THE TRANSITION IN THE RACE. 373 



development of articulation would only be a matter of time 

 and mental growth ; but I think it is highly probable that 

 the initial stages thus sketched probably occupied a lapse 

 of time out of all proportion to that which was afterwards 

 required for the higher developments. 



Moreover, in this connection we must not neglect to notice 

 the " clicks " of the African Bushmen and Hottentots, which 

 appear to furnish us with direct evidence of the survival 

 among these low races of a primordially inarticulate system 

 of sign-making.* No one has studied the languages of these 

 peoples with so much labour or so much result as the philo- 

 sophically minded Dr. Bleek, and he says that the clicks 

 which occur in the great majority of their words, " must be 

 made an object of special attention if we would arrive at even 

 an approximate idea of the original vocal elements from 

 which human language sprang." f 



The clicks in question are four in number, or, according 

 to Bleek, "at least six." They are called the dental, palatal, 

 cerebral, and lateral. The lateral click is the same as that 

 which is employed by our own grooms when urging a 

 horse. The dental is also used by European races as a sound 

 expressive of disappointment, unspeakable contempt, &c. In 



Vocabularies of Childreit, in Proc. Amer. Philolo. Ass., 1877. There can be no 

 doubt that vowel sounds must have been of early origin in the race ; but in what 

 order the consonants may have followed is much more doubtful. For different 

 races now exhibit great differences with regard to the use^and even to the 

 capability of using — consonantal sounds; the Chinese, for instance, changing r into 

 /, while the Japanese change /into r. And, of course, the whole science of com- 

 parative philology may be said to be based upon a study of the laws of " phonetic 

 change." But it is obviously a matter of no importance in what particular order 

 the different articulate sounds were first evolved. According to Prince Lucien 

 Bonaparte, who has investigated the matter with much care, the total number of 

 these sounds that can be possibly made by the human organs of vocalization is 385. 

 See, also, Ellis, on Earfy English Pronunciation ; and, for the limitation of con- 

 sonants in various languages of existing races, Hovelaque, Science of Language, 

 English trans., pp. 49, 61, 81. 



* "WTien we remember the inarticulate clicks which still form part of the 

 Bushman's language, it would seem as if no line of division could be drawn 

 between man and beast, even when language is made the test " (Sayce, 

 Introduction, *S^r., ii., p. 302), 



t Ursprung der .Sprache, s. 52. 



