ROOTS OF LANGUAGE. 26g 



logists IS not one of great importance for us, I will henceforth 

 disregard it. And, as it will be conducive to brevity, if not 

 also to clearness, 1 will speak of roots as archaic words, 

 although by so doing I shall not intend to assume that they 

 are more than phonetic types, or the nearest approach we 

 can make to the words out of which they were generated. 



We may next consider the kind of meanings which roots 

 convey. Antecedently we might form various anticipations 

 on this head, such as that they should be imitative of natural 

 sounds, expressive of concrete ideas, and so forth. As a 

 matter of fact, we find that they are not expressive of natural 

 sounds ; but, as far as we have now any means of judging, 

 quite arbitrary. Moreover, they are not expressive of 

 concrete or particular ideas ; but always of abstract or 

 general. Here, then, to begin with, we have two facts of 

 apparently great importance. And they are both facts 

 which, at first sight, seem to countenance the view that, in its 

 last resort, comparative philology fails to testify to the 

 natural origin of speech. But we must look into the matter 

 more closely, and, in order to do this most fairly, I will quote 

 from Professor Max Miiller the 121 roots into which he 

 analyzes the Sanskrit language. This is the language which 

 has been most carefully studied in the present connection, 

 and of all its students Professor Max Miiller is least open 

 to any suspicion of inclining to the side of " Darwinism." 

 The following is a list of what he calls "the 12 1 original 

 concepts." 



1. Dig. 12. Mix. 



2. Plat, weave, sew, bind. 13. Scatter, strew. 



3. Crush, pound, destroy, waste, 14. Sprinkle, drip, wet. 



rub, smooth. 15a. Shake, tremble, quiver, 



4. Sharpen. flicker. 



5. Smear, colour, knead, harden. 15b. Shake, mentally, be angry, 



6. Scratch. abashed, fearfully, etc. 



7. Bite, eat. 16. Throw down, fall. 



8. Divide, share, eat. 17. Fall to pieces. 



9. Cut. 18. Shoot, throw at. 



10. Gather, observe. 19. Pierce, split. 



11. Stretch, spread. 20. Join, fight, check. 



