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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

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

Frankenstein : Or, The Modern Prometheus (by Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (by Wittgenstein, Ludwig)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
North and South (by Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn)
Siddhartha (by Hesse, Hermann)
Les Miserables (by Hugo, Victor)
An Anglo-Saxon Primer : With Grammar, No... (by Henry Sweet)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
Growth and Structure of the English Lang... (by Jespersen, Otto)
Selections from Chaucer's Canterbury Tal... (by Chaucer, Geoffrey)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (by Twain, Mark)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Unknown)
Course in General Linguistics (by Saussure, Ferdinand)
Dubliners (by Joyce, James)

Top 100 books on Education

Medea (by Euripides)
Christian Education in the Dark Ages (A.... (by Magevney, Eugene A.)
Plutarch's Lives (by Plutarch)
Moby Dick, or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle (by Aristotle, Frank Hesketh Peters)
Aristotle on Education, Being Extracts f... (by Aristotle)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
The Odyssey (by Homer)
King Henry IV, Part 1 (by Shakespeare, William)
Twilight of the Idols Or How To Philosop... (by Nietzsche, Friedrich, Dr.)
Metamorphoses, Score Ovid Meta (by Ovid)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

The Pied Piper of Hamelin .. (by Greenaway, Kate, 1846-1901, Ill)
Just so Stories (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Aunt Friendly's Gift (by Baker, Sarah Schoonmaker)
The Golden Goose Book, Being the Stories... (by Brooke, Leonard Leslie)
Raggedy Andy Stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
The purple cow! (by Burgess, Gelett)
Mrs. Peter Rabbit (by Burgess, Thornton Waldo)
Divine and Moral Songs for Children (by Isaac Watts)
The Ugly Duckling (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (by Caldecott, Randolph)
The House That Jack Built (by Caldecott, Randolph)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (A Visit... (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
Little Tot's Picture Book (by Sheila Thibodeau Lambrinos Collection - York Unive...)
Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper...
Grimm's Fairy Tales (by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Persuasion (by Austen, Jane)
The Mayor of Casterbridge (by Hardy, Thomas)
The Awakening (by Chopin, Kate)
The Man Who Was Thursday (by Chesterton, Gilbert Keith)
Moby-Dick or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
The Odyssey (by Homer)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)
The Red Badge of Courage (by Crane, Stephen)
The Four Million (by Henry, O.)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Woman in White (by Collins, Wilkie)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cour... (by Twain, Mark)
The Count of Monte Cristo (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor)
Faust (by Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Beauty and the Beast (by Crane, Walter)
Tom Brown's School Days (by Hughes, Thomas)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, John Meade)
The Happy Prince and Other Tales and a H... (by Wilde, Oscar)
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The (by Baum, L. Frank)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The (by Twain, Mark)
Call of the Wild, The (by London, Jack)
Kidnapped (by Stevenson, Robert Louis)
A Dog of Flanders (by Rame, Maria Louise)
The History of Sandford and Merton (by Thomas Day)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)
The Tale of Genji (by Murasaki Shikibu)
Blue Fairy Book, The (by Lang, Andrew)
Through the Looking-Glass (by Carroll, Lewis)
Jack and the Beanstalk (by Floyd, Grace C.)

Top books on Shakespeare

Cymbeline (by Shakespeare, William)
Winter's Tale, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
Shakespeare's King Richard Iii; (by Shakespeare, William)
Hamlet (by Shakespeare, William)
The Taming of the Shrew (by Shakespeare, William)
Richard III (by Shakespeare, William)
King Henry Iv. A Tragedy. In Five Acts (by Shakespeare, William)
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It the Pennsylvania State Un... (by Shakespeare, William)
Love's Labours Lost (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
Coriolanus (by Shakespeare, William)
Two Noble Kinsmen (by Shakespeare)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

I'm A Caterpillar : Preformed by Wally A... (by Jean Marzollo)
Loony Little: An Environmental Tale : Pr... (by Dianna Hutts Aston)
The Carrot Seed : Preformed by Wally Amo... (by Ruth Krauss)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
Jump, Frog, Jump : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Kalan)
The Wolf and the Lamb : Preformed by Wal... (by Eric Carle)
Calabash Cat : Preformed by Wally Amos (by James Rumford)
Peter's Chair : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Ezra Jack Keats)
Green Eggs and Ham : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
The Cat in the Hat : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Otto : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Steven Kroll)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)
The Cow Who Clucked : Preformed by Wally... (by Denise Fleming)
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type : Pref... (by Doreen Cronin)
RRRALPH : Preformed by Wally Amos

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

He Kuhikuhi O Ke Kanaka Hawaii (A Guide ... (by J. W. H. Kauwahi)
Ka'Ehuikimanoopu'Uloa (by William Henery)
He Lumi Hou Ko Ka Hale (by William H. Wilson)
Hawaiian Language Imprints (by Bernice Judd)
Kamehameha the Great (by Julie Stewart Williams)
He Mo'Olelo No 'Aukelenuia'Iku (by Abraham Fornander)
An Account of the Polynesian Race : Its ... Volume Vol. 2 (by Fornander, Abraham)
No Ka Wai O Ka Puna Hou (by Eve Furchgott)
Aia I Hea (by Eve Furchgott)
Moloka'I: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Ku'U Tutu (by Dawn Kahalaomapuana)
La'Ieikawai (by Dawn Kahalaomapuana)
He Wahi Mooolelo No Batimea Puaaiki, No ... (by J. S. Gelina)
Kaua Kuloko 1895 (by Robert W. Wilikoki)
O Na Mole E Ke Anahonua (About the Roots... (by A. M. Legendre)