556 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 176 



warning in case of danger. The further argument 

 for the possession of a language-sense by mam- 

 mals and birds, at least, is that they readily learn 

 to respond to a name given them. To what ex- 

 tent that sense can be cultivated is shown in Sir 

 John Lubbock's dog, which brings out a card with 

 ' o-u-t ' on it when he wants to take a walk. 

 The close sympathy between man and the higher 

 mammals depends upon the fact that they can 

 mutually understand one another, can distinguish 

 the tones of pleasure and approval from those of 

 pain and censure. How much more difficult is it 

 to establish a similar bond between man and a 

 reptile, for instance ! for here the scope of mutual 

 understanding is very limited. So far, what may 

 be called an inter jectional language, that is, one 

 composed of sounds directly expressive of accom- 

 panying emotions, has alone been spoken of. The 

 human infant, and probably primitive man, made 

 much use of such a language. But our present lan- 

 guage is an intellectual, a thought language, which 

 in some way must have been developed from 

 the former. Before touching this rather specula- 

 tive question, it will be well to consider a form of 

 language still current, but not expressed by sounds; 

 namely, the gesture-language. This is both the 

 simpler and the more natural. It is possible only 

 in animals with easily movable limbs, especially 

 in mammals, as witness the prancing of a dog, the 

 exposing of the canines, the purring of a cat, or 

 pawing of a horse. The ape has a special facility 

 in this direction, and uses its facial muscles as a 

 means of expression. We use the gesture-language 

 in nodding, beckoning, threatening, and so on. This 

 language, like the spoken, is acquired by the child, 

 but much sooner than the latter: it reaches its 

 highest development in the less cultured tribes, 

 while the spoken language is seen in its highest 

 phases among the most civilized; it is more general 

 and uniform than any spoken language, and is 

 capable of considerable development, as is shown 

 in the training of the deaf and dumb. All these 

 circumstances suggest that the gesture-language is 

 a rudimentary one, which now is on the decline, 

 but which has had a considerable development in 

 tli< i past. Combining this fact with the high de- 

 velopment of this faculty in the ape (which lias 

 almosl no sound-language), we seem to be tending 

 to the conclusion that the creature from which 

 man developed in one direction, and the apes in 

 another, possessed both a sound and a gesture lan- 

 guage ; that in man the gesture-language was 

 developed ;il Bret, but was then superseded by the 

 spoken speech, beginning probably with an inter- 

 jectional vocabulary, while in the apes the gesture- 

 language alone was developed. 



A still higher sta<^' in the evolution of human 



language was made when the inter jectional and 

 the gesture languages fused, and formed a sound- 

 gesture-language. One reason for this change 

 was that the gestures appealed to the eye, whose 

 limit of distinct vision is very circumscribed ; while 

 speech appeals to the ear, which can hear in all 

 directions and at great distances. This may have 

 been prompted, too, by another reason. When de- 

 siring to communicate in the gesture-language, 

 one would first interject a cry to call attention to 

 that desire, and then the message would be told in 

 pantomime. Many tribes cannot fully express their 

 meaning without accompanying gestures, and it is 

 told of one tribe that its members cannot commu- 

 nicate in the dark. But certain sounds are in 

 direct connection with gestures. When one 

 wants to refer to the teeth, one would point to 

 them with the tongue ; the chief function of the 

 teeth is eating, and the inter jectional cry accom- 

 panying this gesture would be modified into the 

 word for < eating.' Evidently, then, dentals ought 

 to be found in the words for * eating ' in various 

 languages. Here are a few: Gothic, itan; Greek, 

 esthiein ; Latin, edere ; Tartar, atarga ; Mongolian, 

 edcku ; Chinese, tsidh. Many words for ' teeth ' 

 contain these dentals : as, dens (' tooth ') ; Persian, 

 dendun ; and so on. The sound I in connection 

 with tongue-gestures, the sound st in connection 

 with words for keeping silence (i.e., sounds with 

 the mouth as much closed as possible), and 

 other similar cases, could be summed up. Another 

 class of natural words, as has long been recognized, 

 is due to imitation. We see how strong this imi- 

 tative tendency is in apes, young children, and 

 even certain species of birds. The names of ani- 

 mals are given by their characteristic sounds, 

 cuckoos, etc. The buzzing of the bees, the whizz- 

 ing of the wind, the murmuring brook, are other 

 examples. 



One further step must be taken to set language 

 on its present developmental stage : the man who 

 pictures unseen gods in woods and streams, who 

 sees signs of their pleasure in the flight of birds or 

 the direction of the wind, must further extend 

 his creative imagination to form sounds that are 

 to be connected with new things and new deeds. 

 Here, then, would be great range for individual 

 differences ; and the beginning of the contusion 

 that reigned at the Tower of Babel must probably 

 be put back to the time when the interjectional and 

 gesture languages were still in full vigor. Once 

 started on such a course, it is not difficult to im- 

 agine that languages would multiply and become 

 hopelessly different and strange to one another. 

 This is the problem of the philologists. 



A critic should be lenient when considering 

 speculations of this nature. The picture is doubt- 



