THE CHILD AS LINGUIST.
But what am I?
An infant crying in the night:
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.--Tennyson.
Yet she carried a doll as she toddled alone,
And she talked to that doll in a tongue her own.--Joaquin Miller.
Among savages, children are, to a great extent, the originators
of idiomatic diversities.--Charles Rau.
It was as impossible for the first child endowed with this faculty not
to speak in the presence of a companion similarly endowed, as it would
be for a nightingale or a thrush not to carol to its mate. The same
faculty creates the same necessity in our days, and its exercise by
young children, when accidentally isolated from the teachings and
influence of grown companions, will readily account for the existence of
all the diversities of speech on our globe.--Horatio Hale.
Some scientists have held that mankind began with the _Homo
Alalus_, speechless, dumb man, an hypothesis now looked npon by the
best authorities as untenable; and the folk have imagined that, were not
certain procedures gone through with upon the new-born child, it would
remain dumb through life, and, if it were allowed to do certain things,
a like result would follow. Ploss informs us that the child, and the
mother, while she is still suckling it, must not, in Bohemia, eat fish,
else, since fish are mute, the child would be so also; in Servia, the
child is not permitted to eat any fowl that has not already crowed, or
it would remain dumb for a very long time; in Germany two little
children, not yet able to speak, must not kiss each other, or both will
be dumb.
_The Frenum._
Our English phrase, "an unbridled tongue," has an interesting history
and _entourage_ of folk-lore. The subject has been quite recently
discussed by Dr. Chervin, of the Institute for Stammerers at Paris
(205). Citing the lines of Boileau:--
"Tout charme en un enfant dont la langue sans fard,
A peine du filet encore debarrassee
Sait d'un air innocent begayer sa pensee,"
he notes the wide extension of the belief that the cutting of the
_filet,_ or _frein,_ the _frenum,_ or "bridle" of the
tongue of the newborn infant facilitates, or makes possible, articulate
speech. According to M. Sebillot, the cutting of the _sublet,_ as
it is called, is quite general in parts of Brittany (Haute Bretagne),
and M. Moisset states that in the Yonne it is the universal opinion that
neglect to do so would cause the new-born child to remain dumb for life;
M. Desaivre cites the belief in Poitou that, unless the _lignoux_
were cut in the child at birth, it would prevent its sucking, and, later
on, its speaking. The operation is usually performed by nurses and
midwives, with the nail of the little finger, which is allowed to grow
excessively long for the purpose (205. 6). Dr. Chervin discusses the
scientific aspects of the subject, and concludes that the statistics of
stammering and the custom of cutting the _frenum_ of the tongue do
not stand in any sort of correlation with each other, and that this
ancient custom, noted by Celsus, has no real scientific _raison
d'etre_ (205. 9). We say that a child is "tongue-tied," and that one
"makes too free with his tongue"; in French we find: _Il a le filet
bien coupe,_ "he is a great talker," and in the eighteenth century
_Il n'a pas de filet_ was in use; a curious German expression for
"tongue-tied" is _mundfaul,_ "mouth-lazy."
Following up the inquiry of Dr. Chervin in France, M. Hofler of Tolz has
begun a similar investigation for Germany (263). He approves of the
suggestion of Dr. Chervin, that the practice of cutting the
_frenum_ of the tongue has been induced by the inept name
_frenulwm, frein, Bändchen,_ given by anatomists to the object in
question. According to H. Carstens the _frenulum_ is called in Low
German _keekel-reem_ or _kikkel-reem,_ which seems to be
derived from _käkeln,_ "to cry, shriek," and _reem,_ "band,
cord," so that the word really signifies "speech-band." If it is cut in
children who have difficulty in speaking before the first year of life,
or soon after, they will be cured of stuttering and made to speak well.
To a man or woman who does a good deal of talking, who has "the gift of
the gab," the expression _Em (ehr) is de keekelreem gut snaden_ =
"His (her) _frenum_ has been well cut," is applied. In some parts
of Low Germany the operation is performed for quite a different reason,
viz., when the child's tongue cannot take hold of the mother's breast,
but always slips off. Hofler mentions the old custom of placing beneath
the child's tongue a piece of ash-bark (called _Schwindholz_), so
that the organ of speech may not vanish (schwinden); this is done in the
case of children who are hard of speech (263.191, 281).
Ploss states that in Konigsberg (Prussia) tickling the soles of the feet
of a little child is thought to occasion stuttering; in Italy the child
will learn to stutter, unless, after it has been weaned, it is given to
drink for the first time out of a hand-bell (326. II. 286).
Among the numerous practices in vogue to hasten the child's acquisition
of speech, or to make him ready and easy of tongue, are the following:
some one returned from the communion breathes into the child's mouth
(Austrian Silesia); the mother, when, after supper on Good Friday, she
suckles the child for the last time, breathes into its mouth (Bohemia);
the, child is given to drink water out of a cow-bell (Servia); when the
child, on the arm of its mother, pays the first visit to neighbours or
friends, it is presented with three eggs, which are pressed three times
to his mouth, with the words, "as the hens cackle, the child learns to
prattle" (Thuringia, the Erzgebirge, Bavaria, Franconia, and the Harz);
when a child is brought to be baptized, one of the relatives must make a
christening-letter (_Pathenbrief_), and, with the poem or the money
contained in it, draw three crosses through the mouth of the child
(Konigsberg) (326. II. 205).
_Speech-Exercises._
Ploss has a few words to say about "Volksgebrauchliche Sprach-
Exercitien," or "Zungen-Exercitien," the folk-efforts to teach the child
to overcome the difficulties of speech (326. II. 285, 286), and more
recently Treichel (373) has treated in detail of the various methods
employed in Prussia. In these exercises examples and difficult words are
given in several languages, alliteration, sibilation, and all quips and
turns of consonantal and vocalic expression, word-position, etc., are in
use to test the power of speech alike of child and adult. Treichel
observes that in the schools even, use is made of foreign geographical
names, names of mountains in Asia, New Zealand, and Aztec names in
Mexico; the plain of _Apapurinkasiquinilschiquasaqua_, from
Immermann's _Munchhausen_, is also cited as having been put to the
like use. The title of doctors' dissertations in chemistry are also
recommended (373. 124).
Following are examples of these test sentences and phrases from
German:--
(1) Acht und achtzig achteckige Hechtskopfe; (2) Bierbrauer Brauer braut
braun Bier; (3) De donue Diewel drog den dicke Diewel dorch den dicke
Dreek; (4) Esel essen Nosseln gern; (5) In Ulm imd um Ulm und urn Ulm
herum; (6) Wenige wissen, wie viel sie wissen mussen, um zu wissen, wie
wenig sie wissen; (7) Es sassen zwei zischende Schlangen zwischen zwei
spitzigen Steinen und zischten dazwischen; (8) Nage mal de Boll Boll
Boll Boll Boll Boll Boll Boll Boll; (9) Fritz, Fritz, friss frische
Fische, Fritz; (10) Kein klein Kind kann keinen kleinen Kessel Kohl
kochen.
There are alliterative sentences for all the letters of the alphabet,
and many others more or less alliterative, while the humorous papers
contain many exaggerated examples of this sort of thing. Of the last,
the following on "Hottentottentaten" will serve as an instance:--
"In dem wilden Land der Kaftern,
Wo die Hottentotten trachten
Holie Hottentottentitel
Zu erwerben in den Schlachten,
Wo die Hottentottentaktik
Lasst ertonen fern und nah
Auf dem Hottentottentamtam
Hottentottentattratah;
Wo die Hottentottentrotteln,
Eh' sie stampfen stark und kuhn.
Hottentottentatowirung
An sioh selber erst vollzieh'n,
Wo die Hottentotten tuten
Auf dem Horn voll Eleganz
Und nachher mit Grazie tanzen
Hottentottentotentanz,--
Dorten bin ich mal gewesen
Und iclh habe schwer gelitten,
Weil ich Hottentotten trotzte,
Unter Hottentottentritten;
So 'ne Hottentottentachtel,
Die ist nämlich fürchterlich
Und ich leid' noch heute
An dem Hottentottentatterich" (373. 222).
In our older English, and American readers and spelling-books we meet
with much of a like nature, and the use of these test-phrases and
sentences has not yet entirely departed from the schools. Familiar are:
"Up the high hill he heaved a huge round stone; around the rugged riven
rock the ragged rascal rapid ran; Peter Piper picked a peck of prickly
pears from the prickly-pear trees on the pleasant prairies," and many
others still in use traditionally among the school-children of to-day,
together with linguistic exercises of nonsense-syllables and the like,
pronouncing words backwards, etc.
In French we have: (1) L'origine ne se désoriginalisera jamais de son
originalité; (2) A la santé de celle, qui tient la sentinelle devant la
citadelle de votre coeur! (3) Car Didon dina, dit-on, Du dos d'un dodu
dindon.
In Polish: (1) Bydlo bylo, bydlo bedzie (It was cattle, it remains
cattle); (2) Podawala baba babie przez piec malowane grabie (A woman
handed the woman over the stove a painted rake); (3) Chrzaszcz brzmi w
trzinie (The beetle buzzes in the pipe). Latin and Greek are also made
use of for similar purpose. Treichel cites, among other passages, the
following: (1) Quamuis sint sub aqua, sub aqua maledicere tentant (Ovid,
_Metam._ VI. 376); (2) At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara dixit
(Virgil, _Aen._ IX. 503); (3) Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit
ungula campum (Virgil, _Aen._ VIII. 596); (4) [Greek: _Aytis
epeita pedonde kylindeto lâas anchidaês_] (Homer, Odyss. II. 598);
(5) [Greek: _Trichthà te kaì tétrachthà diéschesen ìs ánémoio_]
(Homer, Odyss. IX. 71, II. III. 363); (6) [Greek: _'O mákar 'Adreídae
moiraegenès ólbiodaímon_] (Homer, _Il._ III. 182). These customs
are not confined, however, to the civilized nations of Europe. Dr.
Pechuel-Loesche tells us that, among the negroes of the Loango coast of
Africa, the mother teaches the child little verses, just as illogical as
the test-sentences often are which are employed in other parts of the
world, and containing intentionally difficult arrangements of words. The
child whose skilful tongue can repeat these without stumbling, is shown
to visitors and is the cause of much admiration and merriment. And this
exhibition of the child's linguistic and mnemonic powers finds vogue
among other races than those of the dark continent (373. 125).
_Alphabet-Rhymes_.
A very curious development of child-linguistics is seen in the so-called
_ABC Rhymes_. H. A. Carstensen reports from Risummoor in Low
Germany the following arrangement and interpretation of the letters of
the alphabet (199. 55):--
A--Aewel B--baeget C(K)--Kaege
A--Abel B--bakes C(K)--cakes.
D--Detlef E--ët F--fåle.
D--Detlef E--eats F--much.
G--Grutte H--Hans J--jaeget K--Kraege.
G--Great H--Jack J--hunts K--crows.
L--Lotte M--maeget N--noerne.
L--Lütje M--makes N--names.
O--Okke P--plökket Q--Kuerde.
O--Okke P--makes Q--wool-cards.
R--Rikkert S--sâit T--tuffle.
R--Richard S--sews T--slippers
U--Uethet V--Volkert W--waeder?
U--Fetches V--Volkert W--water?
From the North Frisian islands of Silt and Föhr the following ABC rhymes
have been recorded, consisting mostly of personal names (199. 192):--
1. From Silt: _A_nna _B_oyken, _C_hristian _D_ojken,
_E_rkel _F_redden, _G_ondel _H_ansen, _J_ens
_K_uk, _L_orenz _M_ommen, _N_iels _O_tten,
_P_eter _Q_uotten, _R_ink _S_wennen, _T_heide
_U_wen, _V_olkert, _W_ilhelm, exerzére.
2. From Föhr: _A_rest _B_uhn, _C_ike _D_uhn,
_E_hlen _F_rödden, _G_irre _H_ayen, _I_ngke
_K_ayen, _L_urenz _M_unje, _N_ahmen _O_tt,
_P_eter _Q_uott, _R_ekkert _s_kär, _T_rintje
_u_m, qui _w_eg, _x, y, z_.
3. From Föhr: _A_ntje _b_rawt; _C_isele _d_rug;
_E_hlen _f_ald; _G_öntje _h_olp; _I_ngke
_k_näd; _L_ena _m_äd; _N_ahmen _O_kken;
_P_eter _Q_uast;
_R_örd _R_ütjer; _S_ab _S_ütjer; _S_onk
_S_tein; _T_hur _O_rdert; _W_ögen _w_uhlet;
_Y_ng _Z_uhlet.
From Ditmarschen we have the following (199. 290):--
1. From Süderstapel in Stapelholm: _A-B_eeter, _C-D_eeter,
_E-_E_f_ter, _G-H_ater, _I-K_ater,
_L-_E_m_der, _N-O_ter, _P_eter Rüster sien Swester
harr Büxsen von Manchester, harr'n Kleed vun Kattun, weer Köfft bi Jud'n
(Peter Rüster his sister has breeches from Manchester, has a dress of
cotton, who buys of Jews).
2. From Tönningstedt and Feddringen: _A-B_eeter, _C-D_eeter,
_E-E_fter, _G-H_ater, _J-K_ater, _L-_E_m_der,
_N-O_ter, _P-_K_u_ter, _L-_E_s_ter,
_T-U_ter, _V-W_eeter, _X-Z_eeter.
In Polish we have a rather curious rhyme (199. 260): _A_dam
_B_abkie _C_ukier _D_al, _E_wa _F_igi
_G_ryzla; _H_anko, _J_eko, _K_arol _L_erch
_N_osi _O_rla _P_apa _R_uskigo (Adam to the old
woman sugar gave, Eve figs nibbled; Hanko, Jeko, Karol, and Lerch carry
the eagle of the Ruthenian priest). Another variant runs: _A_dam
_B_abi _C_ucker _d_aje _E_wa _f_igi
_g_rizi _H_ala, _i_dzie _K_upic' _l_ala
_m_ama _n_ie _p_ozwala (199. 150).
At Elberfeld, according to O. Schell, the following rhyme was in use
about the middle of this century (199. 42): _A_braham
_B_öckmann; _C_epter _D_ickmann; _E_ngel
_F_uawenkel; _G_retchen _H_ahn; _I_saak
_K_reier; _L_ottchen _M_eyer; _N_ikolas _O_lk;
_P_itter _Q_uack; _R_udolf _S_imon; _T_ante
_U_hler; _V_ater _W_ettschreck; _X_erxes
_Y_ork.
From Leipzig, L. Fränkel reports the following as given off in a singing
tone with falling rhythm:--
B a ba, b e be, b i bi--babebi; b o bo, b u bu--bobu; ba, be, bi, bo,
bu--babebibobu. C a ca (pron. _za,_ not _ka_), c e ce, c i ci
--caceci; c o co, c u cu--cocu; ca, ce, ci, co, cu-cacecicocu, etc.
From various parts of Ditmarschen come these rhymes:--
A-B ab, | A-B ab,
Mus sitt in't Schapp, | Mouse sits in the cupboard,
Kater darfår, | Cat in frount,
Mak apen de Dår. | Open the door.
These child-rhymes and formulae from North Germany find their cognates
in our own nursery-rhymes and explanatory letter-lists, which take us
back to the very beginnings of alphabetic writing. An example is the
familiar:--
"A was an Archer that shot at a frog,
B was a Butcher that had a big dog," etc., etc.
_Letter-Formulæ._
Here belong also the curious formulæ known all over the United States
and English-speaking Canada, to which attention has recently been called
by Professor Frederick Starr. When the word _Preface_ is seen,
children repeat the words, "_P_eter _R_ice _E_ats
_F_ish _a_nd _C_atches _E_els," or backwards,
"_E_els _C_atch _A_lligators; _F_ather _E_ats
_R_aw _P_otatoes." Professor Starr says that the second
formula is not quite so common as the first; the writer's experience in
Canada leads him to express just the opposite opinion. Professor Starr
gives also formulæ for _Contents_ and _Finis_ as follows:
"_F_ive _I_rish _N_iggers _I_n _S_pain,"
backwards "_S_ix _I_rish _N_iggers _I_n
_F_rance"; "_C_hildren _O_ught _N_ot _T_o
_E_at _N_uts _T_ill _S_unday" (355. 55). Formulæ
like these appear to be widespread among school-children, who extract a
good deal of satisfaction from the magic meaning of these quaint
expressions.
Another series of formulæ, not referred to by Professor Starr, is that
concerned with the interpretation of the numerous abbreviations and
initials found in the spelling-book and dictionary. In the manufacture
of these much childish wit and ingenuity are often expended. In the
writer's schoolboy days there was quite a series of such expansions of
the letters which stood for the various secret and benevolent societies
of the country. _I. O. G. T._ (Independent Order of Good Templars),
for example, was made into "I Often Get Tight (_i.e._ drunk),"
which was considered quite a triumph of juvenile interpretative skill.
Another effort was in the way of explaining the college degrees:
_B.A._ = "Big Ape," _M.A._ = "Matured Ape," _B.D._ =
"Bull-Dog," _LL.D._ = "Long-Legged Devil," etc. Still another class
is represented by the interpretations of the German _u. A. w. g._
(our R. S. V. P.), _i.e._ "um Antwort wird gebeten" (an answer is
requested), for which A. Treichel records the following renderings: um
Ausdauer wird gebeten (perseverance requested); und Abends wird getanzt
(and in the evening there is dancing); und Abends wird gegeigt (and in
the evening there is fiddling); und Abends wird gegessen (and in the
evening there is eating); und Andere werden gelästert (and others are
abused) (392. V. 114). This side of the linguistic inventiveness of
childhood, with its _double-entendre_, its puns, its
folk-etymologies, its keen discernment of hidden resemblances and
analogies, deserves more study than it has apparently received.
The formulae and expressions belonging to such games as marbles are
worthy of consideration, for here the child is given an opportunity to
invent new words and phrases or to modify and disfigure old ones.
_Formulae of Defiance, etc._
The formulae of defiance, insult, teasing, etc., rhymed and in prose,
offer much of interest. Peculiarities of physical constitution, mental
traits, social relationships, and the like, give play to childish fancy
and invention. It would be a long list which should include all the
material corresponding to such as the following, well known among
English-speaking school-children:--
1. Georgie Porgie, Puddin' Pie,
Kissed a girl and made her cry!
2. Blue-eyed beauty,
Do your mother's duty!
3. Black eye, pick a pie,
Turn around and tell a lie!
4. Nigger, nigger, never-die,
Black face and shiny eye!
Interesting is the following scale of challenging, which Professor J. P.
Fruit reports from Kentucky (430. 229):--
"I dare you; I dog dare you; I double dog dare you.
I dare you; I black dog dare you; I double black dog dare you."
The language of the school-yard and street, in respect to challenges,
fights, and contests of all sorts, has an atmosphere of its own, through
which sometimes the most clear-sighted older heads find it difficult to
penetrate.
The American Dialect Society is doing good work in hunting out and
interpreting many of these contributions of childhood to the great
mosaic of human speech, and it is to be hoped that in this effort they
will have the co-operation of all the teachers of the country, for this
branch of childish activity will bear careful and thorough
investigation.
_Plant-Names._
In the names of some of the plants with which they early come into
contact we meet with examples of the ingenuity of children. In Mrs.
Bergen's (400) list of popular American plant-names are included some
which come from this source, for example: "frog-plant (_Sedum
Telephium_)," from the children's custom of "blowing up a leaf so as
to make the epidermis puff up like a frog"; "drunkards (_Gaulteria
procumbens_)," because "believed by children to intoxicate";
"bread-and-butter (_Smilax rotundifolia_)," because "the young
leaves are eaten by children"; "velvets (_Viola pedata_)," a
corruption of the "velvet violets" of their elders; "splinter-weed
(_Antennaria plantaginifolia_)," from "the appearance of the
heads"; "ducks (_Cypripedium_)," because "when the flower is partly
filled with sand and set afloat on water, it looks like a duck";
"pearl-grass (_Glyceria Canadensis_)," a name given at Waverley,
Massachusetts, "by a few children, some years ago." This list might
easily be extended, but sufficient examples have been given to indicate
the extent to which the child's mind has been at work in this field.
Moreover, many of the names now used by the older members of the
community, may have been coined originally by children and then adopted
by the others, and the same origin must probably be sought out for not a
few of the folk-etymologies and word-distortions which have so puzzled
the philologists.
"_Physonyms_."
In an interesting paper on "physonyms,"--_i.e._ "words to which
their signification is imparted by certain physiological processes,
common to the race everywhere, and leading to the creation of the same
signs with the same meaning in totally sundered linguistic
stocks"--occurs the following passage (193. cxxxiii.):--
"One of the best known and simplest examples is that of the widespread
designation of 'mother' by such words as _mama_, _nana_,
_ana_; and of 'father' by such as _papa_, _baba_,
_tata_. Its true explanation has been found to be that, in the
infant's first attempt to utter articulate sounds, the consonants
_m_, _p_, and _t_ decidedly preponderate; and the natural
vowel _a_, associated with these, yields the child's first
syllables. It repeats such sounds as _ma-ma-ma_ or _pa-pa-pa_,
without attaching any meaning to them; the parents apply these sounds to
themselves, and thus impart to them their signification."
Other physonyms are words of direction and indication of which the
radical is _k_ or _g_; the personal pronouns radical in
_n_, _m_ (first person), _k, t, d_ (second person); and
demonstratives and locatives whose radical is _s_. The frequency of
these sounds in the language of children is pointed out also by Tracy in
his monograph on the psychology of childhood. In the formation and
fixation of the onomatopes with which many languages abound some share
must be allotted to the child. A recent praiseworthy study of onomatopes
in the Japanese language has been made by Mr. Aston, who defines an
onomatope as "the artistic representation of an inarticulate sound or
noise by means of an articulate sound" (394. 333). The author is of
opinion that from the analogy of the lower animals the inference is to
be drawn that "mankind occupied themselves for a long time with their
own natural cries before taking the trouble to imitate for purposes of
expression sounds not of their own making" (394. 334). The latter
process was gradual and extended over centuries. For the child or the
"child-man" to imitate the cry of the cock so successfully was an
inspiration; Mr. Aston tells us that "the formation of a word like
_cock-a-doodle-do_, is as much a work of individual genius as
Hamlet or the Laocoön" (394. 335). Of certain modern aspects of
onomatopia the author observes: "There is a kindred art, viz. that of
the _exact_ imitation of animal cries and other sounds,
successfully practised by some of our undergraduates and other young
people, as well as by tame ravens and parrots. It probably played some
part in the development of language, but I can only mention it here"
(394. 333).
_College Yells._
The "college yells" of the United States and Canada offer an inviting
field for study in linguistic atavism and barbaric vocal expression. The
_New York World Almanac_ for 1895 contains a list of the "yells" of
some three hundred colleges and universities in the United States. Out
of this great number, in which there is a plenitude of "Rah! rah! rah!"
the following are especially noteworthy:--
_Benzonia:_ Kala, kala, kala! Sst, Boom, Gah! Benzo, Benzon-iah!
Whooo!
_Buchtel:_ Ye-ho! Ye-hesa! Hisa! Wow wow! Buchtel!
_Dartmouth:_ Wah, who, wah! wah who wah! da-da-da, Dartmouth! wah
who wah! T-i-g-e-r!
_Heidelberg:_ Killi-killick! Rah, rah, Zik, zik! Ha! Ha! Yi! Hoo!
Baru! Zoo! Heidelberg!
The "yell" of _Ohio Wesleyan University_, "O-wee-wi-wow!
Ala-ka-zu-ki-zow! Ra-zi-zi-zow! Viva! Viva! O. W. U.!" is enough to make
the good man for whom the institution is named turn uneasily in his
grave. The palm must, however, be awarded to the _University of North
Dakota_, whose remarkable "yell" is this: "Odz-dzo-dzi! Ri-ri-ri!
Hy-ah! Hy-ah! North Dakota! and Sioux War-Cry." Hardly have the
ancestors of Sitting Bull and his people suspected the immortality that
awaited their ancient slogan. It is curious that the only "yell" set to
proper music is that of the girls of _Wellesley College_, who sing
their cheer, "Tra la la la, Tra la la la, Tra la la la la la la,
W-E-L-L-E-S-L-E-Y, Welles-ley."
As is the case with other practices in collegiate life, these "yells"
seem to be making their way down into the high and grammar schools, as
well as into the private secondary schools, the popularity and
excitement of field-sports and games, baseball, foot-ball, etc., giving
occasion enough for their frequent employment.
Here fall also the spontaneous shouts and cries of children at work and
at play, the _Ki-yah!_ and others of a like nature whose number is
almost infinite.
Mr. Charles Ledyard Norton, in his _Political Americanisms_ (New
York, 1890), informs us that "the peculiar staccato cheer, 'rah, rah,
rah!'" was probably invented at Harvard in 1864. In the Blaine campaign
of 1884 it was introduced into political meetings and processions
together with "the custom, also borrowed from the colleges, of spelling
some temporarily significant catch-word in unison, as, for instance,
'S-o-a-p!' the separate letters being pronounced in perfect time by
several hundred voices at once." The same authority thinks that the idea
of calling out "Blaine--Blaine--James G. Blaine!" in cadenced measure
after the manner of the drill-sergeants,
"Left--left--left--right--left!" an idea which had many imitations and
elaborations among the members of both the great political parties, can
be traced back to the Columbia College students (p. 120).
_The Child as an Innovator in Language._
But the role of the child in the development of language is concerned
with other things than physonyms and onomatopes. In his work on
Brazilian ethnography and philology, Dr. von Martius writes (522. 43):
"A language is often confined to a few individuals connected by
relationship, forming thus, as it were, _a family institute_, which
isolates those who use it from all neighbouring or distant tribes so
completely that an understanding becomes impossible." This intimate
connection of language with the family, this preservation and growth of
language, as a family institution, has, as Dr. von Martius points out,
an interesting result (522. 44):--
"The Brazilians frequently live in small detachments, being kept apart
by the chase; sometimes only a few families wander together; often it is
one family alone. Within the family the language suffers a constant
remodelling. One of the children will fail to catch precisely the
radical sound of a word; and the weak parents, instead of accustoming it
to pronounce the word correctly, will yield, perhaps, themselves, and
adopt the language of the child. We often were accompanied by persons of
the same band; yet we noticed in each of them slight differences in
accentuation and change of sound. His comrades, however, understood him,
and they were understood by him. As a consequence, their language never
can become stationary, but will constantly break off into new dialects."
Upon these words of von Martius (reported by Dr. Oscar Peschel), Dr.
Charles Rau comments as follows (522. 44): "Thus it would seem that,
among savages, _children_ are to a great extent the originators of
idiomatic diversities. Dr. Peschel places particular stress on this
circumstance, and alludes to the habit of over-indulgent parents among
refined nations of conforming to the humours of their children by
conversing with them in a kind of infantine language, until they are
several years old. Afterward, of course, the rules of civilized life
compel these children to adopt the proper language; but no such
necessity exists among a hunter family in the primeval forests of South
America; here the deviating form of speech remains, and the foundation
of a new dialect is laid."
_Children's Languages._
But little attention has been paid to the study of the language of
children among primitive people. In connection with a brief
investigation of child-words in the aboriginal tongues of America, Mr.
Horatio Hale communicated to the present writer the following
observation of M. l'Abbé Cuoq, of Montreal, the distinguished missionary
and linguist: "As far as the Iroquois in particular are concerned, it is
certain that this language [langage enfantin] is current in every
family, and that the child's relatives, especially the mothers, teach it
to their children, and that the latter consequently merely repeat the
words of which it is composed" (201. 322). That these "child-words" were
invented by children, the Abbé does not seem to hint.
The prominence of the mother-influence in the child's linguistic
development is also accentuated by Professor Mason, who devotes a
chapter of his recent work on woman's part in the origin and growth of
civilization to woman as a linguist. The author points out how "women
have helped to the selection and preservation of language through
onomatopoeia," their vocal apparatus being "singularly adapted to the
imitation of many natural sounds," and their ears "quick to catch the
sounds within the compass of the voice" (113. 188-204). To the female
child, then, we owe a good deal of that which is now embodied in our
modern speech, and the debt of primitive races is still greater. Many a
traveller has found, indeed, a child the best available source of
linguistic information, when the idling warriors in their pride, and the
hard-working women in their shyness, or taboo-caused fear, failed to
respond at all to his requests for talk or song.
Canon Farrar, in his _Chapters on Language_, makes the statement:
"It is a well-known fact that the neglected children, in some of the
Canadian and Indian villages, who are left alone for days, can and do
invent for themselves a sort of _lingua franca_, partially or
wholly unintelligible to all except themselves" (200. 237). Mr. W. W.
Newell speaks of the linguistic inventiveness of children in these terms
(313. 24):--
"As infancy begins to speak by the free though unconscious combination
of linguistic elements, so childhood retains in language a measure of
freedom. A little attention to the jargons invented by children might
have been serviceable to certain philologists. Their love of originality
finds the tongue of their elders too commonplace; besides, their
fondness for mystery requires secret ways of communication. They,
therefore, often create (so to speak) new languages, which are formed by
changes in the mother-speech, but sometimes have quite complicated laws
of structure and a considerable arbitrary element." The author cites
examples of the "Hog Latin" of New England schoolchildren, in the
elaboration of which much youthful ingenuity is expended. Most
interesting is the brief account of the "cat" language:--
"A group of children near Boston invented the _cat language_, so
called because its object was to admit of free intercourse with cats, to
whom it was mostly talked, and by whom it was presumed to be
comprehended. In this tongue the cat was naturally the chief subject of
nomenclature; all feline positions were observed and named, and the
language was rich in such epithets, as Arabic contains a vast number of
expressions for _lion_. Euphonic changes were very arbitrary and
various, differing for the same termination; but the adverbial ending
_-ly_ was always _-osh; terribly, terriblosh_. A certain
percentage of words were absolutely independent, or at least of obscure
origin. The grammar tended to Chinese or infantine simplicity; _ta_
represented any case of any personal pronoun. A proper name might vary
in sound according to the euphonic requirements of the different
Christian names by which it was preceded. There were two dialects, one,
however, stigmatized as _provincial_. This invention of language
must be very common, since other cases have fallen under our notice in
which children have composed dictionaries of such" (313. 25).
This characterization of child-speech offers not a few points of contact
with primitive languages, and might indeed almost have been written of
one of them.
More recently Colonel Higginson (262) has given some details of "a
language formed for their own amusement by two girls of thirteen or
thereabouts, both the children of eminent scientific men, and both
unusually active-minded and observant." This dialect "is in the most
vivid sense a living language," and the inventors, who keep pruning and
improving it, possess a manuscript dictionary of some two hundred words,
which, it is to be hoped, will some day be published. An example or two
from those given by Colonel Higginson will serve to indicate the general
character of the vocabulary:--
_bojiwassis_, "the feeling you have just before you jump, don't you
know--when you mean to jump and want to do it, and are just a little bit
afraid to do it."
_spygri_, "the way you feel when you have just jumped and are
awfully proud of it."
_pippadolify_, "stiff and starched like the young officers at
Washington."
Other information respecting this "home-made dialect," with its revising
academy of children and its standard dictionary, must be sought in the
entertaining pages of Colonel Higginson, who justly says of this triumph
of child-invention: "It coins thought into syllables, and one can see
that, if a group of children like these were taken and isolated until
they grew up, they would forget in time which words were their own and
which were in Worcester's Dictionary; and _stowish_ and
_krono_ and _bojiwassis_ would gradually become permanent
forms of speech" (262. 108).
In his valuable essay on _The Origin of Languages_ (249), Mr.
Horatio Hale discusses a number of cases of invention of languages by
children, giving interesting, though (owing to the neglect of the
observers) not very extensive, details of each.
One of the most curious instances of the linguistic inventiveness of
children is the case of the Boston twins (of German descent on the
mother's side) born in 1860, regarding whose language a few details were
given by Miss E. H. Watson, who says: "At the usual age these twins
began to talk, but, strange to say, _not_ their 'mother-tongue.'
They had a language of their own, and no pains could induce them to
speak anything else. It was in vain that a little sister, five years
older than they, tried to make them speak their _native
language_,--as it would have been. They persistently refused to utter
a syllable of English. Not even the usual first words, 'papa,' 'mamma,'
'father,' 'mother,' it is said, did they ever speak; and, said the lady
who gave this information to the writer,--who was an aunt of the
children, and whose home was with them,--they were never known during
this interval to call their mother by that name. They had their own name
for her, but never the English. In fact, though they had the usual
affections, were rejoiced to see their father at his returning home each
night, playing with him, etc., they would seem to have been otherwise
completely taken up, absorbed, with each other.... The children had not
yet been to school; for, not being able to speak their 'own English,' it
seemed impossible to send them from home. They thus passed the days,
playing and talking together in their own speech, with all the
liveliness and volubility of common children. Their accent was
_German_,--as it seemed to the family. They had regular words, a
few of which the family learned sometimes to distinguish; as that, for
example, for carriage [_ni-si-boo-a_], which, on hearing one pass
in the street, they would exclaim out, and run to the window" (249. 11).
We are further informed that, when the children were six or seven years
old, they were sent to school, but for a week remained "perfectly mute";
indeed, "not a sound could be heard from them, but they sat with their
eyes intently fixed upon the children, seeming to be watching their
every motion,--and no doubt, listening to every sound. At the end of
that time they were induced to utter some words, and gradually and
naturally they began, for the first time, to learn their 'native
English.' With this accomplishment, the other began also naturally to
fade away, until the memory with the use of it passed from their mind"
(249. 12).
Mr. Horatio Hale, who resumes the case just noticed in his address
before the Anthropological Section of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (Buffalo, 1886), gives also valuable details of
the language of a little four-year-old girl and her younger brother in
Albany, as reported by Dr. E. R. Hun (249. 13). The chief facts are as
follows: "The mother observed when she was two years old that she was
backward in speaking, and only used the words 'papa' and 'mamma.' After
that she began to use words of her own invention, and though she readily
understood what was said, never employed the words used by others.
Gradually she extended her vocabulary until it reached the extent
described below [at least twenty-one distinct words, many of which were
used in a great variety of meanings]. She has a brother eighteen months
younger than herself, who has learned her language, so that they talk
freely together. He, however, seems to have adopted it only because he
has more intercourse with her than with others; and in some instances he
will use a proper word with his mother, and his sister's word with her.
She, however, persists in using only her own words, though her parents,
who are uneasy about her peculiarity of speech, make great efforts to
induce her to use proper words."
More may be read concerning this language in the account of Dr. Hun
(published in 1868).
Mr. Hale mentions three other cases, information regarding which came to
him. The inventors in the first instance were a boy between four and
five years old, said to have been "unusually backward in his speech,"
and a girl a little younger, the children of a widower and a widow
respectively, who married; and, according to the report of an intimate
friend: "He and the little girl soon became inseparable playmates, and
formed a language of their own, which was unintelligible to their
parents and friends. They had names of their own invention for all the
objects about them, and must have had a corresponding supply of verbs
and other parts of speech, as their talk was fluent and incessant." This
was in Kingston, Ontario, Canada (249. 16).
The second case is that of two young children, twins, a boy and a girl:
"When they were three or four years old they were accustomed, as their
elder sister informs me, to talk together in a language which no one
else understood.... The twins were wont to climb into their father's
carriage in the stable, and 'chatter away,' as my informant says, for
hours in this strange language. Their sister remembers that it sounded
as though the words were quite short. But the single word which survives
in the family recollection is a dissyllable, the word for milk, which
was _cully_. The little girl accompanied her speech with gestures,
but the boy did not. As they grew older, they gradually gave up their
peculiar speech" (249. 17).
The third case cited by Mr. Hale is that of two little boys of Toronto,
Canada,--five or six years of age, one being about a year older than the
other, who attended a school in that city: "These children were left
much to themselves, and had a language of their own, in which they
always conversed. The other children in the school used to listen to
them as they chattered together, and laugh heartily at the strange
speech of which they could not understand a word. The boys spoke English
with difficulty, and very imperfectly, like persons struggling to
express their ideas in a foreign tongue. In speaking it, they had to eke
out their words with many gestures and signs to make themselves
understood; but in talking together in their own language, they used no
gestures and spoke very fluently. She remembers that the words which
they used seemed quite short" (249. 18).
Mr. Hale's studies of these comparatively uninvestigated forms of human
speech led him into the wider field of comparative philology and
linguistic origins. From the consideration of these data, the
distinguished ethnologist came to regard the child as a factor of the
utmost importance in the development of dialects and families of speech,
and to put forward in definite terms a theory of the origin and growth
of linguistic diversity and dialectic profusion, to the idea of which he
was led by his studies of the multitude of languages within the
comparatively restricted area of Oregon and California (249. 9).
Starting with the language-faculty instinct in the child, says Mr. Hale:
"It was as impossible for the first child endowed with this faculty not
to speak in the presence of a companion similarly endowed, as it would
be for a nightingale or a thrush not to carol to its mate. The same
faculty creates the same necessity in our days, and its exercise by
young children, when accidentally isolated from the teachings and
influence of grown companions, will readily account for the existence of
all the diversities of speech on our globe" (249. 47). Approaching, in
another essay, one of the most difficult problems in comparative
philology, he observes: "There is, therefore, nothing improbable in the
supposition that the first Aryan family--the orphan children, perhaps,
of some Semitic or Accadian fugitives from Arabia or Mesopotamia--grew
up and framed their new language on the southeastern seaboard of
Persia." Thus, he thinks, is the Aryo-Semitic problem most
satisfactorily solved (467. 675). In a second paper (250) on _The
Development of Language_, Mr. Hale restates and elaborates his theory
with a wealth of illustration and argument, and it has since won
considerable support from the scientists of both hemispheres.
Professor Romanes devotes not a few pages of his volume on _Mental
Evolution in Man_, to the presentation of Mr. Hale's theory and of
the facts upon which it is based (338. 138-144).
_Secret Languages._
That the use of secret languages and the invention of them by children
is widespread and prevalent at home, at school, in the playground, in
the street, is evident from the exhaustive series of articles in which
Dr. F. S. Krauss (281) of Vienna has treated of "Secret Languages." Out
of some two hundred forms and fashions there cited a very large
proportion indeed belong to the period of childhood and youth and the
scenes of boyish and girlish activity. We have languages for games, for
secret societies, for best friends, for school-fellows, for country and
town, for boys and girls, etc. Dr. Oscar Chrisman (206) has quite
recently undertaken to investigate the nature and extent of use of these
secret languages in America, with gratifying results. A study of the
child at the period in which the language-making instinct is most active
cannot be without interest to pedagogy, and it would not be without
value to inquire what has been the result of the universal neglect of
language-teaching in the primary and lower grade grammar
schools--whether the profusion of secret languages runs parallel with
this diversion of the child-mind from one of its most healthful and
requisite employments, or whether it has not to some extent atrophied
the linguistic sense.
The far-reaching ramifications of "secret languages" are evidenced by
the fact that a language called "Tut" by school-children of Gonzales,
Texas, is almost identical in its alphabet with the "Guitar Language,"
of Bonyhad, in Hungary, the "Bob Language," of Czernowitz, in Austria,
and another language of the same sort from Berg. The travels of the
Texas secret language are stated by Dr. Chrisman to be as follows: "This
young lady ... learned it from her mother's servant, a negro girl; this
girl learned it from a negro girl who got it at a female negro school at
Austin, Texas, where it was brought by a negro girl from Galveston,
Texas, who learned it from a negro girl who had come from Jamaica" (208.
305).
Evidence is accumulating to show that these secret languages of children
exist in all parts of the world, and it would be a useful and
instructive labour were some one to collect all available material and
compose an exhaustive scientific monograph on the subject.
Interesting, for comparative purposes, are the secret languages and
jargons of adults. As Paul Sartori (528) has recently shown, the use of
special or secret languages by various individuals and classes in the
communities is widespread both in myth and reality. We find peculiar
dialects spoken by, or used in addressing, deities and evil spirits;
giants, monsters; dwarfs, elves, fairies; ghosts, spirits; witches,
wizards, "medicine men"; animals, birds, trees, inanimate objects. We
meet also with special dialects of secret societies (both of men and of
women); sacerdotal and priestly tongues; special dialects of princes,
nobles, courts; women's languages, etc.; besides a multitude of jargons,
dialects, languages of trades and professions, of peasants, shepherds,
soldiers, merchants, hunters, and the divers slangs and jargons of the
vagabonds, tramps, thieves, and other outcast or criminal classes.
Far-reaching indeed is the field opened by the consideration of but a
single aspect of child-speech, that doll-language which Joaquin Miller
so aptly notes:--
"Yet she carried a doll, as she toddled alone,
And she talked to that doll in a tongue her own."
_Diminutives._
Both the golden age of childhood and the golden age of love exercise a
remarkable influence upon language. Mantegazza, discussing "the desire
to merge oneself into another, to abase oneself, to aggrandize the
beloved," etc., observes: "We see it in the use of diminutives which
lovers and sometimes friends use towards each other, and which mothers
use to their children; we lessen ourselves thus in a delicate and
generous manner in order that we may be embraced and absorbed in the
circle of the creature we love. Nothing is more easily possessed than a
small object, and before the one we love we would change ourselves into
a bird, a canary--into any minute thing that we might be held utterly in
the hands, that we might feel ourselves pressed on all sides by the warm
and loving fingers. There is also another secret reason for the use of
diminutives. Little creatures are loved tenderly, and tenderness is the
supreme sign of every great force which is dissolved and consumes
itself. After the wild, passionate, impetuous embrace there is always
the tender note, and then diminutives, whether they belong to expression
or to language, always play a great part" (499. 137). The fondness of
boys for calling each other by the diminutives of their surnames belongs
here.
In some languages, such as the Nipissing dialect of Algonkian in North
America, the Modern Greek or Romaic, Lowland Scotch, and Plattdeutsch,
the very frequent employment of diminutives has come to be a marked
characteristic of the common speech of the people. The love for
diminutives has, in some cases, led to a charm of expression in language
which is most attractive; this is seen perhaps at its best in Castilian,
and some of the Italian dialects (202 and 219). A careful study of the
influence of the child upon the forms of language has yet to be made.