LANGUAGE. The medium for the com munication of perceptions and ideas.
Spoken language is that -wherein articulate sounds are used.
Written language is that wherein written characters are used, and especially the sys tem of characters called letters and figures.
2. By conventional usage, certain , sounds and characters have a definite meaning in one country or in certain countries, and this ie called the Ian guage of such country or countries: as, the Greek, the Latin, the French, or the English language. The law, too, has a peculiar language. See Eu nom. Dial. 2.
3. On the subjugation of England by William the Conqueror, the French-Norman language was substituted in all law-proceedinge for the ancient Saxon. This, according to Blackstone, 3 Comm. 317, was the language of the records, writs, and pleadings until the tirne of Edward III. Mr. Ste phen thinks Blackstone has fallen into an error, and says the record was, from the earliest period to which that document can be traced, in the Latin language. Plead. Appx. note 14. By the statute 36 Edw. III. st. 1, e. 15, it was enacted that for the future all pleae ehould be pleaded, shown, de fended, anewered, debated, and judged in the Eng lish tongue, but be entered and ehrolled in Latin. The Norman or law Freneh, however, being more familiar as applied to the law than any other lan guage, the lawyers continued to employ it in mak ing their notes of the trial of eases, which they afterwards published in that barbarous dialect un der the name of Reports.
4. After the enactment of this statute, on the introduction of paper pleadings, they followed in the language as well as in other respects the etyle of the records, which were drawn up in Latin. This technical language continued in use till the time of Cromwell, when by a statute the records were directed to be in English; but this act was repealed at the restoration by Charles II., the law yere finding it difficult to express themselves as well and as eoneisely in the vernaeular as in the Latin tongue; and the language of the law con tinued as before till about the year 1730, when the statute of 4 Geo. II. e. 26, was passed. It pro
vided that both the pleadings and the records should thenceforward be framed in English. The aneient terms and expressions which had been so long known in French and Latin were now lite rally translated into English. The translations of sueh terms and phrases were fouud to be exceed ingly ridiculous. .Such terms as niei prius, habeas corpus, Reri facies, mandamus, and the like, are not capable of an Englieh dress with any degree of eeriousuess. They are equally absurd in the manner they are employed in Latin; but use and the fact that they are in a foreign language have made the absurdity less apparent.
5. By statute of 6 Geo. II. c. 14, passed two years after the last-mentiened etatute, the use of technical words was allowed to continue in the usual language,—whith defeated almost every be neficial purpostrof the former statute. ing from one language to another, many words and technical expressione were retained in the new which belonged to the more ancient language; and not seldum they partook of both. This, to the un learned student, has given an air of confusion and disfigured the language of the law. It has ren -tiered essential, also, the study of the Latin and French languages. This, perhaps, is not to be re gretted, as they are the keys which open to the ardent student vast etores of knowledge. In the United States, the records, pleadings, and all law proceedings are in the English language, except certain technical terms which retain their ancient French.and Latin dress.
6. Agreements, contracts, wills, and other instruments may be made in any language, and will be enforced. Bacon, Abr. Mils (D 1). And a slander spoken in a foreign lan guage, if understood by those present, or a libel published in such languae, will be pun ished as if spoken or written in the English language. Bacon, Abr. Slander, (D 3) ; Rolle, Abr. 74 ; 6 Term, 163. For the struction of language, see articles Cr:wow:re