NATURE OF ROOTS AND WORDS. 521 



have plioiietic forms primarily different. Thus ga^" go" is referred 

 to a primitive form gva, whence are derived Skr. ji-gdmi, " I go ; " 

 a-gdt, "he went;" as well as Gr. ehe, bai-no, bi-bas, &c., and Lat. 

 ve-nire ; da, dja, ju=:" hind," are mere variations of the same form; 

 kar and kal have already been referred to as admittedly identical, 

 and the same is the case with tar and tal ; va and vap^^^' weave ;" 

 dvi and c/ii="fear;" ksi, ski, ska^=" destroy ;" kru and klu^" hear;" 

 gal and ^^="shine" (as also gha7% which is surely only a variety of 

 form). The roots might be greatly reduced in number by considering 

 the variations of form and meaning, and classifying them accordingly. 

 Thus kar and ^aZ^" curl," also "rub," "crush," may be reasonably 

 regarded as mere arbitrary variations of tar and tal='^ rub," " crush," 

 &c., if we take into account the inability of primitive man to dis- 

 tinguish different sounds.* So with ar, par, sar=" go;" also tar^^ 

 "tremble," "move rapidly," 



We must of course allow to primitive language an infinitely greater 

 latitude in its phonetic changes than takes place in a speech more or 

 less fixed by the introduction of writing, and we do, as a matter of 

 fact, find that phonetic changes, as well as changes of signification, 

 are much more rapid with savage than with civilized nations. 



" The dialects of barbarian tribes," says Professor Sayce,t " are 

 perpetually altering. There is nothing to preserve them — neither 

 traditions, nor ritual, nor literature. The savage has the delight of 

 a child in uttering new sounds, and exhibiting his power and invent- 

 iveness in this manner, with none of the restraints by which civiliza- 

 tion confines the invention of slang to the schoolboy and the mob. 

 , . . The barbarian is especially open to all the influences of 

 external nature, climate, food, and so forth, with nothing to check 

 the disintegrating efiect these may have upon the combination of 

 sounds." Further on J the same authority says : " Nothing is really 

 harder than to keep a language from changing where it is not 

 protected by the habits of settled life." So Max Mtiller tells us that 

 among the wild tribes of Siberia, Africa and Siam, " two or three 

 generations are sufiicient to change the whole aspect of their dialects. "§ 

 Nay, more than this, he quotes the statement of Mofiat, the African 



* Mr. Henry Sweet, as quoted by Sayce, " Principles of Comparative Philology," 2iid edition, 

 p. 246. 



t Op. cit., p. 83. 



t Ibid., p. 85. 



S Lectures, First Series, p. 36. 



