April 1, 1887.] 



♦ KNONA/'LEDGE ♦ 



129 



we consider the internal commerce between the States we 

 recognise a difference the other way. This internal com- 

 merce exceeds the entire foreign commerce of Great Biitain 

 and Ireland, France, Germany, Kussia, Holland, Austro- 

 Hungary, and Belgium combined. The Pennsylvania 

 Railioad system, alone, transports more tonnage than all 

 our British merchant ships ! 



These are but a few samples of the wonders which Mr. 

 Carnegie — a Scotsman by birth, and not a politician, but a 

 man of business — has to tell about the development of 

 America. We commend his book to the careful reading 

 of men who think ; for party men, or men otherwise liable 

 to be swayed by mere prejudice, the work will be pleasing 

 or irritating, according (x) the direction in which their 

 proclivities tend. But for those who look hopefully, or at 

 least longingly, to the future of the human race, it is a work 

 whose every page will be full of meixning. 



EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 



By Ad.\ 8. Ballin. 



Vir.— THE OEKilN OF ROOTS. 



HEN discussing the origin of the natui-al 

 sign language '■'■ I showed how its words 

 are formed by the reproduction of the 

 natural signs of emotion, by the imitation 

 of the characteristic aspects, mo\ements, or 

 uses of objects, and for brevity by the 

 representation of marks characteristic of 

 certain objects. Similarly words may originate by imita- 

 tion of : — 



1. Natural sounds, which are the outward expression of 

 sensations or emotions. 



2. The sounds produced by animals, which are, as it w-ere, 

 marks each characteristic of the animal that utters it. 



.'!. The sounds produced by the movement of inanimate 

 things, and in the use of objects by man. 



In considering the first class we find that certain sounds, 

 which ai-e called interjectional, are common to races speak- 

 ing widely different languages, and they are so because they 

 are the natural and instinctive expression of feelings which 

 are common to all mankind. Such ai-e sighs and groans, as 

 Ah ! Oh I which, pronounced in various tones, express very 

 different feelings, as, for example, all shades of grief, pain, 

 surpi-ise, admiration, and even pleasui'e. The words ivoc, 

 Saxon ira, Latin vo', Greek ovai, Welsh ginae, German Weh, 

 Dutch loee, Swedish ve, Hebrew hoi, are imitative of the 

 sounds of sighing which we find in the emotional interjec- 

 tions : Iieiijlio, Wolof language of Africa MiiJiIii, Hebrew Aloili, 

 hi'ili, and Itu. Another set of derivatives from the same 

 source may be seen in our /a .' stop 1 tcay '. irhod .' when 

 addressed to horses ; Challam Indian /tiJi .' — which may all 

 be taken as meaning " There's danger ahead, so stop," or " It 

 will be worse for you if you don't stop." 



In Chinese plays of the Yuen dynasty i'> and in'' are used 

 as exclamations or calls to inferiors, as ii-vd /il-jtn ^nl- 

 yaii t'l-k'n, " woman ! do not cry and weep " ; ivit-nd 

 hi-shu-li ! Halloa ! Postman I " In the Shi-King hii-hu ! an 

 exclamation arising from pain, is used as " Oh ' Alas ! " 

 The Hebrew Iwi or ui is used, 1, of lamentation; as alas! 

 2, of threatening, as : "H'oe to the sinful nation," Isaiah i. 1, 

 like ho! woe! hei! Greek oi, Latin, I'ce ! and also, 3, of 

 admonition, like ho ! heus ! he ! Hoi erets, &.c. (Isaiah 

 xviii. 1), translated, " Ah, the land, &c." Ho, in Chinese, is 

 used as a noun, " Misery." 



* Knowledge, vol. vii , 



p. c 



16. 



A curious instiince of the introduction into language of a 

 sound produced by an emotional expiession is that of the 

 sound o. In Japanese o is used as a prefix of honour, as : 

 iiuts'h', a spy (literally eye-fixer). O nuts lie, a princely or 

 imperial spy, Oo mets'kr the spy in chief. (Jo also, by a 

 natural transition, becomes the inteijectional adjective 

 " great." The Iroquois of North Ameiica form compound 

 words with the sounds io, indicative of admiration ; in 

 Mohawk, Garonta means a tree ; Garontio, a beautiful tree ; 

 and Oliio, means a beautiful river. The siniOar usage of the 

 -sound, aujong such widely ditierent peoples, may be accounted 

 for by the fact that when anyone is startled or astonished 

 the mouth is widely opened to draw a deep breath, and so 

 be ready for action. When the next expiration takes place 

 the mouth is slightly closed, and the lips protruded, so that 

 the sound of a long o is produced. I remember that, when 

 I w.as a child, if fireworks were being displayed, at each 

 discharge a sort of deep groaning, " Ob I " invariably' came 

 from the crowd ; but now that tirewoiks are so frequently 

 seen, that sound is rarely heard, or, if at all, only from one 

 or two voices, instead of being, as formerly, unanimous. 



Darwin observed that when on a cjuiet night some 

 I'ockets were fired from on board the Jlcayk, which was 

 anchored in a little creek at Tahiti, as each rocket was let 

 of}' there was absolute silence, invariably followed by a deep 

 groaning Oh, resounding all round the bay. When pain is 

 felt with surprise, the tendency to contract all the muscles 

 of the body which accompanies pain causes the lips to be 

 drawn back, and the sound, liecoming higher, assumes the 

 character oi Ah! or Ach ! The Chinese interjection to 

 indicate pain is ai-ai (cf. Italian, ahi, in ahiitie, woe 's 

 me). Mr. W. Mathews says the North American Indians 

 exjjress astonishment by a gi-oan, which doubtless re- 

 sembles the sound described by Darwin. The deaf, dumb, 

 and blind Laura Bridgeman, to whom I have previously 

 referred, when amazed, rounds and protrudes her lips, 

 opens them and breathes strongly, making a sort of 

 sound, ho-o-f-t, for wonder. Indeed, the lips are often pro- 

 truded in astonishment, and the same expression has been 

 observed in the chimpanzee and orang. Mr. Winwood 

 Bead states that the negroes of the west coast of Africa 

 under the same emotion protrude their lips and make a 

 sound ]i]iehei(/h-heifjh. Among the Chinese ai-i/n (cf. Latin 

 (ja) is an expression of joy and surprise. 



If the mouth is not much opened whilst the hps are 

 considerably protruded, the result is a blowing, hissing, or 

 whistling sound, and Mr. R. Brough Smyth informed Darwin 

 that an Australian from the interior on being shown an 

 acrobat turning head over heels '• was greatly astonished, 

 and protruded his lips, making a noise with his mouth, as 

 if blowing out a match." Mr. Bulmer says the Australians 

 make an exclamation of surprise /.o/-//, "' and to do this the 

 mouth is drawn out as if going to whistle." Europeans 

 whistle when surprised. Englishmen utter an exclamation 

 written whew, and Mr. Mansel Weal saw a Kaffir girl who, 

 on hearing of the high price of an article, " rai.sed her eye- 

 brows and whistled just as a European would."* r<t .and 

 (( in Chinese denote wonder and astonishment, while hi is 

 an exclamation of admiration used in poetry, as : pi mei Jin 

 hi! that beautiful person ! 



When an unple;isant odour is encountered, an instinctive 

 action takes place by which the nostrils are closed, the lips 

 narrowed almost to closure, and a rapid expiration made, in 

 order to get rid of the noxious particles. In so doing the 

 sound of / is produced ; the same gesture is frequently 

 made when the feeling of di.sgust or displeasure is mental. 

 Thus Laura Bridgeman when displeased would make the 

 sound /, ./f, or _fi. The same sound may be found in our 



* See Darwin's " Expression of the Emotions," p. 2S.5 rt set/. 



