Note 11 — Chapter III · THE GREAT RIVER
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In explanation of this strange phenomenon, it was then suggested “that women, from their separate way of life, frame particular terms which men do not adopt.” Cicero observes that old forms of language are best preserved by women, because, by their position in society, they are less exposed to those vicissitudes of life, changes of place and occupation, which tend to corrupt the primitive purity of language among men.11