[…] the individual learns his language, obtaining the spoken signs of which it is made up by imitation from the lips of others, and shaping his conceptions in accordance with them. It is thus that every existing language is maintained in life […] this is what maintains the prevailing identity of speech so long as the identity of the speaking community is maintained- aside from those great revolutions in their circumstances which now and then lead whole communities to adopt the speech of another people.
- Whitney (1875), a pag.32