ROOTS OF LANGUAGE. 2^7 



concepts " which are embodied in the roots of Aryan speech, are 

 expressive of "general ideas." Now, this argument might be 

 worth considering if there were the smallest reason to suppose 

 that in these roots of Aryan speech we possess the aboriginal 

 elements of language as first spoken by man. But as we well 

 know that this is immeasurably far from being the case, the 

 whole argument collapses. The mere fact that many words 

 which have survived as roots are words expressive of general 

 ideas, is no more than we might have antecedently expected. 

 Remembering that it is a favourable condition to a word sur- 

 viving as a root that it should prove itself a prolific parent of 

 other words, obviously it is those words which were expres- 

 sive of ideas presenting some degree of generality that would 

 have had the best chance of thus coming down to us, even 

 from the comparatively high level of culture which, as we have 

 seen, is testified to by "the I2I original concepts." Of course, 

 as I have already said, the case would have been diff'erent if 

 any one were free to suppose, even as a merely logical 

 possibility, that this level of culture represented that of primi- 

 tive man when he first began to employ articulate speech. 

 But any such supposition is beyond the range of rational 

 discussion. The 121 concepts themselves yield overwhelming 

 evidence of belonging to a time immeastirably i^emote from that 

 of any speechless progenitor of Homo sapiens ; and in the enor- 

 mous interval (whatever it may have been) many successive 

 generations of words must certainly have flourished and died.* 

 These remarks are directed to the comparatively few 

 instances of general ideas which, as a matter of fact, the list 

 of "121 concepts" presents. As already observed, the great 

 majority of these "concepts" exhibit no higher degree of 



• •* Standst du dabei, als sich der Brust des noch stummen Urmenschen der 

 erste Sprachlaut entrang? und verstandst du ihn? Oder hat man dir die Urwur- 

 zeln jener ersten Menschen vor hundert tausend Jahren iiberliefert? Sind das, 

 was du als Wurzeln hinstellst, und was wirklich Wurzcln sein mogen, auch 

 Wurzeln der Urzeit, unveranderte Reflexlaute? Sind jene deine Wurzeln alter 

 als sechstausend, als zehntausend Jahre ? und wie viel mogen sie sich in den 

 friiheren Jahrzehntausenden verandert haben ? wie mag sich ihre Bedeutung 

 verandert haben ? " (Steinthal, Zeits. b, Volkerpysch. u. Sprachwiss.^ 1867, s. 76). 



