18 VOCAL SOUNDS OF 



gong. The English sly means cunning, but is derived from the root of the word 

 shding, which, hke the German schlupfen, is an imitation of the sound made by 

 nimble bodies moving quickly on smooth surfaces. To clip, now meaning to 

 cut off the tender ends of bodies, is derived from the noise made by the act of 

 clipping. So is the English word to nip derived from a sound. In German nip- 

 pen means to sip ; both are, originally, of phonetic imitation. 



The following is one of the most striking and interesting instances of words 

 belonging to this class : 



The Latin vivere and the Greek ?inv are of the same root with the Gothic 

 quivan., which, etymologically, is the same with our weave, that is, to move to 

 and fro, as the German weben actually means to weave, and to move as a living 

 body or entity — a sense which move has in the great passage of the Bible : In 

 Him we live and move and have our being. The German is, " In ihm lehen 

 und weben wir?'' Of the Gothic quivan was formed our quick, which means 

 both living and rapid, for the ideas of hfe and motion are closely united, so 

 much so that we cannot imagine unalterable sameness without the idea of death, 

 or lifelessness ; while quivering has the meaning of trembling motion. But 

 this original root is probably the same which we find in live, the German Leben; 

 and these words originally mean to utter a loud noise, to cry. They are etymo- 

 logically the same with the low-German Leuen, the English to low. Hence the 

 German Leu and Lowe, and the Latin Leo, for lion, that is, the roarer. To low 

 is a clear imitation of the sound, while the idea of tone, of utterance, is as 

 closely connected with that of life as the idea of motion. Indeed, wherever 

 life surrounds us we see motion and hear sounds — be it utterance or noise 

 caused by motion. It is not maintained that men reflected on this close con- 

 nexion, but a noise, a cry, an utterance naturally suggested the idea of life, and 

 the word or verbal sound indicating the one was necessarily taken for the other; 

 as an anxious father, doubting the life of a new-born infant, will exultingly exclaim, 

 It cries ! meaning it lives. The Hebrew Lev, for heart, because it pulsates, 

 moves, or lives, probably descends from the same root. It is not useless to 

 remark here that, in common German parlance, the word Leben (life) has to 

 this day the meaning of uproar or noise. Many a German schoolmaster says, 

 admonishingly, to his pupils : " Boys, do not make so much Zt/e," when he sud- 

 denly breaks in upon them in the midst of a youthful tumult. We have, then, 

 here again a word which is originally an imitation or a sound evoked by sound, 

 but which gradually comes to designate various, very different and vast ideas. 



I have given a sufficient number of instances to illustrate this class of words. 

 Whoever will direct his attention to it will no doubt be as much surprised as 

 the writer has been, at the immense number of words reducible to this class. 



Laura, of course, could not attain to these classes of designating sounds, 

 because she could not even attain to those whence they are derived. 



Under the fifth class of words may be comprehended those which have never 

 designated a sound, but whose sound, nevertheless, stands in a direct psycho- 

 logical connexion with the object to be designated, or the idea to be expressed — 



