488 MUSCULAR MOTION. 



the same effect to the ear. Dr. John Wallis 1 turned his attention to 

 this matter, chiefly as regards the English language, and he has col- 

 lected a multitude of examples to show, that a certain collocation of 

 consonants at the commencement of a word generally designates the 

 class of ideas intended to be conveyed by it. For instance, he re- 

 marks that: 



Str, always carries with it the idea of great force and effort : as strong, strike, stripe, strife, 

 struggle, stretch, strain, &c. 



St, the idea of strength, but in less degree the vis inertia, as it were : as stand, stay, stop, 

 stick, stutter, stammer, stumble, stalk, steady, still, stone, &c. 



Thr, the idea of violent motion : as throw, thrust, throb, threat, throng, &c. 



Wr, the idea of obliquity or distortion : as wry, wreathe, wrest, wring, wrestle, wrench, wrig- 

 gle, urrangle, &c. 



Br, the idea of violent chiefly sonorous fracture or rupture : as break, brittle, brust, or 

 burst, brunt, bruise, broil, &c. 



Cr, the idea of straining or dislocation, chiefly sonorous : as crack, creak, crackle, cry, crow, 

 crisp, crash. Other words, beginning with these consonants, communicate the idea of curva- 

 ture, as if from curvus : as crook, cringe, crouch, creep, crawl, cripple, crumple, crotchet, &c. 

 Others, again, denote decussation, as if from crux: as cross, cruise, crutch, crosier. 



Shr, the idea of forcible contraction : as shrink, shrivel, shrug, shrill, &c. 



Gr, the idea of the rough, hard, onerous and disagreeable, (either owing to the letter of 

 loughness r, or from gravis,) as grate, grind, gripe, grapple, grieve, grunt, grave, &c. 



Sw, the idea of silent agitation or of gentle lateral motion : as sway, swag, swerve, sweat, 

 swim, swing, swift, &c. 



Sm, a very similar idea to the last : as smooth, small, smile, smirk, &c. 



Cl, the idea of some adhesion or tenacity: as cleave, clay, cling, climb, cloy, cluster, close, &c. 



Sp, the idea of some dispersion or expansion, generally quick, (especially with the addi- 

 tion of the letter r,) as spread, spring, sprig, sprinkle, split, splinter, spill, &c. 



SI, the idea of a gently gliding or slightly perceptible motion : as slide, slip, slippery, slime, 

 sly, slow, sling, &c. 



Lastly : Sq, Sk, Scr, denote violent compression : as squeeze, squirt, squeak, squeal, skreek, 

 screw, &c. 



Other interesting observations on the collocation of consonants, at 

 the termination, and in the body, of words, are contained in the gram- 

 mar of Wallis. His remarks, however, are chiefly confined to his own 

 tongue. The President de Brosses 2 has taken a wider range, with a 

 similar object, and endeavoured to discover why certain consonants, or 

 a certain arrangement of consonants in a word, should designate certain 

 properties, in all languages. Why, for instance, the st should enter 

 into most words signifying firmness and stability: as, in the Sanskrit, 

 stabatu, to stand, stania, a town, &c. ; in the Greek, ot^, a column, 

 tfffpsoj, solid, immovable, crr-fipa, sterile, remaining constantly without 

 fruit, (j^pifw, " I fix firmly," &c. ; in the Latin, stare, to stand; stirps, 

 a stem; stupere, to be astonished; stagnum, stagnant water, &c.; and 

 he might have added, in the German, still-stehend, stagnant; 

 stadt, a town; stand, condition; sterben, to die; still-stand, 

 cessation, &c., besides the English words, commencing with st, already 

 quoted from Wallis. He farther inquires, why words, commencing with 

 so, denote hollowness, as axcvttu, I dig; axa,^, skiff or boat, in the 

 Greek; scutum, a shield; scyphm, a large jug; sculpere, to engrave; 

 scrobs, a ditch, in the Latin; ecuelle, formerly escuelle, a dish; scarifier, 

 to scarify; scabreux, scabrous; sculpture, &c., in the French; and simi- 



1 Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae, &c., edit. 6, Lond., 1765. 



a Traite de la Formation Mechanique des Langues et des Principes Physiques de 1'Ety- 

 mologie, i. 199, Paris, 1765. 



