THE EXPRESSIVENESS OP SPEECH 127 



sents the sound it makes, as does drop when caused by 

 a small globular portion ; while quench well represents the 

 noise produced by water used in sufficient quantities to 

 extinguish a fire. 



Many natural objects appear to have been named from 

 their characteristic sound. Brass and glass, from their 

 resonance; tin, from its more delicate, tinkling sound; 

 iron, perhaps from its peculiar harsh vibration when struck ; 

 lead and wood, from the dull sound, or thud, which they 

 produce. In ice we have probably the indications of the 

 sh of " shiver " caused by touching it, and its transparency 

 may have led to the use of the somewhat similar term for 

 glass. In pronouncing the word fire we seem to imitate 

 with the lips and breath the wavy flickering motion of 

 flame, and the name for the fir tree, almost identical in 

 many of the Scandinavian and Celtic languages, is doubt- 

 less in reference to the upward -growing, pointing form, 

 like that characteristic of fire. Glow seems to represent 

 the steady light of embers as contrasted with the incessant 

 motion of fire, for while the latter word requires a double 

 motion of the lips, the former is pronounced wholly inside 

 the mouth by means of the tongue and palate, the lips 

 remaining motionless. In the words step, stamp, and stop, 

 we have a very close representation of the sound of the 

 bare foot upon the ground in walking, and it seems quite 

 probable that the root sta, from which they are said to be 

 derived, had this origin. 1 



Sounds which represent Motions. 



We now pass on from mere sounds to the various kinds 

 of motions to be observed in nature ; and we shall 

 find that these also are represented by curiously expres- 

 sive combinations of vocal utterances, often requiring 

 imitative motions in the organs of speech. The modes 

 of indicating the difference between continuous and abrupt 

 motions have already been referred to, but each particular 

 kind of motion has also its characteristic combination of 



1 A considerable number of these directly imitative words are 

 given in Dean Farrar's Essay on the Origin of Language, chap. iv. 



