350 
ly means to plough, a plough, and an ox, i.e ., a plougher. 
Whether a word is intended as a noun, or a verb, or a particle, 
depends chiefly on the position which it occupies in a 
sentence.” * 
What evidence does this state of things supply respecting 
the priority in time of noun or verb ? What now becomes of 
Noire’s confident dogmatism respecting primitive man, and his 
list of roots confined to verbal ideas and human activities ? As 
surely as primitive man dug for roots, so surely had he a name 
for 44 root ” as well as for 44 to dig.” 
% 
15. Present 'position of the Onomatopoetie Theory of 
Language. 
44 Plato,” says Prof. Jowett, 44 is a supporter of the Onomato- 
poetic theory of language ; that is to say, he supposes words to 
be formed by the imitation of ideas in sounds.” In this view 
he has been followed by a whole host of sages, one of the most 
remarkable of whom is De Brosses, who published his Trait'e de 
la Formation Mecanique des Langues in 1765. We 44 may 
read there,” says Prof. Noire, ridiculing the work which he, of 
course, imagines his own theory has effectually overthrown, 
44 how the litera canina , r , betokens what is disagreeable ; how 
the tone of pain is deep, oh , heu , helas ; that of surprise higher, 
oh , ah; of joy short and recurring, ha, ha, ha! he, he, lie; of 
displeasure and contempt labial, ft, vae, puh, pfui ; that of 
doubt and negation nasal, hum, non, etc. ; and that all the 
most necessary words are derived from these sources.” The 
fact that supporters of a theory misapply it in particular in- 
stances, or unduly extend it, is, of course, not fatal to it ; 
although frequently unfairly pressed against it. Those who 
wish to study the strength of the onomatopoetie position, should 
make themselves familiar with Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood’s 
Origin of Language and Dictionary of English Etymology , 
and Canon Farrar’s Chapters on Language and Language and 
Languages. But besides these champions of the cause, as we 
have seen, Mr. Darwin and Prof. Sayce regard Onomatopoeia 
and Interjeetional Cries as the source of language; and even 
Prof. Max Muller can no longer be considered as an opponent, 
for he explains that when he spoke of 44 the Bow-wow and the 
Pooh-pooh theories,” he was thinking 44 of Epicurus rather than 
of living writers; ” and in the Preface to the 5th edit, of his 
Lectures on the Science of Language, he says : — 
* Prof. Max Midler, Lects. Sci. Lang., ii. 89. 
