244 



N.-J TURE 



\ynly 14, 1 88 1 



groan, moan, ivail, llniiider. In other cases sights, 

 sounds, or feelings, are represented by their accompany- 

 ing or appropriate sounds. We see a splash, or a slop : 

 we feel a thing to be smooth or rough, or to vibi-ate; and 

 we shiver with cold or terror. Again, how many actions 

 and qualities are represented by words expressing the 

 sounds which sometimes accompany them — as knock, 

 shock, crack, snap, ring, luhisper, hush, sigh, sob, ivash, 

 squash, crush, crunch, rip, rend, fi^rind, scratch, split, spit, 

 cough, sneeze, luheese. How characteristic are such words 

 as sticky, flicker, flutter, hurry, flurry, stumble, hobble, 

 wobble. Here we have not only sound, but motion and 

 quality, represented by the arrangement of letters and 

 syllables. How clearly do such words as slide, glide, and 

 wave imply slow and continuous motion, the movement 

 of the lips while pronouncing the lattei woid bemg a 

 perfect double undulation. How cunously do the tongue 

 and palate seem to be pulled apart fiom each other while 

 pronouncing the words ghu oi ituhy How maiked is 

 the contrast between the harsh consonants used to exprebs 

 rough, rugged, and gritty, as compaied with the soft flow 

 of sounds in smooth, oily, even, polislud. Look again at 



the sense of effort and feeling of giandeur in pronouncir^ 

 the words strong, strength, power, might, as compaied 

 with the opposites, weak, faint ; or the open-mouthtd 

 sounds^ of grand, huge, monstrous, vast, immense, giant, 

 gigantic, as contrasted with the almost closed lips with 

 which we say small, little, tiny, minute, pigmy, midoti 

 So craTL/ 1 and drag are pronounced slowly as compared 

 with run, fly, ox swim; while difficult and easy express 

 their own meaning while we pronounce them. iMany 

 objects and substances have names curiously correspond- 

 ing with their qualities. We have already noticed glue 

 as mdicating stickiness, but no less clearly is oil smooth ; 

 Avhile i5wj-j and glass indicate resonance ; tin a tinkling 

 sound; lead anA wood a dull sound or thud; in hell we 

 imitate its sound, while the word jelly indicates the 

 shaking of the substance. In ice we hear the interjec- 

 tional sh of shivering with cold ; in flre the flicker of the 

 ascending flame. In other cases the motion of the breath 

 gives an indication of meaning; in and out, up r^nddown, 

 elevate and depress, are pronounced with an inspiration 

 and expiration respectively, the former being necessarily 

 accompanied with a raising, the latter with a depression. 



of the head. When we name the mouth or lips we use 

 labials ; for tooth and tongue, dentals ; for the nose and 

 things relating to it, nasal sounds ; and this peculiarity is 

 remarkably constant in most languages, civilised and 

 savage. Among the Malay races, for instance, we find 

 such words as mulut, bawa, motion, and moda for mouth ; 

 gigit, nisinen, nigni, and niki for teeth; and idong, 

 tigerun and usnut, for nose. So in words for large we 

 find a prevalence of broad sounds involving a wide 

 opening of the mouth, as husiir, bake, bagut, lamu, eldmo, 

 ilahe, crddmei, aiyuk, w<i///rz— and for suuill, words that 

 are pronounced quickly and with slight opening of the 

 lips, as kichil, chili, kidi, koi, roit, kemi, anan, kiiti, fek, 

 didiki, all taken from languages of the Malay Archipelago. 



Dyaks. 



These few examples, which mig'it be greatly increased, 

 indicate the variety of ways in wfiich, even now, after all 

 the modifications and development which language has 

 undergone, sound still corresponds to sense ; and if the 

 reader will turn to Dr. Farrar's suggestive little work on 

 the " Origin of Language," he will find how wonderfully, 

 by the help of analogy and metaphor, the uses and mean- 

 ings of simple words and sounds have been indefinitely 

 increased, so as to subserve the grovsing need of mankind 

 to express more and more complex ideas. Mr. Tylor is 

 rather unfortunate in his illustration of words for the form 

 of which no cause can be assigned, when he says : " There 

 is no apparent reason why the word go should not have 

 signified the idea of coming, and the word come the idea 

 of going." But, in accordance with the examples already 



