RELATIONSHIP SUPPOSED TO EXIST AS BETWEEN THE GERMAN AND ENGLISH NATIONS
It is a common saying that there is a close relationship existing between the German and English nations. There is no greater fallacy than this. I contend that this relationship is of a very distant order, consisting, as it does, merely in words, or, as I have said, garments loosely flung around the sturdy, strong, and unalterable stem of English idiomatic expression. In every other respect there is a great dissimilarity and antagonism even, existing between these two peoples. If there is any analogy existing between them at all, it is one of opposition; one that is based on the idea that extremes meet (les extrêmes se touchent), their poles being diametrically opposed to each other.
There is no more relationship existing between (Anglo-Saxon) German and English than there is between (Norman) French and English; the German, French, and English languages each possessing their own especial and unalterable idiomatic expressions. Whatever foreign words either of them adopt must be subjected to their idiom, or keep floating along as best they may in their original character.
The entire aspect of these three nations, the French, English, and German, points to the fact that there must be a radical difference in their vital mode of existence. Just what this vital mode consists in, in respect to the two latter nations, I expect to still further establish in a future publication. Both languages traverse nearly the entire range of the vital organs in opposite directions. Hence the strength and also the weaknesses of these languages, as compared with other languages which, extending from side to side, have a smaller compass but a comparatively purer range of sounds. Regarding other nations and their languages, I trust others, thoroughly familiar with the same, by applying to their investigations similar principles, will establish similar facts.
Owing to its centrifugal tendency, it is necessary for English vocal utterance to open the mouth much wider than it is for German. Let a German open his mouth no farther for the enunciation of English than he is in the habit of opening it while speaking his own language, and he will not be able to utter a single sound. The same result will obtain when an Anglo-Saxon attempts to speak German on the same basis that he is in the habit of speaking his own language. Owing to the centripetal tendency of the German language, the mouth in speaking German is but slightly extended. That this respective widening and narrowing of, not only the mouth but of every other channel employed in bringing about vocal utterance, must tend to exercise a marked influence on Anglo-Saxon and German features will be obvious. The consequence is that the mouth of English-speaking persons in thus being extended has a broad yet narrow appearance, with rather thin and compressed lips, while the mouth of Germans in thus being contracted is comparatively smaller, with full and ripe lips. This feature is in conformity with all other features which, with Anglo-Saxons, are elongated, with Germans contracted.
Experiments regarding centrifugal and centripetal action can be made to good advantage by resting your head sideways on a pillow. In this position during vocal utterance you can feel these actions, and, feeling them, "measure" them. This mode of proceeding can be successfully adopted in many other experiments connected with these studies. I must warn the reader, however, again and again, that all this has reference only to languages spoken idiomatically correct. It has no reference whatever to foreign languages spoken in the usual mechanical manner.
LANGUAGE AND MOTION
I will now show that motion is the first impulse and primary condition of speech. I will give but a few examples at present, but expect to prove most exhaustively later on that motion must precede, or apparently at least, accompany vocal sounds always.
While standing up, straight, throw out your arms horizontally, then speak English. You will have no difficulty, but you will not be able to speak German so easily. Next, stand as before, and again throw out your arms horizontally, then drop them, letting them hang down close to your body. After doing so you will have no difficulty in speaking German, but you will not be able to speak English so readily. In throwing out your arms in the first instance, your mouth will open, and you will close it in speaking English. In letting them drop, in the second instance, your mouth will close, and you will open it in speaking German. Now, stand on the tips of your toes, and you will have no difficulty in speaking English, but you will not be able to speak German with ease. Then rest the weight of your body on your heels, and you will have no trouble in speaking German, but you cannot speak English with ease. In standing on the toes the body is extended by centrifugal, in standing on the heels it is contracted by centripetal action. Next, extend your neck, and you will have less trouble in speaking English than in speaking German; then lower your neck, and you will find no trouble in speaking German, but you will in speaking English. These experiments might be amplified manifold, but these must suffice for the present.
The same features of the opening and closing of the mouth in conformity with the position you assume, will obtain in all these instances the same as at first mentioned. It will scarcely be necessary for me to repeat that all this shows that the motion for English speech is centrifugal, for German centripetal. Nor will it be necessary to call attention to the fact that all this tends towards giving Germans a condensed and broad, Anglo-Saxons a lengthy and narrow bodily appearance.