GESTURE- OR SIGN-LANGUAGE.
Much of the intercommunication of brutes is by gestures. The dog will fawn to show his submissiveness, jump and spring around his master to manifest his joy, catch and pull the clothing to induce a person to go in a certain direction, and the like. Certain members of the human race, the deaf-mutes, are obliged to have recourse to the same means to make their thoughts known. By judicious cultivation they have developed a sign-language which answers all the purposes of ordinary life, and even reaches to many higher topics. They can thus converse with accuracy and rapidity.
Nor is it confined to these unfortunate persons. Some nations with well-developed languages cultivate out of preference the use of signs and gestures in ordinary intercourse. The Neapolitans and Sicilians are cele brated for this peculiarity. Though possessing rich and varied dialects, they constantly resort to gestures to give their words emphasis, and have perfected these to such an extent that they can carry on conversation without the use of words. A traveller mentions that in Naples he visited the opera with a citizen of the town. The latter recognized a friend across the theatre, and exchanged some signs with him, by which, lie informed the traveller, he had learned that this friend had been absent three years, during which time lie had been married ; had travelled in Austria and France ; had been blessed with a daughter, whom he had had the misfortune to lose; and had returned the day before. By subsequent inquiry the traveller learned that these were the facts communicated.
To some extent this reliance upon gestures to express the meaning is universal. Even among the studiously undemonstrative Englishmen, with whom, since the condemnation of them by Addison, it has been considered unbecoming to employ gestures even in public speaking, one will observe grimaces and movements of the arms in moments of excite ment. But probably its most notable example is among the Indians of North America. They have a sign-language of unknown antiquity, understood over a wide area, and in which they are capable of conducting protracted conversation. To a certain extent, this language is the same everywhere. But these identities are not evidences of derivation from a common centre; they merely show that a number of objects and actions suggest the same simple and obvious signs for their expression. To incline the head and close the eyes, or rest it a moment on the hand, would always suggest sleep ; moving the hands backward and forward with the fingers extended is an imitation of the motions of the feet, and signifies walking; to imitate the bending of a bow to shoot an arrow indi cates that this weapon is meant. In these and in very many more signs those current in our educational institutions for the training of deaf-mutes are identical with those in use among the Indian tribes of the Western Plains. As has been said above, the obvious explanation of this is that the same signs suggest themselves to all. In this sense, and in no other,
are we to understand the expression of Dr. Tvlor, that " gesture-language is substantially the same among savage tribes all over the world." The development of a gesture-language depends upon the genius of a people and upon the occasion it has to communicate with those of a dif ferent idiom. The old notion that it indicates poverty of expression in the spoken language is now exploded by accurate observation. The Neapolitan dialect is one of the richest of the Italian group, yet those who speak it delight in gestures. The Shoshonees of the Western Plains are celebrated for their free use of signs, and yet their vocabulary, so far from being meagre, is remarkably copious. The assertion of a Mexican bishop quoted in many books, and the later one of the same tenor pub lished by Captain Burton, the English traveller, to the effect that there are tribes in North America whose tongues are so imperfect that they cannot converse without the aid of gestures, and therefore cannot talk in the dark, is an absurdity. As Colonel Mallery justly remarks : "All theories based upon the supposed poverty of American languages must be abandoned." The value of such a means of exchanging ideas between scattered tribes explains its wide prevalence. By its use treaties are established, commercial intercourse carried on, instruction imparted and received, and the impassable barrier of an unknown tongue cleverly avoided. So com pletely does it answer the purpose that Captain Clark relates instances where Indians of different tribes had been married for years and had never learned a word of each other's language, their communication being conducted entirely by signs. This excites the less astonishment as parallel instances are frequent with deaf-mutes.
Plan of Thought in study of the plan of thought in the sign-language is suggestive of that in some of the more primitive forms of vocal speech, especially the isolating languages (see p. 52). The articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are omitted, ancp adjectives follow the nouns. Verbs are given in the present tense, and both nouns and verbs appear only in the singular number, the idea of plurality being expressed in some other way. Abbreviation is constantly practised. To illustrate this, Captain Clark gives the following imaginary speech : " I arrived here to-day to make a treaty. I have with me one hundred lodges, which are camped beyond the Black Hills, near the Yel lowstone River. You are a great chief. Take pity on me, for I am poor, and I have five children who are sick and without food. The snow is deep and the weather very cold." The signs used to convey this would be those for the following words : " I arrive to-day make treaty.
My hundred lodge camp beyond Hills Black near River Elk. You chief great to pity I poor my five child sick food wiped out. Snow deep cold strong."