THE LANGUAGE OF THE FUTURE.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1703, 19 January 1874, Page 2

THE LANGUAGE OF THE FUTURE.

[NEW YORK TIMES.] The distinguished French savant, M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his recent " His- . toire des Sciences," has ventured some predictions in regard to the English language which may interest our readers. -A Swiss scholar ought at least to be an impartial judge. M; de Candolle believes that She English language is to bejthe language of the futufef 'He grounds his" expectations, first at all, on the structure of the English tongue. " Its forms," he Bays, "are adapted to tnodern 'tendencies. If you have to hail a vessel, cry stop' 'to a train, demonstrate a machine;' friiaike a physical experiment, speak in a lew words to people busy and practical," you must use the English language. This is the tongue that we employ when we are in a hurry, or when we wish" |to say anything clearly and briefly! "In -the conflict of two languages," he addsj (< all things being ' equal, it is the' briefest and most simple which carries the day." He . states that he 'has repeatedly been in Switzerland families where the French and German* were equally understood ; but that, the French always drivss oTit ? 'the German through its superior flexibility and convenience. In liko manner, where English and French are employed in a. Swiss family, and are equally known, the English drives out the French. It even passes from one generation to another in a foreign country,.: on .account of its superior practical convenience. In this ■ way he accounts for the fact that French and German families in England, or America .so,, quickly [lose" their , .'native tongues, while English-speaking families in France or Germany r transmit theirs frorn^ generation to. gerieratibri. . The English tbto'gue, he' says, dispenses with long phrases and many words' ; ''• it' : uses , readily foreign words, but shortens them; it has only indispensable and natural moods ; it has no arbitrary distinction of gender ; the main idea is so much the object of each sentence thac in conversation one is riot obliged to finish, the phrase., He admits its capital defect— " an orthography so irregular that it needs a year for most children to learn to read." Its, I pronunciation, too, he considers wanting in distinctness. Besides its structure, M. de Candolle holds that its great advantage in the future is the adaptation ■of its : literature;. for families and domestic life. It is a literature which' above suits the women. They find in it a vast number of works written with perfect purity and propriety, upon subjects which most 'interest the female sex such as religion, poetry, education and the like. : . • : The future victory, however, iof 'the English language the French savant rests on more scientific grounds. At the present moment the English language- is spoken, He estimates, by severity-seven millions of people in England, Australia, and ' America. The German . includes sixty-two, millions .; the French, in France, Belgium, and the Colonies, forty and onehalf millions. In England the population doubles once in fifty years ; so that in a century, or 1970 ? it will reach the sum of one hundred and : twenty-four millions. In the . U nites States, Canada, ■ and Australia population doubles once in twentyfive i years, so that their numbers in 1970 will be seven hundred and thirty-six millions. The total number, then, of the English- speaking people in 1970 will be eight hundred and sixty millions.- - In Germany, on the other hand, the population in the north doubles in from fifty-six to. sixty years ; that of the south in one hundred and sixty-seven years. Taking one hundred years as the average, the number of the G§rman-speaking people in J9, 7Q will be one hundred and twenty-four miUiona.. In France the population, dqubleg in about one hundred and forty years, so that in a century the French^peaking peoples would amount to sixty T riine and a half millions. According 'to this esti-; mate, the German-speaking individuals 1 would only form the seventh part, and the French-speaking only, the twelfth or, thirteenth part, of those speaking English •in 1970, and both together would only amount to a quarter of the English-: speaking races. ...... i r i , The future victory of the English, language seems to this Swiss schplar^sur^d.! His wise conclusion from this prediction is that a heavy responsibility rest's oriHhe 1 English-speaking; rac§s to preserve the purity and unity of then?' tongue. The danger which he fears is that English may break into three languages related to one another, like Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. It should be our noble| ambition : to preserve one great andpurd tongue— the tongue of Milton ancLShakes-j peare — as the future universal language of the thought arid business of the world.' Americans, he thinks, will have the .'most influence in this work, for their country will. lead those of the English-speaking races. Thus, we believe, the language has "suffered no perceptible strain or, cor-i fuption upqn thi? continent.-;