298 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



Egyptian there is no formal distinction between noun, 

 adjective, verb, or particle ; such a word as a7ih, for instance, 

 meaning indifferently, life, alive, to live, lively, &c.* Similarly, 

 in Chinese "the word can still be used indifferently as a 

 noun, a verb, an adverb, or the sign of a case, much like such 

 English words as silver, and picture, and its place in the 

 sentence alone determines in what sense it shall be construed 

 This is an excellent illustration of the early days of speech, 

 when the sentence-words contained within themselves all the 

 several parts of speech at once — all that was needed for a 

 complete sentence ; and it was only by bringing them into 

 contact and contrast [i.e. appositio7t\ with other sentence-words, 

 that they came to be restricted in their meaning and use, and 

 to be reduced to mere * words.' " f 



Later on I will give abundant evidence of a similar state 

 of matters in the case of other existing languages presenting 

 a low order of development — especially those of savages. 

 But perhaps it is even of more importance to prove that 

 the most highly developed of all languages — namely, the 

 Indo-European group — still bears unmistakable evidence of 

 having passed through this primitive phase. This is a state- 

 ment which it would be easy to substantiate by any number 

 of quotations ; but I will only call the testimony of one wit- 

 ness in the person of Professor Max Miiller, whose evidence on 

 this point may be regarded as that of an opponent 



" Nothing, it is true, can exist in language except what is 

 a sentence, i.e. that conveys a meaning ; but for that very 

 reason it ought to have been perceived that every word must 

 originally have been a sentence. The mere root, qua root, 

 cannot be called a sentence, and in that sense a mere root 

 may be denied the dignity of a word. But as soon as a 

 root is used for predication, it becomes a word, whether 

 outwardly it is changed or not. What in Chinese is effected 

 by position or by tone, namely, the adaptation of a root 

 to serve the purposes of words, is in the Aryan languages 



• Mgypten, i. 324. 



t Sayce, hitroduction^ (5r»r., i. 119, 120. 



