Chapter I: Preface

I wish this little book to be in every respect as unpretending as possible. I do not presume to represent myself as an original investigator, nor do I aspire to a greater distinction than that of representing clearly and intelligently the views of those distinguished writers who have made the study of philology the chief pursuit of their lives.

While I have quoted my authorities for almost every statement of importance, I have generally used my own language, and even in those paragraphs which I have put between inverted commas I have so frequently abbreviated, expanded, or transposed, that the passages must not be criticised as though they had been intended for direct translations.

I do not think that I have ever borrowed from any writer, English, French, or German, without ample acknowledgment. I would not be so dishonest as to shine in borrowed plumes. If in one or two cases I have been guilty of apparent plagiarism it is certainly only from the works of those authors whom I cannot be considered to have robbed wilfully, because their writings are honourably referred to on almost every page. I wish this remark to apply especially to the very clear, learned, and beautiful treatises of M. Ernest Renan, to which I am largely indebted, and without which I should not have undertaken this work.

The questions here handled have always been to me full of interest; and these chapters have been chiefly written because I have invariably found that they are also full of interest to young learners. Should it be proved that I have rashly intruded on a task beyond my powers, no one will more regret this attempt than I shall myself.

The books of which I have made _chief_ use in the following pages are

Grimm, _Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache_.

Heyse, _System der Sprachwissenschaft_.

Lersch, _Die Sprachphilosophie der Alten_.

Renan, _De l’Origine du Langage_.

Renan, _Histoire Générale des Langues Sémitiques_.

Charma, _Essai sur le Langage_.

Nodier, _Notions de Linguistique_.

Bunsen, _Philosophy of Universal History_.

Max Müller, _Survey of Languages_.

Pictet, _Les Origines Indo-Européennes_.

Garnett’s _Philological Essays_.

Dr. Donaldson’s _Cratylus_, and _Varronianus_.

It need scarcely be said, however, that I have read and consulted very many besides these, and indeed every book that I could obtain which seemed to bear directly upon the subject.

I will only add with M. Nodier--“J’ai écrit sur la Linguistique, parce que je ne connois aucun livre qui renferme les notions principales d’une manière claire, sous une forme accessible aux esprits simples, qui ne soit pas repoussante pour les esprits délicats.”

FALMOUTH,
_Aug., 1860_.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.
PAGE
The faculty of speech.--Definition of language.--Importance of
philology.--Three main theories on the origin of language--1. That
language was innate and organic.--Curious errors.--Objections
to this view.--2. That language was the result of imitation and
convention.--Objections.--3. That language was revealed.--In what
sense this may be held to be true.--The phrase obscure, and leads
to many misconceptions.--Danger of a misapplied literalism.--Five
objections to the common belief.--The real meaning of Gen. ii.
19, 20.--Rightly understood it exactly accords with the true
theory.--Germ of truth in each of these views. 1

CHAPTER II.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF SPEECH.

Germinal development of language.--How came words to be accepted
as signs?--The inquiry not absurd.--What is a word?--Words only
express the relations of things.--Connection of thought and
speech.--Growth of individuality.--Theory of M. Steinthal.--Speech
depends on the power of abstraction; the transformation of
intuitions into ideas.--1. Impressions awoke sounds.--2. Sounds,
by the association of ideas, recalled impressions.--3. Sounds
became words by connecting the external object and the inward
impression.--Influence of organism.--Earliest impressions expressed
by the simplest sounds.--Influence of women.--Influences of
climate. 34

CHAPTER III.

THE LAWS OF SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE, OR THE CREATION OF ROOTS.

Words never _purely_ arbitrary.--They _become_ conventional
in time.--Corruptions produced by the dislike of mechanical
words.--Inappropriate corruptions.--Words, significant at first,
are allowed to become conventional.--Grammar the _life_ of a
language.--Onomatopœic or _imitative_ words.--_Motive_ of
words.--Delicacy of the appellative faculty.--The imitation always
purely artistic.--Instances of the spontaneous tact which gives
rise to new names. 53

CHAPTER IV.

ONOMATOPŒIA.

Sounds naturally used as the signs of sounds; as among infants,
and savage races.--Wide application of this law overlooked.--The
imitation modified organically and ideally.--Admirable
perfection of the organs of sound.--Boundless capabilities of
language.--Diversity of _relations_ gave rise to different
imitations.--Roots universally onomatopœic.--Cause of dialectic
variety.--Interjections and onomatopœia the two natural elements
of language.--Instances of words derived from exclamations; and
from imitation.--Supposed vulgarity of onomatopœic words.--Their
real dignity when well used.--Instances from the poets.--They
cannot be avoided.--Harmonies of language. 72

CHAPTER V.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ROOTS.

Roots supposed to be primitive and irreducible.--Words derived
from sensible images; the personal pronouns; and even the
numerals.--The verb ‘to be,’ in all languages, from a material
root.--Permutations and combinations of a few roots.--Instances
of their diffusiveness.--The root ‘ach.’--The root ‘dhu.’--The
same root to express opposite meanings.--Roots refracted and
reflected.--Important applications of these remarks. 97

CHAPTER VI.

METAPHOR.

We know nothing absolutely.--Language an asymptote.--Necessity
of analogy to express things.--All words ultimately
derivable from sensible ideas.--Instances in the Semitic
languages.--Graphic effects thus produced.--Words involve all
history.--Catachresis and metaphor.--Defence of both from
the charge of imperfection.--Necessity, power, and value of
metaphor.--Comparisons of style.--Rigid accuracy and clumsiness
of scientific terminology.--Words are but symbols.--The two
worlds.--Poetry of life to the primal man, and its influence on
language.--A nation’s language expresses its character. 116

CHAPTER VII.

WORDS NOTHING IN THEMSELVES.

Inferences drawn from the derivation of all words from
‘sensible ideas.’--Gradual degeneracy of the Sensational
School.--Condillac.--Helvetius.--The Diversions of Purley.--Real
derivation of the words ‘If’ and ‘Truth.’--What words really
stand for.--The conclusions of nominalism need not be
accepted.--Reason.--Words which can only be explained by the
idea. 147

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LAWS OF PROGRESS IN LANGUAGE.

These laws psychological.--1. Languages advance from exuberance
to moderation by eliminating superfluities.--Unity of speech
the result of civilisation.--Redundancy marks an early stage of
thought.--Superfluous words dropped or desynonymised.--2. Languages
advance from indetermination to grammar.--Simplicity succeeds
complexity.--Instances of agglutination.--3. Languages advance from
synthesis to analysis.--Tmesis a relic of Polysynthetism.--Analysis
not inferior to synthesis for the expression of thought.--Instances
in the Indo-European and Semitic languages.--Grimm on the English
language.--Some would add a 4th law, viz.: the progress from
monosyllabism.--Arguments in favour of this law.--It remains very
questionable; only a convenient hypothesis. 166

CHAPTER IX.

THE FAMILIES OF LANGUAGES.

Stages of Language.--The logical order not the historical.--1. The
Indo-European and Arian family.--Its unity and importance.--Life
of the early Arians.--“Linguistic Palæontology.”--2. The Semitic
family.--Its character and divisions.--3. The Allophylian
or Turanian (?) family (?).--Can only be called a ‘family’
hypothetically.--Includes a vast number of languages, which have
_very little_ connection with each other. 185

CHAPTER X.

ARE THERE ANY PROOFS OF A SINGLE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE?

Immense number of languages dead as well as living.--Three
irreducible families.--Arguments in favour of an original
language.--1. All may be derived (not from each other, but) from
some lost language.--Objections.--2. Supposed affinities
between different families, i. Non-Sanskritic elements in
Celtic. ii. Possible reduction of the triliteral Semitic
roots.--Objections.--3. Languages apparently anomalous.--Egyptian,
Berber, &c.--How they may possibly be accounted
for.--Inference.--Apparent successions of races.--1. The inferior
races.--2. The semi-civilised.--3. The great noble races. 203

CHAPTER XI.

THE FUTURE OF LANGUAGE.

1. Destinies of the Arian race.--The future of the
English language.--The distinction of nations a design of
Providence.--2. Advantages which result from diversities of
language.--Indispensable for the preservation of truth.--Value of
knowing languages.--3. A universal language could, in the present
state of the world, only last for a short time.--Conclusion. 220

A list of books valuable as forming an Introduction to the Study
of Philology. 229

AN ESSAY

ON

THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE.