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An Exhibit on Language

Words of the People

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

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

Graded Selections for Memorizing : Adapt... (by John Bradley Peaslee)
The Language and Thought of the Child
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
Elements of Style, The (by Strunk Jr, William)
Beowulf (by Unknown)
Lady Chatterley's Lover (by Lawrence, David Herbert)
The Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet (by Shakespeare, William)
Chambers's Etymological Dictionary of th... (by Findlater, Andrew)
Psychology and Pathology of Speech Devel... (by Conradi, Edward)
Brothers Karamazov, The (by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor)
Growth and Structure of the English Lang... (by Jespersen, Otto)
The Esperanto Teacher a Simple Course fo... (by Fryer, Helen)
Course in General Linguistics (by Saussure, Ferdinand)
The Tale of Genji (by Murasaki Shikibu)
An Intermediate Greek English Lexicon

Top 100 books on Education

The Sound and the Fury and as I Lay Dyin... (by William Faulkner)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
Adventures of Pinocchio, The (by Collodi, Carlo)
Ivanhoe NL (by Scott, Walter, Sir)
Christendom and Islam Their Contacts and... (by W. Wilson Cash)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
William Shakespeares King Henry Iv, Part... (by Shakespeare, William)
Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
Development of the Education of Wage-Ear... (by Hey, Spurley)
Moby Dick, or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
Washington Irving's the Legend of Sleepy... (by Irving, Washington)
Pragmatism (by William James)
The Sixteen Satires of Juvenal (by Juvénal)
Tarzan of the Apes (by Burroughs, Edgar Rice)
Of the Education of the Poor: Being the ... (by Society for Bettering the Conditions and Increasin...)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

King of Golden River (by Ruskin, John)
Original poems for infant minds, by A. a... (by Ann Taylor)
Stories for Little Children (by Doughty, Sarah Parsons)
King of the Golden River, The (by Ruskin, John)
Mother West Wind's Animal Friends (by Thornton Waldo Burgess)
The Tiny Picture Book
Aesop's Fables (by Aesop)
The Green Fairy Book (by Lang, Andrew, Ed)
Little Almond Blossoms : A Book of Chine... (by Knox, Jessie Juliet)
The original Mother Goose's melody (by Newbery, John)
Ozma of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
German Fairy Tales (by Andersen, Hans Christian)
Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper
Stories for Children. First Reader Grade (by Mrs. Charles A. Lane)
Anne of Green Gables (by Montgomery, Lucy Maud)

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

The Idiot (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
War and Peace (by Tolstoy, Leo)
Gulliver's Travels (by Swift, Jonathan)
The Man in the Iron Mask (by Maquet, Auguste, 1813-1888)
Moby Dick, or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
The Prisoner of Zenda : Being the Histor... (by Hope, Anthony, 1863-1933)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman ... (by Hardy, Thomas)
The Iliad (by Butler, Samuel)
Sense and Sensibility (by Austen, Jane)
Tanglewood tales, for girls and boys; be... (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
Heart of Darkness (by Conrad, Joseph)
Mayor of Casterbridge, The (version 2) (by Hardy, Thomas)
Far from the Madding Crowd (by Hardy, Thomas)
Utopia (by More, Thomas, Sir)
Lord Jim (by Conrad, Joseph)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Heidi (by Spyri, Johanna)
At the Back of the North Wind (by MacDonald, George)
The story of King Arthur and his knights (by Pyle, Howard)
Moonfleet (by Falkner, John Meade)
Peter and Wendy (by Barrie, J. M.)
A Christmas Carol (by Dickens, Charles)
The Tempest (by Shakespeare, William)
A Visit from St. Nicholas (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
Count of Monte Cristo, The (by Dumas, Alexandre)
Lost World, The (by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir)
Bambi Vald Mayele (by Salten, Felix)
Midsummer Night's Dream, A (by Shakespeare, William)
The Wide, Wide World (by Warner, Susan)
The Tale of Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)

Top books on Shakespeare

The Book of Love (by Wagstaff, Blanche Shoemaker)
Tragedy of Macbeth, The (by Shakespeare, William)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare)
Antony and Cleopatra (by Shakespeare, William)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
Measure For Measure (by Shakespeare, William)
Merchant of Venice, The (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
The Taming of the Shrew by William Shake... (by Shakespeare, William)
Timon of Athens (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It the Pennsylvania State Un... (by Shakespeare, William)
King Lear (version 2) (by Shakespeare, William)
King John (by Shakespeare, William)
King Richard Ii (by Shakespeare, William)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Loony Little: An Environmental Tale : Pr... (by Dianna Hutts Aston)
The Carrot Seed : Preformed by Wally Amo... (by Ruth Krauss)
The Greatest : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Kenny Rogers)
RRRALPH : Preformed by Wally Amos
Green Eggs and Ham : Preformed by Wally ... (by Dr. Seuss)
The Paper Bag Princess : Preformed by Wa... (by Robert Munsch)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ... (by Dr. Seuss)
The Lion and the Mouse : Preformed by Wa... (by Eric Carle)
I'm A Caterpillar : Preformed by Wally A... (by Jean Marzollo)
Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors : Pre... (by Norman Bridwell)
Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from ... (by Gerald McDermott)
Curious George and the Pizza : Preformed... (by Margret and H.A. Rey)
Clifford The Big Red Dog : Preformed by ... (by Norman Bridwell)

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)
Life in Hawaii : An Autobiographic Sketc... (by Coan, Titus)
Na Mele O Hawaii Nei: 101 Hawaiian Songs (by Samuel H. Elbert)
He Wahi Mooolelo No Batimea Puaaiki, No ... (by J. S. Gelina)
Annual Report of the Governor of Hawaii ... Volume Year 1959 (by Hawaii. Governor)
Oiwi Vol. 1 Volume 1 (by Lokahi Antonio)
He Moolelo No Kekahi Mau Koa Kaulana (A ... (by M. Goldberg)
Ka'Ehuikimanoopu'Uloa (by William Henery)
Pacific Island Bibliography (by Floyd M. Cammack)
Na Koko O Keia Keiki Hawai'I (by William H. Wilson)
Kahea Loko (by The Pacific American Foundation)
Hawaiian Dictionary (by Mary Kawena Pukui)
A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language (by Lorrin Andrews)
He Lumi Hou Ko Ka Hale (by William H. Wilson)