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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

Great Expectations (by Dickens, Charles)
Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
The Iliad (by Homer)
Poetics (by Aristotle)
1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (by Grose, Captain)
The Divine Comedy : Inferno (by Alighieri, Dante)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
Frankenstein (dramatic reading) (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)
A Room of One's Own (by Woolf, Virginia)
Ancient Alphabets and Hieroglyphic Chara... (by Amad Ibn Ali Ibn Washiyah, Ahmed Ibn Ali Ibn Al Mu...)
Middlemarch (by Eliot, George)
Shakespeare's Sonnets (by Shakespeare, William)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (by Wittgenstein, Ludwig)
Three Musketeers, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Iliad, The (by Homer)

Top 100 books on Education

The New England Primer, Score Chr Nep (by Cornhill, Boston)
Anna Karenina (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Medea (by Euripides)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dougl... (by Douglass, Frederick)
A plan for improving female education (by Willard, Emma)
Common Sense (by Paine, Thomas)
Concerning Civil Government, Second Essa... (by Locke, John)
Ancient Tales from Many Lands : A Collec... (by Fleming, Rachel Mary)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (th... (by C. S. Lewis)
Riders of the Purple Sage (by Grey, Zane)
Laddie
Oresteia, The (by Aeschylus)
Elements of Style, The (by Strunk Jr, William)
A Curious Hieroglyphick Bible : Or, Sele...
Rights of Man, Score Aor Rom Volume Vol. II (by Paine, Thomas)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

Raggedy Ann's Alphabet Book (by Gruelle, Johnny)
The Story Hour (by Smith, Nora A.)
German Fairy Tales (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
Raggedy Ann stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
Song of Hiawatha, The (by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Arabian Nights Entertainments Comple... (by Anonymous)
The Green Fairy Book (by Andrew Lang, Henry Justice Ford)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)
Mr. Rabbit at Home (by Harris, Joel Chandler)
Aunt Friendly's Picture Book (by Baker, Sarah S.)
Aesop's Fables (by Aesop)
Stories for Children : A Book for All Li... (by Colman (Pamela Chandler))
The original Mother Goose's melody (by Newbery, John)
The Story of Hiawatha

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Divine Comedy, The (by Dante Alighieri)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by Twain, Mark)
A Christmas Carol (by Dickens, Charles)
To the Lighthouse (by Woolf, Virginia)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)
Scarlet Letter, The (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
Lorna Doone (by Schaeffer, Mead)
The Tale of Genji (by Shikibu, Murasaki)
Brothers Karamazov, The (by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor)
Bhagavad Gita (by Arnold, Edwin, Sir)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

What Katy Did (by Coolidge, Susan)
Rip Van Winkle (by Jefferson, Joseph)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Treasure Island (by Nor, Lisa)
Black Beauty (by Sewell, Anna)
Velveteen Rabbit, The (by Williams, Margery)
The Tale of Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
Hymns in Prose for Children, By the Auth... (by Anna Laetitia Barbauld)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
The Story of Doctor Dolittle (by Lofting, Hugh)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (by Mark Twain)
The Red Badge of Courage (by Crane, Stephen)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 1849-1924)
Lorna Doone (by Schaeffer, Mead)

Top books on Shakespeare

As You Like It (by Shakespeare, William)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (by Shakespeare, William)
King Henry IV, Part 1 (by Shakespeare, William)
Titus Andronicus (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
Comedy of Errors (by Shakespeare)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
All's Well, That Ends Well (by Shakespeare, William)
King Richard Ii (by Shakespeare, William)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tempest; A Comedy by William Shakesp... (by Shakespeare, William)
Comedy of Errors, The (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It (by Shakespeare, William)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Peter's Chair : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Ezra Jack Keats)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
Jump, Frog, Jump : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Kalan)
Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from ... (by Gerald McDermott)
The Paper Bag Princess : Preformed by Wa... (by Robert Munsch)
Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)
Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors : Pre... (by Norman Bridwell)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
Squashed in the Middle : Preformed by Wa... (by Elizabeth Winthrop)
Curious George and the Pizza : Preformed... (by Margret and H.A. Rey)
The Wolf and the Lamb : Preformed by Wal... (by Eric Carle)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
The Lion and the Mouse : Preformed by Wa... (by Eric Carle)
Cows Can't Fly : Preformed by Wally Amos (by David Milgrim)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Kamehameha the Great (by Julie Stewart Williams)
He Palapala Mua Na Na Kamalii (A First B... (by Hawaiian Historical Society)
He Malaai Ka'U (by William H. Wilson)
Resource Units in Hawaiian Culture (by Kamehameha Schools)
O Pa'Ao (by Kekoa Roback)
Kuleana (by William K. Wallace)
Ehia I Loa'A (by University of Hawaii At Hilo)
He Moolelo No Kamapuaa (by Kuleana Kope)
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii : the Sac... (by Emerson, Nathaniel Bright, 1839-1915)
Occasional Papers of Bernice P. Bishop M... (by Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum)
Ma Uka, Ma Kai (by Eve Furchgott)
Hawaiian Language References-'Olelo Maku... (by Kamehameha Schools)
The State of Coral Reef Ecosystems of th...
An Historic Inventory of the Physical, S... (by Territorial Planning Board)
Na Koko O Keia Keiki Hawai'I (by William H. Wilson)

Top books on Poetry

The Poems Of Robert Frost (by Frost, Robert.)
A Masque of Poets : Including Guy Vernon... (by Emily Dickinson)
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Poems (by Owen, Wilfred)
Collected Poems of John Keats : Volume 5... (by Keats, John)
The Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
A Profeta Kertje (by Gibran, Khalil)
Verses 1889-1896 (by Kipling, Rudyard)
The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunb... (by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
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)
Poems by Currer, Ellis, And Acton Bell (... (by Bell, Acton)
Stray Birds (by Sir Rabindranath Tagore)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (by Robert W. Service)

Yiddish Book Center

In Di Shmole Geslekh Ertsehlungen (by Rozenfeld, Yonah)
Vegn der Yidn-Frage Un Tsienizm Baym Hay... (by Miflagah Ha-Komunisit Ha-Yireelit)
Ikh Un der Yam (by Kliger, Kehos)
Shlisl Tsu Di 100 Bend Musterverk Fun de... (by Rozshanski, Shemuel)
Dos Amolike Yidishe Varshe Biz der Shvel... (by Ravitch, Melech)
Dos Bloye Shifele Dertseylungen (by Grynberg, Berl)
A Vide (by Turkov, Mark)
Di Mishpoe Un Andere Dertseylungen (by Zytner, Salomon)
Folk’Simlekhe Baladn [Fun der Hebreyishe... (by Olitsky, L)
Ale Verk : Vol. 27 Volume Vol. 27 (by Sholem Aleichem)
Devorah Di Nevie Un Barak Ben Avinoam (by Rapoport, Aaron B.)
In Varshe Un in Lodzsh Mayne Bagegenishn... Volume Vol. 1 (by Mukdoni, A.)
Amol Iz Geven a Shel (by Bilmes, Leon)
Geshlekh Un Kharaker Printsipyele Ophand... Volume Vol. 3 (by Weininger, Otto)
Iberboy Ersher Bukh Fun a Rilogye (by Golib, N. Y. (Noa Yitsak))