THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 169 



. 5 , . 



tudes of our ordinary words may have thus been made 

 from real sounds, but have now lost beyond recovery 

 the traces of their first expressiveness.&quot; l In the 

 Chinuk language of the West Coast of America, to cite 

 a few more of Tylor s instances, a tavern is called a 

 &quot; heehee-liousv&quot; that is a laughter house, or an amuse 

 ment house, the word for amusement being taken by 

 an obvious association from the laughter which it ex 

 cites. How indirect a derivation may be is illustrated 

 by the word which the Basutos of South Africa use 

 for courtier. The buzz of a certain fly resembles the 

 sound ntsi-ntsi, and they apply this word to those who 

 buzz round the chief as a fly buzzes round a piece of 

 meat. As every one knows &quot; papa &quot; for father, is 

 evolved into papa the pope, and &quot; abba &quot; the Hebrew 

 for father into abbot. For plurals, a doubling of the 

 word is often used, but no doubt at first quantity was 

 expressed by gestures or by numbering on the fingers. 

 &quot; Orang &quot; is the Malay for Man, &quot; Orang-orang &quot; for 

 men while &quot;Orang-utan&quot; is wild man. Verbs are 

 formed on the same principle as nouns. In the 

 Tecnna language of Brazil the verb to sneeze is 

 haitschu, while the Welsh for a sneeze is tis. Other 

 verbs which came to have large and comprehensive 

 meanings arose out of the simple activities and oc 

 cupations of primitive life. Thus the first verb in the 

 Bible, the Hebrew &quot; bara &quot; now meaning create, was 

 originally used for cutting or hewing, the first step in 

 making things. In the Borneo language of Africa, the 

 verb &quot; to make &quot; comes from the word tando, to weave. 

 In English, &quot;to suffer&quot; meant to bear as a burden, 

 and to &quot; apprehend an idea &quot; was originally to &quot; catch 

 1 Tylor, Anthropology y p. 127. 



