928 Dynamic Theory. 



simply an appearance, but as we had other words meaning the same 

 thing, apparition caine gradually to be applied exclusively to a ghostl}* 

 appearance. Specter, another word for ghost, means simply some- 

 thing seen, from the Latin specto, to behold. 



I take it that, in such cases as the foregoing, no one will claim the 

 more involved and mystic applications of a word to be the original. 

 No one supposes that the Mohawk first named his soul atonritz, and 

 afterwards from some fancied resemblance called his breath atonrion. 

 So I hold that generally the root word is the one which expresses the 

 simplest and most obvious idea, and the others, the derivatives. The 

 philologists in tracing Aryan speech to roots, have often given us terms 

 expressive of abstract ideas for roots. Undoubtedly the top story of 

 language has, to a great extent, been erected on abstractions, but the 

 ground floor certainly was not. My contention is, that before any word 

 had a general or abstract application, it had a special one. In some 

 cases the derived words can yet be traced to words which are at the 

 same time roots. Thus gu, as shown above is both a root and a word. 

 So are probably cat and dog, and perhaps horse and su (sow). In San- 

 skrit su means to generate; samtri. the sun; and savitri, a mother; sunu, 

 a son. Greek us, a sow or pig; uios, a son. Latin sus, a sow; suinus, 

 belonging to swine. Anglo-Saxon, su-gu, ?<-, sow ; swin, swine ; sunu, a 

 son. English, sow, swine, son, sun. In the foregoing the obvious 

 root word is su, the sow. From the prolific qualities of this animal 

 comes the obvious application of her name to the sun, the great mother 

 of all, and to mother and son. 



Skeat gives 461 roots for the Aryan tongues, which number is doubt- 

 less too small, as a good many words still remain to be accounted for. 

 But of the 461 over 90 are homonyms, the same word or root being used 

 to designate more than one conception. The root ar, for example, is 

 used for four conceptions, viz. : ( 1 ) ar, to plow ; Latin, arare, Gothic, 

 arjan, Anglo-Saxon, erian, to plow ; English, arable, ear ; Aryans, 

 (people who plow}. (2) ar, to go ; Sanskrit, ri, to go ; Greek, ornis, a 

 bird ; Latin, orior, I arise, alacer, quick ; English, ornithology, proselyte, 

 origin, order, altar, earnest, run, &c. ( 3 ) ar, to drive or to row ; San- 

 skrit, aritra, a rudder ; English, oar, row, rudder, &c. ( 4 ) ar or ra, 

 to gain, acquire, fit ; English, aristocracy, harmony, arithmetic, arms, 

 art. Very likely these four were originally identical, traces of a com- 

 mon conception prevading them all. This is also true of other hom- 

 onyms. If it were true of all, Skeats' list of Aiyan roots would be re- 

 duced to about 300. Probably it would be safe to say that all the 

 Aryan tongues have been constructed on a basis of not over 500 or 600 

 original expressions. The great expansion of the vocabulary which has 

 taken place in all languages above the savage type, has been accom- 



