POWELL] PHILOLOGY CLXIII 



Lang-, in the first volume of Myth, Ritual, and Religion, says, 

 "It is 'a far cry' from Australia to the west coast of Africa." 

 We have only to suppose that the tei'm cry becomes a measure 

 of distance as the term foot was developed, and that the term 

 be used only in this sense, while other synonyms are used in 

 what is now the ordinary sense, and we have a fine illustra- 

 tion of this phenomenon. 



What has been called a "disease of language" is the substi- 

 tution of a word to express a new meaning and the atrophy 

 of the old meaning. 



THE ARYAN PROBLEM 



In the study of the languages of the earth we find in a 

 general way that the more primitive the culture of the jjeople 

 the fewer are the people who speak a common tongue and the 

 greater are the number of distinct tongues. By a world-wide 

 review of this subject we reach the conclusion that ever}^ tribe 

 in the beginnings of human speech spoke a distinct language. 



We can not pause to completely assemble the data on which 

 this conclusion is founded, but it seems that a language as an 

 art of expression was originally developed by every distinct 

 body politic. The persons who habitually as.sociated as a 

 body of kindred developed a language for themselves. Thus 

 in thought we have to view an ancient condition of languages 

 when every tribe had a tongue of its own and hence that the 

 number of languages was approximately equal to the number 

 of tribes. Languages thus commenced as a babel of tongues. 



If we investigate the modern development of any one of the 

 languages of higher civilization we find its elements to be 

 compounded of many diverse tongues. What we know by 

 historical evidence we are compelled to infer as true of all 

 existing languages, and in fact no language — not even that of 

 the most savage tribe — can be intelligently studied without 

 discovering evidence of its compound character. 



We must now call attention to the process of evolution of 

 languages in which they are integrated — that is, they are for- 

 ever becoming fewer in number. They do not multiply by 

 evohition; they integrate. With this pi-ocess of evolution, 

 languages forever differentiate more thoroughly specialized 



