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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

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

Dubliners (by Joyce, James)
Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
Esperanto Teacher, The (by Fryer, Helen)
Beowulf (by Gummere, Francis B.)
A manual of style, containing typographi... (by University of Chicago. Press)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (by Wittgenstein, Ludwig)
Psychology and Pathology of Speech Devel... (by Conradi, Edward)
An Introduction to the Study of Language (by Bloomfield, Leonard, 1887-1949)
The Betrothed (by Alessandro Manzoni)
An Anglo-Saxon Primer : With Grammar, No... (by Henry Sweet)
Frankenstein (dramatic reading) (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
A Room of One's Own (by Woolf, Virginia)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Co... (by Twain, Mark)
The Tale of Genji (by Shikibu, Murasaki)

Top 100 books on Education

The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)
Meno, Score Plato Meno (by Plato)
Dracula (by Stoker, Bram)
Gorgias (by Plato (Platon))
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Scarlet Letter (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (by Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, Sir)
Riders of the Purple Sage (by Grey, Zane)
Harriet, The Moses of Her People (by Bradford, Sarah Hopkins)
Laddie
The Odyssey (by Homer)
Iliad, The (by Homer)
William Shakespeares King Henry Iv, Part... (by Shakespeare, William)
Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
Plutarch's Lives (by Plutarch)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

The Purple Cow! (by Burgess, Galett)
The Book of Nonsense, Comprising One Hun... (by Lear, Edward)
Story of Mankind, The (by van Loon, Hendrik)
King of the Golden River, The (by Ruskin, John)
Original Poems, for Infant Minds (by Ann Taylor, Jane Taylor, O'Keeffe (Adelaide))
The Story of Ferdinand (by Leaf, Munro)
The Book of Nonsense (by Lear, Edward)
The Little People of the Snow (by Bryant, William Cullen)
Bambi Vald Mayele (by Salten, Felix)
The Tale of Mr. Tod (by Potter, Beatrix)
The Story Hour (by Smith, Nora A.)
The Story of Little Jane and Me (by Blatchford, Mary E)
Aunt Friendly's Gift (by Baker, Sarah Schoonmaker)
A Book of Discoveries. Illustrated by Go... (by Masefield, John)
Arabian Nights Entertainments, The — Vol... (by Anonymous)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

The Picture of Dorian Gray (by Wilde, Oscar)
Emma (by Austen, Jane)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cour... (by Twain, Mark)
Man in the Iron Mask, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
The Four Million (by Henry, O.)
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories (by Chopin, Kate)
Gulliver's Travels. (by Jonathan Swift)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Moby-Dick or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of l... (by Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel De)
The Odyssey (by Homer)
Hound of the Baskervilles, The (dramatic... (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
The Count of Monte Cristo (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The (vers... (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

The Three Musketeers (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
At the Back of the North Wind (by Macdonald, George)
Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The (by Irving, Washington)
Second Jungle Book, The (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Count of Monte Cristo, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (by Mark Twain)
King Arthur and His Knights (by Radford, Maude L.)
A Christmas Carol (by Dickens, Charles)
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, The (by Pyle, Howard)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, J. Meade)
Kidnapped (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
A Midsummer-Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
Blue Beard

Top books on Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night's Dream (by Shakespeare, William)
Comedy of Errors, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Othello (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
Comedy of Errors (by Shakespeare)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (by Shakespeare, William)
Merchant of Venice (by William Shakespeare)
Winter's Tale, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Tempest, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Love's Labours Lost (by Shakespeare, William)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (by Shakespeare, William)
Measure for Measure Shakespeare (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It (by Shakespeare, William)
Taming of the Shrew, The (by Shakespeare, William)
All's Well, That Ends Well (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

The Carrot Seed : Preformed by Wally Amo... (by Ruth Krauss)
Calabash Cat : Preformed by Wally Amos (by James Rumford)
The Very Greedy Bee : Preformed by Wally... (by Steve Smallman)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
I'm A Caterpillar : Preformed by Wally A... (by Jean Marzollo)
Cows Can't Fly : Preformed by Wally Amos (by David Milgrim)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)
Squashed in the Middle : Preformed by Wa... (by Elizabeth Winthrop)
Stephanie's Ponytail : Preformed by Wall... (by Robert Munsch)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)
Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors : Pre... (by Norman Bridwell)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
Clifford The Big Red Dog : Preformed by ... (by Norman Bridwell)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

He Moolelo No Kamapuaa (by Kuleana Kope)
Kane'Ohe : Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Moe 'O Makali'I (Makali'I Sleeps) (by Danielle Ululani Beirne-Keawe)
Mahalo E Ke Akua (by Na Kamalei Koolauloa Early Education Program)
He Lumi Hou Ko Ka Hale (by William H. Wilson)
Hawaiian Language Imprints (by Bernice Judd)
Ku'U Tutu (by Dawn Kahalaomapuana)
Pacific Island Bibliography (by Floyd M. Cammack)
La'Ieikawai (by Dawn Kahalaomapuana)
Kaua Kuloko 1895 (by Robert W. Wilikoki)
Moloka'I: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
No Wai Ke Kuleana (by Pohakalani Tolentino-Perry)
Ka'Ehuikimanoopu'Uloa (by William Henery)
Pehea 'O Ia E Holo Ai (by Lilinoe Andrews)
Wai'Anae: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)

Top books on Poetry

The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
A Profeta Kertje (by Gibran, Khalil)
A Masque of Poets : Including Guy Vernon... (by Emily Dickinson)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience and... (by Blake, William)
The Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
When I Was King: Poems (by Henry Lawson)
In Memoriam (by Tennyson, Alfred Lord)
Stray Birds (by Sir Rabindranath Tagore)
Poems by Currer, Ellis, And Acton Bell (... (by Bell, Acton)
Poems (by Owen, Wilfred)
The Collected Poems (by Yeats, William Butler)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (by Robert W. Service)
The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (by Rilke, Rainer, Maria)
The Poems Of Robert Frost (by Frost, Robert.)
One Hundred Poems of Kabir, Tr. By Rabin... (by Kabir)

Yiddish Book Center

Unervel (by Opatoshu, Joseph)
Fizike (by Zabludovski, Mordekhai)
Mame in Yidishn Lid a Kleyne Anologye (by Biletzky, Israel Ch.)
Oyf Yener Zay Barg (by Halter, Perl)
Di Verk Fun Yitsak Leybush Perets Tsvelf... Volume Vol. 13 (by Peretz, Isaac Leib)
Mosheh Leyb Halpern : Volume 1 (by Halpern, Moshe Leib)
Mr. Ruman's Adminisratsye Un Erts-Yiroel (by Young Zionist Actions Committee)
Lider (by Stiker, Meyer)
Uner Eyn Dakh Lider, Dertseylungen, Publ... (by Monfried, Lazarus)
Shpliers (by Yudika)
30 Lider Far Kinder (by Limone, M)
Der Nay Modisher Osn! Ayn Roman (by Blosheyn, Ozer)
Di Nayese Geshikhte Funm Yidishn Folk (by Dubnow, Simon)
Aropgelakh Fun Hartsn Humor Un Saire (by Brat, Itzhak)
Mendele Moykher Sforim (Shalom Yaakov Ab... (by Mani Leib)