PROF. BLACKIE ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ONOMATOPOEIA IN LANGUAGE. 7 



words the English word tumble, and you will observe that the awkward, clumsy, 

 hollow roll with which the act of accidental falling is generally accompanied, finds 

 expression here to such a degree that the words to tumble and to stand seem as 

 much opposed to one another as a round rowley-powley pudding is to the sharp, 

 thin, clear knife which cuts it. And this brings me to my second great fact, — 

 Why has the word k?iife a k in it? Why the Gaelic sgian, why the Latin cutter? 

 Is this altogether accidental ? Certainly not. K is a sharp letter, perhaps the 

 sharpest in the alphabet, and therefore in all languages appears in words which 

 signify sharpness, as in the Latin word acies, Greek ax^s, Sanscrit krit, to cut, 

 with the Latin ccedo, and probably the Gaelic cath, a battle. The Greek xoV™ 

 contains the same initial letter, although from the intrusion of the labial it it 

 is a less perfect word to express a clean, sharp stroke than the simple dental 

 which appears in the other roots. For the labials, being uttered by rounded, un- 

 pointed organs, are naturally used to express bluntness, as the very word blunt, 

 Greek a^exij, plainly proves. Hollow vowels and hard consonants will in all 

 cases be applied to express the reverse of what is sharp and thin. So tundo in 

 Latin is to beat, not sharply, like our word rap, but broadly and bluntly, as with 

 a mallet. Hence obtundere aures, to bore a person with talking, to be constantly 

 beating, and thumping, and drumming your crotchets upon the tympanum of his 

 ear. So, when a man's intellect is not very sharp, he is said to be muddled or 

 fuddled; and if muddled is only a verbal form of mud, you will easily under- 

 stand that something soft, broad, round, not at all clear, and not very stable, is 

 understood by the verb as well as by the noun. We thus see how not only sound, 

 but everything perceptible to vision or to touch — that is to say, the whole range 

 of phenomenal knowledge — comes under the derided principle of dvo^aro^oiia ; and if 

 there can be any stronger proof given of the unlimited range of articulate sound, 

 in mimetically expressing things which have nothing to do with sound, the 

 English word mum, for silence, contains that proof. M is the labial which most 

 completely closes the lips, and sends the breath up through the nose ; hence it 

 appears in the Latin mutus, the Greek tivu for closing or shutting, not the mouth, 

 but the eyes, and in the English dumb, which in German is dumm, stupid, be- 

 cause stupid people have often the sense to sit silent in company, and thus not 

 betray their stupidity. I conclude these illustrations of the second of the three 

 great facts by a remark on the word stand, previously used. This word, which is 

 a bastard present, formed from the old past tense, like the Alexandrian Greek 

 eriw, has for its root the Sanscrit sthd, in Latin stare. Now, any one may see that 

 this word stands more firmly on its legs than the word timible, with which we 

 contrasted it. Why is this ? There is no firmness or decision in any part of this 

 word, just as in the cognate word mumble there is a plain want of determinative 

 emphasis in the conglomeration of the letters. But when I say sta, I bring my 

 teeth together with a decision which shows that I am suiting the word to the 



