122 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



represented in primitive speech than the light or heat 

 which to us seems its most important characters. The 

 root su, and the various forms of sun in other Aryan 

 languages, have all the same character of open-mouthed 

 pronunciation, and the term for south, or sunward, is 

 clearly derived from it. In Mr. Kavanah's work on Myths 

 traced to their Primary Source in Language, the symbol O, 

 representing the sun, is held to have been the first word 

 and symbol used by primitive man, and a vast wealth of 

 illustration from various sources is brought together to 

 support the somewhat fantastic idea. 



Other characteristic mouth-words are mum (silence), a 

 mere parting and closing of the lips, whence comes 

 mumble and perhaps dumb. Spit also is a labial imitative 

 word, but it imitates the action of spitting as well as the 

 sound. Sleep may also be considered a mouth-word, and 

 in pronouncing it we gradually close the mouth in a very 

 suggestive manner, while in wake, aivake, we abruptly 

 open it. 



We now pass on to words for nose and whatever 

 appertains to it, which, in a considerable proportion of 

 known languages, are formed by nasal sounds, such as are 

 represented by our letters m, n, ng, w r ith the sibilants s or 

 2. Thus we have snout, nozzle, nostril, snore, ^snort, sneeze, 

 sneer, sniff, snivel, all things or actions immediately con- 

 nected with the nose, while smell, stink, stench, and nasty, 

 are also expressive nasal words. 



A distinct set of words, appertaining to the teeth, 

 tongue, or palate, are characterized by t, d, s, and n sounds, 

 and are pronounced wholly within the mouth without any 

 definite action of the lips. Thus, besides tooth and tongue, 

 we have tusk, eat, gnaw, gnash, and taste ; while perhaps 

 knee, knot, knob, knoll, knuckle, and some other words of 

 doubtful derivation, may get their characteristic type 

 from the analogy of a tooth-like projection. It is to be 

 noted that nasal and dental sounds characterize words of 

 similar meaning, not only in European languages, but 

 more or less all over the world. 



