THE FUTURE OF LANGUAGE.
“Even as a hawke fleeth not hie with one wing, even so a man
reacheth not to excellency with one tongue.”--ROGER ASCHAM.
We have seen that philology offers no proof of a universal
primitive language. The question now arises, Is there any
probability of a universal future language? Does it seem likely
that the day will ever come when all men shall be of one
speech? The noble Indo-Germanic race has carried its power and
its conquests over a vast surface of the globe, and our own
tongue[268]--which receives by common consent the meed of the most
powerful of existing languages--is probably spoken by at least a
hundred millions of the human race. Have we any reason to believe
that English will hereafter prevail over every other dialect, and
become in some form or other the language of the world?
That the Arian race is the destined inheritor of the future world
seems clear to the least discriminating glance, because it has
proved itself to be the race most capable of perfectibility, and
therefore most worthy of power. But that any one language spoken by
the various branches of their race will ultimately prevail to the
exclusion of all others is an event which hardly seems probable;
if probable, it is still in the present state of the world
undesirable; and even were it certain, yet the permanent existence
of such a language is incompatible with the present condition of
human intelligence.
1. The development of a future universal language seems improbable.
It is true that dialects become merged in languages, and these
languages lost in others still more extensive, just as streams flow
into rivers, and rivers into the sea. It is true that diversity
of idioms is the characteristic of barbarism, and unity the slow
result of civilisation. But against these considerations we must
set the extraordinary tenacity of national associations and
national characteristics. However far we may look into the future,
we see nothing to show us that the distinctions of nations were
not intended to be as permanent as the oceans that divide them;
and nothing to make us expect that all humankind will be gathered
hereafter (in its present general condition) under one universal
empire, and into one school of religion and of thought.
2. But even were it probable that there would be only one language
hereafter, such a consummation would not be desirable, because it
would greatly hinder the search for truth, and would tend to reduce
men to a dead level of uniformity, a Chinese dryness and mediocrity
of intelligence. It is, indeed, conceivable that a universal growth
of mammon-worship, making merchandise almost the only occupation
of mankind, might tend to give to languages that form of practical
abbreviation which we find in telegraphic despatches, and which,
to economise phrases and expense, neglects grammar, and puts down
the smallest possible number of words, with no desire beyond that
of being barely understood.[269] But such abbreviation, useful as
it may be for certain purposes, would, if applied to all the forms
of language, despoil it for ever of all ornament and all poetic
charm, and so far from enabling us to rival the noble languages of
antiquity, would reduce us to a condition from which the instincts
of our race would inevitably break loose, to begin a fresh career
of discovery and thought.
“Truths,” said Coleridge,[270] “of all others the most awful and
interesting are too often considered so true that they lose all
the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the
soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.”
By frequent use, as by repeated attrition, the brightness and
beauty of a word is worn bare, and it requires a distinct effort
of attention to restore the full significance to the forms of
expression with which we are most familiar. “Hence it is,” says Mr.
Mill,[271] “that the traditional maxims of old experience, though
seldom questioned, have often so little effect on the conduct of
life, because their meaning is never, by most persons, really felt,
until personal experience has brought it home. And thus, also, it
is that so many doctrines of religion, ethics, and even politics,
so full of meaning and reality to first converts, have manifested
a tendency to degenerate rapidly into lifeless dogmas, which
tendency all the efforts of an education expressly and skilfully
directed to keeping the meaning alive are barely found sufficient
to counteract.” The weight and importance of these remarks will
best be felt by those who have observed how new and rare meanings
are perceived when we read the words, for instance, of Holy Writ
in their original language, and lose sight for a moment of those
groundless fancies with which long association has confused our
perception. To study the Bible in other languages than our own is
like looking upon the Urim and Thummim when, for him who rightly
consulted it, the fire of the divine messages flashed upon its
oracular and graven gems.
Hence language is most important, is almost indispensable to the
human race for the perpetual preservation of truths which would
otherwise be banished “to the lumber-room of the memory,” rather
than be prepared for use “in the workshop of the mind.” For words
are constantly acquiring new shades of meaning in consequence of
the things which they connote, and to such an extent is this the
case, that our quotations of an author’s actual words often involve
a gross anachronism, because his “pure ideas”[272] have often
become our “mixed modes.” If, for instance, we were to use the word
“gravitation” in translating various passages of ancient authors,
we might be led to assert that the great discovery of Newton had
been anticipated by hundreds of years; and yet we know that those
authors had no conception whatever of the law which that word
recalls to our minds.
Both in the history of the world, and in the growth of individual
intellects, the study of language has produced the noblest results.
To it more than to any other cause we owe the outburst of freedom
in thought which produced the Reformation, and the mighty advance
of humanity which followed that emancipation of the intellect of
Europe from the ignorance fostered by a depressing superstition;
and to it in very great measure we owe the matchless power and
beauty of our own tongue. “Indeed, the adoption of words from dead
languages into English has, above all other causes, tended to
increase the number of our simple ideas, because the associations
of such words being lost in the transfer they are at once refined
from all alloy of sense and experience.”
The old Roman poet,[273] proud in the unusual erudition which had
made him master of three languages, used to declare, that he had
three hearts, and his opinion has been echoed by a modern poet[274]
with emphatic commendation--
“Mit jeder Sprache mehr, die Du erlernst, befreist
Du einen bis daher in Dir gebundenen Geist,
Der jetzo thätig wird mit eigner Deukverbindung,
Die aufschliesst unbekannt gewesene Weltempfindung.
Ein alter Dichter, der nur dreier Sprachen Gaben
Besessen, rühmte sich der Seelen drei zu haben,
Und wirklich hätt’ in sich alle Menschengeister
Der Geist vereint, der recht wär’ alle Sprachen Meister.”
The Emperor Charles V. went still further, and declared that “in
proportion[275] to the number of languages which a man knew,
in that proportion was he more of a man.” There may have been
exaggeration in this expression, but at any rate it arose from
the conviction of an important truth. And we may add with Göthe
the undoubted certainty, “Wer fremde sprache nicht kennt, weiss
nichts von seiner eigenen.” Perhaps in this sentence we may find
the reasons why so few know their own language in half its richness
and power.
3. A universal language could not, in the present state of
human intelligence, last for any long period. New circumstances
of life, new discoveries of thought, new conquests of art and
science, would require new forms of expression. The influences
of climate and history would produce fresh revolutions in the
character of nations, and the change of character would necessitate
modifications of the prevalent idiom, which in the course of
time would diverge so widely from the parent language, as to be
unintelligible unless separately acquired. There is in language, as
we have seen repeatedly, an organic life; it is an incessant act of
creation, ever progressing, ever developing. To reduce it to one
stereotyped[276] and universal form would be to contradict the very
law of its being, by substituting an eternal immobility for that
power of growth and alteration which constitutes its very existence.
If all men be hereafter of one speech, it can only be after
they have arrived at a condition when knowledge has superseded
the necessity of inquiry, when intuition supplies the place of
discovery, and certainty has been substituted for faith. As far as
the science of philology can pronounce an opinion, we must infer,
that the familiar line will remain true henceforth as heretofore--
Πολλαὶ μὲν Θνητοῖς γλῶτται, μία δ’ Ἀθανάτοισι.
Mortals have many languages, the Immortals one alone.
APPENDIX.
A LIST OF SOME BOOKS, VALUABLE AS AIDS IN THE GENERAL STUDY OF
PHILOLOGY.
GERMAN.
_Bopp_, Vergleichende Grammatik.
_Bopp_, Vokalismus.
_Bopp_, Accentuationssystem.
_Grimm_, Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache. Berlin, 1858.
_Grimm_, Geschichte der Deutsch. Sprache.
_Grimm_, Ueber die namen der Donners. 1856.
_Heyse_, System der Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin, 1856.
_Steinthal_, Der Ursprung der Sprache. Berlin, 1858.
_W. von Humboldt_, Ueber die Verschiedenheit des Menschlichen
Sprachbaues. 1836.
_Steinthal_, Grammatik, Logik, und Psychologie. Berlin, 1855.
_Lersch_, Die Sprachphilosophie der Alten. Bonn, 1841.
_Weber_, Indische Skizzen. Berlin, 1857.
_Pott_, Etymologische Forschungen.
_Pott_, Die Ungleichheit Menschlicher Rassen.
_Schlegel_, Philosophische Vorlesungen. Wien. 1830.
_Schleicher_, Linguist. Untersuchungen.
_Zeuss_, Grammatica Keltica.
FRENCH.
_Renan_, De l’Origine du Langage. 2me ed. Paris, 1858.
_Renan_, Histoire et Système Comparés des Langues Sémitiques.
Paris, 1858.
_Benloew_, Aperçu Général de la Science Comparative des Langues.
Paris, 1858.
_Benloew_, De l’Accentuation dans les langues Indo-Européennes.
Paris, 1847.
_Charma_, Essai sur le Langage. Paris, 1846.
_Pictet_, Les Origines Indo-Européennes. Paris, 1859.
_Nodier_, Notions de Linguistique.
_Victor Cousin_, Cours de 1829, et Fragmens Philosophiques.
_Degerando_, Des signes et de l’art de penser.
_Balbi_, Introduction à l’atlas ethnographique du globe.
_Fauriel_, Dante et les Origines de la Langue et de la
Littérature Italienne.
_Thommerel_, Sur la Fusion de l’Anglo-Norman avec l’Anglo-Saxon.
ENGLISH.
_Horne Tooke_, Diversions of Purley.
_Harris_, Hermes.
_Bunsen_, Philosophy of Universal History.
_Max Müller_, Survey of Languages.
_Max Müller_, Oxford Essay on Comparative Mythology.
_Latham_, The English Language.
_Dr. Donaldson_, New Cratylus.
_Dr. Donaldson_, Varronianus.
_Garnett_, Philosophical Essays.
_Hensleigh Wedgwood_, Etymological Dictionary.
Transactions of the Philological Society.
I have here indicated a few only out of a very large number of
books which will be found useful by a Philological student. The
list might be very easily and very considerably enlarged, but
any one who once takes up the study will find in the books here
mentioned ample materials on which to commence. The questions
suggested by the study of Language are so closely connected
with those of Moral Philosophy, that almost every philosophical
work contains matter valuable to the Philologist. From Plato,
Aristotle, and Cicero, down to Locke and Leibnitz, there is no
great philosopher who has not in some degree entered on reasonings
respecting the nature and origin of Language. Perhaps there is
no more important result from the study of Language than the
greater clearness which it necessarily gives to our metaphysical
conceptions, and the attention which it necessarily turns to the
phenomena of the mind.
THE END.
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Σίβυλλα δὲ μαινομένῳ στόματι καθ’ Ἡράκλειτον ἀγέλαστα καὶ
ἀκαλλώπιστα καὶ ἀμύριστα φθεγγομένη χιλίων ἐτῶν ἐξικνεῖται τῇ φωνῇ
διὰ τὸν θεόν.--Plut. _de Pyth. Orac._ p. 397 et p. 627. Wytt.
Lapalle’s _Heraclitus_, p. 29.
[2] Sir John Stoddart. “Bei allem was Sprache heissen soll, wird
schlechterdings nichts weiter beabsichtiget, als die Bezeichnung
des Gedankens.”--Fichte, _Von der Sprachfähigkeit und dem Ursprunge
der Sprache_. “Die Sprache ist die Aeusserung des denkenden Geistes
in articulirten Lauten.”--Heyse, _System der Sprachwissenschaft_,
S. 35.
[3] Grimm, _Über den Ursprung der Sprache_, S. 11.
[4] Grimm, s. 52.
[5] Renan, _De l’Origine du Langage_. Deux. éd. p. 69.
[6] Bunsen, _On the Philosophy of Universal History_, ii. 126.
[7] Humboldt’s _Cosmos_, ii. 107-109, ed. Sabine.
[8] Philology has been well defined as the cognitio cogniti, and
Comparative Grammar, (the branch of Philology which occupies itself
with the study of the birth, the development, and the decadence of
various languages, together with their divergences and affinities),
has deserved the title of Θριγκὸς μαθημάτων φιλολογικῶν, “the
coping-stone of philological inquiries.” See _Science Comparative
des Langues_, par Louis Benloew. Paris, 1858.
[9] Thus, though Zend and Sanskrit are the oldest languages of the
Indo-European family, they are offsets of an _older_ primitive one.
“Among other evidences of this, may be mentioned the changes that
words had already undergone in Zend and Sanscrit from the original
form they had in the parent tongue; as in the number ‘twenty,’
which being in the Zend ‘_visaiti_,’ and in Sanscrit ‘_vinsaiti_,’
shews that they have thrown off the ‘d’ of the original ‘dva,’
two.”--Sir G. Wilkinson in Rawlinson’s _Herod_. i. p. 280.
[10] Charma, _Essai sur le Langage_, p. 60.
[11] “Ici comme ailleurs on a commencé par bâtir des systèmes, au
lieu de se borner à l’observation de faits.”--Abel Rémusat.
[12] Bunsen, _Phil. of Un. Hist._ i. 40. The philosophers who held
these views were called “Analogists,” while those who leaned to
the conventional origin of language were styled “Anomalists.” But
Plato and Aristotle admit the existence of both principles, and
have written on the subject with a depth of philosophical insight,
which, in spite of their defective knowledge, has never been
surpassed. See Humboldt’s _Cosmos_, i. 41, ii. 261.
[13] Plato’s _Cratylus_, p. 423, et passim; and Schleiermacher’s
Introduction. The great authority on the ancient views of philology
is Lersch, _Sprachphilosophie der Alten_. (Bonn, 1838-1841.)
The question which agitated the schools was, φύσει τὰ ὀνόματα ἢ
θέσει; it was generally decided in favour of the “Analogists,”
though often for frivolous reasons. See Aul. Gell. _Noct. Att._
x. 4. (Renan, p. 137.) Cf. Xen. _Mem._ iv. 6. 1. Arrian, _Epict._
i. 17, ii. 10. _Marc. Aur._ iii. 2; v. 8; x. 8. These views of
the _mimetic_ character of words (Arist. _Rhet._ iii. 1, 2), and
their _intrinsic_ connection with things, did not seem to be much
disturbed by the fact of the multiplicity of languages, although
this fact led Aristotle to place the conventional element first.
The very word βάρβαρος implies a lofty contempt for all languages
except Greek, and traces of a similar contempt may be found in the
vocabulary of many nations. Cf. Timtim, Zamzummim, &c., Renan, p.
178. Pictet’s _Origines Indo-Eur._ p. 56, seqq. (1 Cor. xiv. 11.)
[14] ὃς ἂν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐπίστηται ἐπίστασθαι καὶ τὰ πράγματα. Plato,
_Crat._ 435, _c._ In proof that Plato _did_ recognise both elements
of language--the absolute and the conventional, see _Crat._ 435,
_c._, and _Philol. Trans._ iii. 137. For an able exposition of the
_Cratylus_, see Dr. Donaldson’s _New Crat._ p. 93, seqq.
[15] Herodot. ii. 2.
[16] Raumer, _Gesch. der Hohenstaufen_, iii. 491, quoted by
Baehr, _Herod._ l. c. For some other theories on the primitive
language, see Cardinal Wiseman’s _Lectures on Science_, i. 19.
Becanus supposed seriously that Low Dutch was spoken in Paradise.
_Hermathena_, lib. ix. p. 204. “That children naturally speak
Hebrew,” is one of the vulgar errors which had to be exploded
even in the time of Sir T. Browne. _Vulg. Err._ v. ch. 26. When
James IV. of Scotland repeated the experiment of Psammetichus,
the infants were shut up with a dumb man, and spoke Hebrew
spontaneously! Basque, Swedish, Russ, &c., have all had their
advocates. Charma, _Essai sur le Langage_, p. 242, seqq. Leibnitz,
_Lettre à M. de Sparvenfeld_, § 8.
[17] Renan, p. 147.
[18] There are some noble remarks to this effect in Schlegel’s
_Philosophische Vorlesungen_. Wien. 1830. Hebrew scholars will
readily remember cases of the importance attached by the sacred
writers to the mere _sound_ of words; a remarkable instance may be
seen in Jer. i. 11, 12, and a curious play on sounds occurs in the
second verse of Genesis.
[19] Grimm, s. 12.
[20] “I am by no means clear that the dog may not have an analogon
of words.”--Coleridge. Similarly Plato attributes a διάλεκτος
to animals, adducing some very interesting proofs. See Clemens
Alexandr. _Strom._ i. 21, § 413. See, too, Thomson’s _Passions of
Animals_. “They also know, and reason not contemptibly.”--Milton.
[21] μέροπες βροτοί.--Homer, passim.
[22] As in the instance of Balaam.--Numb. 22. Cf. Tibull. ii. v.
78. Hom. _Il._ τ. 407, &c.
[23] Dr. Latham points out that this statement requires
modification; e.g., it is doubtful whether a _howl_, and not a
bark, is not the organic and instinctive sound uttered by dogs.
(_Encycl. Brit._ Art. _Language_.) Still we do not anticipate that
any one will dispute the general proposition. See Heyse, _System
der Sprachwissenschaft_, § 25.
[24] Grimm, 13, 14. “Language,” he adds (p. 17), “can only be
compared to the cries of animals, in respect that both are
subjected to certain physical conditions of organism.”
[25] “On a très judicieusement remarqué sur celle-ci,” says M.
Nodier, “que la seule induction qui en résultât naturellement, fort
concluante pour la langue primitive et immodifiable des chèvres ne
prouvoit rien en faveur de la première langue de l’homme; puisque
les chèvres formoient elles-mêmes d’une manière très-distincte les
deux articulations dont ces enfants avoient composé leur étroit
vocabulaire.” Sir Gardner Wilkinson discredits the whole story,
and supposes that it originated among the Greek ciceroni in Egypt,
because he thinks that children, unless artificially instructed,
would not have been able to get beyond the labial sound “be.”
(Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_, i. 251.) Surely this is merely a begging
of the question. The fact that the inference from the experiment
was one unfavourable to the national vanity of the Egyptians, is
only one of the reasons which induce us to credit its reality.
Larcher (ad loc.) rightly regards the ος as merely the Greek
termination.
[26] “Mutum et turpe pecus.”--Hor. _Sat._ i. 3. 99. Similar
views are to be found in Diod. Sic. i. 1; Vitruv. _Archit._
ii. 1. “Thrown as it were by chance on a confused and savage
land, an orphan abandoned by the unknown hand that had produced
him.”--Volney. Epicurus thought that men spoke just as dogs bark,
φυσικῶς κινούμενοι.
[27] Lucret. v. 1027-1089. The whole passage is one of remarkable
beauty and ingenuity. Neither Epicurus nor Lucretius excluded
altogether the innate element; v. Diog. Laert. x. 75, sq. Lucretius
rightly regards language as no less natural than gesticulation,
and so might have taught a lesson to Reid and Dugald Stewart. See
Fleming’s _Vocab. of Philosophy_, s. v. _Language_. The whole
theory is stated and ridiculed by Lactantius, _Institt. Divv._ vi.
10.
[28] He began
“In murmurs which his first endeavoring tongue Caught infant-like
from the far-foamèd sands.”
An extremely curious Esthonian legend (the only one which Grimm
has discovered bearing any resemblance to the Babel-dispersion)
seems to involve the same conception. God, seeing that population
was too crowded, determined to disperse men, by giving to each
nation a distinct tongue. Accordingly, he placed on the fire a
caldron full of water, and made the different races successively
approach, who appropriated respectively the various sounds of the
hissing and singing water.--Grimm, p. 28. Others have compared
with it the Mexican legend about the doves. See Winer, _Biblisches
Realwörterb._ s. v. _Sprache_.
[29] Spenser’s _Faërie Queen_.
[30] For assertions of the conventional character of language,
see Arist. περὶ Ἑρμηνείας, ii. 1. Plato, _Crat._ ad in. Harris,
_Hermes_, iii. 1. Locke, iii. 1-8. Fénelon, _Lettre sur les
occupations de l’Acad._ § 3. (These are quoted at length by Charma,
p. 208.) Smith, _Theory of the Moral Sentiments_, ii. 364. Grimm,
39, 40. Lersch, _passim_.
[31] Renan, p. 78.
[32] See Wiseman, p. 54. This theory of the development of human
language required the supposition of an indefinite period of human
existence; but even if this be freely admitted, it is impossible
to prove the _first step_ by which unarticulated sounds, the
_merely passive_ echoes of blind instincts or outward phenomena,
could develop into the expression of thought. See Bunsen, ii.
76. It would have been marvellous indeed, if man had by the mere
possession of vocal cries, not differing from those of animals,
been able to raise himself from the utterances of instinct and
appetite to express the emotions of admiration, hope, and love. See
Nodier, _Notions_, p. 14.
[33] Bunsen, ii. 130.
[34] Thus words and phrases repeatedly acquire a conventional
meaning for a generation, and then recur to their old sense. Almost
every sect, every profession, and even every family, have certain
words in use to which they attach a peculiar and special meaning,
which is sometimes unintelligible to others. M. Cousin has been
unable to discover the meaning which the Port-Royalists attached to
the word “machine.” See Charma, p. 209.
[35] Wilhelm von Humboldt, _Lettre à M. Abel Rémusat_. Paris, 1827.
[36] Grimm, § 28.
[37] In the following observations, I quote the thoughts of M.
Renan, pp. 81-83. I have not used inverted commas, because I have
often transposed and abbreviated his actual words. Very similar
are the excellent remarks of Nodier, which are too apposite to be
omitted. “On ne me soupçonnera pas d’être d’assez mauvais goût pour
avoir attendu à substituer mes théories aux faits de révélation....
Je crois fermement que la parole a été donnée à l’homme, comme je
le crois de toutes les facultés que la création a réparti entre les
créatures. Le seul point sur lequel j’ose différer des casuistes
du son littéral, c’est que ce don ne me paroît pas avoir consisté
dans la communication d’un système lexicologique tout fait,
&c.”--_Notions de Linguistique_, p. 9.
[38] A beautiful illustration of Herder’s will help to show our
meaning. “Observe,” he says, “this tree with its vigorous trunk,
its magnificent crown of verdure, its branches, its foliage, its
flowers, its fruits, raising itself upon its roots as on a throne.
Seized with admiration and astonishment, you exclaim, ‘It is
divine, divine!’ Now observe this little seed; see it hidden in
the earth, then pushing out a feeble germ, covering itself with
buds, clothing itself with leaves; you will again exclaim, ‘It is
divine!’ but in a manner more worthy and more intelligent.”
[39] Nothing has been more fatally prejudicial to the progress of
science than a theological bias in its votaries; and nothing more
fatal to the peace of true discoverers than its ignorant tyranny.
Adelung shows true wisdom in prefacing his _Mithridates_ with the
statement, “Ich habe keine Lieblingsmeinung, keine Hypothese zum
Grunde zu legen. Noah’s Arche ist mir eine Verschlossene Burg, und
Babylon’s Schutt bleibt vor mir völlig in seiner Ruhe.”
[40] It seems to me, however, that Grimm’s special arguments on
this subject are weak (p. 26); he is clearly right in pointing out
the futility of such conjectures as those of Lessing, that language
was made known to man by intercourse with intermediate spirits.
(Lessing, _Sämmtl. Schriften_, Bd. 10.)
[41] _Préface aux Œuvres Philos. de Maine de Biran_, iv. p. xv.
[42] Charma, _Essai sur le Langage_, p. 129.
[43] Dr. Whewell, _Hist. of Ind. Science_, iii. 504. A host of
eminent authorities, from Bacon down to Sir John Herschel, have
said the same thing;--hitherto, alas, in vain! See Herschel’s
_Letter to Dr. Pye Smith_. Mill’s _Dissert._ i. 435-461. Renan,
_Hist. Rel._ xxvii. Charma, p. 248.
[44] St. Gregory of Nyssa has expressed himself on this subject
with startling freedom of thought. He alludes with ironic pity to
those who speak of the Deity as the fabricator of Adam’s language,
an opinion which he expressly calls a sottish and ridiculous
vanity, quite worthy of the extravagant presumption of the Jews.
And on the subject of Babel, he says, “The confusion of tongues
must be necessarily attributed to the will of God according to the
theologic point of view, but according to the truth of history it
is the work of man.”--_Contra Eunomium, Or._ xii. p. 782. Nodier,
p. 56. St. Augustin distinctly implies the same thing.--_De Ord._
ii. 12.
[45] Since writing the above, I have met with another Biblical
argument in favour of the Revelation of Language, drawn from Gen.
i. 5. καὶ τὸ μὲν φῶς ἐκάλεσεν ὀ Θεὸς ἡμέραν, τὸ δὲ σκότος νύκτα·
ἐπεί τοι γε ἄνθρωπος οὐκ ἂν ᾔδει καλεῖν τὸ φῶς ἡμέραν ἢ τὸ σκότος
νύκτα. ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ μὲν τὰ λοιπὰ, εἰ μὴ τὴν ὀνομασίαν εἰλήφει ἀπὸ τοῦ
ποιήσαντος ἀυτὰ Θεοῦ.--Theophil. _ad Autolyc._ ii. 18. ed. Wolf.
p. 140. I present this argument without reply to any one who is
convinced by it.
[46] Stewart, _Phil. of the Mind_, iii. 1.
[47] “This method of referring words immediately to God as
their framer, is a short cut to escape inquiry and explanation.
It saves the philosopher much trouble, but leaves mankind in
great ignorance, and leads to great error. _Non dignus vindice
nodus._ God having furnished man with senses, and with organs of
articulation, as he has also with water, lime, and sand, it should
seem no more necessary to form the words for man, than to temper
the mortar.”--_Divers. of Purley_, Pt. i. ch. 2.
[48] Gen. ii. 19, 20.
[49] e.g. There is no hint of _grammar_, the very blood of
language. “Une Langue n’est pas une seule collection des
mots.”--Cousin, _Cours de 1829_, iii. 212.
[50] Renan, p. 85. See an eloquent passage of Schlegel’s to the
same effect, quoted in Wiseman’s _Lect._ i. 108. Pythagoras
probably had some vague sentiment of the kind when he said that
“the name-giver” was both the most ancient and the most rational of
men. The Egyptians worshipped Theuth as the Regulator of Language;
and the Chinese referred its origin to their great mysterious King
Fohi. See Cic. _Tusc. Disp._ i. 28. Lersch, _die Sprachphilos. der
Alten_. Bonn, 1838, i. 23-29.
[51] Bunsen, i. 49.
[52] The fact that man is a social animal (ζῶον πολιτικὸν) which
has been so strangely urged by the advocates of a revealed
language, from Lactantius down to M. de Bonald and the Abbé
Combalot, in no way militates against this conclusion.
[53] Heyse, _System der Sprachwissenschaft_, § 50.
[54] Schlegel.
[55] Wil. von Humboldt.
[56] Grimm.
[57] Renan.
[58] The Revelation of Language is supported in a book by J. S.
Süssmilch, Berlin, 1766. An excellent review of the main opinions
is given by R. W. Zobel, _Gedanken über die verschiedenen_
_Meinungen der Gelehrnten von Ursprunge der Sprachen_. Magdeb. 1733.
[59] See Franck’s _Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques_, Art.
_Signes_. I must here again caution the reader that the view here
supported is _not_ the conventional theory of language condemned in
the last chapter, although it might easily become so in the hands
of a person inclined to look at the physiological rather than the
psychological aspects of the question.
[60] This is an expression of F. Schlegel’s (_Philos. Vorlesungen_,
p. 78-80). Renan also quotes the authority of Humboldt and Goethe.
[61] “Seht, es ist schwer zu denken auf welche Art man denkt....
Ich denke, und mit dem Zeuge, womit ich denke, soll ich denken wie
dieses Zeug beschaffen sei,” &c.--Tieck, _Blaubart_, act. ii. sc.
1.
[62] We are, for instance, obliged entirely to pass over the
question as to the Primum Cognitum, on which see Sir W. Hamilton’s
_Lectures_, ii. 319-331.
[63] “One might be tempted to call Language a kind of Picture of
the Universe, where the words are as the figures and images of
all particulars.”--Harris’s _Hermes_, p. 330. This is something
like Plato’s curious notion that words are a μίμησις of external
things.--Heyse, _System_, s. 24. ἐοικέναι γὰρ τὰ ὀνόματα ... εἰκόσι
τῶν ὁρατῶν.--Heraclitus, _ap. Ammonium ad Arist. de Interp._ p. 24.
Democritus called them ἀγάλματα φωνήεντα.
[64] Garnett’s _Essays_, p. 281-341.
[65] Quoted by Mr. Garnett, p. 283.
[66] Grimm, 29-31. Compare Heyse, _System_, s. 28. “Nur was gedacht
ist, kann gesprochen werden; und das klar gedachte ist nothwendig
auch ansprechbar.” What St. Paul saw in his rapture was only
unutterable because it recalled no human analogon. (2 Cor. xii. 4.)
[67] Manudscha, Goth. Manniska, Germ. Mensch; from the root man,
“to think.” Compare φράζειν, “to speak,” and φράζεσθαι, “to
think.”--Heyse, s. 40. Turner ad Herod, ii. 7.
[68] “Speech,” says Humboldt, “is the necessary condition of the
thought of the individual.” The statement should at least be
qualified by the word “now.” For some allusions to this interesting
discussion, see Archbishop Whately’s _Logic_, ch. ii. M. de Bonald
_assumed_ the reverse: “L’homme pense sa parole _avant_ de parler
sa pensée.” See, too, Mill’s _Logic_, ii. 201. Charma, p. 134.
Of course the short-hand of human intelligence is too infinitely
rapid and abbreviated for us to be always able to read it off with
facility; or, as Mr. Tennyson expresses it,
“Thought leapt out to wed with thought, Ere thought could wed
itself to speech;”
but we are inclined to believe that without _some_ signs (not
necessarily words--see Charma, _Essai sur le Langage_, p. 50)
thought could not exist. When we cannot express what we mean, the
reason probably is that we have no _clear_ meaning. “Die Sprache
ist nichts anderes als der in die Erscheinung tretende Gedanke, und
beide sind innerlich _nur eins und das selbe_.”--Becker, _Organism.
der Sprache_, p. 2. “Sans signes nous ne penserions presque
pas.”--Destutt de Tracy, _Idéologie_, pt. xvii. Plotinus distinctly
asserts the contrary. Τὸ δὴ λογιζόμενον τῆς ψυχῆς οὐδένος πρὸς τὸ
λογίζεσθαι δεόμενον σωματικοῦ ὀργάνου.--_Ennead_, v. 1, ch. 10.
[69] _In Memoriam._
[70] See Harper, _on the Force of the Greek Tenses_.
[71] _Der Ursprung der Sprache._ Berlin, 1851. We closely follow M.
Renan’s exposition as given in his preface, pp. 31, sq. Heyse sums
it up in one sentence, “Man kann mithin in dem Worte ein dreifaches
Moment unterscheiden: 1. die Lautform; 2. das dadurch bezeichnete
in Sprachbewusstsein liegende Merkmal der Vorstellung; 3. den
reinen Begriff, welchen der denkende Geist in seiner Erhebung über
die Individuelle Vorstellungsweise bildet, und als dessen Zeichen
ihm gleichfalls das Wort dienen muss.”--Heyse, _System_, s. 160.
[72] Garnier, _Traité des facultés de l’Ame_. Renan, p. 90.
[73] _Motus animi._ In the origin of language, the spontaneous
awakening of a sense of the _possibility_ of expressing thought
by speech, was in point of fact simultaneous with the production
of an objective Language as the material in which the awakened
intelligence could find expression. Heyse, s. 47.
[74] See _ante_.
[75] On this law of association, see Sir W. Hamilton’s _Lectures_,
i. 366.
[76] Exclamations, natural interjections would probably be the
first to acquire significance.
[77] In some savage languages abstraction is at the lowest ebb.
Thus, in Iroquois, there is no word for “good” in the abstract,
but only words for “a good man,” &c.; and in Mohican there is no
verb for “I love,” independent of the forms which involve the
object of the affection, as “I love him,” “I love you.”--Adelung’s
_Mithrid._ iii. b. p. 397. So again the Chinese in many cases
cannot express the simple conception without a periphrasis, and
have words for “elder brother” and “younger brother,” but not for
“brother.”--Humboldt.
[78] See Gesenius, _Lehrgebäude_, p. 479. Ewald’s _Hebrew Grammar_,
§ 201. “The Mandschou is most like the Semitic here; in it the
origin is still plainer, since _ama_ means father, _eme_ mother,
according to the uniform distinction of _a_ as the stronger, and
_e_ as the weaker vowel.”--Renan, _Hist. des Langues Sémitiques_,
p. 452. Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_, i. 481.
[79] Similarly it has been observed by M. Nodier that the most
ancient names of God are composed only of the softest and simplest
vowels (_Notions_, p. 15). This reminds us of the famous oracle,
φράζεο τὸν πάντων ὕπατον θεὸν ἔμμεν’ Ιάω.
[80] _Über den Ursprung_, &c., p. 35.
[81] It is strange that the French language should not have adopted
the same course as the English, in discarding this useless rag of
antiquity. The influences which led to the decision of genders in
any particular case were purely fanciful.
[82] Renan, p. 28.
[83] Rousseau, _Essai sur l’Origine des Langues_.
[84] _Notions_, p. 24 sqq. The remarks on the labials are too
amusing to be omitted. “Le bambin, le poupon, le marmot a trouvé
les trois labiales; il bée, il baye, il balbutie, il bégaye, il
babille, il blatère, il bêle, il bavarde, il braille, il boude,
il bouque, il bougonne sur une babiole, sur une bagatelle, sur
une billevesée, sur une bêtise, sur un bébé, sur un bonbon, sur
un bobo, sur le bilboquet pendu à l’étalage du bimbelotier. Il
nomme sa mère et son père avec des mimologismes caressants, et
quoiqu’il n’ait encore découvert que la simple touche des lèvres,
l’âme se meut déjà dans les mots qu’il module au hasard. Ce Cadmus
au maillot vient d’entrevoir un mystère aussi grand à lui seul que
tout le reste de la création. Il parle sa pensée.” Want of space
alone compels us to refrain from transcribing the remarks on the
progress of infants and of society to the dentals. We must say,
however, that such speculations must be very sparingly indulged by
sober philologists. Many of them, at first sight plausible, were
refuted by Plato long ago in the _Cratylus_, and they lead to a
grammatical mysticism which has been well exposed by M. Charma,
_Essai_, p. 213.
[85] By roots we do not mean words used in the primitive language,
but rather “skeletons of articulate sound.” “They are merely the
fictions of grammarians to indicate the _core_ of a group of
related words.”--Hensleigh Wedgwood’s _Etymolog. Dict._ p. iii. For
some remarks on the nature of roots, see Donaldson’s _New Cratyl._
bk. iii. ch. 1. Ewald’s _Hebrew Gram._ § 202. This naked kernel of
a family of words is often best found in the _youngest_ dialects,
e.g. _kind_ (child) from γίγνομαι, genitum, &c. Grimm, _Deutsche
Gramm._ ii. 5. 3. Bopp. _Vgl. Gramm._ s. 131.
[86] One or two philosophers (e.g. Kircher, Becher, Dalgarno, Bp.
Wilkins, Descartes, Leibnitz) have amused themselves with the
invention of languages quite arbitrary, in which every word was
to be accurately determined; but no artificial language actually
used has ever thus arisen. The German _rothwelsch_, the Italian
_gergo_, the French _narquois_, the English “_thieves’ language_,”
the _lingua franca_ which serves for commercial purposes on the
shores of the Mediterranean, the strange jargon spoken by the
Chinese and English at Hong Kong, &c., have all arisen from _a
corruption of existing languages_ by metaphors, new words, new
meanings, derivation, composition, &c. See Leibnitz, _Nouv. Essai
sur l’Entendement Humain_, iii. I. 2.
[87] Mr. Garnett, _Essays_, p. 105. Latham, _Lect. on Language_.
[88] What, for instance, is the origin of the initial σ in such
words as σμικρὸς, σφάλλω, or of the initial vowels in ὄνομα, ὀδοὺς,
ἀμέλγω, &c.?--Garnett, p. 107.
[89] When a boy answers a lady in the words “Yes, ’m,” he is not
aware that his “’m” is a fragment of the five syllables mea domina
(madonna, madame, madam, ma’am, ’m.) “Letters, like soldiers,
being very apt to desert and drop off in a long march.”--_Divers.
of Purley_, pt. i. ch. vi. “Les noms des saints et les noms des
baptêmes les plus communs en sont un exemple.”--De Brosses.
[90] See _Philological Transactions_, v. 133 sq.
[91] _Phil. Trans._ v. 133 sq. “The facility with which unusual or
difficult words are corrupted is being at this moment strikingly
illustrated in the numerous Spanish words introduced into our
language through the American conquests in Mexico; cañon, estancia,
stampedo, &c., are already altered in form.”--R.G.
[92] _Engl. Lang._ i. p. 356, 4th ed. St. Aldhelm’s Head, in
Dorsetshire, is always pronounced and generally written St.
Alban’s Head, although St. Alban had no connection with it.
Penny-come-quick was a very natural corruption of Pen, Coombe,
and Ick, the former name for Falmouth. These words form a curious
chapter in the history of language. There is no doubt that the
mythological legends of a later period are largely suggested by the
corruption of names, as in the case of _Aphrodite_, _Dionysus_, &c.
The fiction of an Oriental nation provided with a two-fold tongue
(Diod. Sic. ii.) might easily spring from the word δίγλωσσος. See
many such instances in Lersch. iii. 6 fg. The Greek Ἱεροσόλυμα
presents a _double_ instance of this, being corrupted from
יְרוּשָּׁלַיִם, which is itself probably a corruption of the old
Canaanite name for Jerusalem. _Dict. of Bibl. Ant._ s. v.
[93] The instance is a pure supposition, for sherbet, syrup, and
shrub are from the same Arabic root, coming to us from three
different sources.--Latham.
[94] We know of very few words _invented_ on simply arbitrary
grounds. “Sepals” was devised by Neckar to express each division of
the calyx (Whewell, _Hist. Ind. Sc._ ii. 535), and yet we see at
once that it is only a very slight alteration of the word “petals,”
and this no doubt was the reason, not only for the choice of it,
but also for the ready currency which it obtained. The term “Od
force” is another instance. Chemistry at one period affected to
give to simple bodies only such names as were destitute of all
significance; but it abandoned this practice in consequence of
the absurdities and impossibilities which it involved. (v. Renan,
p. 148.) Thus, “_sulfite_” and “_sulfate_” are due to Guyton de
Morveau. (Charma, p. 66.) “_Ellagic_” acid is the name given by M.
Braconnot to the substance left in the process of making pyrogallic
acid, and it is derived from Galle read backwards (_Hist. Ind. Sc._
ii. 547); but such terms are justly reprobated by men of science.
Even proper names, which some have supposed to be often arbitrary,
are in almost every case found capable of a real etymology. “Ils
n’ont pas, plus que les autres mots, été imposés sans _cause_,
ni fabriqués _au hasard_, seulement pour produire une bruit
vague.”--De Brosses. This was noticed very early; see _Schol. ad
Hom. Od._ xix. 406.
[95] Renan, p. 122.
[96] Nodier, p. 39. See, too, Garnett’s _Essays_, p. 89.
[97] Bunsen, _Outlines_, s. ii. 84. 78.
[98] _Essais de Phil. Morale_, p. 344. (The word שָׁמַיִם comes
from a root signifying height.) Several of the instances in this
paragraph are from M. Vinet.
[99] “Augustus himself, in the possession of that power which
ruled the world, acknowledged that he could not make a new Latin
word.”--Locke, iii. 2. 8.
[100] Renan, p. 143. “Though the origin of most of our words is
forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained
currency, because for the moment it symbolised the world to the
speaker and the hearer.... As the limestone of the Continent
consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so
language is made up of images and tropes, which now in their
secondary use have long ceased to remind us of their poetic
origin.”--Emerson, _Ess. on the Poet_.
[101] Take, for instance, the word “fal-lals,” borrowed from the
burden of a song, and often used to describe female vanities. Does
not this word afford a curious analogy to the word “falbala,” the
origin of which (to express similar articles) has occupied the
attention of distinguished philosophers? It has been explained as
follows. It is said that a witty prince of the eighteenth century
once entered an elegant shop, and determined to try to the utmost
the assurance of the (probably pretty) milliner. He therefore
asked for a _falbala_, inventing the oddest vocable he could think
of. With admirable but unconscious insight into the principle of
language, the undisturbed female at once brought him the garniture
de robe called volant, which ended in light floating points. She
instinctively caught the notion involved in flabella, flammula,
&c.--Nodier, p. 211. The story is told differently by De Brosses,
_Form Méch._ ch. xvi. § 14. The word has excited much discussion.
Leibnitz connects it with _fald-plat_, and Hoffman with _furbelow_.
Charma, p. 306. The murderer, Pierre Rivière, invented the word
_ennepharer_ for the torture to which he used, when a boy, to
subject frogs; and the word _calibène_ for the instrument which
he constructed to kill birds. Charma, p. 66. Du Mérit notices
the purely musical names which children instinctively give to
those who inspire them with strongly marked feelings of love.
“Rumpelstiltskin,” the name of the imp in the fairy tale, is a good
instance of the reverse.
[102] It is mainly among the people, rather than with philosophers,
that the power of inventing names has lingered. Some write the name
Plonplon, and make it a familiar abbreviation of Napoleon; but
accomplished Frenchmen give differing accounts of the word.
[103] “Ὄνομα ποίεω. Ὀνοματοποιΐα est dictio ad imitandum sonum
vocis conficta, ut cum dicimus _hinnire_ equos, _balare_ oves,
_stridere_ valvas.” Charis. iv. p. 245. Lersch, i. 129-232. The
Latins call it “fictio nominis.”
[104] Renan, p. 136. We have already endeavoured to guard against
the misconception that language is in any sense a _result_ of
imitation: a mere power of imitating the sounds of nature belongs
to animals as well as to man.--Heyse, s. 91, and supra ch. i.
[105] Wedgwood’s _Etym. Dict._ p. v. It is necessary to be
cautious, of course, in deducing the processes of language from the
observation of children. See Heyse, s. 47. The word moo-cow is a
mixture of pure onomatopœia, and onomatopœia after it has become
conventional.
[106] See the lists of such vocabularies in the _Transactions of
the Philol. Soc._
[107] Wedgwood, p. v.
[108] L. 45. “Proprium tigridis, a sono. Alii leg.
_raucant_.”--Forcellini, _Lex._
[109] Wedgwood, p. vi. The name is not native probably, for the
native tribe-names mostly end in qua; as Griqua, Namaqua, &c.
[110] Nodier, p. 79 seq. Dr. Pickering quotes an account of the
_original people_ of Malay, in which it is said that “their
language is not understood by any one: they lisp their words, _the
sound of which is like the noise of birds_.” (_Races of Man_. Bohn
ed. p. 305.)
[111] Bunsen, _Outlines_, ii. 82. The poet Shelley implied the same
thought in _Alastor_:
“I wait breath, Great Parent, that my song May _modulate_ with
motions of the air, And murmurs of the forest and the sea, And
voice of living beings, and woven hymns Of night and day, and _the
deep heart of man_.”
[112] Locke _on the Human Understanding_, iii. I. § 1, 2.
[113] Harris’s _Hermes_, bk. ii. ch. 2, 3rd ed. p. 325.
[114] Renan, p. 139, quoting Adelung, _Mithrid._ i. p. xiv.
Grimm, _Über die Namen des Donners_. (Berlin, 1855.) If the words
“tonitru,” “donner,” &c., be not originally onomatopœian, as some
assert (who derive them from _tan_, Gr. τείνειν), they _became_ so
from a feeling of the need that they should be.--Heyse, s. 93.
[115] Wedgwood, p. 5. The word “pouf” is also used of falling
bodies, as in the Macaronic verse, “De brancha in brancham
degringolat atque facit ‘_pouf_.’” It would be interesting to trace
the causes for the divergencies in sound of obvious onomatopœian
words in various languages: e.g. it is clear that “ding-dong” could
only be used to denote the sound of a bell in a country possessing
large heavy bells, and therefore churches. The sound _bil_ or
bell (Cf. t_in_t_in_nab_u_lum), expressive of a clear sharp
tinkle, would naturally be used by a people, like the Galla, only
accustomed to the small bells sold as trinkets by foreign traders.
Among the Suaheli languages (out of five words given in Krapf’s
vocabulary), no word for a bell at all resembles the sound. I am
indebted to my friend, Mr. Garnett, for these remarks, as well as
for other ingenious suggestions.
[116] Wedgwood, _Etymol. Dict._
[117] Nodier, p. 41. Even when the sound is no guide, _different_
characteristics are chosen by different nations to furnish a
name. The names “_fledermaus_,” “_flittermouse_,” are suggested
like “_chauve souris_,” by the structure of the bat; νυκτερὶς and
_vespertilio_ by its habits; if the differentia of the animal be
_very_ marked, its name will probably be derived from it in all
languages, as _noctiluca_, glow-worm, _luccio_lato, ver _luisant_,
&c.; yet even then not in all, as _Johannis-wurm_. Compare again
σεισιπυγὶς, _motacilla_, _cutretta_, _wagtail_, with _Bachstelze_,
_hoche-queue_, &c. If the bird be rare, it is much more likely
to have numerous names, because the observation of each casual
observer as to its chief attribute is not liable to so much
revision. Take as an instance the night-jar, which is also called
fern-owl, churn-owl, goat-sucker, wheel-bird, dorhawk, &c. See,
too, Garnett’s _Essays_, pp. 88, 89.
[118] “The _physiognomy_, however, of a group of languages remains
unaffected by the divergency of their vocabularies; e.g. almost
every word in the Ethiopic family of languages contains a liquid
generally in connection with a mute as its most prominent and
essential feature.”--R. G.
[119] It is represented as a punishment in some legends, as in the
fragment of Abydenus, &c., quoted by Euseb. _Præp. Ev._ ix. 14.
Joseph. _Antt._ I. iv. 3. Plat. _Polit._ p. 272. Plin. vii. 1.
xi. 112. But see Abbt’s Dissertation, “_Confusionem linguarum non
fuisse pœnam humano generi inflictam_.” Hal. 1758.
[120] καὶ περιΐστα δὲ κατ’ ὄλιγον εἰς τυραννίδα τὰ
πράγματα.--Joseph. _Antt._ I. iv. 2.
[121] 1 Cor. xiii. 8; Rev. vii. 9; Zach. viii. 23; Zeph. 9, &c.
[122] “Trotz alle dem,” is Freiligrath’s rendering of Burns’ “for
a’ that.” I may remark here, that many of these instances are
borrowed from Mr. Wedgwood’s _Etymol. Dictionary_, of which the
first part only is yet printed. This work, although not free from
errors, has the merit of having put forward some very clear and
original views on this subject.
[123] Abridged from Mr. Wedgwood in the _Phil. Transac._ ii. 118.
[124] Latham _on the Engl. Lang._ 4th ed. p. xlix. Heyse, _System_,
s. 73 fg.
[125] Traces of this feeling are found in Quinctilian (_Instt.
Orr._ i. 5). “Sed minime nobis concessa est ὀνοματοποιία.... Jamne
hinnire et balare fortiter diceremus, nisi judicio vetustatis
niterentur?” See, too, viii. 6. Other passages quoted by Lersch
(_Sprachphilosophie_, i. s. 130), are Varro (_L. L._ v. p. 69);
Diomed. iii. p. 453, &c. Plato calls it ἀπείκασμα, and the
Grammarians ἀπὸ ἤχους.
[126]
“La gentile alouette avec son tire lire, Tire l’ire aux fachez, et
tire-lirant tire Vers la route du ciel: puis son vol vers ce lieu
Vire, et désire dire à dieu Dieu, à dieu Dieu.”
The verse seems to me too laboured and unnatural.
[127] “Many at least of the celebrated passages that are cited
as imitative in sound, were, on the one hand, not the result
of accident, nor yet on the other hand of study; but the idea
(?) in the author’s mind spontaneously suggested appropriate
sounds.”--Archbp. Whately’s _Rhetoric_, iii. s. 2.
[128] _Essai sur les fondements de la psychologie._ The same
psychologist in his Essay on the Origin of Language says of those
who maintain a revealed language, that they give us “comme article
de foi une hypothèse arbitraire et amphibologique.”--_Œuvres Inéd.
de Maine de Biran_, iii. pp. 229-278.
[129] See some admirable remarks to this effect in Mr. F. Whalley
Harper’s excellent book on the _Power of Greek Tenses_.
[130] Donaldson’s _New Cratylus_, p. 220, 4th ed.
[131] Donaldson’s _Greek Grammar_, s. 67-79.
[132] For the development and more clear enunciation of these
views, we must refer to the works quoted.
[133] Donaldson’s _New Crat._ ch. ii. Plato (_Crat._ p. 435)
thought the numerals offered a proof that at least _some_ part of
language must be the result of convention and custom (συνθήκη καὶ
ἔθος).
[134] Bopp’s _Comparative Grammar_, § 311.
[135] Dr. Donaldson aptly compares (_New Crat._ § 154) the
vulgarism “number one” as a synonym for the first person, and
“proximus sum egomet mihi.”
[136] Bopp’s _Comparative Grammar_, §§ 309, 323. Donaldson’s _New
Crat._ ch. ii.; _Greek Gram._ § 246. For the Hebrew numerals see
_Maskil-le Sophir._ pp. 41 sq. by the same author. Other works
are Pott, _Die quinäre und vigesimale Zählmethode._ Halle, 1847.
Mommsen, in Höfer’s _Zeitschr. für die Wiss. der Spr._ Heft 2,
1846. In Greenland the word for 20 is “a man,” (i.e. fingers + toes
= 20); and for 100 the word is _five men_, &c.! It might have been
thought that particles were eminently (what Aristotle calls them)
φωναὶ ἄσημοι, and yet even _their_ pedigree may be traced; and in
fact no clear line of distinction can be drawn between them and the
φωναὶ σημαντικαί.--Heyse, s. 108 ff.
[137] For instance, we find M. A. Vinet (_Essais de Philos.
Morale_, p. 323) speaking of the verb as the word which founds,
or, so to speak, creates an ideal world side by side with the real
world, and of which the real world is either the expression or
the type. The word “verb” has often been dwelt on as showing the
importance attached to this part of speech; the German “_zeitwort_”
is more to the purpose. The Chinese call it _ho-tseu_, or the
living word (Silvestre de Sacy, _Principes de Gram. Gén._ i. ch. 1.)
[138] Compare the Italian _stare_, Spanish _estar_. Prof. Key
(_Trans. of Phil. Soc._ vol. iv.) quotes an anecdote of a lady
who had to tell her African servant, “Go and fetch big teacup, he
_live_ in pantry.” We cannot, however, accept his derivations of
“esse” from “edo,” and “vivo” from “bibo.”
[139] See Renan, p. 129. Becker, _Organism der Sprache_, p. 58. In
point of fact, the conception of existence in untaught minds is
generally concrete, and often grossly material. Vico mentions the
fact, that peasants often say of a sick person “he still eats,” for
“he still lives.” “In the Lingua Franca the more abstract verbs
have disappeared altogether; ‘to be’ is always expressed by ‘to
stand,’ and ‘to have’ by ‘to hold.’
‘Non _tener_ honta Questo _star_ la ultima affronta.’
This shows the tendency of language to degradation when not upheld
by literary culture and elevated thought. Barbarism proved as
efficacious in materialising the conception of the Latin races, as
in sweeping away the niceties of their grammar. To this day the
Spaniards say, _tengo hambre_, for _esurio_.”--R. G.
[140] See Wedgwood, p. xvii.
[141] Who would have thought _à priori_ that the word “stranger”
has its root in the single vowel _e_, the Latin preposition for
“from”? Yet we see it to be so, “the moment that the intermediate
links of the chain are submitted to our examination,--e, ex, extra,
extraneus, étranger, stranger.”--Dugald Stewart, _Philos. Es._ p.
217, 4th ed.
[142] Adelung, _Mithridates_, iii. 6, p. 325.
[143] Benloew, _De la Science Comp. des Langues_, p. 22.
[144] _Essay on English Dialects_, p. 64.
[145] Still more strange are the variations presented by the root
ἄω. See Leibnitz, _Nouv. Ess. sur l’Entendement Humain_, iii. 2. 2;
and Donaldson’s _New Crat._ p. 476.
[146] _New Crat._ p. 80.
[147] The “lucus à non lucendo” principle, which explained various
positive words as though they were derived from the _absence_ of
the quality they attributed, has long been given up by all sound
scholars. Of course such names as Euxinus, Beneventum, Εὐμενίδες,
“good folk,” “crétin,” “natural,” &c., arise in a totally
different manner, as well as the name Parcæ, absurdly derived “a
non parcendo.” The supposed instances of “Antiphrasis,” as the
grammarians called it, are eminently absurd, e.g. Varro, _L. L._
iv. 8: “Cœlum, contrario nomine _celatum_, quod apertum est.”
Donat. _de Trop._ p. 1778: “Bellum, hoc est minimè bellum.” They
confused it with irony and euphemism. See Lersch, i. s. 132, 133.
[148] _Essays_, p. 284 sq.
[149] _Dict. des Sciences Philosoph._ p. 646. Locke _on the Under._
III. ii. 6.
[150] Thus the long opposition to the Newtonian theory in France
rose mainly from the influence of the word “attraction.” See
Comte’s _Pos. Philos._ (Martineau’s ed.) i. p. 182. For the
tremendous consequences of the introduction of the term “_landed
proprietor_” into Bengal, see Mill’s _Logic_, ii. 232. It caused
“a disorganisation of society which had not been introduced into
that country by the most ruthless of its barbarian invaders.”
“Fetish,” as adopted by the negroes from the Portuguese, “feitição”
(sorcery), is an instance of a word changing meaning with the
feeling of the speakers.
[151] ἤθους χαρακτήρ ἐστι τ’ ἀνθρώπου λόγος.--Stob. The language of
a people expresses its genius and its character.--Bacon, _De Augm.
Scient._ vi. i. Cf. Diog. Laert. p. 58. Quinct. xi. p. 675. Cic.
_Tusc. Disp._ v. 16.
[152] Ἔστι μὲν οὖν τὰ ἐν τῇ φωνῇ τῶν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ παθημάτων
σύμβολα.--Arist. _De Interp._ I. i.
[153] Nodier, p. 65.
[154] Victor Cousin, _Cours de Phil._ iii. Leçon Vingtième.
[155] Φύσικα, i. 1. The name alligator (Spanish, _el_ lagarto,
_the_ lizard) is another instance of the same kind of thing, as
indeed is the Greek κροκόδειλος.
[156] See Renan, 120 sqq. Theocrit. ii. 18. The French word colère
is from χόλος, bile; our word anger, from the root “ang” (ἄγχι,
ἀγχονὴ, angle, angina, angustus, &c.) implying _compression_. The
Greek στόμαχος explains itself.
[157] πρὸ ὀμμάτων ποιεῖν. For abundant instances of Hebrew
metaphors see Glassii _Philologia Sacra_, where there is a long
chapter on the subject.
[158] Emerson’s _Nature_.
[159] Compare ἐφιέμαι, ὀρέγομαι.
[160] Three derivations have been proposed: _re-lego_, Cic. _de
Nat. Deor._ ii. 28; _re-ligo_, Lact. _Div. Inst._ 4; _re-eligo_,
Augustin, _de Civ. Dei_, x. 3. See Fleming’s _Vocabulary of
Philosophy_.
[161] See Bunsen’s _Outlines_, ii. 142 seqq. Dyaus, θεὸς, deus,
&c., from the root _div_, to shine. The derivation of our English
word “God” is doubtful; but I fear the beautiful belief that it is
deduced from “good” must be abandoned. Grimm (_Deutsch Myth._ p.
12) shows that there is a grammatical difference between the words
in the Teutonic language signifying “God” and “good;” _if_ the
Persian “Khoda” can be derived from the Zend “qvadáta,” Sanskrit
“svadata,” _à se datus, increatus_, a very appropriate etymology
would be given.
[162] See Dugald Stewart’s _Philosoph. Essays_, p. 217, 4th ed.
Compare the widely different conceptions of happiness involved in
the derivations of two such words as “beatus” and “selig.” Or take
the word “poet;” if in these days of wider knowledge and shallower
thought, we find it nearly impossible to frame a satisfactory
definition of poetry, how should we have been able to invent the
word itself, which goes to the very root of the matter, by at once
attributing to “the maker” that divine creative faculty whereby he
is enabled “to give airy nothing a local habitation and a name?”
[163] χαλκαίνω, πορφύρω.
[164] “Une lumière éclate, des couleurs crient, des idées se
heurtent, la mémoire bronche, le cœur murmure, l’obstination se
cabre contre les difficultés.”--Nodier, p. 45.
[165] For the facts alluded to in this passage, see Herod. iii. 46,
iv. 132. Liv. i. 54. Jerem. xix. 10, &c.
[166] Arist. _Rhet._ iii. 10.
[167] ἤστραπτ’, ἐβρόντα, κἀνεκύκα τὴν Ἑλλάδα.--Aristoph. “Proinde
tona eloquio.”--Virg. _Æn._ xi.
[168] _Sartor Resartus_, ch. x. Compare Heyse, s. 97. “Die ganze
Sprache ist durch und durch bildlich. Wir sprechen in lauter
Bildern ohne uns dessen bewusst zu sein.” He gives abundant
instances, classified with German accuracy. See, too, Grimm,
_Gesch. d. d. Sprache_, s. 56 ff. Pott, _Metaphern vom Leben_, &c.
_Zeitschr. für Vergleich. Sprachf. Jahrg._ ii. _Heft_ 2.
[169] Luke, xii. 27.
[170] Mr. Kingsley has compared the ancient ballad,
“Could harp a fish out of the water, Or music out of the stane, Or
the milk out of a maiden’s breast That bairns had never nane,”
with the modern adaptation,
“O there was magic in his voice, And witchcraft in his string!”
The expression of Herodotus about the Libyan wild asses, ἄποτοι, οὐ
γὰρ δὴ πίνουσι, contrasts forcibly the two styles.--R. G.
[171] “Verborum translatio instituta est inopiæ causâ.”--_De
Orator._ iii. 39.
[172] Dr. Whewell’s _Philos. of the Inductive Sciences_, ii. 460.
Mill’s _Logic_, ii. ch. iv. p. 205.
[173] Take, for instance, the botanical description of the
_Hymenophyllum Wilsoni_; “fronds rigid, pinnate, pinnæ recurved
subunilateral, pinnatifid; the segments linear undivided, or bifid
spinulososerrate.”--_Philosophy of Ind. Sci._ i. 165. This is the
perfection of scientific terminology, but how would it answer
the purposes of common life? And how would poetry be possible
with such clumsy terms as these? At the same time, in _Science_,
dry precision of nomenclature is better than poetical terms like
the mediæval “flowers of sulphur.” _Fancy_ would only mislead in
terminology which requires accuracy; _e.g._ δίπους, the Greek name
for _jerboa_ might easily have led to mistakes.
[174] Sir Thos. Browne, _Christian Morals_, ii.
[175] Berkeley, _Principles of Hum. Knowledge_, xxxv.
[176] “It is remarked by a great metaphysician, that abstract ideas
are, in one point of view, the highest and most philosophical of
all our ideas, while in another they are the shallowest and most
meagre. They have the advantage of clearness and definiteness;
they enable us to conceive and, as it were, to span the infinity
of things; they arrange, as it might be in the divisions of a
glass, the many-coloured world of phenomena. And yet they are
‘mere’ abstractions, removed from sense, removed from experience,
and detached from the mind in which they arose. Their perfection
consists, as their very name implies, in their idealism; that is,
in their negative nature.”--Jowett _on Romans_, &c., ii. 88.
[177] Ecclus. xlii. 23.
[178] Nodier, p. 58 sqq.
[179] Ἔοικεν ὁ τὴν Ἴριν Θαύμαντος ἔκγονον φήσας οὐ κακῶς
γενεαλογεῖν.--Plato, _Theæt._ p. 155.
“La maraviglia Dell’ ignoranza e la figlia E del sapere La madre.”
[180] Mr. Mill was the first to point out the soliloquising
character of poetry.--_Essays and Dissertations._
[181] Coleridge, _Aids to Reflection_.
[182] Nodier.
[183] See _Précieux et Précieuses_ par Ch. L. Livet. 12^o, 1860.
Masson’s _Introduction to French Literature_, ch. iv.
[184] “And the regeneration of a people is always accompanied
by a rekindled interest in its early literature.” We can hardly
overrate the effect produced by the publication of Bishop Percy’s
_Reliques_, and much may be hoped from the reproduction of the old
romancers, &c., in Spanish, of late years.
[185] _Essay on Human Understanding_, III. i. 5.
[186] Horne Tooke, Part I. ch. ii.
[187] Dr. Whewell, _Hist. of New Phil. in Eng._ p. 72.
[188] We consider this on the whole a less objectionable term than
“sensualist” or “sensuist;” the latter word is uncouth, and the
former, from the things which it connotes, is hardly fair.
[189] See V. Cousin, _Cours d’Histoire de la Phil. Morale_.
[190] οὔτε τῆς ψυχῆς ἴδιον τὸ αἰσθάνεσθαι οὔτε τοῦ σώματος.--Arist.
_de Somno_, i. 5. “Sensation is not an affection of mind alone,
nor of matter alone, but of an animated organism, i.e. of mind and
matter united.”--Mansell’s _Metaphysics_, p. 92.
[191] “Il n’y a rien dans l’intelligence qui ait passé par
les sens; rien, pas même l’idée des sens!”--Charma, _Essai
sur le Langage_, p. 34. This is far truer than the assertion
of D’Alembert, that “the object of Metaphysics is to examine
the origin of ideas, and to prove that they all come from our
sensations.”--_Elém. de Philos._ p. 143.
[192] Ἡ μνήμη ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι συμπίπτουσα εἰς ταὐτόν ... φαίνονταί
μοι σχεδὸν οἷον γράφειν ἡμῶν ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς τότε λόγους.--Plat.
_Philebus_, p. 192.
[193] Penser c’est sentir.
[194] πάντων μέτρον ἄνθρωπος.--Protagoras.
[195] We allude to his monstrous hyperbole “that it would be our
duty to hate God if bidden to do so by Him,” which is merely
equivalent to the sycophant’s excuse, πᾶν τὸ πραχθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ
κρατοῦντος δίκαιον.
[196] On the title of Horne Tooke’s treatise, “Winged Words, or
Language not only the Vehicle of Thought, but the Wheels,” see
Coleridge, _Aids to Refl._ p. xv.
[197] Leibnitz, _Nouv. Ess._ The passage is quoted by Dr.
Donaldson, _New Crat._ ch. iii., where the reader will find some
admirable remarks on the subject of this chapter.
[198] Mr. Wedgwood’s _Etym. Dict._ p. ii.
[199] _Essays_, p. 18 seqq.
[200] _Diversions of Purley_, Part II. ch. v.
[201] _Essays_, p. 28.
[202] See Vinet, _Essais_, p. 349.
[203] Kant, quoted by Chalybäus, _Speculative Philosophy_, Tr.
Tulk. p. 31.
[204] “There still remains the question, ‘Do things as they are
resemble things as they are conceived by us?’--a question which we
cannot answer either in the affirmative or in the negative; for
the denial, as much as the assertion, implies a _comparison_ of
the two,” (which is impossible, if they are absolutely unknown).
Mansell’s _Metaphysics_, p. 354.
[205] Act I. sc. iv.
[206] This was the ground taken both by Plato and Aristotle in
refuting the Sophists. See _Theætet._ p. 176. Arist. _Eth. Nic._ v.
7. Aristoph. _Nub._ 902 (quoted by Mr. Mansell, _Metaphysics_, p.
387).
[207] See Proverbs, ch. viii. 22. Jewish philosophy reaches
its most passionate and eloquent strains in the expansion and
inculcation of this belief. Ecclus. passim.
[208] See Victor Cousin, _Cours de l’Hist. de la Phil. Mor._ iii.
p. 214 seqq.
[209] Dr. Donaldson, _ubi sup._
[210] Vinet, p. 349.
[211] See Harris, _Hermes_, iii. 4.
[212] Charma, p. 64.
[213] Bunsen’s _Outlines_, ii. 146. The whole chapter is well
worthy of attentive study, for the profound and noble thoughts
which it contains.
[214] Renan, p. 108. Grimm, 37.
[215] Renan, p. 185.
[216] Cf. 2 Kings, xix. 35. Such expressions as “a bullock that
hath horns and hoofs” belong not so much to this tendency to
avoid all possibility of mistake, as to the desire for something
graphic--the πρὸ ὀμμάτων ποιεῖν.
[217] “L’opium endormit parce qu’il a une vertu soporifique.” e.g.
“When the essence of gold and its substantial form was said to
consist in its _aureity_, the attempt at philosophic explanation
was no whit superior to those quoted in the text.” The word
“aureity” was merely an effort of abstraction, but it was supposed
to answer all questions and solve all doubts.
[218] First used by M. Duponceau in his English translation of the
German Grammar of Zeisberger. Charma, p. 266. Schleicher called
these languages “Holophrastic.”
[219] Humboldt, quoted by Charma, p. 222.
[220] Max Müller, p. 113. Compare Molière, _Le Bourgeois
Gentilhomme_, iv. 4. “Mons. Jourdain: _Tant de choses en deux
mots?_--Cov.: Oui, la langue turque est comme cela, elle dit
beaucoup en peu de paroles.”
[221] Ampère, _Rev. des Deux Mondes_. Fevrier, 1853, p. 572.
[222] Also called “_incorporant_.”
[223] Charma, p. 223.
[224] Grimm, ss. 37-47.
[225] Renan, p. 160 seqq. It is doubtful whether the Pali was
anything more than an artificial language. If so, however, it is
an unique phenomenon, and it must not be forgotten that a similar
opinion was once entertained respecting the Sanskrit and Zend.
[226] Precisely the same change takes place in the growth of
English from Saxon, and Danish from Icelandic.
[227] _Hist. des Langues Sém._ v. 1, 2, and 3.
[228] _Über den Urspr. d. Sprache_, p. 50. Another weighty
testimony to the splendour of the English language may be found in
Adelung’s _Mithridates_.
[229] See Benloew, p. 15 sqq. Humboldt, _Über die Verschiedenheit
des menschlichen Sprachbaues_, ad finem.
[230] The Chinese ‘l’ is pronounced like ‘r.’
[231] Many readers may recall the story of the late Mr. Albert
Smith about the Bishop being described in the mixed jargon of Hong
Kong as the “A-one-heaven-business-man.”
[232] Adelung, _Mithridates_, i. p. 412. Some deny the monosyllabic
character of Chinese. (Prof. Key, Art. _Language, Engl. Cycl._)
[233] It should be observed that triliteralism is not _necessarily_
incompatible with monosyllabism. See _Hist. des Langues
Sémitiques_, p. 94, 2nde ed.
[234] As אָב father, אֵם mother, אָח brother, הר mountain, יָד
hand, יוֹם day, &c.
[235] Renan, p. 168. I must content myself here with a general
reference to M. Renan, to whose works I have been very greatly
indebted throughout the chapter, and indeed, as I have repeatedly
observed, throughout the book.
[236] Pott’s formula for the morphological classification of
languages was that they are “isolating,” “agglutinative,” and
“inflectional.” Professor Müller and Baron Bunsen have shown that
these divisions nearly correspond with three stages of political
development--“Family,” “Nomad,” and “State.”
[237] _Encycl. Brit._ Art. _Language_. (Dr. Latham.)
[238] “On l’a désignée par les noms de famille Indo-Germanique ou
Indo-Européenne, lesquels ne sont _ni logiques ni harmonieux_,
car ils n’expriment qu’imparfaitement le sens qui leur est
attribué, et leur longueur démesurée en rend l’emploi fort peu
commode.”--Pictet’s _Origines Indo-Eur._ p. 28. They have, however,
the advantage of explaining themselves.
[239] Burnouf, _Commentaire sur le Yaçna_, p. xciii. See also
Bunsen’s _Outlines_, i. 281.
[240] These traces are most ably pointed out in the _Edinburgh
Review_ for October, 1851, quoted in an interesting note by Prof.
Max Müller, _Survey of Languages_, p. 28, 2nd ed. See, too, Pictet,
pp. 27-34, who connects the root _ar_ with the words Erin, Elam,
Ariovistus, Arminius, oriri, &c. If this be a right derivation of
Erin, the fact is important, as showing that some memory of the old
name was preserved in the extreme West as well as in the East.
[241] By a writer in the _Saturday Review_ for Nov. 19, 1859.
[242] P. 49.
[243] For a graphic sketch of early Arian life as deduced from
the records of language, see Weber’s _Indische Skizzen_, pp. 9,
10; Pictet’s _Origines Indo-Européennes_; Müller’s _Ess. on Comp.
Mythology_.
[244] Müller, p. 28 sqq.
[245] Except some popular modern divines.
[246] Lassen, _Indische Alterthumskunde_. Renan, 219 seqq. Klaproth
builds an argument for the Northern origin of the Arians on the
word “birch,” which bears an analogous name “not only in the German
and Slavonic tongues, but also in the Sanskrit--_b’hurjja_.... It
seems birch was the only tree the invaders recognised, and could
name, on the south side of the Himalaya; all others being new to
them. The inference may be right or wrong--it is, at all events,
ingenious.” Garnett’s _Essays_, p. 33. See Klaproth, _Nouv. J.
Asiat._ v. 112. Pictet, _Orig. Ind._ i. 217. The fact that the
words for oyster are derived from the same root in the European
languages (Gk. ὄστρεον, Ang.-Sax. _ostra_, Irish _oisridh_, Cymr.
_œstren_, Russ. _üstersü_, French _huître_, Germ. _Auster_,
&c.), but _not_ in the Sanskrit or Indian branch of the Arian
family,--would seem to show that there was a great separation
of Eastern and Western Arians before the family had reached the
shores of the Caspian. A similar fact is observed in the name for
flax, (Gr. λίνον, Lat. _linum_, Goth. _lein_, Ang.-Sax. _lîn_,
Cym. _llin_, Russ. _lenû_, &c.), and shows that the Western Arians
were the first of the family to desert pastoral for agricultural
pursuits. _Id._ pp. 320, 516. Few studies are more interesting than
the “linguistic palæontology,” which thus enables us to revive the
form of an extinct language and civilisation.
[247] Renan, p. 235.
[248] _Histoire des Langues Sém._ pp. 1, 2.
[249] Müller’s _Survey_, p. 23 seqq.
[250] _Hist. des Langues Sémitiques_, pp. 70-90.
[251] The name was suggested by Baron Bunsen in 1847. _Outlines_,
i. 64. He even argues for the Turanian character of the Chinese;
“although it is certain that the same opposition exists between
the two as there is between inorganic and organic life.” General
laws, operative in the formation of all languages, ought not to
be taken for indications of special affinity; who would maintain
the identity of quadrupeds and birds from the analogy of their
respiratory and digestive systems? In the formation of languages
certain first principles were necessarily observed by all, and this
of course leads to some general resemblances.
[252] “Turanian speech is rather a _stage_ than a _form_ of
language; it seems to be the form into which human discourse,
naturally, and, as it were, spontaneously throws itself.... The
principle of agglutination, as it is called, which is its most
marked characteristic, seems almost a necessary feature of any
language in a constant state of flux and change, absolutely devoid
of a literature, and maintaining itself in existence by means of
the scanty conversation of Nomades.”--Rawlinson’s _Herodotus_, i.
p. 645.
[253] It is rather strange that this name, so peculiarly
appropriate, and so much preferable to the other, has not met with
wider acceptation. It was suggested by Dr. Prichard, “the greatest
of English ethnologists.”
[254] Dolly Pentreath, the last person who could speak Cornish,
died in 1770.
[255] Bunsen, _Outlines_, ii. 92.
[256] Ferrier’s _Institutes of Metaphysics_, p. 13.
[257] Adr. Balbi, _Atlas ethnographique_. _Disc. prélim._
lxxv-lxxix.
[258] Garnett’s _Philol. Essays_, p. 85, &c., where the supposed
instances are examined. Most of them are, as might have been
expected, simple onomatopœias of the most obvious kind. See Renan,
_Hist. des Langues Sém._ p. 450 seqq. Nothing requires more
care than an inquiry of this kind;--often two words which have
identically the same letters have no connection with each other,
while two others derived from a common source have not one letter
in common. As an instance of the former case, take the French
souris “a smile,” and souris “a mouse,” (from _subridere_ and
_sorex_ respectively); as an instance of the latter, take the word
cousin, derived from _soror_ through _consobrinus_.
[259] _Outlines_, i. 476.
[260] _Outlines_, i. 143, 165 seqq.
[261] A very curious instance of this is the word שווין _shoes_,
found in a Syro-Chaldaic Lectionarium in the Vatican. We may
here remark that Dr. Young’s celebrated calculation--that, if
eight words are identical in two languages, the chances of a
direct relation between the languages are 100,000 to one--is
very exceptionable. See Dr. Latham, in the _Encycl. Brit._ Art.
_Language_. The greatest care is necessary to distinguish between
words really cognate, and accidental isolated resemblances. See
Pictet, _Orig. Ind._ p. 13, 17.
[262] _Survey of Lang._ p. 11.
[263] Renan, p. 216.
[264] _Hist. des Langues Sém._ p. 84 seqq.
[265] Renan quotes Mövers, _Die Phœnizien_, i. 33.
[266] _Hist. des Langues Sém._ 490, 491. Whenever passages are in
semi-inverted commas, it will be understood that they are almost
directly translated from the author referred to.
[267] The accounts of various missionaries among the New
Zealanders, American Indians, and aboriginal Australians, give a
strange and _mournful_ confirmation of these assertions.
[268] That there is more probability in favour of English becoming
prevalent throughout the globe, than in favour of any other
language acquiring a future universality, is admitted by all who
have studied the subject. See Benloew, _Aperçu Général_, p. 92.
Grimm, _Ueber der Ursprung_, p. 50. Russian is another language
which probably has a great future.
[269] Benloew, _Aperçu Général_, p. 91.
[270] _Aids to Reflection_, p. 1.
[271] Mill’s _Logic_, ii. 221.
[272] These thoughts are admirably developed in a beautiful Essay
on the Abstract Idea of the New Testament, by Mr. Jowett (ii.
90). See, too, W. von Humboldt’s tract _Ueber d. Entstehen d.
grammat. Formen und ihren Einfluss auf die Ideenentwickelung_, as
well as the chapter _Ueber die Verschiedenheit des Menschlichen
Sprachbaues_, which forms the introduction to the treatise on the
Kawi language.
[273] “Q. Ennius tria corda se habere dicebat, quod loqui Græce et
Latine et Osce sciret.”--A. Gell.
[274] Rückert.
[275] “Il disoit et répétoit souvent, quand il tomboit sur la
beauté des langues, ... qu’autant de langues que l’homme sçait
parler, autant de fois est il homme.”--Brantôme.
[276] See Destutt de Tracy, _Grammaire Or._ vi.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained: for example,
humankind, human kind; Thibetian, Tibetian; incognisable; endued;
analagon; cumbrous; acceptation.
Pg xiii: missing ‘--’ inserted in front of ‘The root’.
Pg 7: ‘so irreconcileably’ replaced by ‘so irreconcilably’.
Pg 14: ‘of Nüremburg’ replaced by ‘of Nuremberg’.
Pg 44: missing anchor for Footnote [72] inserted after ‘into ideas.’.
Pg 66: ‘Schephifoun (שְׁפִיפוֹךּ)’ replaced by ‘Schephifoun (שְׁפִיפוֹן)’.
Pg 84: ‘Hebrew לָהֵדּ’ replaced by ‘Hebrew לָחַךְ’.
Pg 93: ‘recal the manner’ replaced by ‘recall the manner’.
Pg 101: ‘Π, Φ, Τ’ replaced by ‘Π, Ϙ, Τ’ (the archaic letter qoppa).
Pg 105: ‘הָוַה (houa)’ replaced by ‘הָוָה (houa)’.
Pg 110: missing anchor for Footnote [145] inserted after ‘to sit.’.
Pg 146: ‘Skakspeare spoke’ replaced by ‘Shakespeare spake’.
Pg 146: ‘That Milton held!’ replaced by ‘Which Milton held.’.
Pg 147: missing anchor for Footnote [185] inserted after ‘our senses.’.
Pg 159: missing anchor for Footnote [203] inserted after ‘of things.’.
Pg 175: ‘the deal level’ replaced by ‘the dead level’.
Pg 184: ‘rom the earliest’ replaced by ‘from the earliest’.
Pg 184: ‘to h is day’ replaced by ‘to this day’.
Pg 199: ‘Eugène Bornon’ replaced by ‘Eugène Burnouf’.
Pg 210: ‘so irreconcileably’ replaced by ‘so irreconcilably’.
Pg 212: ‘of course, develope’ replaced by ‘of course, develop’.
Pg 223: ‘the most depised’ replaced by ‘the most despised’.
Pg 230: ‘De signes et’ replaced by ‘Des signes et’.
Pg 230: ‘de la Litérature’ replaced by ‘de la Littérature’.
Pg 5 Footnote [9]: this page has two anchors for this Footnote.
Pg 11 Footnote [18]: ‘Wiem. 1830.’ replaced by ‘Wien. 1830.’.
Pg 16 Footnote [27]: this page has two anchors for this Footnote.
Pg 21 Footnote [37]: ‘lexicologique t fait’ replaced by
‘lexicologique tout fait’.
Pg 56 Footnote [89]: ‘apt tod desert an’ replaced by
‘apt to desert and’.
Pg 58 Footnote [91]: ‘cañon, stancia’ replaced by ‘cañon, estancia’.
Pg 59 Footnote [92]: ‘from יְדושָּׁלַיִמ’ replaced by ‘from יְרוּשָּׁלַיִם’.
Pg 72 Footnote [103]: ‘Ὄνοματοπαΐα’ replaced by ‘Ὀνοματοποιΐα’.
Pg 74 Footnote [106]: this page has two anchors for this Footnote.
Pg 98 Footnote [128]: ‘les fondements de’ replaced by
‘les fondements de la’.
Pg 108 Footnote [143]: ‘Beuloew’ replaced by ‘Benloew’.
Pg 114 Footnote [150]: ‘See Coulte’ replaced by ‘See Comte’.
Pg 126 Footnote [164]: ‘se cadre contre’ replaced by ‘se cabre contre’.
Pg 130 Footnote [168]: ‘Die gauze Sprache’ replaced by
‘Die ganze Sprache’.
Pg 145 Footnote [183]: ‘Précieuse and Précieuses’ replaced by
‘Précieux et Précieuses’.
Pg 162 Footnote [208]: ‘l’Hist. de’ replaced by ‘l’Hist. de la’.
Pg 183 Footnote [234]: ‘אַמ mother’ replaced by ‘אֵם mother’.
Pg 188 Footnote [239]: ‘sur le Yaçua’ replaced by ‘sur le Yaçna’.