До Адама

           IcallthemSOUNDS,ratherthanWORDS,becausesoundstheywereprimarily.Theyhadnofixedvalues,tobealteredbyadjectivesandadverbs.Theselatterweretoolsofspeechnotyetinvented.Insteadofqualifyingnounsorverbsbytheuseofadjectivesandadverbs,wequalifiedsoundsbyintonation,bychangesinquantityandpitch,byretardingandbyaccelerating.Thelengthoftimeemployedintheutteranceofaparticularsoundshadeditsmeaning.

           Wehadnoconjugation.Onejudgedthetensebythecontext.Wetalkedonlyconcretethingsbecausewethoughtonlyconcretethings.Also,wedependedlargelyonpantomime.Thesimplestabstractionwaspracticallybeyondourthinking;andwhenonedidhappentothinkone,hewashardputtocommunicateittohisfellows.Therewerenosoundsforit.Hewaspressingbeyondthelimitsofhisvocabulary.Ifheinventedsoundsforit,hisfellowsdidnotunderstandthesounds.Thenitwasthathefellbackonpantomime,illustratingthethoughtwhereverpossibleandatthesametimerepeatingthenewsoundoverandoveragain.

           Thuslanguagegrew.Bythefewsoundswepossessedwewereenabledtothinkashortdistancebeyondthosesounds;thencametheneedfornewsoundswherewithtoexpressthenewthought.Sometimes,however,wethoughttoolongadistanceinadvanceofoursounds,managedtoachieveabstractions(dimonesIgrant),whichwefailedutterlytomakeknowntootherfolk.Afterall,languagedidnotgrowfastinthatday.

           Oh,believeme,wewereamazinglysimple.Butwedidknowalotthatisnotknownto-day.