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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

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

A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic (by Cleas, Richard)
Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and P... (by Peter Mark Roget)
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume ... (by Tranquillus, C. Suetonius)
The Tale of Genji (by Shikibu, Murasaki)
Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tal... (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
The Esperanto Teacher a Simple Course fo... (by Fryer, Helen)
The Land That Time Forgot (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
Middlemarch (by Eliot, George)
The Principles of the International Phon... (by International Phonetic Association)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Co... (by Twain, Mark)
The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
Shakespeare's Sonnets (by Shakespeare, William)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
Anthem (by Rand, Ayn)

Top 100 books on Education

The Critique of Practical Reason (by Kant, Immanuel)
The Divine Comedy : Inferno (by Alighieri, Dante)
Beowulf (by Unknown)
The Old English Version of Bede's Eccles... Volume: 1 (by Miller, Thomas, 1839-)
Aesop's Fables (by Aesop)
Metamorphosis, The (by Kafka, Franz)
King Henry Iv. A Tragedy. In Five Acts (by Shakespeare, William)
Democracy and Education (by Dewey, John)
Rights of Man, Score Aor Rom Volume Vol. II (by Paine, Thomas)
The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (by Aristotle, Frank Hesketh Peters)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ... (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
Jungle, The (by Sinclair, Upton)
Odyssey, The (by Homer)
The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (by Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

The Story Hour (by Smith, Nora A.)
Harrison's New Nursery Picture Book : Co... (by Bewick, Thomas)
Baby's Abc Book
The History of the Fairchild Family : Or... (by Mary Martha Sherwood)
The First Days of Man, As Narrated Quite... (by Frederic Arnold Kummer)
The Story of Captain Meriwether Lewis an... (by Kingsley, Nellie F)
A Apple Pie (by Greenaway, Kate)
Three Little Pigs
The Story of Hiawatha
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (by Carroll, Lewis)
A Treatise on the Astrolabe (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
The Orbis Pictus of John Amos Comenius (by Comenius, Johann Amos)
Ozma of Oz (by Baum, L. Frank)
The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (by Caldecott, Randolph)
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (by Potter, Beatrix)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
The Scarlet Letter (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
Far from the Madding Crowd (by Hardy, Thomas)
Wuthering Heights (by Brontë, Emily)
Hound of the Baskervilles, The (dramatic... (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare, The (by Chesterton, G. K.)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
Sense and Sensibility (by Austen, Jane)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (by Hardy, Thomas)
The Moonstone (by Collins, Wilkie)
Picture Of Dorian Gray (1891 Version), T... (by Wilde, Oscar)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
David Copperfield (version 2) (by Dickens, Charles)
Frankenstein : Or, The Modern Prometheus (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Secret Garden, The (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
The Tempest (by Shakespeare, William)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, John Meade)
White Fang (by London, Jack)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (by Carroll, Lewis)
Just So Stories (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Ivanhoe NL (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)
Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, The (by Lofting, Hugh)
Just so Stories (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
Through the Looking-Glass (by Carroll, Lewis)
Kidnapped (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)

Top books on Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
King John (by Shakespeare, William)
Comedy of Errors (by Shakespeare)
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shake... (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
The tragedy of Julius Caesar (by Shakespeare, William)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Winter's Tale (by Shakespeare)
Much Ado about Nothing (by Shakespeare, William)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
Macbeth (by Shakespeare, William)
William Shakespeares King Henry Iv, Part... (by Shakespeare, William)
Shakespeare's Sonnets (version 2) (by Shakespeare, William)
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Cows Can't Fly : Preformed by Wally Amos (by David Milgrim)
The Beckonong Cat, Based on a Japenese F... (by Koko Nishizuka)
RRRALPH : Preformed by Wally Amos
Clifford The Big Red Dog : Preformed by ... (by Norman Bridwell)
More Pies : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Robert Munsch)
All the Places to Love : Preformed by Wa... (by Patricia MacLachlan)
The Greatest : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Kenny Rogers)
The Treasure : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Uri Shulevitz)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
Koala Lou : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Mem Fox)
Olivia...and the Missing Toy : Preformed... (by Ian Falconer)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)
Jump, Frog, Jump : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Kalan)
Calabash Cat : Preformed by Wally Amos (by James Rumford)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Na Mele O Hawaii Nei: 101 Hawaiian Songs (by Samuel H. Elbert)
He Lumi Hou Ko Ka Hale (by William H. Wilson)
Kumu Kou (by Larry Kimura)
He Wahi Mo'Olelo No Keauhou a Me Na Wahi... (by Kepa Maly)
Occasional Papers of Bernice P. Bishop M... (by Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum)
Life in Hawaii : An Autobiographic Sketc... (by Coan, Titus)
Na Kanawai O Ka Repubalika O Hawaii, ... (by Hawaii)
Moloka'I: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Ai'Ai (by Kawike Napoleon)
Moe 'O Makali'I (Makali'I Sleeps) (by Danielle Ululani Beirne-Keawe)
Punia (by Lokahi Antonio)
Mahalo E Ke Akua (by Na Kamalei Koolauloa Early Education Program)
O Na Mole E Ke Anahonua (About the Roots... (by A. M. Legendre)
Lili'Uokalani (by Ru Hasegawa Lowe)
Pauahi - the Kamehameha Legacy (by Kamehameha Schools Press)

Top books on Poetry

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (by Hughes, Langston)
Stray Birds (by Sir Rabindranath Tagore)
In Memoriam (by Tennyson, Alfred Lord)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (by Robert W. Service)
Poems (by Owen, Wilfred)
A Masque of Poets : Including Guy Vernon... (by Emily Dickinson)
When I Was King: Poems (by Henry Lawson)
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
The Collected Poems (by Yeats, William Butler)
A Profeta Kertje (by Gibran, Khalil)
Poetical Works : Volume 1 (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
One Hundred Poems of Kabir, Tr. By Rabin... (by Kabir)
The Poems Of Robert Frost (by Frost, Robert.)
The Prelude Or, Growth of a Poets Mind (by Wordsworth, William)
Verses 1889-1896 (by Kipling, Rudyard)

Yiddish Book Center

Di Shime Fun Blu the Call of the Wild (by London, Jack)
Tsu Gezun Un Tsu Lebn (by Glenn, Jacob B)
Undzer Yugn Gezamele Arben Fun Shikager ... (by Grobard, B)
A Hun : Pea Oyf Zumer Oynung (by Andreyev, Leonid)
Erts-Yiroel (by Asch, Sholem)
In Mame-Loshn Geklibene Shrifn (by Hacohen, Mordecai Ben Hillel)
Malkhes Byale Oyobiografishe Dertseylung (by Kahan, J.)
Impresyes Fun a Leyener (by Brownstone, Ezekiel)
Tsum Noensn Shern, Yidish Gezamle Lider ... (by Deitch, Mattes)
Karaimer a Yidishe Geule-Bavegung in Mil... (by Mahler, Raphael)
Di Drie Sude Lider (by Segal, Jacob Isaac)
Argeninish Anologye (by Rozshanski, Shemuel)
Der Ukrayner Id in Ukrayne Un Amerike (by Edlin, William)
Koraln (by Ewald, Carl)
Kriik Un Kriiker (by Niger, Samuel)

Svensk Litteratur Samling

Ett Brev Från Robert Bergman 1853 (by Grytnäsarkivet)
Värderingsuppgift (by Filipsborgsarkivet)
Meddelande (by Filipsborgsarkivet)
Sågnota (by Filipsborgsarkivet)
Virkesrapport (by Filipsborgsarkivet)
P. M. Öfver Hypotek För Obligationslån (by Grytnäsarkivet)
P. M. Om Järnvägens Dragning Genom Stock... (by Grytnäsarkivet)
Brev Till Emanuel Deutsch 1881
Brev Från Robert Bergman 1859 (by Grytnäsarkivet)
Brev Från Robert Bergman 1856 (by Grytnäsarkivet)
Näringstillstånd (by Filipsborgsarkivet)
Brev Från Robert Bergman 1857 (by Grytnäsarkivet)
Meddelande (by Filipsborgsarkivet)
Brev Från Robert Bergman År 1854 (by Grytnäsarkivet)
Virkeslagring (by Filipsborgsarkivet)

Ebooks Libres et Gratuits Collection

En Camarades (by Colette)
Les Demi-Vierges (by Prevost, Marcel)
Assez ! Extrait du Journal D'Un Peintre ... (by Tourgueniev, Ivan Sergueievitch)
Une Descente dans le Maelstrm (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
La Pierre de Mazarin (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
Claudine a Lecole (by Colette, Willy)
Laventure de Shoscombe Old Place (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
La Machine a Assassiner (by Leroux, Gaston)
Enfer Dun Paradis (by Voutcho, Vouk)
Le Marchand de Couleurs Retire des Affai... (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
Colomba (by Merimee, Prosper)
Lillustre Client (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
Le Petit Prince (by De Saint-Exupery, Antoine)
Premier Amour (by Tourgueniev, Ivan Sergueievitch)
Le Sphinx des Glaces (by Verne, Jules)