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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
upon the working of coal-mines . * The words of a language , which indicate things , excite the ideas as to what purposes those things were used , for and go through the whole range of
circumstances which influence human character — climate ., locality , government , and all their results . If people wear garments of cotton or silk , as national materials , it is an evidence of a mild climate ; if they wear garments of wool , it is an evidence of a cold one . From the similarity of many words , in most languages , it seems highly probable , that all languages had one common
origin , and by tracing each one upwards , something like a result might probably be attained , with certainty in written language , and with much satisfactory collateral evidence , in oral language . Let us imagine the case of two tribes of wild men placed in separate portions of a fine country , with the same animals , the same natural productions , the same scenery ; and , in short , with all
surrounding physical objects of a similar class , in each locality . Let us suppose each tribe to commence without a language , and gradually to form one as they advanced in life , each tribe without the knowledge of its neighbour ' s existence . Is it not probable , that the words they would invent would be nearly alike in both cases , as well as the construction of the language ? It is more
than probable ! Throughout Europe the infantine language for mother is ' Mamma . ' At the time of the discovery of Peru , the natives there used the same word for the same thing * In fact , it is the earliest sound an infant uses , and the simplest , the different inflections of it serving to express either pain or pleasure . The names given to natural , sounds usually resemble the sounds
* Few persons would suppose that the following words were all cognates ; yet they would seem so . Pen , a fold or enclosure . Pound , for cattle . Pen , a quill . Pen , a rocky headland . Paen , a trennel or tree-na . \\ t i . e . a wooden nail . Penna , the Latin word for wing . Pent-houte . Vane , a weathercock . Fan , a lady ' s toy . Pane of glass . Fane , a temple . Pin , for clothes . Penetrate . Penetralia . The whole of these words , and many others from the same root have reference to
penning up or enclosing . Pen , a fold , is an enclosure . Pound is an enclosure . Pen , a quill , is equivalent to the Latin word penna , a wing , which pens up or encloses a portion of atmospheric air , during the ( li ght of a bird . Pen , a rocky headland , encloses a portion of water like a wall or fence . Pentl&nd , means land pent up by water . Paen , a trennel or / ree-nailfor a ship , is used to pin or pen u p the planks , i . e . enclose . In the olden time , the word tree was used to express wood . Thus , in the ballad of * Auld Maitland , ' occurs the
line—And on his briest-bane brak a tree ;* i . e . shivered a lance . Pens-house is a house pent or penned up , i . e . enclosed : ' Fitz-Eustace heart was closely pent . * Vane encloses or partitions a portion of air . Fan does the same . Wind , vent us , it that which encloses or enfolds or turns round the earth . To wind thread , it to enclose something within it . Wind ( the atmosphere ) is wound about us , and is most
probably the etymon of the whole family . A pant of glass encloses dm apartment . A fane is an enclosed temple . Pin aeems to fasten , i . e . it encloses or closes . To penetrate is to enter an enclosure . . Penetralia are enclosed recesses . It may be necessary to mention that /? , v , and f are convertible letters . It would be a more practicable matter than is generally suspected , to trace language up to a common origin .
Untitled Article
Proposal for a National College of Language . 385
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/25/
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