On the importance of studying and preserving the languages spoken by uncivilised nations : with the view of elucidating the physical history of man.

  • Hodgkin, Dr.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the importance of studying and preserving the languages spoken by uncivilised nations : with the view of elucidating the physical history of man. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    B for V,—which I think he made reciprocally, so that he would have said ‘ Biridi certat vacca benafro,’—was connected with a deficiency in the perception of the sounds of these two letters. He could distinguish no difference between Bacca and Vacca. The substitution of V for W and W for V, which is so cha- racteristic of the vulgar London pronunciation, seems to be of precisely the same character. An individual who exhibited this peculiarity asserted that his ear could detect no difference between Weal and Veal, Winegar and Vinegar. Whether this insensibility be general amongst those who have acquired this vulgar London peculiarity I am not prepared to say, but I have known a similar insensibility to exist where another substitution of the same kind had taken place. In some parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire a striking error prevails in the use of the aspirate; we hear it employed where it should be suppressed, and it is suppressed where it should be em- ployed. Although this is done so systematically that it seems like the result of design and principle, yet, as I have just stated, I know that it may take place from a want of perception of the difference existing between the two sounds. I heard a gen- tleman from that district say that he could not distinguish as from has. I am unable to say how far changes of this kind are to be attributed to a defective appreciation of the sounds produced, but I believe there can be little doubt that such changes are rather to be attributed to a want of aptitude in the organ producing than in the organ perceiving the sound. A cause of this latter kind operates to prevent many persons from pronouncing the TH, to which, in consequence, they give the power of T or D. A similar difficulty occasions the L to be pronounced like R, as, for example, (i the Rong grories of majestic Rome,” for the Long glories, &c. Children, in learning to speak, often, transiently, exhibit difficulties of this kind, which they for the most part speedily surmount, unless the difficulty be very great, in which case it may become per- manent. The commutation of one letter for another, as is exhibited in the declinable parts of speech, in the composition of com- pound words, and also in the concurrence of words in a sen- tence, of which there are so many striking examples in the Greek language, are doubtless to be referred to some physi- cal cause which may sometimes be found in the greater facility of utteiance, and at others in the more agreeable sound con-i veyed to the ear. The manner of contraction from double vowels to diphthongs, and from long vowels to short, is to be lefened to a similar cause, as being rather dependent on a