OVERSEAS CLUB

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18624, 4 August 1922, Page 2

OVERSEAS CLUB

MONTHLY MEETING. The monthly meeting of the Overseas Club, held last night, was well attended; Mr fl. L. Tapley, president, occupied Hie chair. An interesting address waa delivered by Dr G. E. Thompson, on the subject “Race, Nationality, and Language,’’ In opening Dr Thompson staled that language waa the principal part of his subject, and particularly the English language and the place it occupies in the world to-day, which was identical with that occupied by Latin at the time of the Roman Empire, in the civilised •'world of that day. Would the English language, like Latin, become a dead tongue. The danger was from within, not from without. There was no language of the earth to-day that seriously threatened English as the world tongue. The mother tongue of practically all European languages was that called Aryan. Nothwithstanding this common parentage the tongue had split up into many' groups, a. phenomenon worth study. Dr Thompson spoke of the collapse of the old Aryan theory of migration, it being found that language and race were totally distinct things, language changing very readily. He illustrated this by Norsemen settling in the north of France losing their mother tongue within half a century, and gave .other instances of like happenings. Then Anthropology, geology, etc., had caused quite new ideas in regard to race from those held some years ago. The best, race test was that of the shape of the skull. The skulls found in Egyptian tombs were identical with those of the modern Egyptians, and skulls in Central Europe showed- tha't the race types to-day were similar to those that occupied the same territory in early .times. He mentioned three types of skulls showing three main races in Europe, and as near as he could understand from discoveries made to date one of these types represented the conquering race that imposed • its language on the earlier peoples. Dr Thompson went on to deal with the many races that go to make the modem population of the British Isles. The unique feature of the British race was the fact that in Britain there was a total absence of. the Alpine type forming a large port of the population of Western Europe. It was the mixture of races that had caused the. numerous dialects of the islands. The English language had now spread over the .whole world. They could derive certain laws from the knowledge of the spread of the Aryan language in Europe. One was that when a language was spoken by a foreign people it was modified in certain directions. He gave instances of the radical difference in the pronunciation of the same word by various nations. It was impossible •to avoid changes. He pointed out a difficulty in regard to Esperanto in consequence of : this,, different races pronouncing the letters quite differently. Esperanto' could not be learned in 20 minutes. _ Given an hour a night for six months it could be taught, but ho could teach English in that time, or any language. He was not. laughing at Esperanto, but, the language difficulty was fundamental. It was impossibles to prevent language from changing. The changes were so gradual as to be almosi. imperceptible, and English was bound to change. It was only- in about 30 years that the change in pronunciation became obvious. It was a law of science and everyday life that change occurred less in isolated communities than elsewhere, but modem transport facilities, would cause change even in such isolated places as New Zealand. The change in New ' Zealand and Australia, however, would not be so* great as in the Homeland. The Frencji epoken by the Ffench-Canadian to-day was not the French of modem France, but that of the seventeenth century. The tendency in isolated communities would be to pronounce words more and more according to their spelling. There were, however, miqor laws, such as the law of climate, climate also exercising influence. Printing had fixed the form of words, and the divorce between spelling and pronunciation waa gver becoming wider. Phonetic spelling would not prove a remedy, because to alter spelling to-day would only be to repeat what was done when printing was first in-, vented. The form would merely be fixed anew, but changes iiP- pronunciation would still go on.; In conclusion Professor Thompson said New Zealand was bound’ to form a dialect. Otherwise all history would be falsified. As to how long this would tako that was not a matter on which he was prepared to state an opinion. A hearty vote of thanks was accorded the lecturer, the motion being moved by Mr J. H. Walker and carried by acclamation. . / , A musical programme was afterwards rendered the contributors being Misses Beattie Band’ Florence Simpson, and Messrs Jas. Haig,’ H. M’Allura, and R. Walls. Miss Margaret Blacldo played’ the acoompanim<Aftcr supper had been served the usual dance was held.