THE EXPRESSIVENESS OF SPEECH 121 



an uncommon thing when vocabularies are obtained 

 through interpreters — or, possibly, to a real change of the 

 letter used, owing to some of the numerous causes which 

 bring about modifications of language, and even reversals 

 of the original meaning of words. The tendency to pre- 

 serve or add to the expressiveness of speech evidently varies 

 much among different peoples, and we must not, therefore, 

 be surprised at finding some incongruities in the use of 

 even the most simple and natural sounds. 



We now come to a series of words in which the action 

 of breathing is the expressive part, the motion of the lips 

 being very slight or altogether imperceptible ; such are air, 

 which is merely a modulated breathing ; ivind, in which 

 more movement of the lips is required, with a slight in- 

 dication of the characteristic murmuring sound ; while in 

 Uoio we almost exactly imitate the action of blowing. The 

 words breath and life are related, inasmuch as the life- 

 giving action of breathing is the fundamental part of both, 

 modified by a different slight action of the lips and tongue, 

 and it is suggestive that in many languages breath is used 

 for spirit or life. High and loio are also breath- or throat- 

 words, the former being pronounced with open mouth, 

 and, probably, with the accompanying gesture of raising 

 the head, the latter with the tongue and palate only, the 

 lips being but slightly parted. Small modifications of 

 the former word would lead to shy, and perhaps also to 

 fly, in both of which the idea of height is prominent. 



We next have a group of words of which the essential 

 character seems to be that the mouth remains open when 

 they are spoken, as in the word mouth itself, in which the 

 lips, teeth, and tongue are all employed ; and in all, in 

 which the mouth is still more widely opened. This is 

 especially the case in words denoting round objects, such 

 as moon^ hall, rivg, wheel, round, in all of which, as well as 

 in many of the corresponding words in other languages, 

 the chief feature is that the lips are held apart, and the 

 mouth more or less rounded in pronouncing them. Sun 

 may well belong to the same group, if it is not the chief 

 of them, since it is the only object in nature that is 

 always perfectly round, a feature that would be more easily 



