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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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)
The Principles of the International Phon... (by International Phonetic Association)
Psychology and Pathology of Speech Devel... (by Conradi, Edward)
National Symposium on Learning Disabilit... (by Department of Education)
A Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Lan... (by Hoernle, August Frederich Rudolf)
Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tal... (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

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (by Wittgenstein, Ludwig)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cour... (by Twain, Mark)
Around the World in Eighty Days (by Verne, Jules)
Frankenstein Or, the Modern Prometheus (by Shelley, M. W.)
The Mabinogion Volume: 3 (by Schreiber, Charlotte, Lady, 1812-1895)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Three Musketeers (by Dumas, Alexandre)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable : E. Cobh... (by Brewer, Rev. E. Cobham, Ll. D.)
Beowulf (by Unknown)
Tao Te Ching Volume Vol. 39 (by Legge, J.)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
Great Expectations (by Dickens, Charles)
Anne of Green Gables (by Montgomery, Lucy Maud)
Cassell's Latin Dictionary : Latin-Engli... (by Marchant, James Robert Vernam)

Top 100 books on Education

Free Military School for Applicants for ... (by Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regim...)
The Montessori Method (by Montessori, Maria)
Vocational education and guidance of you... (by Robison, Emily)
Pragmatism (by William James)
Washington Irving's the Legend of Sleepy... (by Irving, Washington)
Beowulf (by Unknown)
Heroides (by Ovidius Naso, Publius (Ovid))
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Confucian Analects (by Confucius)
The Heroides (by Naso, Publius Ovidius (Ovid))
Free Schools; A Documentary History of t... (by Finegan, Thomas Edward)
Herodotus' Histories Vol 1 (by Herodotus of Halicarnassus)
The Iliad (by Homer)
The Education of Henry Adams : An Autobi... (by Adams, Henry)
Emma (by Austen, Jane)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

The purple cow! (by Burgess, Gelett)
Raggedy Ann's Alphabet Book (by Gruelle, Johnny)
A Apple Pie (by Greenaway, Kate)
Mrs. Peter Rabbit (by Burgess, Thornton Waldo)
The Tale of Buster Bumblebee (by Arthur Scott Bailey, Harry L. Smith)
The Arabian Nights Entertainments Comple... (by Anonymous)
The Dutch Twins (by Perkins, Lucy Fitch)
Stories for Little Children (by Doughty, Sarah Parsons)
Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper
Little Almond Blossoms : A Book of Chine... (by Knox, Jessie Juliet)
Raggedy Andy Stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
House that Jack Built, The (by Unknown)
The Tales of Mother Goose (by Oshea, Michael Vincent)
Denslow's Three Bears (by Denslow, W. W.)
Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper...

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Man in the Iron Mask, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Sons and Lovers (by Lawrence, D. H.)
Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lo... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
The Last of the Mohicans, A Narrative of... (by Cooper, James Fenimore)
Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys: Bei... (by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Ni... (by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir)
Lorna Doone (by Schaeffer, Mead)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Lord Jim (by Conrad, Joseph)
Faust (by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
David Copperfield (by Dickens, Charles)
Little Women (by Alcott, Louisa May)
The Odyssey (by Homer)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Wind in the Willows, The (by Grahame, Kenneth)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (A Visit... (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
Raggedy Ann stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
Peter and Wendy (by James Matthew Barrie)
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The (by Baum, L. Frank)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Little Women (by Alcott, Louisa May)
Five Children And It (by E. Nesbit)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
A Journey to the Center of the Earth (by Verne, Jules)
Christmas Carol, A (dramatic reading) (by Dickens, Charles)
Slovenly Peter (by Hoffmann, Heinrich)
A Token for Children : Being an Exact Ac... (by Janeway, James)
The Panchatantra (by Arthur W Ryder)
Anne of Green Gables (by Montgomery, Lucy Maud)

Top books on Shakespeare

The Complete Works of William Shakespear... (by Shakespeare, William)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (by Shakespeare, William)
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
Troilus and Cressida (by Shakespeare, William)
Taming of the Shrew, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Twelfth Night (by Shakespeare)
Pericles (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It (by Shakespeare, William)
The History of Troilus and Cressida (by Shakespeare, William)
Measure for Measure (by Shakespeare)
King Lear (version 2) (by Shakespeare, William)
Titus Andronicus (by Shakespeare, William)
Two Gentlemen of Verona, The (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Calabash Cat : Preformed by Wally Amos (by James Rumford)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
Green Eggs and Ham : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Loony Little: An Environmental Tale : Pr... (by Dianna Hutts Aston)
Curious George and the Pizza : Preformed... (by Margret and H.A. Rey)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)
The Greatest : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Kenny Rogers)
Otto : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Steven Kroll)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
The Cat in the Hat : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Olivia...and the Missing Toy : Preformed... (by Ian Falconer)
Squashed in the Middle : Preformed by Wa... (by Elizabeth Winthrop)
Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors : Pre... (by Norman Bridwell)
Hunches in Bunches : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Na 'Elala (by University of Hawaii At Hilo)
Kuleana (by William K. Wallace)
An Account of the Polynesian Race : Its ... Volume Vol. 2 (by Fornander, Abraham)
Introduction to Hawaiian Grammar (by Alexander, W. D. (William De Witt))
Place Names of Hawaii - Hawaii Dictionar... (by Mary Kawena Pukui)
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii : the Sac... (by Emerson, Nathaniel Bright, 1839-1915)
Iosepa Kaho'Oluhi Nawahiokalani'Opu'U (by William H. Wilson)
Ma Uka, Ma Kai (by Eve Furchgott)
The 'Ulu Tree (No Ke Kumu 'Ulu) (by Eve Furchgott)
Ao Kiko
Punia (by Lokahi Antonio)
He Moolelo No Kamapuaa (by Kuleana Kope)
Life in Hawaii : An Autobiographic Sketc... (by Coan, Titus)
Workmen's Compensation Act of the Territ... (by Hawaii)
Maui Hikina, Volume I (by Kepa Maly)

Top books on Poetry

Stray Birds (by Sir Rabindranath Tagore)
Poetical Works : Volume 1 (by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
The Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience and... (by Blake, William)
Verses 1889-1896 (by Kipling, Rudyard)
The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (by Rilke, Rainer, Maria)
In Memoriam (by Tennyson, Alfred Lord)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (by Hughes, Langston)
One Hundred Poems of Kabir, Tr. By Rabin... (by Kabir)
A Masque of Poets : Including Guy Vernon... (by Emily Dickinson)
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunb... (by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
A Profeta Kertje (by Gibran, Khalil)
The Prelude Or, Growth of a Poets Mind (by Wordsworth, William)
Poems (by Owen, Wilfred)

Yiddish Book Center

Yudishe Gramaik (by Rejzen, Zalman)
Fun Umeum (by Greenberg, Eliezer)
Rege Ru Gefinen (by Shaffir, M. M)
Aritmetik 1 (by Rusiecki, A. M.)
Amerike Un Ikh (by Glanz-Leyeless, Aaron)
Oyf der Grenets Dertseylungen, Minyaurn (by Kurland, L)
Shelomoh's Ring (by Yehoash)
Yudishe Geshikhe Nay Bearbey Nokh Profes... (by Graetz, Heinrich)
Di Zilberne Gli’Shers (by Sal)
Tsvishn Erd Un Yam Lider : Volume 1 (by Schuchinski, Osher Jaime)
Oysgeveyle Verk : Volume 2 (by Lenin, Vladimir Ilich)
Tsvey Veln (Kapilen Fun a Greserer Derts... (by Bergelson, David)
Tsen Mayses (by Kvitko, Leib)
Yerie (by Pat, Jacob)
Lenin Vladimir Iitish : Kurtse Bashraybu... (by Institut Marksizma-Leninizma (Moscow, R. S. F. S. ...)