mental evolution in men 45
In order to illustrate each and all of these general considerations,
let us turn to the example of our own “baby-language.” The fact that
such language presents so large an element of onomatopœia in itself
furnishes a strong presumption that what is now seen to constitute so
important a principle in the infancy of the individual (notwithstanding
the hereditary tendency to speak), must have constituted at least as
important a principle in the infancy of the race. But the point now is,
that if we mark the connotative extension of any such nursery word,
we may find that just in proportion as it becomes general does its
onomatopoetic origin become obscure. For instance, the late Mr. Darwin
gave me the following particulars with regard to a grandchild of his
own, who was then living in his house. I quote the account from notes
taken at the time.
“The child, who was just beginning to speak, called a duck ‘quack’;
and, by special association, it also called water ‘quack.’ By an
appreciation of the resemblance of qualities, it next extended the term
‘quack’ to denote all birds and insects on the one hand, and all fluid
substances on the other. Lastly, by a still more delicate appreciation
of resemblance, the child eventually called all coins ‘quack,’ because
on the back of a French sou it had once seen the representation of an
eagle. Hence, to the child, the sign ‘quack,’ from having originally
had a very specialized meaning, became more and more extended in
its signification, until it now serves to designate such apparently
different objects as ‘fly,’ ‘wine,’ and ‘coin.’”
Now, if any such process of extending or generalizing aboriginally
onomatopoetic terms were to have taken place among the primitive
framers of human speech, how hopeless would be the task of the
philologist who should now attempt to find the onomatopoetic root!
Yet, as above observed, not only may we be perfectly certain that
such extensions of aboriginal onomatopoetic terms must have taken
place, if any such terms were ever in existence at all (and this
cannot be doubted), but also that it must have been almost a necessary
condition to the survival of an onomatopoetic term as a root that
such an extension of its meaning should have taken place. In other
words, we can see very good reason to conclude that, as a rule, only
those instances of primitive onomatopœia can have survived as roots,
which must long ago have had their onomatopoetic origin hopelessly
obscured. So that nowhere so much as in this case should we be prepared
to entertain the general principle of philological research, that, as
Goethe graphically states it, the original meanings of words become
gradually worn out, like the image and superscription of a coin.[198]
In view of such considerations, my only wonder is that this origin
admits of being traced so often as it does, even as far back as the
comparatively recent times when a pastoral people coined the terms
which afterwards constituted the roots of Sanskrit. _Kas_, to cough;
_kshu_, to sneeze; _proth_, to snort; _ma_, to bleat, and not a
few others, are conceded, even by Professor Max Müller, to be of
obviously imitative origin. In the present connection, however, it
is of interest to notice how this authority deals with such cases. He
says:—“Not one of them is of any importance in helping us to account
for real words in Sanskrit. Most of them have had no offspring at all,
others have had a few descendants, mostly sterile. Their history shows
clearly how far the influence of onomatopœia may go, and if once we
know its legitimate sphere, we shall be less likely to wish to extend
it beyond its proper limits.”[199]
Now, under our present point of view we can see a very good reason
why this element of sterility should have attached to these roots of
Sanskrit whose onomatopoetic origin still admits of being clearly
traced: it is just because they failed to be extended that their
imitative source continues to be apparent.[200] But suppose, for the
sake of illustration, that any one of them had been extended, and what
would have happened? If _ma_, to bleat, had been metaphorically applied
to the crying of a child, and had then become more and more habitually
used in this new signification, while the original meaning became
more and more obsolete, it might have taken the place of any such
root as _bhi_, to fear; _ish_, to love, &c.; and in all the progeny
of words which in this its conventional use it might subsequently
have generated, no trace of imitative origin could now have been
met with—any more than such an origin can be detected in the sound
“quack,” as used by the above-mentioned child to designate a shilling.
Several other considerations to the same general effect might be
adduced. But, to mention only some of the more important, Steinthal
points out that imitative utterance differs widely even among
different races of existing men, so that the onomatopoetic words
of one race do not convey any imitative suggestion to the minds of
another.[201] Similarly, Professor Sayce insists, “it is not necessary
that the imitation of natural sounds should be an exact one; indeed,
that it never can be: all that is wanted is that the imitation
should be recognizable by those addressed. The same natural sound,
consequently, may strike the ear of different persons very differently,
and so be represented in articulate speech in a strangely varying
manner.”[202] Another very good illustration of the same point is to
be found in the names for a grasshopper in different languages. After
giving a number, Archdeacon Farrar remarks that obviously they are “all
imitative: yet how immensely varied by the fantasies of imitation! How
is this to be explained? Simply by the fact to which it is so often
necessary to recur, that words are not mere imitations, but subjective
echoes and reproductions—repercussions which are modified both
organically and ideally—which have moreover been immensely blurred and
disintegrated by the lapse of ages.”[203]
But perhaps the best illustration that has been given of this point is
in the different words which obtain in different languages as names for
Thunder. Two independent treatises have been written on the subject,
one by Grimm,[204] and the other by Pott.[205] While in nearly all the
languages the principle of imitation is more or less clearly apparent,
the greatest diversities occur among the resulting sounds.[206] In this
connection, also, I may adduce yet one further consideration. In his
_Introduction to the Science of Language_, Professor Sayce argues on
several grounds that, when articulation first began, the articulate
sounds were probably in large part dependent for their meaning on the
gestures with which they were accompanied. Consequently, aboriginal
root-words, even supposing that any such had come down to us, and that
their origin were imitative, inasmuch as their imitative value may thus
have in large part depended on appropriately accompanying gestures,
their imitative source would long ago have become obscured.
In view of all these considerations, therefore, I cannot deem the
merely negative evidence against the onomatopoetic origin of articulate
sounds as of any value at all. Even if we had any reason to suppose
that philological analysis were in possession of the really aboriginal
commencements of spoken language, we should still be unable reasonably
to conclude against their imitative origin, merely on the ground that
in our greatly altered circumstances of life and of mind we are not now
able to trace the imitations.
As a matter of fact, however, the evidence which we have on the subject
is not all negative. On the contrary, there is an overwhelming body of
actual and unquestionable proof of the imitative origin of very many
words in all languages—especially those which are spoken by savages,
and are known from their general structure to be in a comparatively
undeveloped state. The evidence being much too copious for quotation, I
must content myself with referring to the excellent and most forcible
epitome which is given of it by Archdeacon Farrar in his works on the
_Origin of Language_ and _Chapters on Language_.[207] The foregoing
remarks, therefore, which I have made on the negative side of the
question, are merely intended to show that the element of onomatopœia
must have entered into the composition of aboriginal speech much more
largely than philologists are now able to prove, notwithstanding that
they have been able to prove how immensely important an element it has
been in this respect. The only wonder is, that when so many causes
have been at work in obscuring and corroding the originally imitative
significance of words, this significance should still admit of being
traced in all languages—even the most highly conventionalized—to the
very large extent in which it does.
The hostility which Professor Max Müller has displayed to the
onomatopoetic theory of the origin of language is the more remarkable,
because in his latest work he has enthusiastically embraced a special
branch of this theory, which has been put forward by M. Noiré.
This special branch of the onomatopoetic theory is that articulate
sign-making had its origin in sounds which are made by bodies of men
when engaged in some common occupation. When sailors row, soldiers
march, builders co-operate in pulling or in lifting, &c., there is
always a tendency to give vent to appropriate sounds, which the nature
of the occupation usually breaks up into rhythmic periods. “These
utterances, noises, shouts, hummings, or songs are a kind of natural
reaction against the inward disturbance caused by muscular effort.
They are the almost involuntary vibrations of the voice, corresponding
to the more or less regular movements of our whole bodily frame.” The
hypothesis, therefore, is that sounds thus naturally evolved, and
differing with different occupations, would sooner or later come to be
conventionally used as the names of these different occupations. And,
if thus used habitually, they would be virtually the same as words,
inasmuch as they would not merely admit of immediate understanding
on the part of others, but, what is even of more importance, they
would, by the mere fact of such conventional usage of names, elevate
what had previously been but a receptual appreciation of an act into a
pre-conceptual designation of it.
Now, I say that this hypothesis, whatever may be thought as to its
probability, is clearly but a special branch of the general theory
of onomatopœia. So that primitive names were intentionally imitative
of natural sounds, for all the purposes of onomatopoetic theory it
makes no difference whether such sounds were made by natural objects
or by man himself. Nor, of the natural sounds which were made by man
himself, does it in any way affect this theory whether the naturally
human sounds were “interjectional” only, “co-operative” only, or
sometimes one and sometimes the other. If, following the example set
by Professor Max Müller, I may be allowed to designate Noiré’s special
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