Rousseau Jean-Jacques: Ogled o podrijetlu jezika

Jean Jacques Rousseau: An Essay on the Origin of Language

Discussing Melody and Musical Imitation

A Letter on French Music

a consideration of the two principles advocated by Mr. Rameau

In time all men become alike, but the type of their development is different. In southern climes, where nature is generous, needs are born of passion; on the other hand, in cold countries, where it is stingy, passions are born from needs, so in languages, the ugly daughters of necessity, their painful origin is noticeable.

Although man gets used to bad weather, to cold, to discomfort, and even to hunger, nature still succumbs at some point. Exposed to these cruel temptations, all that is weak dies; while everything else strengthens; there is no middle ground between virtue and death. This is why northerners are so robust: the climate did not make them so from the beginning, but only accepted those who were already like that, and it is not unusual for children to retain the strong build of their parents.

We already see that more robust people necessarily possess less sensitive organs; their voices are always hoarse and deep. After all, what is the difference between the touching inflections that arise from the restlessness of the soul, and the cries that arise from physical needs? In those terrible climates where everything is dead for nine months of the year, where the sun warms the air only for a few weeks to show the inhabitants what goods they are deprived of and prolong their suffering, in those regions where the earth yields something only when forced by human labor, and where the source of life seems to be more in the hands than in the heart, people, constantly occupied with supplies for the sake of survival, almost did not think about more delicate connections, everything came down to physical urge; opportunity meant choice, convenience meant choice. Idleness that feeds passions has given way to work that suppresses them. Before thinking about a happy life, you should think about life. A common need united men far better than feeling would have done, society was shaped solely through skills; the constant threat of death did not allow language to be limited to gesture, and the first word here was not love me (fr. aimez-moi), but help me (fr. aidez-moi).

Although quite similar, the two words are pronounced in a very different tone. Our intention was not at all to evoke feeling, but understanding; therefore, it was not energy, but clarity. We replaced the accent that the heart did not deliver with strong and noticeable articulations, and if some natural impression acted on the shape of the tongue, that impression additionally contributed to its hardness.

Actually, northerners are not people without passion, but their passions are of a different kind. In warm countries, it is a question of travel passions related to love and idleness. Nature takes care of the inhabitants to such an extent that they have almost nothing to do; if he has enough women and rest, the Asian man is satisfied. But in the north, where the inhabitants spend much on unyielding soil, people subjected to so many needs are easily irritated; everything that happens around them disturbs them: since they are barely surviving, the poorer they are the more attached they are to the little they have; to approach them is to make an attack on their life. That's where their impudence comes from, a temperament that will so quickly become enraged and turn against everything that bothers it. Therefore, their most natural voices are those that reflect anger and threats, and these voices are always accompanied by strong articulations that make them harsh and noisy.

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