Part 32

293 Ibn-Wahshiyyah was a Mussulman, but his family had been converted for three generations only. He translated a collection of Nabatean books. Three have been preserved, 1, the Nabatean Agriculture; 2, the book on poisons; 3, the book of Tenkelusha (Teucros) the Babylonian; besides fragments of the book of the secrets of the Sun and Moon. The Nabatean Agriculture was referred by Quatremère (Journal Asiatique, 1835) to the period between Belesis who delivered the Babylonians from their Median masters, and the taking of Babylon by Cyrus. Prof. Chwolson, of St. Petersburg, who has examined all the MSS., places Kuthami at the beginning of the thirteenth ceatury B. C.

294 Renan, Mémoire sur l’âge du livre intitulé Agriculture Nabatéenne, p. 38. Paris, 1860.

295 See Letter on Turanian Languages, p. 62.

296 Renan, Histoire des Langues sémitiques, p. 137.

297 Pococke, Notes to Abulfaragius, p. 153; Glossology, p. 352.

298 Endlicher, Chinesische Grammatik, p. 223.

299 Endlicher, Chinesische Grammatik, p. 339.

300 “In this word _tse_ (tseu) does not signify son; it is an addition of frequent occurrence after nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Thus, _lao_, old, + _tseu_ is father; _neï_, the interior, + _tseu_ is wife; _hiang_, scent, + _tseu_ is clove; _hoa_, to beg, + _tseu_, a mendicant; _hi_, to act, + _tseu_, an actor.”—_Stanislas Julien_.

301 Letter on the Turanian Languages, p. 24.

302 Survey of Languages, p. 90.

303 The Abbé Molina states that the language of Chili is entirely free from irregular forms. Du Ponceau, Mémoire, p. 90.

304 Letter on Turanian Languages, p. 206.

305 Of these I can only give a tabular survey at the end of these Lectures, referring for further particulars to my “Letter on the Turanian Languages.” The Gangetic and Lohitic dialects are those comprehended under the name of Bhotîya.

306 Professor Boller of Vienna, who has given a most accurate analysis of the Turanian languages in the “Transactions of the Vienna Academy,” has lately established the Turanian character of Japanese.

307 Letter on the Turanian Languages, p. 75.

308 M. Stanislas Julien remarks that the numerous compounds which occur in Chinese prove the wide-spread influence of the principle of agglutination in that language. The fact is, that in Chinese every sound has numerous meanings; and in order to avoid ambiguity, one word is frequently followed by another which agrees with it in that

## particular meaning which is intended by the speaker. Thus:—

_chi-youen_ (beginning-origin) signifies beginning. _ken-youen_ (root-origin) signifies beginning. _youen-chi_n (origin-beginning) signifies beginning. _meï-miai_ (beautiful-remarkable) signifies beautiful. _meï-li_ (beautiful-elegant) signifies beautiful. _chen-youen_ (charming-lovely) signifies beautiful. _yong-i_ (easy-facile) signifies easily. _tsong-yong_ (to obey, easy) signifies easily.

In order to express “to boast,” the Chinese say _king-koua_, _king-fu_, &c., both words having one and the same meaning.

This peculiar system of _juxta-position_, however, cannot be considered as agglutination in the strict sense of the word.

309 Turanian Languages, p. 24.

310 These “Outlines” form vols. iii. and iv. of Bunsen’s work, “Christianity and Mankind,” in seven vols. (London, 1854: Longman), and are sold separately.

311 Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, 1855, p. 298.

312 Ibid., p. 302, note.

313 “Here the lines converge as they recede into the geological ages, and point to conclusions which, upon Darwin’s theory, are inevitable, but hardly welcome. The very first step backward makes the negro and the Hottentot our blood-relations; not that reason or Scripture objects to that, though pride may.” Asa Gray, “Natural Selection not inconsistent with Natural Theology,” 1861, p. 5.

“One good effect is already manifest, its enabling the advocates of the hypothesis of a multiplicity of human species to perceive the double insecurity of their ground. When the races of men are admitted to be of one species, the corollary, that they are of one origin, may be expected to follow. Those who allow them to be of one species must admit an actual diversification into strongly marked and persistent varieties; while those, on the other hand, who recognize several or numerous human species, will hardly be able to maintain that such species were primordial and supernatural in the ordinary sense of the word.” Asa Gray, Nat. Sel. p. 54.

314 Professor Pott, the most distinguished advocate of the polygenetic dogma, has pleaded the necessity of admitting more than one beginning for the human race and for language in an article in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, ix. 405, “Max Müller und die Kennzeichen der Sprachverwandtschaft,” 1855; in a treatise “Die Ungleichheit menschlicher Rassen,” 1856; and in the new edition of his “Etymologische Forschungen,” 1861.

315 Dugald Stewart, vol. iii. p. 35.

316 Herder, as quoted by Steinthal, “Ursprung der Sprache,” s. 39.

317 “In all these paths of research, when we travel far backwards the aspect of the earlier portions becomes very different from that of the advanced part on which we now stand; but in all cases the path is lost in obscurity as it is traced backwards towards its starting point:—it becomes not only invisible, but unimaginable; it is not only an interruption, but an abyss, which interposes itself between us and any intelligible beginning of things.” Whewell, Indications, p. 166.

318 “Der Mensch ist nur Mensch durch Sprache; um aber die Sprache zu erfinden, müsste er schon Mensch sein.”—_W. von Humboldt, Sämmtliche Werke_, b. iii. s. 252. The same argument is ridden to death by Süssmilch, “Versuch eines Beweises dass die erste Sprache ihrem Ursprung nicht vom Menschen, sondern allein vom Schöpfer erhalten habe.” Berlin, 1766.

319 Farrar, Origin of Language, p. 10; Grimm, Ursprung der Sprache, s. 32. The word βεκός, which these children are reported to have uttered, and which, in the Phrygian language, meant bread, thus proving, it was supposed, that the Phrygian was the primitive language of mankind, is derived from the same root which exists in the English, to bake. How these unfortunate children came by the idea of baked bread, involving the ideas of corn, mill, oven, fire, &c., seems never to have struck the ancient sages of Egypt.

320 “L’usage de la main, la marche à deux pieds, la ressemblance, quoique grossière, de la face, tous les actes qui peuvent résulter de cette conformité d’organisation, ont fait donner au singe le nom d’_homme sauvage_, par des homines à la vérité qui l’étaient à demi, et qui ne savaient comparer que les rapports extérieurs. Que serait-ce, si, par une combinaison de nature aussi possible que toute autre, le singe eût eu la voix du perroquet, et, comme lui, la faculté de la parole? Le singe parlant eût rendu muette d’étonnement l’espèce humaine entière, et l’aurait séduite au point que le philosophe aurait eu grand’peine à démontrer qu’avec tous ces beaux attributs humains le singe n’en était pas moins une bête. Il est donc heureux, pour notre intelligence, que la nature ait séparé et placé, dans deux espèces très-différentes, l’imitation de la parole et celle de nos gestes.”—_Buffon_, as quoted by Flourens, p. 77.

321 Odyssey, xvii. 300.

322 “The evident marks of reasoning in the other animals,—of reasoning which I cannot but think as unquestionable as the instincts that mingle with it.”—_Brown, Works_, vol. i. p. 446.

323 Flourens, De la Raison, p. 51.

324 To allow that “brutes have certain mental endowments in common with men,” ... “desires, affections, memory, simple imagination, or the power of reproducing the sensible past in mental pictures, and even judgment of the simple or intuition kind;”—that “they compare and judge,” (Mem. Amer. Acad. 8, p. 118,)—is to concede that the intellect of brutes really acts, so far as we know, like human intellect, as far as it goes; for the philosophical logicians tell us that all reasoning is reducible to a series of simple judgments. And Aristotle declares that even reminiscence,—which is, we suppose, “reproducing the sensible past in mental pictures,”—is a sort of reasoning (τὶ ἀναμιμνήσκεσθαί ἐστι οἱον συλλογισμός τισ.) Asa Gray, Natural Selection, &c., p. 58, _note_.

325 Conscience, Boek der Natuer, vi., quoted by Marsh, p. 32.

326 Book ii. chapter xi. § 10.

327 I regret to find that the expressions here used have given offence to several of my reviewers. They were used because the names Onomatopoetic and Interjectional are awkward and not very clear. They were not intended to be disrespectful to those who hold the one or the other theory, some of them scholars for whose achievements in comparative philology I entertain the most sincere respect.

328 A fuller account of the views of Herder and other philosophers on the origin of language may be found in Steinthal’s useful little work, “Der Ursprung der Sprache:” Berlin, 1853.

329 Farrar, p. 74.

330 Pott, Etymologische Forschungen, i. 87; Zeitschrift, iii. 43.

_ 331 Kârava_, explained in Sanskrit by _ku-rava_, having a bad voice, is supposed to be a mere dialectical corruption of _krava_ or _karva_. Κορώνη presupposes κορων = κοροον = _h_(_a_)_raban_. The Sanskrit _kârava_ may, however, be derived from _kâru_, singer; but in that case _kâru_ must not be derived from _kṛi_.

332 See Pictet, Aryas Primitifs, p. 381.

333 In Chinese the number of imitative sounds is very considerable. They are mostly written phonetically, and followed by the determinative sign “mouth.” We give a few, together with the corresponding sounds in Mandshu. The difference between the two will show how differently the same sounds strike different ears, and how differently they are rendered into articulate language:—

The cock crows kiao kiao in Chinese, dchor dchor in Mandshu. The wild goose cries kao kao in Chinese, kôr kor in Mandshu. The wind and rain sound siao siao in Chinese, chor chor in Mandshu. Waggons sound lin lin in Chinese, koungour koungour in Mandshu. Dogs coupled together sound ling-ling in Chinese, kalang kalang in Mandshu. Chains coupled together sound tsiang-tsiang in Chinese, kiling kiling in Mandshu. Bells coupled together sound tsiang-tsiang in Chinese, tang tang in Mandshu. Drums coupled together sound ḱan ḱan in Chinese, tung tung in Mandshu.

334 Ὁ γὰρ Ἐπίκουρος ἔλεγεν, ὅτι οὑχὶ ἐπιστημόνως οὖτοι ἔθεντο τὰ ὀνόματα, ἀλλὰ φυσικῶς κινούμενοι, ὡς οἱ βήσσοντες καὶ πταίροντες καὶ μυκώμενοι καὶ ὐλακτοῦντες καὶ στενάζοντες.—Lersch, Sprach-philosophie der Alten, i. 40. The statement is taken from Proclus, and I doubt whether he represented Epicurus rightly.

335 Diversions of Purley, p. 32.

336 The following list of Chinese interjections may be of interest:—

hu, to express surprise. fu, the same. tsai, to express admiration and approbation. i, to express distress. tsie, vocative particle. tsie tsie, exhortative particle. ài, to express contempt. ŭ-hu, to express pain. shin-ĭ, ah, indeed. pŭ sin, alas! ngo, stop!

In many cases interjections were originally words, just as the French _hélas_ is derived from _lassus_, tired, miserable. Diez, Lexicon Etymologicum, s. v. _lasso_.

337 Sir W. Hamilton’s Lectures, ii. p. 319.

338 Nouveaux Essais, lib. iii. c. i. p. 297 (Erdmann); Sir W. Hamilton, Lectures, ii. 324.

339 Pott, Etymologische Forschungen, p. 324, _seq._

340 Benfey, Griech. Wurzel Lex. p. 611. From _sku_ or _ku_, σκῦτος, skin; _cŭtis_, _haut_.

341 Sir William Hamilton (Lectures on Metaphysics, ii. p. 327) holds a view intermediate between those of Adam Smith and Leibniz. “As our knowledge,” he says, “proceeds from the confused to the distinct, from the vague to the determinate, so, in the mouths of children, language at first expresses neither the precisely general nor the determinately individual, but the vague and confused, and out of this the universal is elaborated by generification, the particular and singular by specification and individualisation.” Some further remarks on this point in the Literary Gazette, 1861, p. 173.

342 “We receive the impression of the falling of a large mass of water, descending always from the same height and with the same difficulty. The scattering of the drops of water, the formation of froth, the sound of the fall by the roaring and by the froth, are constantly produced by the same causes, and, consequently, are always the same. The impression which all this produces on us is no doubt at first felt as multiform, but it soon forms a whole, or, in other terms, we feel all the diversity of the isolated impressions as the work of a great physical activity which results from the particular nature of the spot. We may, perhaps, till we are better informed, call all that is fixed in the phenomenon, _the thoughts of nature_.”—_Oersted, Esprit dans la Nature_, p. 152.

343 “Ce qui trompe l’homme, c’est qu’il voit faire aux bêtes plusieurs des choses qu’il fait, et qu’il ne voit pas que, dans ces choses-là même, les bêtes ne mettent qu’une intelligence grossière, bornée, et qu’il met, lui, une intelligence _doublée d’esprit_.”—_Flourens, De la Raison_, p. 73.

344 See Heyse, System der Sprachwissenschaft, s. 97.

345 The word _quinsy_, as was pointed out to me, offers a striking illustration of the ravages produced by phonetic decay. The root _anh_ has here completely vanished. But it was there originally, for _quinsy_ is the Greek κυνάγχη, dog-throttling. See Richardson’s Dictionary, s. v. quinancy.

346 Greek χαμαί, Zend _zem_, Lithuanian _zeme_, and _źmenes_, _homines_. See Bopp, Glossarium Sanscritum, s. v.

347 See Windischmann, Fortschritt der Sprachenkunde, p. 23.

348 Farrar, Origin of Language, p. 85.

349 Θήσω τὰ μὲν φύσει λεγόμενα ποιεῖσθαι θείᾳ τέχνη.

350 This view was propounded many years ago by Professor Heyse in the lectures which he gave at Berlin, and which have been very carefully published since his death by one of his pupils, Dr. Steinthal. The fact that wood, metals, cords, &c., if struck, vibrate and ring, can, of course, be used as an illustration only, and not as an explanation. The faculty peculiar to man, in his primitive state, by which every impression from without received its vocal expression from within, must be accepted as an ultimate fact. That faculty must have existed in man, because its effects continue to exist. Analogies from the inanimate world, however, are useful, and deserve farther examination.

351 Dr. Murray’s primitive roots were, ag, bag, dwag, cwag, lag, mag, nag, rag, swag.

352 Curtius, Griechische Etymologie, p. 13. Dr. Schmidt derives all Greek words from the root _e_, and all Latin words from the arch-radical _hi_.

353 Endlicher, Chinesische Grammatik, p. 163.

354 System der Sprachwissenschaft, p. 16.

355 See Schleicher, Deutsche Sprache, p. 144.

356 Marsh, p. 388.