The disorders of speech.

  • Wyllie, John, 1914-
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The disorders of speech. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    nisable as roots. The formula given for these is Er, Err, rE, or rEr. In the inflectional type, either the chief roots or the sub- ordinates may undergo inflectional change so as to become irrecog- nisable as roots, except to the learned, who can trace out the history and affinities of the word ; and this inflectional change is, in the formula, denoted by attaching the letter x to the root changed. As either the chief root or the subordinates may undergo such in- flection, the formula is, Erx, Exr, Errx. Professor Mtiller (p. 372) is of opinion that every language can be classified as a member of one or other of these three great groups,—the Eadical, the Agglutinative, and the Inflectional. He thinks that the second of these was developed from the first, and the third from the second. At page 378, he says—As far as the formal part of the language is concerned, we can- not resist the conclusion that what is now inflectional was formerly agglutinative, and what is now agglutinative was at first radical. Analogy between the Species of Languages and the Species of Plants and Animals.—Darwin has made some very interesting remarks about the obvious parallelism that exists between the development of different languages and the development of different species of plants and animals. He says— The formation of different lan- guages and of different species, and the proofs that both have been developed through a gradual process, are curiously parallel. But we can trace the formation of many words further back than that of species, for we can perceive how they actually arose from the imitation of various sounds. We find in distinct languages, striking homologies due to community of descent, and analogies due to a similar process of formation. The manner in which certain letters or sounds change when others change, is very like correlated growth. We have in both cases the reduplication of parts, the effects of long- continued use, and so forth. The frequent presence of rudiments both in language and in species is still more remarkable. The letter m in the word am means I, so that, in the expression I am, a superfluous and useless rudiment has been retained. In the spell- ing, also, of words, letters often remain as the rudiments of ancient forms of pronunciation. Languages, like organic beings, can be classed in groups under groups; and they can be classed, either naturally, according to descent, or artificially by other characters.