Chapter X: Section I

_First Source of Synonymes the Metaphorical Character of Human
Language in its Infancy. Even modern Languages metaphorical or
descriptive, as regards the Names of Substances recently known to
Man. Progressive Change from a metaphorical to a conventional
Character displayed by more Modern compared to more Ancient
Languages. Illustration from the Sanscrit Words for __“__The
Sun.__”_

But not only may the dispersion of Synonymes be referred to influences of which the active agency still continues; it will appear that the first Origin of the numerous Synonymes which Human Language presents may also be explained by means of causes still in operation!

Human Language, in its infancy, was descriptive or metaphorical. Nouns, or names of objects, were expressive of some of their dominant or most conspicuous qualities. Hence, inasmuch as in different individuals, and in the same individual at different times, the faculty of Imagination is affected by various characteristics, a great diversity of descriptive terms were generally devised for the same objects, and these, as their primitive metaphorical meanings were insensibly forgotten, gradually lapsed into arbitrary or conventional Nouns. That this is a correct explanation of the origin of a large portion of the Synonymes in which Human Tongues abound, will be apparent from an examination of two venerable Oriental Languages, the Hebrew and the Sanscrit, which indisputably display through their whole structure a metaphorical or pictorial character.

The same truth is confirmed by facts within the range of our actual experience—facts that suggest reflections of high interest!

Several thousand years have passed away since man first became acquainted with the most prominent and familiar of those objects with which he is surrounded. For these objects he has inherited from his remote ancestors names which he learns in infancy, and which relieve him from the task of inventing anew appropriate designations. But though Nature presents no new features, the progress of Science has in modern times revealed a few new substances unknown to our forefathers, which have served at intervals to call forth the exercise of the same inventive powers by which language was originally constructed! Now if we examine the names that were originally conferred on the various chemical substances which have been brought to light in our own and in the last generation, we shall arrive at the instructive result that these names almost wholly consist of descriptive terms, representing either some of their most obvious properties, or the various conclusions formed by different philosophers on the subject of their nature and composition.(87) Further, we shall find that many of these new substances gave rise, in the first instance, to numerous descriptive terms! That these terms were for some time used concurrently! That subsequently a portion of them fell into disuse! That finally the remainder gradually lost the descriptive significations at first attached to them, and acquired the character of mere arbitrary or conventional names!

Hence it is evident, and most assuredly it is a result of the highest interest, that the native and permanent tendencies of the Human mind itself distinctly point to the conclusion that language must originally have been descriptive or metaphorical! Hence, also, we derive a vivid illustration of the sameness of those tendencies, as exhibited both in the latest and in the earliest ages of the world, in the trains of thought excited by new objects in the minds of the Philosophers of modern days, and in those of the simple forefathers of the Human Race, whose

“Souls proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way!”

As we ascend from Modern into remote ages, Human Language gradually reassumes its Metaphorical character. Moreover, it will appear that the transition may be traced occurring in different classes of words at different epochs: terms for newly-discovered substances or new inventions being descriptive in all languages; terms for the most common and conspicuous objects of nature, on the other hand, not exhibiting this quality, except in the most ancient Tongues; while in specimens of Language belonging to intermediate eras, an intermediate character is observable; terms for less common and less conspicuous natural objects being more generally descriptive than they are in modern Tongues, &c.

The nature and steps of this transition will be more distinctly perceived if viewed retrospectively:

1. Modern Languages.

In such languages as the modern English, French, and German, probably the great majority of terms are conventional, though we meet with numerous names of animals, birds, &c. which are descriptive, as “Black-bird.” In words applied to new inventions or discoveries, a descriptive character is commonly displayed, as in “Rail-road” (_Eng._), “Eisen-bahn” (_Ger._), “Chemin de fer” (_French_), i.e. “Iron-way.”

2. Ancient Specimens of the European Languages.

In the oldest written specimens of the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, &c., the vestiges of a descriptive origin rapidly increase. The names of Animals and Birds are found to be nearly all either descriptive or imitative, and Synonymes are much more numerous in certain classes of words.

The names for “The Sun, The Hand,” &c., and other objects enumerated at page 8, as the first on which appellations must have been conferred by Man, seem to have become purely conventional previously to the date of the earliest Celtic or Saxon MSS. But, on the other hand, a comparison of Languages serves to indicate that in this class of terms also these Tongues were Metaphorical in remote ages prior to the era of History. Thus “Grian,” The Sun, (_Irish_,) means “A Burner” in _Welsh_. Again, the Celtic and Gothic races have been too long separated to use the same conventional terms. But they frequently agree in the basis of the descriptive terms, from which the conventional terms are derived. Thus Llygad, “An Eye,” (_Welsh_,) is totally _unlike_ the English “Eye,” (“Auge,” _German_;) but it is identical in its root with the English word _Look_. “_Traed_,” The Feet, (_Celtic_,) is unlike “Foot,” but its root is identical with “Tread” (_English_)! Celtic scholars have often derived the English “Tread” from the Celtic or Welsh “Traed;” but the Verb “Tread” (“Tret-en,” _German_) is used by all the Gothic nations from the Danube to Iceland!

The Greek and Latin also conspicuously exhibit a more Metaphorical character than the modern tongues of Europe.

3. The Sanscrit and the Hebrew.

It is agreed that in the entire structure of these languages a metaphorical character is displayed; even such words as the names for “The Sun,” &c. are for the most part metaphorical or descriptive.

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The truth and extensive application of the principle under discussion will be best understood by a perusal of Appendix A, which contains ample illustrations of the rule that while the conventional significations of words are preserved in one Language, the same words commonly occur in others in kindred metaphorical meanings. In this place, however, may be appropriately introduced one illustration derived from the various Sanscrit words for the Sun. These words, which are all considered to be descriptive or metaphorical, have obviously formed the source of the following Conventional Terms for that Luminary, which occur in Indo-Germanic languages of more modern form:

_Different Words for the Sun in Sanscrit, and their distribution in other Indo-Germanic Languages_.

Sanscrit. Persian. Greek. Latin. German Welsh. and English. Hailih Sol. (S. Hail. Hail-ih.) Hail-is He-elios. Sura Ser-en, A Star. Sunu Sun, Sonne. Mihira Mihira.