From Hyde Clarke 27 December 1877
32 St. George’s Square | S. W.
27 Dec 1877
My dear Sir,
It may interest you to know that I have succeeded in the task, which has occupied me for some years, of establishing the unity of language in its developement.
For this purpose it was necessarily especially to investigate the languages of america under considerable difficulty from deficiency of material, as well as the demand on my time from other occupations.1
So far as I know there is no language, which is separate, & which does not belong to the general stock.
On psychological grounds the developement of language means the developement of mythology & of culture. In this respect the nations of the highest advancement bear traces of the early culture of mankind. It may be roughly said there are no languages which are not “black” languages in their ground work
The results are of course very different from what Prof Max Muller & philogists have been accustomed to believe.2
It will take many men & many years yet to work out all the details, but, even with what I have already published, there is convincing evidence.
As knowing language is so closely connected with nature worship, there is no room for a separate creation of it, which some of our friends believe.3
I have also just found that the idea of Hand, Finger &c is only secondary in numerals, & that 5 & 10 are primarily to be referred to Navel, Belly &c, that is to the early mythology.
Yours faithfully | Hyde Clarke
Charles Darwin Esq D &c FRS
Footnotes
Bibliography
Clarke, Hyde. 1875. Researches in prehistoric and protohistoric comparative philology, mythology, and archæology, in connection with the origin of culture in America and the Accad or Sumerian families. London: N. Trübner & Co.
Descent 2d ed.: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. London: John Murray. 1874.
Müller, Hermann. 1873. Die Befruchtung der Blumen durch Insekten und die gegenseitigen Anpassungen beider. Ein Beitrag zur Erkenntniss des ursächlichen Zusammenhanges in der organischen Natur. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann.
Summary
Informs CD of his work on the "unity of language in its development".
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11292
- From
- Henry Hyde (Hyde) Clarke
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, St George’s Square, 32
- Source of text
- DAR 161: 161
- Physical description
- ALS 5pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11292,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11292.xml