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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

Tao Te Ching Volume Vol. 39 (by Legge, J.)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Iliad (by Homer)
Beowulf
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by Twain, Mark)
Grimm's Fairy Tales (by Grimm, Jacob)
Don Quixote (by De Cervantes, Miquel)
Familiar Quotations : A Collection of Pa... (by John Bartlett)
The King's English (by Fowler, Henry Watson)
Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
An Anglo-Saxon Primer : With Grammar, No... (by Henry Sweet)
Three Musketeers, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Beyond Good and Evil (by Nietzsche, Friedrich)
Secret Garden, The (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
The Mabinogion Volume: 3 (by Schreiber, Charlotte, Lady, 1812-1895)

Top 100 books on Education

Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (by Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, Sir)
Of the Education of the Poor: Being the ... (by Society for Bettering the Conditions and Increasin...)
Beowulf
The confessions of S. Augustine (by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo)
The Divine Comedy : Inferno (by Alighieri, Dante)
Science and Education (by Huxley, Thomas Henry)
Dracula (by Stoker, Bram)
Ivanhoe NL (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
New Hampshire : a poem with notes and gr... (by Frost, Robert)
Trojan Women, The (by Euripides)
The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (by Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
Moby-Dick or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

Just So Stories (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Three Blind Mice (by Ivimey, John William)
The Little Engine That Could (by Lenski, Lois L.)
Little Almond Blossoms : A Book of Chine... (by Knox, Jessie Juliet)
The Baby's Own Aesop : Being the Fables ... (by Crane, Walter)
Purple Cow, The (by Burgess, Gelett)
The Tales of Mother Goose (by Oshea, Michael Vincent)
Original Poems, for Infant Minds (by Ann Taylor, Jane Taylor, O'Keeffe (Adelaide))
Mother Earth's Children; The Frolics of ... (by Gordon, Elizabeth)
The Golden Goose Book, Being the Stories... (by Brooke, Leonard Leslie)
The First Days of Man, As Narrated Quite... (by Kummer, Frederic Arnold)
Pollyanna (by Porter, Eleanor H.)
Adventures of Maya the Bee, The (by Bonsels, Waldemar)
Jack and the Beanstalk (by Floyd, Grace C.)
The Marquis of Carabas Picture Book

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

The Man Who Was Thursday : A Nightmare (by Chesterton, Gilbert K.)
Iliad, The (by Homer)
Allan Quatermain (by Haggard, Henry Rider)
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Ni... (by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir)
Bleak House (version 3) (by Dickens, Charles)
Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lo... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
The Moonstone (by Collins, Wilkie)
Pride and Prejudice (by Austen, Jane)
Great Expectations (by Dickens, Charles)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (by Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan)
Ivanhoe NL (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
Jane Eyre (by Brontë, Charlotte)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
The Iliad (by Butler, Samuel)
The Man in the Iron Mask (by Maquet, Auguste, 1813-1888)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Moonfleet (by Falkner, John Meade)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, J. Meade)
King of the Golden River, The (by Ruskin, John)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
The Coral Island (by Ballantyne, Robert Michael)
King Solomon's Mines (by Haggard, Henry Rider)
Lorna Doone, a Romance of Exmoor (by Blackmore, Richard Doddridge)
Peter and Wendy (by James Matthew Barrie)
Heidi (by Spyri, Johanna)
Coral Island, The (by Ballantyne, R.M.)
Little Women (by Alcott, Louisa May)
The velveteen rabbit, or, how toys becom... (by Bianco, Margery Williams)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The (by Twain, Mark)
Treasure Island (by Nor, Lisa)

Top books on Shakespeare

Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Comedy of Errors (by Shakespeare, William)
King Richard Ii (by Shakespeare, William)
Othello (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
The tragedy of Julius Caesar (by Shakespeare, William)
Pericles (by Shakespeare, William)
King Richard the Second (by Shakespeare, William)
Tempest, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Measure for Measure (by Shakespeare)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
Richard II (by Shakespeare, William)
King Henry Iv. A Tragedy. In Five Acts (by Shakespeare, William)
Shakespeare's King Richard Iii; (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It the Pennsylvania State Un... (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Peter's Chair : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Ezra Jack Keats)
Clifford The Big Red Dog : Preformed by ... (by Norman Bridwell)
More Pies : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Robert Munsch)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
The Paper Bag Princess : Preformed by Wa... (by Robert Munsch)
Green Eggs and Ham : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Jump, Frog, Jump : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Kalan)
Cows Can't Fly : Preformed by Wally Amos (by David Milgrim)
RRRALPH : Preformed by Wally Amos
The Lion and the Mouse : Preformed by Wa... (by Eric Carle)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
Calabash Cat : Preformed by Wally Amos (by James Rumford)
The Beckonong Cat, Based on a Japenese F... (by Koko Nishizuka)
The Wolf and the Lamb : Preformed by Wal... (by Eric Carle)
Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Na Mele O Hawaii Nei: 101 Hawaiian Songs (by Samuel H. Elbert)
Resource Units in Hawaiian Culture (by Kamehameha Schools)
Kaua Kuloko 1895 (by Robert W. Wilikoki)
Na Mele Aimoku (by Hawaiian Historical Society)
Ke Alo O Kona Mo'I (The Face of Her King... (by Robert Lono Ikuwa)
He Moolelo No Kamapuaa (by Kuleana Kope)
Oiwi Vol. 1 Volume 1 (by Lokahi Antonio)
Mahalo E Ke Akua (by Na Kamalei Koolauloa Early Education Program)
Hawaiian Language References-'Olelo Maku... (by Kamehameha Schools)
The 'Ulu Tree (No Ke Kumu 'Ulu) (by Eve Furchgott)
Ai'Ai (by Kawike Napoleon)
An Account of the Polynesian Race : Its ... Volume Vol. 2 (by Fornander, Abraham)
Ulu Na Mea a Pau (by Kaulana Dameg)
Punia (by Lokahi Antonio)
Life in Hawaii : An Autobiographic Sketc... (by Coan, Titus)