their own; even the rudest of them seeming to pick up speech wherever they find it. As an example we may mention the Veys and the Deys, the Golahs and the Pessas from the interior, who, from contact with foreign-speaking people, and especially the English, learn the language of their superiors sufficiently to converse intelligently with foreign residents. The Krumen may be taken as another example. Both the Kru and the Grebo tribes belong to the agglutinative speaking class. In the language of Cust, "travelers allude to the jargon of Sierra Leone English, and state that the people of Lagos speak a patois of English which closely approximate to Yariba." Clicks form a curious linguistic feature of the Hottentot group. Sayce speaks of an unpronounceable click not otherwise found in the language, as associated with the folk story of a hare, which story in turn is traced from the Bari of Central Africa, through Melagasy, Swahili, Kaffir, Hottentot, back to the Bushmen. It is well to note here that these clicks are found in connection with beast fables of the backward tribes of southern Africa. He refers to them as the bridge that marks the passage of inarticulate cries into articulate speech; "we may see in them survival of those primeval utterances out of which language was born." Herodotus says of the Ethiopian Troglodytes (IV. 183): yλŵooav dè ovdeμiñ ἄλλῃ παρομοίην νενομίκασι ἀλλὰ τετρίγασι καθάπερ αἱ νυκτερίδες. These clicks are expiratory sounds, consonantal in their character. I prefer the classification into dentals, palatals, and laterals, of the three out of the four found in the Hottentot speech. These three clicks are also found in Zulu and in the speech of other tribes who seem to have caught them by contagion. I have found natives of the Ama-Xosa, Ba-Suto, Tembu, Zulu, and what is called the Fingo tribe, who spoke English fairly well, using these same clicks - all of which are difficult for a foreigner to incorporate with any readiness into the word he wishes to utter. C, q, and x are the characters that the English translator has made use of to represent these clicks. C stands for the dental, q for the palatal, and x for the lateral. The letter c, as found in the word ncapai, is to our ear nearly like the sound produced by a kiss; but it is made by the compression of the tip of the tongue between the teeth and then drawing it back in haste. The sound represented by 9 is made by placing the tongue against the roof of the mouth and then withdrawing it quickly — the effect being a cracking sound. The letter x, representing the third of these clicks, corresponds to the sound we use in clucking to a horse - the tongue unites with the double teeth as in the pronunciation of the word box. This sound, in common with the others, does not come at the close of the word, but before the vowels as we find it in the tribal name Ama-Xosa. These clicks are never found in the formative part of a word. The fourth sound in the Hottentot speech, referred to above, not a click proper, is guttural, from the bottom of the throat―rough, and made by contracting the throat, while forcibly expelling the breath, and moving the epiglottis so as to modify it tremulously. It seems almost impossible to be made except by natives. These can drop it with seeming ease, so far as I have observed, and substitute the English sounds for c, 9, and x, pronouncing words containing them without hesitancy. SOME EXAMPLES OF WORD FORMATION. Of all the European people the Portuguese were the first to become established on African soil. Their language soon became fixed and exerted an influence over the native speech that quickly determined the future of the latter. Piccaninny is Portuguese in its origin, but of African mold. It is what some would call a loan word incorporated into the native speech. It seems to be from picade niño or pequeño niño, a little infant. Sifted through the African speech it comes out piccaninny, a term that is often applied in the Carolinas and on the coast to a negro child. Palaver is Spanish from palabra, and usually denotes idle talk or gossip, but, like piccaninny, it too became an incorporate part of the native speech, taking on the form, accent, and peculiarities of the same in parts where the Spanish is predominant. The terms for knife in the Basque language are all loan words so called —e.g. ganibeta, from the French canif, and nabala from the Spanish nabaja (novacula — Latin). As the result of these mixed speech forms we note the jargon of the negro of the Danish West Indies. It is a specimen of broken Danish and is sometimes called Creolese. It seems to have neither gender, number, declension, nor conjugation. Another example is found in the negro-English Dutch, which includes also words from the Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Thus it will be seen that in the changes resulting from blending all these tongues, the speech forms of the more intelligent survive, though the process of development is slow. Adjourned at 9.10 P.M. MORNING SESSION. PROVIDENCE, July 9, 1896. The meeting was called to order at 9.30 A.M. The reading of papers was begun at once. 23. The Satirical Element in Ennius, by Professor E. M. Pease, of Leland Stanford Jr. University. Writers on the history of Latin literature are accustomed to speak of the Saturae of Ennius as "a collection of miscellaneous poems of a didactic nature, written in different metres," and to refer to Lucilius as the author in whom the elements of satire, in the modern sense of the word, first occur. It was the aim of this paper to question this established view, and to suggest presumptive evidence in favor of the genuine satirical spirit in Ennius. The thoughtful study of literature, which traces step by step the influences bearing upon each author and notes the causes producing each new feature, shows that there are no great breaks in the line of development, but on the other hand that there is a regular and steady growth, as truly conformable to the law of evolution as the growth in the physical world. The supposition that satire burst out in full bloom in Lucilius was shown to be due in part to his misinterpretation of certain passages in Latin, and to have no sufficient basis. The apparent contradiction of Horace in speaking of Lucilius as the inventor of Roman satire (Sat. I. 10. 48), and of Ennius as the rudes et Graecis intacti carminis auctor (Sat. I. 10. 66) is wrongly explained by the supposition that Horace had reference to the satirical spirit in speaking of Lucilius and to the form in the case of Ennius. The same unwarranted inference that the satirical spirit did not exist in the Saturae of Ennius has been drawn from the description of satire in Diomedes (p. 485, Keil), whose whole statement may be somewhat discredited on account of his manifestly extravagant description of Horace and Persius. In the other references to satire in Latin literature there is nothing to prevent one from assuming the elements of satire in Ennius. In attempting to show an organic relation between the Saturae of Ennius and the old dramatic Saturae we must first notice the origin and characteristics of the latter. According to Livy's condensed and somewhat confused account (7. 2), it would seem that the Romans were indebted to Etruria for certain elements of the Satura. At the celebration of the harvest-home and other rural festivals the light-hearted merry people of Latium had long been accustomed to the jovial banter of the Fescennine verses - an entertainment consisting of dialogues of coarse jokes and personal abuse in metrical form, perhaps enlivened by the exhilarating tones of the pipe or by the beating of time with the feet. In 364 B.C. the magistrates invited a band of Etrurian actors to Rome in the hope of staying the ravages of a terrible pestilence. These actors danced a sort of pantomime to the accompaniment of regularly composed music, and so pleased the people with their performance that Roman youths - the same ones no doubt whose quick wit and dramatic power had made them the leaders in the merriment of their native entertainments - began to imitate the Etruscan actors, and to combine the elements of the musical pantomime with the metrical dialogue of the Fescennine raillery, to which they applied the name Satura, "medley," from its composite nature.1 Cf. Ital. farsa, Fr. farce, Arabic Quasside as applied to poetry, and Juvenal's term farrago for his satires. As the Satura developed under the control of the Roman youths, and the acting became more and more an art, it finally passed into the hands of professional actors, and the young Romans contented themselves with the less exacting performances of after-plays — exodia, to which the Atellanae also were reduced after the introduction of the regular drama. As the versus Fescennini were superseded by the Satura as a dramatic entertainment, but lived on in the scurrilous verses of the marriage celebration and triumphal songs; so the Satura supplanted by the fabula Atellana and the regular drama passed into that branch of poetry known as the literary satire. It is a fair inference from Livy 7. 2. 8. that Andronicus, qui ab saturis ausus est primus argumento fabulam serere, had been in the habit of writing Saturae before he turned to the regular drama; and in all probability the Satura of Naevius mentioned by Festus 257 (M) is one of the last examples of the old dramatic Satura, rather than the beginning of the new literary Satura. The conservative spirit of Naevius, his plebeian sympathies, and his adherence to the old 1 It is pleasant to find Mr. Tyrrell presenting this explanation of Satura in his Latin Poetry, p. 217, thus confirming the view I had previously advanced in lectures. Saturnian verse, in which the old Saturae were probably written (the verse quoted by Festus is apparently Saturnian) render this all the more probable. One of the chief characteristics of the Roman genius was the fondness for the display of satire and ridicule, and it is worthy of note that the literature of the Romans is more deeply tinged with this spirit than that of any other nation. Up to this time these old Roman burlesques had served (like the editorial page in the modern newspaper) as the principal instrument for publishing the criticism of men and measures, and for hurling the shafts of satire against the vices of society. With Ennius, an innovator in so many ways, Satura took on a new form, and for this reason: The success of the new drama, with its fully developed plot, killed the demand for the old dramatic medley, as a theatrical entertainment. The new plays, however, were moulded on the type of the new Attic comedy, the comedy of manners, and gave little opportunity for the display of satire and ridicule, which had so characterized the old time burlesques. Nothing could be more natural then, than that Ennius should remodel the old satirical medley into the literary Satura, and form thus a proper channel for the expression of that sort of miscellaneous criticism which formerly was current in the old Satura, and which is referred to by Horace (Epist. II. 1. 145–160) in his description of the spirit of the indigenous drama. Ennius retained the name, the spirit, and the essential features of the old Saturae. The characteristics of his Saturae are traceable throughout the whole history of satire down to Juvenal. The language never rises to the height of other kinds of poetry (Hor. speaks of his satires as 'sermones,' and his muse as 'pedestris'). The peculiarities of the Sermo Familiaris are everywhere noticeable. There is a strong tendency to dramatic form. Dialogue forms an important feature. The personal, autobiographical element is everywhere noticeable. The inordinate amount of obscenity likewise portrays its peculiar origin. Unusual laxity in structural arrangement, the easy change of topic, variety of metres, are other characteristics; and can we believe, as the writers on satire would have us, that the spirit of satire and ridicule was current in the old Satura, and in all the authors of the literary Satura except Ennius and his nephew Pacuvius? In the fragments of Ennius, scanty though they be, there is evidence of all the elements of the Roman Satura, including that of satire. Later writers developed these characteristics each in his own peculiar way, the conditions of society and the temperament of the writer being the leading influences. We cannot believe that Ennius, the man who was perhaps more influential than any other Roman in moulding Roman thought on Greek lines, in introducing Greek culture, in awakening scepticism in religion, and in dispelling superstition, accomplished this without the instrumentality of satire. It was shown that there was good evidence of this spirit of satire in his Saturae in their very titles, in the sources which he drew upon or used as models, in the various topics of which he treated and which became the stock subjects of later satirists, and to some extent in the language itself. This paper was read for the author by Professor William A. Merrill. Remarks were made by Professors A. G. Harkness and Gudemann. At the request of the Committee on Officers for 1896-97, the Secretary read the following nominations: President, Bernadotte Perrin, Yale University. Vice-Presidents, Minton Warren, Johns Hopkins University. Clement L. Smith, Harvard University. Secretary and Treasurer, Herbert Weir Smyth, Bryn Mawr College. O. M. Fernald, Williams College. Basil L. Gildersleeve, Johns Hopkins University. Francis A. March, Lafayette College. Samuel Ball Platner, Western Reserve University. The report was adopted, and the above-named officers elected. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TWELVE ON THE STUDY OF LATIN. The Programmes of secondary education put out by the Committee of Ten in their report published in 1893, proposed the reduction of Greek preparatory studies from three years to two, and the reduction of Latin preparatory studies from five periods a year for four years to five periods a year for the first two years and four periods for the remaining two years. The harm which would have been worked by the acceptance of the proposition with regard to Greek was so great and unmistakable that immediate and unhesitating protest was demanded. Accordingly the American Philological Association, at a large meeting held in Philadelphia, December 28, 1894, unanimously adopted a motion (now generally made known throughout the country) that, in any programme designed to prepare students for the classical course, not less than three years of instruction in Greek should be required. The harm which would have been worked by the acceptance of the proposition of the Committee of Ten with regard to Latin was appreciable, and the point of view from which the reduction in that subject was made was a dangerous one. Nevertheless, since the proposed reduction in Greek was the more serious of the two, the Philological Association confined its immediate expression of opinion to that subject, charging its Committee of Twelve, however, with the further duty of considering the questions involved in the propositions with regard to Latin. The Committee accordingly gave the question careful thought, and conferred also with a large number of other members of the Association engaged in the teaching of languages, ancient or modern, in schools or colleges. It found a striking harmony of opinion, which was further evinced at the meeting of the American Philological Association held in Cleveland on July 13, 1895, by the unanimous passage of the following resolution : |