372 ORGANIC GROWTH 



all languages were essentially the same. The oldest sounds of 

 which languages consist are those which express perceptions 

 and ideas. Expressions of relation (distinction of parts of 

 speech, declension, conjugation), are at this stage wanting; 

 all this is a later development, to which many languages 

 have not attained, and which the others exhibit in different 

 degrees of perfection. Thus, to indicate one example in 

 Chinese at the present day, there is no distinction in sound 

 between the parts of speech; true verbs, as distinguished 

 from nouns, among all the languages I have studied, I have 

 found only in the Indogermanic. Morphologically, but only 

 morphologically, according to our results, all languages are 

 originally essentially similar ; but on the other hand, even 

 these primitive languages must have been different in sounds, 

 as well as in the ideas and perceptions which were reflected 

 in the sounds, and must have further differed in their capa- 

 city for evolution. For it is positively impossible to derive 

 all languages from one and the same primitive form." 



In his earlier and more widely -known work, in which he 

 explains the origin of language on Darwinian principles, 1 

 Schleicher gives an example in support of these views. He 

 says there : " The oldest form of the words which now in 

 German appear as That, gethan, thun, Thdter, was at the 

 time when the original Indogermanic language arose, dha, 

 for this syllable dha ... is found to be the common root of 

 all these words. At a somewhat later stage of development, 

 in order to express definite relations, the roots which then 

 performed the part of words were pronounced twice and 

 another word, another root was added on to them ; but each of 

 these elements was still independent. For instance, in order 

 to indicate the first person of the present tense, the speaker 

 said dha dha ma, from which, at a subsequent period in the 



1 A. Schleicher, Die Darwin' sche Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft, Weimar, 

 1863. 



