. Introduction to the natural history of language . in a degree unknown to advanced civilisations, A villageor tribe, or at least a local federation of tribes, leads its ownlife, and exercises little communication with others, thoughlinguistically akin. Often it is in actual hostility to possesses its own valley and keeps a mountain betweenitself and its neighbours, or segregates itself behind riversor other natural barriers. The result is the accentuation oflocal peculiarities, and the absence of any levelling influencesbeyond the group or association of groups which happens tobe incl
. Introduction to the natural history of language . in a degree unknown to advanced civilisations, A villageor tribe, or at least a local federation of tribes, leads its ownlife, and exercises little communication with others, thoughlinguistically akin. Often it is in actual hostility to possesses its own valley and keeps a mountain betweenitself and its neighbours, or segregates itself behind riversor other natural barriers. The result is the accentuation oflocal peculiarities, and the absence of any levelling influencesbeyond the group or association of groups which happens tobe included in the tribal union. Occasional assemblages ofa wider kind for religious purposes, military leagues, etc.,may be ignored. A language of which the speakers arethus divided soon splits into a number of dialects, whichwork further and further away from each other, as verydifferent series of new phenomena rise successively withineach one and become universalised among its speakers. Ina rough figure we may give the situation as Phonetic Change 283. where the divisions I. II. III. IV. represent dialects formedby isolation as above described, and where the single divisionmay comprise one or several minor groups. When groups are not isolated there is contiftuous transitionand interlinking of dialects The above is not, of course, invariably the case. Insome instances, over a considerable tract of country, theremay be, even among barbarians, no distinct severance eitherby natural barriers or by tribal unfriendliness. There will,indeed, always be a series of groupings of individuals withcloser intercourse internally, but it is possible that each suchgroup may be in more or less frequent communication withneighbour groups on either side. Thus we may picture alanguage spoken by divisions intercommunicating, and to acertain extent phonetically interacting, across the borderlines indicated in the fio^ure I T II III VII \ V VI <) I VIII where each of the sections, I. II. III. etc., may
Size: 2069px × 1208px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectlanguageandlanguages
