Part 33

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.