creating root-sounds; (b) secondary activity of creating new word-forms out of what had been already created. Change takes place along the line of the least resistance. The first words designated animals and their qualities. Compare Biblical account. Nouns probably first born, followed by verbs or adjectives.
Four classes of languages: (1) Those having a word for every idea—Chinese. (2) Agglutinate languages—composition being the principal characteristic—Semitic languages. (3) Those characterized by internal change and increment, but assisted by auxiliaries—English, German, etc. (4) Those having different relations fused together with the word—Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. Sanskrit, the most perfect in that it possesses the greatest wealth of forms. Relation of subject and predicate first distinguished by accentuation, later by change in root-sound. Next step in development—voice, then mood and tense.
The hand of God none the less distinctly seen in regarding man as having invented language as a result of his impulses and capacities, than in supposing it of maracalous origin. Evolution the God-given principle in nature.
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