TEMUKA LITERARY SOCIETY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1923, 30 July 1889, Page 2

TEMUKA LITERARY SOCIETY.

As already announced, Mr J. D. Adams, head master of the Waimate High School, read a paper in the Temuka Mechanics' Institute last Friday evening, under the auspices of the above Society. There was a very fair attendance. The Eev. J. Dickson occupied the chair, and, in briefly introducing the speaker of the evening, Btated that he was a distinguished graduate of the University of Oxford. Mr Adams commenced by explaining that the subject be had selected for his paper was the vulgar or mother tongue. It was originally called the vulgar tongue, the meaning of the word vulgar then being common, so that the word vulgar tongue meant-the language commonly spoken. A language grew and lived to a certain period; then it died and became a dead language. The English language was not dead; it was a living, vigorous language. The Anglo-Saxon English was as different from modern English as if they : were two languages, and yet they were fundamentally the ssme. In the fifth century it was spoken by a little handful of people; now it was spoken by 100 millions of people. Who could guesa how many will speak it in 250 years hence ? It was bcought to England by the Jutes, Angles and Saxons from the northwest corner of Europe, who called their language Teutish or Dutch—the Teutonic as it was now called. In 449 these settled in England, and drove the ancient inhabitants to the mountains of "Wales and Cornwall, where to this day a dialect of the old language is spoken, and which was also found in the Gaelic of the Highlands and the Erse of the Irish. There were two moat important languages : the Semitic and the Aryan, and it was to the latter th 6 English language belonged, as well as the languages spoken in India, Persia, Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and Eussia. The English and Friesian resembled each other. As an instance —

" Good butter and good cheese Is good Eajl'sh and good Fries." The changes which took place were slow, and were given as follows: Ancient English, from 449 to 1100; Early English, from 1100 to 1250; Middle English, from 1250 to 1485 ; Tudor English, from 1485 to 1603; Modern English, from 1603 to 1900. The first period it differed in having a greater number of inflections, but in 1066 the Normans introduced a great deal of French. In the Tudor English a great deal of Latin was introduced, owing to the interest taken in the literature of the Romans. This was called the Renaissance, or revival of letters, and from this time the grammar was fixed, although the vocabulary had increased, and was still increasing. Strange to say, the majority of the words in our vocabulary was Latin, next to which came English, next Greek, then Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Hebrew, etc.

The English were great travellers and traders, and at various times other people have made incursions into England, and thus the language was added to. Some were warlike, like the Eomans and Normans: some peaceful, like the monks and refugees for the Continent, but all enriched the language. As Latin formed so large an element in the language, he would refer to the different periods it found its way into it. '1 he first period was the Boman Conquest, which left only six words; the second was' the time when the missioners came; ,the : was the French brought by the J Normans, and generally known a» the Norman French, For a time only Norman French was spoken, except amongst the lower classes; but the stubbornness of the English prevailed, and the language was much sleeker and fatter for its feast off the foreign languages. The Latin of the fourth period was introduced by the Greek and Latin scholars who flew from the invasion of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, and settled in England, Italy, France, and Germany. These became teachers, and their contributions affected the written more than the spoken tongue of England. It was then an impulse was given to the study of the classics, when ereryone who wished to appear educated studied the literature of Greece and Borne, For the fourth time then the English language was enriched by the Latin. It took what it wanted and left the remainder. But although foreign languages had become mixed with the j language, it was" impossible to mat© / a sentence without the use of the real English, and when one spoke quickly and vigorously he invariably used the mother tongue, as it was the most expressive. Mr Adams then gave many illustions of how words were derived, how they changed their meaning with altered circumstances, and so on. He spoke for about an hour and a quarter, and the audience thought it to© soon when he gave up, aa the lecture was certainly the most delightful heard for along time in Temuka, It was full of interest from beginning to end; it was delivered in a delightfully easy, pleasant style; it was free from pedantry or affectation, and it showed that Mr Adams had bestowed a good deal of thought, care, and research on it. We have seldom heard anything with which we were more pleased. The president, after the speaker had resumed his seat amidst great applause, invited discussion, but no one showed any disposition for it.

After a considerable time, Mr Twemey got up and moved a vote of thanks to Mr Adams for his extremely able and interesting lecture. He spoke at some length on the subject. Mr J". Brown seconded the motion, -' and expressed the great pleasure he felt in listening to so able an address. Mr Dickson, in putting the motion, spoke at some length en the value of a study of the classics. Sir Julius Vogel, in his book, stated that in the year 2000 Latin would not be taught j that people would be satisfied with an English education. He did not think so. Latin would be always useful to the English scholar. The sciences could not be grappled with without it. :/

The motion was carried by acclamation, and, after Mr Adams had acknowledged the compliment, the proceedings closed.