LANGUAGE. The medium for the com munication of perceptions and ideas.
Spoken language is that wherein articu late sounds . are used. See Stevenson v. State, 90 Ga. 456, 16 S. E. 95.
Written language is that wherein written characters are used, and especially the sys tem of characters called letters and figures.
At the Conquest, the French-Norman language was substituted in all law proceedings for the ancient Saxon, which, according to Blackstone, 3 Com. 317, was the language of the records, writs, and plead ings until the time of Edward III. Stephen 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. The history of legal language in England is further stated by Blackstone as fol lows: By statute (1362) it was enacted that for the future all pleas should be pleaded, shown, defend ed, answered, debated, and adjudged in the English tongue, but he entered and enrolled in Latin. The Norman or law French, however, being more fa miliar 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 cases, which they aft erwards published in that barbarous dialect under the name of Reports.
After the enactment of this statute, on the intro duction of paper pleadings, they followed, in the language as well as in other respects, the style 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in use till the time of Cromwell, when by a statute the records were di rected to be in English ; but this act was repealed at the restoration by Charles II., the lawyers find ing it difficult to express themselves as well and as concisely in the vernacular as in the Latin tongue ; and the language of the law continued as before till about the year 1730, when the statute of 4 Geo. II. c. 26, was passed. It provided that both the pleadings and the records should thenceforward be framed in English. The ancient terms and expres sions which had been so long known in French and Latin were now literally translated into English. The translations of such terms and phrases were found to be exceedingly ridiculous. Such terms as nisi prim, habeas corrals. fled facial, mandamus, and the like, are not capable of an English dress with any degree of eeriousness. 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. By statute of 6 Geo. II, c. 14, passed two years after the last-mentioned statute, the use of tech nical words was allowed to continue in the usual language,—which defeated almost every beneficial purpose of the former statute. In changing from
one language to another, many words and technical expressions were retained in the new, which be longed to the more ancient language ; and not sel dom they partook of both. This, to the unlearned student, has given an air of confusion and disfigured the language of the law. It has rendered essential, also, the study of the Latin and French languages. This, perhaps, is not to be regretted, as they are the keys which open to the ardent student vast stores of knowledge. In the United States, the rec ords, pleadings, and all law proceedings are in the English language, except certain technical terms which retain their ancient French and Latin dress. 3 Bia. Corn. 317.
From the Conquest until 1731, says Prof. F. W. Maitland, the solemnest language of the law was Latin, and even in the Anglo-Saxon time, though English was the language in which the laws were published and causes pleaded, Latin was the lan guage in which the kings made grants of land. In 1016 the learned men je both races could write and speak in Latin. Fren was then little more than a vulgar dialect of Latin, and a language in which the people could not write anything. The Conqueror used both Latin and English in his laws, charters, and rights, but Latin soon got the upper hand and became for a while the one written language of the law. In Chancery there was nothing but Latin, and the judgments of the courts were in that language. This continued until 1731. Meantime in the twelfth or early in the thirteenth century, ordinances and statutes written in French began to appear. Under Edward I. French became the language in which laws were published and law hooks written and con tinued to be the language of the statute books un til the end of the middle ages. Under Henry VII. English became the speech in which English law givers addressed their subjects. As the oral speech of litigants and their advisers, French prevailed from, the Conquest onwards, but in the local courts a great deal of English must long have been spoken. The jurisprudence of a French-speaking court be came the common law, the measure of all rights and duties, and was carried throughout the land by the journeying justices. In the thirteenth century French was used In pleading and the professional lawyer wrote and thought in French. In 1362 a statute endeavored to make English instead of French the spoken language of the,law courts, but law writing was still .in French. Gradually in the sixteenth century the lawyers began to write in English, though many French law terms still con tinued to be used ; 1 Soc. Eng. and see 1 Poll. & Matti. 58.