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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

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

Beowulf
The Golden Bowl (by James, Henry)
A manual of style, containing typographi... (by University of Chicago. Press)
Shakespeare's Sonnets (by Shakespeare, William)
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable : E. Cobh... (by Brewer, Rev. E. Cobham, Ll. D.)
Beyond Good and Evil (by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm)
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, A (by Joyce, James)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cour... (by Twain, Mark)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (by Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, Sir)
Don Quixote (by De Cervantes, Miquel)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Awful German Language, The (by Twain, Mark)
Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
Frankenstein : Or, The Modern Prometheus (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)

Top 100 books on Education

The Trojan Women (by Euripides)
Plutarch's Lives (by Plutarch)
The Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato (by Plato)
Catullus (by Gaius Valerius Catullus)
The Moral Judgment of the Child (by Jean Piaget)
Washington Irving's the Legend of Sleepy... (by Irving, Washington)
Metamorphoses (by Ovidius Naso, Publius (Ovid))
Moby Dick; Or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Aristotle on Education, Being Extracts f... (by Aristotle)
Concerning Civil Government, Second Essa... (by Locke, John)
The Odyssey (by Homer)
Development of the Education of Wage-Ear... (by Hey, Spurley)
A Doll's House (by Ibsen, Henrik)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

The Story of Ferdinand (by Leaf, Munro)
A Book for Boys and Girls; Or, Country R... (by Bunyan, John)
The Ugly Duckling (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
Johnny Crow's Party; Another Picture Boo... (by Brooke, Leonard Leslie)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)
Rhymes for the Nursery (by Jane Taylor, Ann Taylor)
The King of the Golden River, Or the Bla... (by John Ruskin)
The Story of Captain Meriwether Lewis an... (by Kingsley, Nellie F)
Arabian Nights Entertainments, The — Vol... (by Anonymous)
Stories for Children. First Reader Grade (by Mrs. Charles A. Lane)
The Story of Chicken Little: Rhymed and ... (by Kenneth Graham Duffield)
Anne of Green Gables (by Montgomery, Lucy Maud)
Fairy Tales/By Hans Christian Andersen; ... (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
The Little Red Balloon (by Hofman, Caroline)
The Little Gingerbread Man (by Herbert, Robert Gaston, Ill)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Prisoner of Zenda (by Hope, Anthony)
Diary of a Nobody, The (by Grossmith, George)
Divine Comedy, The (by Dante Alighieri)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman ... (by Hardy, Thomas)
The Iliad (by Butler, Samuel)
Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
Black Beauty (by Sewell, Anna)
The Diary of a Nobody (by Grossmith, George)
Les Misérables (by Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885)
The Last of the Mohicans, A Narrative of... (by Cooper, James Fenimore)
Sons and Lovers (by Lawrence, D. H.)
Anna Karenina -2 (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)
The Lost World (by Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Tempest (by Shakespeare, William)
Princess and the Goblin, The (by Macdonald, George)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
The Count of Monte Cristo (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Ragged Dick (by Alger, Horatio, Jr.)
Christmas Carol, A (dramatic reading) (by Dickens, Charles)
Grimm's Fairy Tales (by Grimm, Jacob)
Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
Ragged Dick (by Alger, Horatio, Jr.)
The Tales of Mother Goose (by Oshea, Michael Vincent)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
The Little Red Hen

Top books on Shakespeare

Two Gentlemen of Verona, The (by Shakespeare, William)
The Taming of the Shrew (by Shakespeare, William)
Tragedy of Macbeth, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Taming of the Shrew, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Antony and Cleopatra (by Shakespeare, William)
Two Noble Kinsmen (by Shakespeare)
King Lear (version 2) (by Shakespeare, William)
The Winter's Tale (by William Shakespeare)
Twelfth Night or What You Will (by Shakespeare, William)
Troilus and Cressida (by Shakespeare, William)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Noble Kinsmen (by Shakespeare, William)
William Shakespeares King Henry Iv, Part... (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Stephanie's Ponytail : Preformed by Wall... (by Robert Munsch)
The Paper Bag Princess : Preformed by Wa... (by Robert Munsch)
Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors : Pre... (by Norman Bridwell)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)
Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from ... (by Gerald McDermott)
All the Places to Love : Preformed by Wa... (by Patricia MacLachlan)
Curious George and the Pizza : Preformed... (by Margret and H.A. Rey)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
Loony Little: An Environmental Tale : Pr... (by Dianna Hutts Aston)
The Beckonong Cat, Based on a Japenese F... (by Koko Nishizuka)
Cows Can't Fly : Preformed by Wally Amos (by David Milgrim)
Green Eggs and Ham : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
The Treasure : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Uri Shulevitz)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Ma Uka, Ma Kai (by Eve Furchgott)
Ka Mo'Olelo O Lonoikamakahiki (by Abraham Fornander)
Ke Aupuni Moi (by Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau- Kamehameha School Pre...)
Moloka'I: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Aia I Hea (by Eve Furchgott)
He Lumi Hou Ko Ka Hale (by William H. Wilson)
Lunalilo (by Peter Galuteria)
Workmen's Compensation Act of the Territ... (by Hawaii)
An Account of the Polynesian Race : Its ... Volume Vol. 2 (by Fornander, Abraham)
Kamehameha Iii : Kauikeaouli (by Jean Iwata Cachola)
No Ka Wai O Ka Puna Hou (by Eve Furchgott)
No Ma'Ikoha a Me Ka Wauke (by William H. Wilson)
Ka Moolelo O Ka Moi Kalakaua I (The Hist... (by J. J. Williams)
Kamehameha V : Lot Kapuaiwa (by Rosalin Uphus Comeau)
No Na Hale (by Liana Iaea Honda)

Top books on Poetry

Collected Poems of John Keats : Volume 5... (by Keats, John)
The Prelude Or, Growth of a Poets Mind (by Wordsworth, William)
The Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (by Rilke, Rainer, Maria)
Poetical Works : Volume 1 (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
A Masque of Poets : Including Guy Vernon... (by Emily Dickinson)
Leaves of Grass (by Whitman, Walt)
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Poems by Currer, Ellis, And Acton Bell (... (by Bell, Acton)
When I Was King: Poems (by Henry Lawson)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (by Robert W. Service)
The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunb... (by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
In Memoriam (by Tennyson, Alfred Lord)
A Profeta Kertje (by Gibran, Khalil)
The Poems Of Robert Frost (by Frost, Robert.)

Yiddish Book Center

Di Mishpoe Mashber Roman : Vol. 1 Volume Vol. 1 (by Der Nister)
In Shiln Fargeyn (by Fridman, Levi)
Ikh Lakh Mi Aykh Tsu 70 (by Tabatznik, M.)
Mikra'Ot Gedolot Umash Bet Yehuda : Volu...
Kroona Park Brigade Lider Un Mayses (by Zaretski, Hinde)
Getseyle Eg (by Kolker, Israel Dines)
Ḥaifa Yorbukh for Liṭeraṭur Un Ḳunsṭ : ... Volume Vol. 2 (by Kroshnitz, Mordecai)
Nigedayge Tsu Zingen Un Tsu Zogn (by Liptsin, Sem)
Baluer Vebers (by Okrutny, Iosef)
Shrifen : Volume 2 (by Rosenfeld, Morris)
Funvanen Sham der Men’Sh (by Gurev, Grigori Abramovich)
Kenig Ashmadi (by Sackler, Harry)
Dos Tog-Bukh (by Rubinowicz, Dawid)
Reb Yiroel Bal-Shem-Ov Zayn Leben, Lehre... (by Setzer, Samuel H. (Samuel Hirsh))
Geshikhe Fun Tsienizm (by Madfes, I.)