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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (abridg... (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Secret Garden (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and P... (by Peter Mark Roget)
Familiar Quotations; A Collection of Pas... (by Bartlett, John)
The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (by Rilke, Rainer, Maria)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)
Jane Eyre (by Brontë, Charlotte)
Higher Lessons in English (by Reed, Alonzo)
Psychology and Pathology of Speech Devel... (by Conradi, Edward)
From Ritual to Romance (by Weston, Jessie L.)
Great Expectations (by Dickens, Charles)
Frankenstein Or, the Modern Prometheus (by Shelley, M. W.)
Grimm's Fairy Tales (by Grimm, Jacob)
Northanger Abbey (by Austen, Jane)

Top 100 books on Education

The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (th... (by C. S. Lewis)
The Call of the Wild (by London, Jack)
The Sound and the Fury and as I Lay Dyin... (by William Faulkner)
Medea (by Euripides)
Ivanhoe NL (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
The Republic, Score Plato Rep (by Plato)
Free Schools; A Documentary History of t... (by Finegan, Thomas Edward)
A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Beowulf (by Gummere, Francis B.)
Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lo... (by Stowe, Harriet Beecher)
Moby-Dick or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
A plan for improving female education (by Willard, Emma)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

The Ugly Duckling (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
Ozma of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Ozma of Oz (by Baum, L. Frank)
Velveteen Rabbit, The (by Williams, Margery)
The Tale of Buster Bumblebee (by Arthur Scott Bailey, Harry L. Smith)
Little Bo-Peep; A Nursery Rhyme Picture ...
The Tale of Mr. Tod (by Potter, Beatrix)
Arabian Nights Entertainments, The — Vol... (by Anonymous)
The Three Jovial Huntsmen : One of R. Ca... (by Caldecott, Randolph, 1846-1886)
Raggedy Andy Stories : Introducing the L... (by Johnny Gruelle)
Old Roly Bear Visits His Cousins (by Lowe, Samuel E.)
Stories for Little Children (by Doughty, Sarah Parsons)
Jack and the Beanstalk (by Floyd, Grace C.)
House that Jack Built, The (by Unknown)
Ozma of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Silas Marner, version 2 (by Eliot, George)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)
The Portrait of a Lady (by James, Henry)
Wuthering Heights (by Bronte, Emily)
Vanity Fair (by Thackeray, William Makepeace)
Madame Bovary (by Flaubert, Gustave)
The Diary of a Nobody (by Grossmith, George)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (abridg... (by Carroll, Lewis)
Animal Farm (by Orwell, George)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
The House of the Seven Gables (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
The Three Musketeers (by Roberts, John P., Iii)
Swann's Way (by Proust, Marcel)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

A Journey to the Center of the Earth (by Verne, Jules)
The Jungle Book (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Ivanhoe (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
The Count of Monte Cristo (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (A Visit... (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
The Call of the Wild (by London, Jack)
Pollyanna (by Porter, Eleanor H.)
Hymns in Prose for Children, By the Auth... (by Anna Laetitia Barbauld)
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (by Pyle, Howard)
Little Women (by Alcott, Louisa May)
King Arthur and His Knights (by Radford, Maude L.)
The Railway Children (by Nesbit, Edith)
The Tales of Peter Parley about America ... (by Goodrich, Samuel Griswold)
Call of the Wild, The (by London, Jack)
Tom Brown's School Days (by Hughes, Thomas)

Top books on Shakespeare

Othello (by Shakespeare, William)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
Othello (by Shakespeare, William)
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
Macbeth (by Shakespeare, William)
Tragedy of Macbeth, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Richard II (by Shakespeare, William)
Merchant of Venice (by William Shakespeare)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (by Shakespeare, William)
Much Ado About Nothing (by Shakespeare)
Coriolanus (by Shakespeare, William)
Troilus and Cressida (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tempest; A Comedy by William Shakesp... (by Shakespeare, William)
Shakespeare's King Richard Iii; (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

All the Places to Love : Preformed by Wa... (by Patricia MacLachlan)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)
Olivia...and the Missing Toy : Preformed... (by Ian Falconer)
More Pies : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Robert Munsch)
The Carrot Seed : Preformed by Wally Amo... (by Ruth Krauss)
The Very Greedy Bee : Preformed by Wally... (by Steve Smallman)
Stephanie's Ponytail : Preformed by Wall... (by Robert Munsch)
Clifford The Big Red Dog : Preformed by ... (by Norman Bridwell)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
The Lion and the Mouse : Preformed by Wa... (by Eric Carle)
Peter's Chair : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Ezra Jack Keats)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Calabash Cat : Preformed by Wally Amos (by James Rumford)
Hunches in Bunches : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)

Top 100 books on Hawaiiana

Ke Alo O Kona Mo'I (The Face of Her King... (by Robert Lono Ikuwa)
Pono E Loa'A Ke Kokua Ia'U (by Kealohi M. Reppun)
Ku'U Tutu (by Dawn Kahalaomapuana)
Kumu Kou (by Larry Kimura)
Aia I Hea (by Eve Furchgott)
He Wahi Mo'Olelo No Keauhou a Me Na Wahi... (by Kepa Maly)
Lei Pipipi (by Cathleen Piilani Mattoon)
Yankees in Paradise the New England Impa... (by Bradford Smith)
Ao Kiko
La'Ieikawai (by Dawn Kahalaomapuana)
Moolelo Hawaii O Kalapana: Ke Keiki Hoop... (by William H. Wilson)
Punia (by Lokahi Antonio)
Moloka'I: Where I Live (by Julie Stewart Williams)
Lili'Uokalani (by Ru Hasegawa Lowe)
He Mo'Olelo No 'Aukelenuia'Iku (by Abraham Fornander)

Top books on Poetry

In Memoriam (by Tennyson, Alfred Lord)
A Masque of Poets : Including Guy Vernon... (by Emily Dickinson)
The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunb... (by Paul Laurence Dunbar)
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shell... (by Percy Bysshe Shelley)
The Prelude Or, Growth of a Poets Mind (by Wordsworth, William)
Verses 1889-1896 (by Kipling, Rudyard)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (by Hughes, Langston)
Poems (by Owen, Wilfred)
Stray Birds (by Sir Rabindranath Tagore)
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 Raven (by Poe, Edgar Allan)
Leaves of Grass (by Whitman, Walt)
Collected Poems of John Keats : Volume 5... (by Keats, John)

Yiddish Book Center

Shrifen a Dray Mona Bukh : Volume 8
Yishaye
Di Geshikhte Fun Tsienizm : Vol. 1 Volume Vol. 1 (by Zineman, Jakub)
Ale Verk Mi Bilder, Fak’Similn, Gekliben... Volume Vol. 17 (by Peretz, Isaac Leib)
Der Kleyner Parizan (by Pantsh, Petro)
Inem Malkhes Fun Kakao (by Amado, Jorge)
Guṭ Yonṭev Ḳinder (by Indelman, Elchanan)
Ertsehlungen (by Hamsun, Knut)
Shafer Un Boyer Eseyen Vegn Shrayber Un ... (by Fudemberg, Nathan)
In Krig Mi Zikh Aleyn (by Shvartsbard, Shalom)
Harbsiker Fayer (by Schwartz, Shloime)
Oysgeveyle Verk : Volume 2 (by Lenin, Vladimir Ilich)
Di Milome in Midlvil (by Alkon, Jehoshua)
In Laymene Hayzer Roman : Vol. 1 Volume Vol. 1 (by Elberg, Yehudah)
A Tsung Dertseylung Far Eltere Kinder (by Orshanski, Ber)