Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essai sur l'origine des langues.
Introduction.
This paper attempts to read the manuscript «Essai sur l'origine des langues»(1781) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, «Essai sur l'origine des langues»(1781).
Chapter 1: On various means of communicating our thoughts.
The Chapter 1 examines, as the title suggests, 'on various means of communicating our thoughts'(des divers moyens de communiquer nos pensées). Language is the means by which we communicate our thoughts. Interestingly, however, the final chapter, Chapter 20: 'Relationship of the Languages to the Governments', describes how modern peoples are unable to communicate their contents successfully through languages. In other words, The "EOL" is structured in such a way that, although it begins with a discussion of how our thoughts are communicated, it ends with a discussion of how our thoughts are not communicated.
The general means by which we can act on the senses of others are restricted to two: that is, movement and voice. The action of movement is immediate through touching, or mediate through gesture. The first can function only within arm's length, while the other extends as far as the visual ray. Thus vision and hearing are the only passive organs of language among distinct individuals.
Rousseau states in the quotation that 'the general means by which we can act on the senses of others are restricted to two', but since the chapter title was 'on the various means'(des divers moyens) to begin with, there are fewer than only 'two' to be considered. As shown in the Table-A, by the senses appealed to, there are three main means in which beings communicate ('touching', 'vision' or 'hearing').
Chapter 5: On Writing
Origins of the alphabet
Rousseau says that there are primitive way of writing: 'directement' (direct) or 'par des figures allégoriques' (by allegorical figures).
Another way of comparing languages and judging their antiquity is to be found in writing, and reason inversely from the degree of perfection of this art. The coarser the writing, the more ancient the language. The primitive way of writing is not to paint sounds, but the objects themselves either directly, as the Mexicans did, or by allegorical figures, or as the Egyptians once did. This state corresponds to passionate language, and already supposes some society and needs to which the passions have given birth.
What exactly do we mean by 'as the Mexicans did' here? One possibility is the hieroglyphics of the Mayan civilisation. Diego de Landa (1524-1579), in his "Relación de las cosas de Yucatán" (1566), gives the following description of the Mayan script in the form of an alphabetical table.
On the other hand, ancient Egyptian writing was divided into three types: hieroglyph, or sacred inscriptions (ἱερογλυφικός); hieratic, or priestly (ἱερατικά), which was a variant of hieroglyphic writing; and Demotic, or popular (δημοτικός).
When Rousseau wrote this manuscript, the hieroglyphics had not yet been deciphered. The Rosetta Stone was deciphered by Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832) in 1822. The Rosetta Stone (Pierre de Rosette) was not discovered until 1799, 20 years after Rousseau's death.
Chapter 18: That the Greek Musical System Had No Relation to Ours
Medieval music
It is known that our harmony is a Gothic invention. Those who claim to find the system of the Greeks in ours are ridiculous. The Greek system was absolutely devoid of harmonics in our sense, which requires the instruments to be tuned to perfect agreement.
'Gothic' is a term used to describe a medieval style of church architecture.
One thing that should be recalled here is that medieval music developed as church music. Gregorian music began with monophonic melodies, but by the end of the 9th century the technique of superimposing two melodies, known as organum, was described (Musica enchiriadis, 895).
Organum reached its full-fledged zenith in the 12th century. One of its representatives was the École de Saint-Martial, the so-called École d'Aquitaine, at the Abbey of Saint-Martial, and another was the École de Notre-Dame at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Notre-Dame Cathedral is a prime example of Gothic architecture. I suspect that when Rousseau wrote 'gothique', he had this École de Notre-Dame in mind.
Chapter 19: How Music Has Degenerated
From Passion to Reason
Music and language, which originally had identical origins, became separated and distinguished at some point. How did this distinction come about?
The study of philosophy and the progress of reason, while having perfected grammar, deprive language of its vital, passionate quality which made it so singable.
Language, which had previously been rhyme, becomes prose through the philosopher's use of language. This removes the 'melody' feature that the language had previously possessed and renders it lifeless. The use of language, which until then had been directed towards the 'passions', came to an end with the appearance of the Sophists and was replaced thereafter by the use of language directed towards 'reason'.
Thus melody, originally an aspect of discourse, imperceptibly assumes a separate existence and music becomes more independent of speech. That is also when it stopped producing the marvels it had produced when it was merely the accent and harmony of poetry and gave to it the power over the passions that speech subsequently exercised only on reason. Also, Greece was then full of sophists and philosophers, though she no longer had any famous musicians or poets. In cultivating the art of convincing, that of arousing the emotions was lost.
It is said that the musical element was ossified from language by philosophers and that the art of oratory was lost from our languages as a result. This loss of oratory in our languages is the key to reading the next chapter.
Chapter 20: Relationship of Languages to Government
Speech and Exhaustion
In this chapter, Rousseau discusses the differences between language (oratio) in ancient and modern.
There are some tongues favorable to liberty. They are the sonorous, prosodic, harmonious tongues in which discourse can be understood from a great distance. Ours are made for murmuring on couches. Our preachers torment themselves, work themselves into a sweet in the pulpit without anyone knowing anything of what they have said. After exhausting themselves shouting for an hour, they collapse in a chair, half dead. Surely it would not be work that fatigues them so.
According to Rousseau, ancient oratory was well heard by people, but modern oratory has become inaccessible and inaudible to people. This should be taken in conjunction with the perspective of the loss of the musical element from language in the previous chapter.
It was easy for the ancients to make themselves understood by people in public. They could speak all day with no discomfort. Generals could address their troops and be understood, with no exhaustion at all.
In ancient languages, which were integral to the musical element, oratory was easily audible and less tiring for both listener and speaker, even after long periods of time. This is in stark contrast to the earlier, more tiring 'our preachers'.
Literature
・Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 1781, Essai sur l'origine des langues, Où il est parlé de la Mélodie & de l'Imitation Musicale.
・Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 2012, Essay on the origin of languages, which treats of melody and musical imitation, translated by Jhon H. Moran, in: On the Origin of Language, translated, with afterwords, by John H. Moran and Alexander Code, Chicago and London. (Kindle)
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