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SCIENCE
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THE LIBRARY
OF
CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE.
PROSPECTUS.
Some degree of truth has been admitted In the charge not unfrequently brought against the English, that they are assiduous rather than solid readers. They give themselves too much to the lighter forms of literature. Technical Science is almost ex- clusively restricted to its professed votaries, and, but for some of the Quarterlies and Monthlies, very little solid matter would come within the reach of the general public.
But the circulation enjoyed by many of these very periodicals, and the increase of the scientific journals, may he taken for sufficient proof that a taste for more serious subjects of study is now growing. [ndeed there is good reason to believe that if trictly scientific subjects are not more universally cultivated, it is mainly they are not rendered more accessible to bhe
people. Such themes are treated either too elaborately, or in
Forbidding a style, or else brought out in too costly a form to be easily available to .ill classes.
'Ih" splendid conquests of Modern Science in ■. try branch
of human knowledge are moreover, as a rule, scattered over a multiplicity of monographs, essays, memoirs, and special works of all sorts. Except in the Encyclopaedias, their varied results are nowhere to be found, so to say, under one cover, and even in these unwieldy compilations they are necessarily handled more summarily than is always desirable.
"With the view of remedying this manifold and increasing inconvenience, we are glad to be able to take advantage of a comprehensive project recently set on foot in France, emphatically the land of Popular Science. The well-known publishers, MM. Keinwald & Co., have made satisfactory arrangements with some of the leading savants of that country to supply an exhaustive 3 of works on each and all of the sciences of the daj', treated in a style at once lucid, popular, and strictly methodic.
The names of MM. P. Eroca, Secretary of the Societe d' Anthropologic ; Ch. Martins, Montpellier University ; C. Vogt, University of Geneva ; G. de Mortillet, Museum of Saint Ger- main ; A. Guillemin, author of " Ciel " and " Phenomenes de la Physique;" A. Hovelacque, editor of the " Eevue de Linguis- tique;" Dr. Dally, Dr. Letourneau, and many others, whose co- operation has already been secured, are a guarantee that their respective subjects will receive thorough treatment, and will in all cases be written up to the very latest discoveries, and kept in every respect fully abreast of the times.
We have, on our part, been fortunate in making such further arrangements with some of the best writers and recognised authorities here, as will enable us to present the series in a thoroughly English dress to the reading public of this country. Tn so doing we feel convinced that we are taking the best means of supplying a want that has long been deeply felt.
The volumes in actual course of execution, or contemplated,
will embrace sucli subjects as : Anthropology, Biology, Science- of Language, Comparative Mythology, Astronomy, Prehistoric Archaeology, Ethnography, Geology, Hygiene, Political Economy, Physical and Commercial Geography, Philosoplrv, Architecture, Chemistry, Education, General Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, Meteorology, History, Finance, Mechanics, Statistics, &c. &c.
All the volumes, while complete and so far independent in themselves, will be of uniform appearance, slightly varying, according to the nature of the subject, in bulk and in price.
The present volume, on the Science of Language, with which the English series is introduced, and which will be immp.din.tely followed by others on Biology and Anthropology, may be accepted as a fair sample of the style and execution of these works.
"When finished they will form a complete collection op standard works op reference on all the physical and mental sciences, thus fully justifying the general title chosen for the scries — " Library op Contemporary Science."
CHAPMAN AND HALL.
193, Piccadilly, W.,
Hay loth, 1877.
LIBRARY OF CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE.
Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN
THE
SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE
LINGUISTICS, PHILOLOGY, ETYMOLOGY.
ABEL HOVELACQUE.
TRANSLATED BY
A. H. KEANE, B.A.,
AUTHOR OF 1 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, " " GERMAN INFLEXION." "FRENCH ACCENTS.'
X'onboit :
CHAPMAN AM) BALL, L93, PICCADILLY.
1877.
CHARLES DICKENS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PAT.ACE PRESS.
T
■ tARY
LMvr';- . , of California'
SAM A BARBARA
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
To the last years of the eighteenth century was reserved the privilege of giving hirth to the true methods of scientific research. The undertaking was immense; but the men by whom it was attempted were fully equal to the task. The Encyclopedists led the way in the new era by introducing the modern system of experimental science.
The methodic spirit recast the processes of research and of instruction hitherto pursued, while mathematics, chemistry, the physical sciences, broke at last, once for all, with metaphysics.
The Science of Language, to which this volume is devoted. is neither the least important nor the Leasl interesting of con- temporary sciences. Our purpose is to show its real place in the natural history of man. And at the very outset we shall Lave- to define its scope and nature. The most delicate questions . . f are daily discussed and solved by persons ignoranl
alike of ite objecl and of it- method. This, however, is hut the general fate of all the natural sciences. The lack of deep 3tudy, based on experience, is supplied by assertions of a purely timental character. It is thus that we constantly hear people boldly proclaiming themselves polygenista or monogenists, friends
vi AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
or foes of the doctrine of evolution, without having ever set foot in an anthropological museum.
We shall not seek to shirk the question of the origin of speech, which is in itself a purely anthropological one. With- out troubling ourselves with the fancies it has given rise to, we shall treat it solely on the standpoint of natural history — that is to say, of anatomy and physiology. Articulate speech is a natural fact, subject, like all others, to free and unpre- judiced inquiry ; hence there is nothing rash in attempting to broach the question of its origin. To put it aside under the pretext that all inquiry into "first origins" must be proscribed, is of itself an admission of the possibility of these hrst causes. Avhich mathematics and chemistry themselves have amply vindi- cated.
By the side of questions purely philological, we have here and there, though sparingly, introduced certain linguistic matters directly connected with them. We have more readily discussed some points of linguistic ethnography, though in a very incom- plete manner, with the intention of returning to the subject. Even the strictly philological questions themselves, the nature and aim of this series has compelled us to treat in a very cursory way, and it is to be hoped that the reader will make allowance for this difficulty.
In conclusion, we may lie permitted to express our thanks to MM. Picot and Vinson for then- co-operation in the work. To them we are much indebted for notes, information, and. above all, for their safe and methodical suggestions.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Casting about for a suitable title to his " Introduction a l'Etude de la Science du Langage," Domenico Pozzi asks almost in despair: "How, then, shall we name it! Linguistics with many French writers, or G-lottics and < llottology with some Germans'?" And after, on various grounds, rejecting these and other still more incongruous terms, he ends by adopting the expression, •■ Science of Language." Vet it is obvious that, after all, this is rather an explanation of a title than a title in the strict 5ense thai botany or zoology are titles. It tells us in so many wli.it this particular branch of knowledge is, describing it as a science, dealing with language as Its subject matter. Still the expression has been sanctioned by the authority of some great names, and is, on the whole, the best thai has been yet suggested. In the absence of any better equivalent for the German term " Sprachwissenschaft," it will probably continue to hold its -round, and has been accordingly adopted as the title of this English edition of M. Hovelacque's work. It has the advantage of being sufficiently general without being vague, and of being perfectly intelligible without committing us to any i no di'jhi consideration in the present state of tli'-
viii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The distinguished Author belongs to the advanced school of anthropologists, and as such, of course, treats language as strictly and exclusively a physical science. Many of his views will, doubtless, fail to meet with universal acceptance, while it must be confessed that some of his conclusions are utterly unwarranted, at least in the present state of our knowledge. This is par- ticularly true of his argument for the original plurality of the human race, based upon the assumed original plurality of human speech. (Ch. vi. § 2, pp. 304-7.) In the actual state of the science, philology can no more prove the primeval diversity than it can the primeval unity of articrdate speech itself ; and until this point is settled, it can tell us absolutely nothing about tin; original unity or plurality of mankind.
But, although this and one or two collateral questions are really foreign t< ■ the subject, the Translator did not on that account consider himself justified in tampering with the text. The preferable course in all such cases seemed to be to let the Author set forth his own views in his own way, and then, where desirable, point out their fallacies, and warn the reader against their illogical nature. All such comments, as well as all other supplementary matter, for which the Translator alone is re- sponsible, will he found either in special notes or interspersed. in square am! round brackets, throughout the work.
With the view of rendering it, as far as possible, a complete handbook of the subject, he has also supplied an Appendix, illustrated by a philological map, presenting, so to say, a birdseye view of all known languages, living and dead, and thus forming a clearly tabulated summary of it< varied contents.
Some thought has also been given to the important matter of the spelling of foreign names. It would, of course, be hopeless
TRANSLATOR'S PEEFACE. ix
to look for uniformity amidst the chaos at present prevailing amongst English writers. But we may still aim at least at consistency, and avoid the absurdities of those who at one moment somewhat ostentatiously write Kimon for Cimon, and the very next give us Thucydides for Thukydides. Besides this modest virtue of consistency, the Translator has further endea- voured to be correct, in all cases giving preference to what he considered the better forms, where two or more were in current use. Thus it is that he writes Kafir, not Kaffir, the / not being doubled in the Arabic Jf = Kafir = infidel. So also u long- everywhere supersedes the clumsy oo and the Trench ou, whence Rumanian, Beluch, Bantu, &c, and not Roumanian, BeloocJi, Bantou, &C. Diacritical marks, however, have been very sparingly used, being always cumbersome and mostly needless. Thus there is no danger that anyone will give the same sound to the first syllable of Rumanian that he does to the English word rum, although the u does nol beaT the usual mark of the long vowel .,;. On the other hand, eccentricities arc avoided, such [ties, for instance, as would lead us to write the strictly eorreel Tchalifah and Mrdicansarde for our old friends calif and caravansary. 8.
It remain-- to be mentioned that, though based on the firsl edition of the original, this translation has been carefully corn- el with the proofs of the second now being issued All improvements and important additions have been embodied in the text, which it is boped will thus be found to preseni a faithful picture of the present state of philolo dies.
A. li. K. 1 1. Aotoih Tj bba< i , N'.W.,
CONTENTS.
The Author's Preface v
Translator's Preface vii
Chapter I. — Linguistics — Philology — Etymology ... ... ... 1
§1. Difference between Linguistics and Philology ... 1
§ 2. The Life of Languages 8
§3. Linguistics and Philology mutually useful to each
other 10
§4. The Polyglot 11
§ 5. The Dangers of Etymology ... ... ... ... 13
Chapter II. --The Faculty of Articulate Speech — Its Locality and
importance in Natural History ... ... ... 17
Chapter III. — First Form of Speed Monosyllabic or Isolating
Languages ... ... ... ... ... ... 31
; 1. Chinese :; l
' 1. Annamese ... ... ... ... ... ... 11
:;. Siamese or Thai ... ... ... ... ... 12
§ I. Burmao ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 12
§5. Tibetan ... ... ... IS
xii ■ CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chapter IV. — Sceoiid Form of Speech — Agglutination — The Agglu- tinating Languages ... ... ... ... ... 44
§1. What is Agglutination ? 45
§2. South African Languages ... ... ... ... 47
(1) Hottentot 47
(2) Bushman Dialects ... ... ... ... 51
§3. Languages of the African Negroes ... ... ... 51
(1) Wolof 52
(2) Mancle group ... ... ... ... ... 56
(3) Felup group 56
(4) Sonra'i ... ... ... ... ... ... 56
(5) Hausa, or Hawsa ... ... ... ... 56
(6) Bornu group ... ... ... ... ... 5S
(7) Kruh group 58
(8) Ewe, or Ife group ... ... ... ... 58
§ 4. Bantu, or Kafir Family ... ... ... ... 59
§ 5. The Fuhi group ... ... ... ... ... 64
§ 6. The Niibian Languages ... 66
§ 7. Languages of the Negritos ... ... ... ... 66
§8. Languages of the Papuas ... ... ... ... 66
§ 9. Australian Languages ... ... ... ... ... 67
§ 10. The Malayo-Polynesian Idioms ... ... ... 68
§11. Japanese ... ... ... ... ... ... 72
§12. Corean ... 76
§13. The Dra vidian Tongue.-- 77
§14. The Fmno-Tataric, or Uralo-Altaic Languages ... 88
§15. Basque 10f>
§16. The American Languages ... ... ... ... 123
§17. The Sub-Arctic Languages ... ... ... ... 135
§18. Languages of the Caucasus ... ... ... ... 136
CONTENTS.
Chapter IV. (continued).
§ 19. On some little known idioms classified with the Agglutinating Languages ...
(1) Sinhalese, or Elu
(2) Munda
(3) Brahui
(4) The Pretended Scythian Language
(5) The Language of the Second Column of the
Cuneiform Inscriptions
(6) The so-called Sumerian or Accadian Lan
gnage
§20. The Theory of the Turanian Languages
137 137 138 138 138
139
141 114
Chapter Y. — Third Form of Speech — Iuflection §1. What is Inflection ? ... § 2. Aryan and Semitic Inflection A. The Semitic Lan^,,
146 147 148 151
§ 3. The Semite and the Semitic Languages collectively 151
■j Arameo- Assyrian group ... ... ... ... 155
(1) Chaldee and Syriac ... ... ... ... 155
(2) Assyrian ... ... ... ... ... ... 157
'.j. The Canaanj Lc group... ... ... ... ... 160
160
(2j Phoenician 161
§0. Tl 1G6
(1) Arabic 167
(2) I. ' rabia and Abj i inia ... 170
Theix Primeval ... ... 172
CONTENTS.
|
Chapter V. {emit B. |
'?iwecZ). The Hamitic Languages |
PAGE .. 174 |
|
§1- |
The Egyptian group ... |
.. 175 |
|
§2. |
The Libyan group |
.. 179 |
|
§3. |
The Ethiopian group ... |
.. 180 |
|
c. |
The Aryan Languages... |
.. 181 |
|
§1. |
The Common Aryan mother-tongue ... |
.. 182 |
|
§2. |
The Indie branch |
.. 189 |
|
(1) The Ancient Hindu Languages |
.. 180 |
|
|
(2) Modern Indian Languages |
.. 193 |
|
|
(3) Gipsy Dialects ... |
.. 195 |
|
|
§3. |
The Iranic branch |
... 196 |
|
(1) Zend |
... 197 |
|
|
(2) Old Persian |
.. 200 |
|
|
(3) Armenian |
.. 202 |
|
|
(4) Huzvaresh |
... 203 |
|
|
(5) Parsi |
... 205 |
|
|
(6) Persian ... |
... 206 |
|
|
(7) Ossetian, Kurdic, Belilchi, Afghan, &c. |
... 207 |
|
|
§4, |
The Hellenic branch ... |
.. 208 |
|
§5- |
The Italic branch |
.. 217 |
|
(1) Primitive Italic Languages |
.. 218 |
|
|
(2) The Neo-Latin Languages |
.. 227 |
|
|
(a) French |
.. 233 |
|
|
(/3) Provencal... |
.. 236 |
|
|
(y) Italian |
.. 237 |
|
|
(§) Ladin |
.. 238 |
|
|
(e) Spanish ... |
.. 239 |
|
|
(£) Portuguese |
.. 210 |
|
|
(?;) Rumanian |
.. 240 |
CONTENTS. Chapter V. [continued).
§6. The Keltic Languages... § 7. The Teutonic Tongues
(1) Gothic
(2) The Norse Tongues
(3) The Low German group
(4) The High German group §8. The Slavonic Lauguages § 9. The Lettic group
(1) Lithuanian
(2) Lettish
(3) Old Prussian
§ 10. Unclassified Aryan Tongues . . .
(1) Etruscan...
(2) Dacian
(3) The Aryan Languages of Asia Minor...
(4) The so-called " Scythic " Aryan Tongues
(5) Albanian... §11. On the ramification of the Common Aryan Speech,
; on its primitive home ...
PAGE 212
252
254 255 257 264 268 2S5 2S5 28S 288 289 2S0 291 292 293 293
291
( . ! 0] ginal Plurality of Speech, and Transmutation of
Linguistic Systems
§1. How to re& nistic Affinities
j2. Original plurality of Linguistic groups and con-
iof /:;. [] Language and Race maj cease
in be convi § l. The Permutation of S] i
302 302
301
307
308
THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE.
CHAPTER I.
LINGUISTICS — PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY.
§ 1. — Difference between Linguistics and Philology*
It is seldom that in ordinary language, or even in scientific works, any distinction is observed between the two terms linguistics and philology. They are usually employed one for the other, almost at haphazard, and according to the more or less urgent euphonic requirements of a phrase or a sentence. The best writers, and even scientific men themselves, constantly confuse them ; too often treat- ing philology and linguistics as nothing more than the study of etymologies, and describing those engaged in such pursuits as philologists or linguists indifferently. The inquiry into the pos-
* In what follows, I ho tonus lijviv.istic* and ;>/m7(, /.,./;/, owing to the dif- ferent usage of tho two languages, have necessarily changed sides. Philology and. comparative philology, according to tho English practice, now mean what is more comprehensively understood by tho Scienco of Language, linguistics being moro usually restricted to tho critical study of a given language. Bui the moro correct French writers uso la philologie in this sense of linguistics, and la linguistique in tho senso of tho Scienco of Lan- iv. terms thus forming respectively tho French and the English titles of the present work. It may bo added that in this translal ion arms Science of Language, Philology, and Comparative Philology, are aged as practically synonymous. In the words of Schleicher, quoted further on, "philology is nothing unless comparative." — Kote by Tram '"/ »'.
i;
2 LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
sible relationship of two Australian idioms, or the revision of a text of Plautus, would be spoken of by them either as a linguistic or philological work indistinctly.
But this is very far from being the case, and we must at the outset endeavour to combat such a serious error.
Philology is a natural, linguistics an historical science.
In his dictionary of the French language, M. Littre, using the term linguistique in the sense now usually given by English writers to the word philology, describes it as "the study of lan- guages, considered in their principles, their relations, and as an involuntary product of the mind of man." In spite of all its vagueness, this definition possesses the great merit of not being quite so easily applicable to the word linguistics (in the English sense). On the other hand, to the term philology — by it partly understanding linguistics — he assigns three different meanings : 1st, A kind of general learning, respecting belles-lettres, languages, criticism, &c. ; 2nd, More definitely, the study and knowledge of a language in so far as it is the instrument or medium of literature ; 3rd, Comparative philology, a study applied to several languages, which are explained by being mutually compared with each other.
Of these three definitions the first two are correct, but the third can scarcely be accepted, according to the present use of the term by Erench writers. The author justly distinguishes between philology, properly so-called, and linguistics ; but, without suffi- cient reason, sanctions the unjustifiable practice which confuses the science of comparative philology with mere linguistics.
It is difficult to understand how, by becoming comparative, the one coidd be changed to the other. Comparative physiology em- bracing, for instance, the relations of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, does not surely cease to be physiology. And so with the comparative anatomy of the various races of mankind, or even of man and the other primates, which still claims the title of anatomy. It is clearly the same with philology, which by becoming comparative cannot by any means thereby forfeit its true and proper designation.
Kollin defined linguists as "those who have studied the old
Chap, i.] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. 3
writers for the purpose of examining, correcting, explaining, and expounding them," and this definition is still largely applicable. It corresponds, as we have seen, to M. Littre's two first meanings of philology; and in truth, the province of the linguist is the critical study of literature from the standpoint of archaeology, art, and mythology ; the inquiry into the history of languages, and incidentally into their geographical extension ; the discovery of the elements they have mutually borrowed from each other during the course of ages ; the restoration and the correction of texts.
This is on the face of it an historical science, and an important branch of learning. Before the modern development of the natural sciences, languages could be regarded only from this historical point — that is to say, linguistics necessarily long preceded philolophy.
Strictly speaking, linguistics are concerned with one language only. This it criticises, interprets its records, improves extant texts, according to the data and materials furnished by this one language itself. When this study becomes extended to two dif- ferent languages, or to several branches of the same language, it becomes so far comparative. Thus what we understand by classical linguistics are most commonly comparative studies, because occu- pied with both Greek and Latin texts. In the same way, Romance, Teutonic, and Slavonic linguistics are all comparative. They will . for instance, of the influence exercised by the Euphuists of tie- sixteenth century on the current speech of succeeding gene- rations; nf tie- pail played by Luther's version of the Bible in the formation of New High German; of the westward spread of the Slavonic tongues during the Middle Ages, and of their subsequent retirement towards the' Last.
Equally comparative are "oriental linguistics," as they are called,
and which embrace three languages scientifically distinct— Persian,
Arabic, and Turkish. Lastly, Buddhism in India and the extreme
; ■■ - given birth toyel another branch of comparative linguistics.
We are indebted more particularly to Schleicher,* Curtius,t
* " Dio deutscln Bprache," [ntrodnotion, chap. vi. f "Philologie and SpraohwieBeneohaft."
4 LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
Kuhn, Ohavee,* and Spiegel, + for this important distinction be- tween the two sciences of linguistics and philology. All these writers agree on the cardinal point — that the one belongs to the province of historic knowledge, and the other to that of the natural sciences.
The Science of Language, or Phdology, may be defined : The study of the constituent elements of articulate speech, and of the various forms by which these elements are or may be affected. In other words, philology is the two-fold study of the phonetics and of the structure of languages.
It is easy to see how philology trenches on physiology by the study of the phonetic material of languages — that is, of then- sounds. The first care of the phdologist is to arrange the vowels and the consonants of the languages he is studying, and to establish the laws of their changes or modifications, and the discovery of these laws will be all the more easy for him according to his acquaintance with the action of the vocal organs.
Vowels and consonants make up the fundamental elements of language. There are others growing out of these, which are at times, strictly speaking, described as maple elements, although often in fact already compound; these are the monosyllables usually called roots.
Inquiry will sIioav us that these monosyllables he at the bottom of all philological systems. Sometimes they are formed by one pure element, that is by a single vowel : i = to go in the Aryan languages. Sometimes they are formed by the union of several fundamental elements : ta corresponding in Chinese to the various conceptions of greatness. But their meaning must always be very general, never being limited by any consideration of gender, case, number, person, time, or mood.
The study of these elements forms, as stated, one of the first cares of the philologist. To this study succeeds the examination of the forms by which such elements are or may be affected. This
* " Bulletins de la Societe d'Anthi-opologie de Paris," 1862, p. 198. f " Die traditiouelle Literatur der Parsen," p. 48.
Chap, l] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. 5
new study receives the name of morphology. We shall treat farther on of the several morphological varieties in language, that is of the different kinds of structure that languages may present. It will then be seen that idioms classified in this relation in one and the same group, as for instance the agglutinating languages, may possibly be otherwise, and, in respect of their constituent elements, entirely strangers to each other. Thus the Aryan and the Semitic languages, whose roots are totally different and incapable of being identified, are both found in the same morphological division; so also with Turkish, Bascpie, Japanese, and Tamil, which present tin- same general structure, but the roots of which are so essentially dift'erent that it becomes impossible to reduce them to one common stock or origin.
This subject will claim all due attention in its proper place. Meanwhile our object is thoroughly to establish the cardinal fact that philology belongs to the group of natural sciences, and that to classify it with the historical sciences we must ignore at once its aim and its method.
It is to Augustus Schleicher (pb. 1868, at Jena, where he taught) that we are indebted for the clearest and most conclusive writings on this important subject. Schleicher was especially distinguished amongst his fellow-countrymen for a turn of mind altogether free from metaphysical reveries. Like so many others, he had waded through the schools of the transcendentalists, and followed the expounders of hyperphysicism and " theourgics," but their subtle- had failed to allure his positive intellect, which could ill rot fied with dogmatic and empty assertions. His was essentially an experimental and methodic mind. lie. was confessedly the first to draw up the general scheme of the phonetics and structure of tic- Aryan languages, whose relationship had been definitely pro- claimed by Sir W. Jones at the end of the last, and scientifically demonstrated by Bopp at the beginning of the present century. A- Schleicher was himself wont to remark, his extensive botanical information was of the greatest service to him in his researches into the morphology of languages, so entirely identical are the processes of analysis and comparison in the stud) of all the natural sciences.
G LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
Here the ingenious analogy deserves to he quoted, which, in order to render clear the difference "between the science of language and linguistics, he was fond of estahlishing between the philologist and the botanist on the one hand, and the linguist and horti- culturist on the other.*
" Linguistics," he Avrites, " are a historical science, a science which has no place except where we are in possession of a literature and a history. In the absence of monuments or of a literary culture, there is no room for the linguist. In a word, linguistics are applicable to historic documents alone. It is very different with philology, whose sole object is language itself, whose sole study is the examination of language in itself and for itself. The historical changes of languages, the more or less accidental development of the vocabulary, often even their syntactical processes, are all but of secondary importance for the philologist. He devotes his whole attention to the study of the phenomenon itself of articulate speech ; a natural function, inevitable and determined, from which there is no escape, and which, like all other functions, is of inexorable necessity. It little matters to the philologist that a language may have pre- vailed for centuries over vast empires ; that it may have produced the most glorious literary monuments ; that it may have yielded to the requirements of the most delicate and refined intellectual culture. He little cares, on the other hand, that an obscure idiom may have perished without fruits or issue, stifled by other tongues and ignored utterly by the mere linguist. Literature is unquestion- ably a powerful aid, thanks to which it becomes easy to grasp the language itself, to recognise the succession of its forms, the phases of its development, a valuable, but by no means an indispensable ally. Moreover, the knowledge of a single language is insufficient for the philologist, and herein he is again distinguished from the linguist. There exists a Latin linguistic science, for instance, totally independent of the Greek; a Hebrew equally independent of the Arabic or Assyrian. But we cannot speak of a purely Latin
* " Die deutsclie Sprache," Introduction.
Chap, i.] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. 7
or a purely Hebrew philology. Philology, as above stated, is nothing unless comparative. In fact, we cannot explain one form without comparing it with others. Hence linguistics may be special, and restricted to one language. But when there is question of the constituent elements, and of the structure of a language, Ave must be previously familiar with the phonetics, and the structure of a certain number of other tongues. Let us repeat it once more : the researches of the philologist are consequently always and essentially comparative, whereas those of the linguist may be cpiite special."
It is here that Schleicher introduces his ingenious and reasonable
comparison. " The philologist," he remarks, " is a naturalist. He
studies languages as the botanist studies plants. The botanist must
embrace at a glance the totality of vegetable organisms. He
inquires into the laws of their structure and of their development ;
but he is in no way concerned with their greater or less intrinsic
worth, with their more or less valuable uses, the more or less
acknowledged pleasure afforded by them. In his eyes, the first wild
flower to hand may have a far higher value than the loveliest rose,
or the choicest lily. The province of the linguist is far different.
It is not witli the botanist, but with the horticulturist that he must
•mparecL Tin- latter devotes his attention only to such or such
3 that may be the object of special attraction ; what he seeks
i- beauty of form, colour, and perfume. A useless plant has no
value in 1. he has nothing to do Avith the laws of structure
or development, and a vegetable that in this respect may possess the
I isl value, may possibly lie' for him nothing but a common weed."
Th.- comparison is correct, and, betterthan any more or less lucid
explanation, points out clearly enough that the philologist studies
in man the phenomenon of articulate s| h and its results, just as
all physiologists study such other functions as locomotion, smell, . digestion, or circulation of the blood. And not only does he inquire into ami determine the normal laws peculiar to this phe- nomenon, but he al-o discovers and describes the changes, really pathological in their nature, which are frequentlj presented during the course of tic life of languages.
LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
§ 2. — The Life of Languages.
For in point of fact languages are born, grow, decay, and perish, like all other living tilings. They pass first through an embryonic period, then reach their highest development, and lastly enter on a stage of retrogressive disintegration. It is precisely this conception of the life of language that, as already remarked, distinguishes the modern science of language from the unmethodical speculations of the past.
In another chapter we shall speak of the birth of languages, and of the origin of the faculty of articulate speech. We shall also see, farther on, how the most intricate philological systems grow out of rudimentary systems ; how, in a word, the highest morphological stratifications ever rest upon others of a lower order.
Languages once born, cannot be said to enter at once on their historic career, if by this we are to understand that their develop- ment becomes henceforth subject to the whims and caprice of fashion. To suppose so would be a serious error, for their develop- ment is determined beforehand, and the course of then life can by no conceivable departure from the natural laws escape from the necessities common to all living things. Under the influence of favourable or adverse circumstances, they may undergo more or less serious modifications, they may advance more or less precipitately to decrepitude and extinction, but nothing can ever bend or change then organic tendencies. They are, in a word, what then nature compels them to be.
There are, for instance, no such things as mixed languages, nor is it possible to conceive, say, an Aryan tongue, whose grammar is partly Slavonic, partly Latin. English again, into which have been introduced so many foreign and especially French (and Lathi) elements, remains none the less as it will remain to the last, a true Teutonic tongue. Basque is similarly circumstanced, its constant borrowings from two Komance tongues never having been able to affect its inner structure. In the same way the Husvaresh, or Paldavi, remained throughout medieval times an Aryan language,
Chap, l] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. 9
notwithstanding the large amount of Semitic elements which found then- way into it.
But it cannot he douhted that such intellectual commerce, and that such borrowings, the inevitable results of civilisation, in a marked manner hasten on or promote the life of languages. To this truth the most evident and tangible facts hear witness. Thus amongst the Teutonic tongues English has run a singularly rapid course, whilst Icelandic has often preserved some very primitive forms with striking fidelity. The obscure Lithuanian may he looked upon as the hest preserved of ah Aryan languages in Europe, and in all probability woidd still for a long time to come challenge our admiration of its ancient and precious forms, did not the rough competition of German threaten it with approaching extinction. It is thus that such unecpial hut inevitable struggles daily cause the destruction of beings full of life and health, and which under less disastrous conditions would have enjoyed a long term of existence, instead of perishing miserably and without issue.
It is difficult to believe that a philological system, once it has attained its most iiomishing state and its highest development, does not forthwith enter on its downward course, and it is equally hard to suppose that this period is not itself characterised in a special manner by an ever-increasing tendency towards independence on tin- pari of the various idioms of such a system. "We know, for instance, that the [ndo-European or Aryan tongues — Indie, Iranic, Eellenic, [talic, Keltic, Teutonic, Slavonic, Lettic — spring from a common mother, whose phonetic elements it has been possible to determine, and whose morphology and structure have been re- covered, at least in all their essential features. Now, it may be assumed thai the period of formation, to which must in all likeli- hood I- assigned a very protracted duration, was brought to a close ,11 as dialectic divergencies began to make their appearance, ami thai no sensible interval elapsed between the firsl stage and the period of retrogressive change. One of the most important duties of philology is precisely to determine, or rather to restore, the forms ,,f mother-tongues possessing no written monuments, at the time when they were breaking up into dialectic subdivisions. The task
10 LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap, i
as stated, lias been all but accomplished for the Aryan system ; but it has scarcely yet been roughly sketched for the Semitic family — Chaldee, Syriac, Hebrew, Phoenician, Arabic, &c. — while all has yet to be done for the other systems ; as, for instance, the so-called Hamitic (ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Ta-Masheq, Galla, &c), and that of the Dravidian tongues, such as Tamil, Telugu, &c.
However, the life of languages is not a matter to be disposed of in a few pages. To do it justice would require a whole volume, and a long series of examples drawn from the various families of languages respectively. The matter cannot be here further dwelt upon ; and we must rest satisfied Avith having pointed out the general and persistent fact of this life, of this material energy, under one of its most curious and instructive aspects.
§3. — Linguistics and Philology mutually useful to each other.
It cannot be denied that philology finds at times a powerful ally in the employment of the historic method. This latter is in fact indispensable when we come to enter upon the still almost virgin soil of syntax, where a more or less sensible individual influence may make itself felt. Let us, however, repeat that the natural science of philology and the historical science of linguistics are not rivals, and that there is nothing to justify the assumption that they are two hostile sciences. In truth, two branches of knowledge, however different in their nature, cannot lead to contradictory results, nor can two true sciences, really worthy of the name, be in any sense enemies of each other. The various sciences are on the contrary the complements one of the other, each being at once both debtor and creditor of all the rest.
Such is especially the case both with philology and linguistics. The latter must, at least in a general way, recognise the results obtained by the former. If it knows nothing of speech itself, which is such a powerful aid to progress, if it ignores its structure and constituent elements, it can never form an adequate judgment
Chap, i.] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. 11
on the acquisitions of this agent. As well say that an ethno- graphist might derive profit from a collection of elementary data respecting the anatomy of races, without taking them even into calculation. This is almost a truism, and yet there are many linguists whom it has so far failed to convince. Hence those interminable and abstract discussions, without object, without sound knowledge, and mostly pedantic, that medley of idle hair- splitting, in which declamation competes with shallowness and inanity.
On the other hand, the linguist himself collects valuable materials for the philologist. He facilitates a knowledge of the historic forms of languages, and reveals all that he has been able to discover respecting their chronology and succession. Lastly, he discloses all the dialectical divergencies which are so pregnant with valuable instruction.
Hence, if it is necessary carefully to distinguish these two sciences in their aim and their method, it is no less important to acknowledge that they are both of them destined to render each otheT mutual, and possibly very considerable assistance. Thus it is that history has frequently furnished useful materials for the study of the races of mankind, and that anthropology lias, in its turn, thrown light upon many historic events.
§ L—The Polyglot.
The practical knowledge of languages, or, to speak more exactly, the art of Bpeaking them fluently and correctly, depends mainly on natural capacity, winch is itself developed by a more or less pro- d exercise. But it would be a mistake ever to regard it as a science. One is often surprised to meel with an author of numerous and sound philological works, who is incapable of conversing in three or four different languages, and we are still more astonished to find that he is perhaps unable to make \\>*- of any language except his own with ease and fluency. Hut this arises from a
12 LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
misunderstanding. The philologist is not a polyglot, or at least he need not be one. The polyglot, again, has no claim based on his art to the title of philologist ; yet we constantly hear this name given to persons who, thanks to some exceptional circumstances, and especially to the individual aptitude above mentioned, dis- course with more or less ease in ten or twelve languages, occa- sionally even in a still greater number, without at the same time possessing the least notion of their inner structure.
What has been above stated concerning the nature of philology and of philological studies obviates the necessity of dwelling further on this common confusion of ideas. At the same time, however, we are of opinion that the results of philology may to a certain point facilitate the study of the art here in question. Let us take, for instance, the Eomance tongues, which Aoav directly from vulgar Latin. It cannot be denied that we may pass from one to another of these idioms, according to tolerably fixed rules, in all that more especially concerns their phonetics and the interchange of con- sonants. A very small number of general principles gives the key to the more usual equivalents, showing that the resemblance of French, Italian, and Spanish words is not accidental. By this treatment it becomes logical and rational, rendering the study of the languages themselves all the more rapid the less it is given up to mere chance and routine.
In the same way the Teutonic idioms possess laAvs in common which are generally definite. For instance, to such or such German consonants correspond such or such English, Dutch, or Swedish letters uniformly. And so with the Slavonic group, where Bohemian, Bussian, Croatian have a perfectly settled phonology, permitting us to pass without much trouble from the forms of any one of these languages to those of the kindred tongues. Jfor are any great mental efforts needed in order to reach these results, nothing more being required than a knowledge of a few elementary principles. Unfortunately there are still wanting practical manuals free from all scientific parade, and planned in such a way as to clearly, and, if needs be, somewhat empirically summarise these few and extremely simple laws. Such little works would be of
Chap, i.] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY-ETYMOLOGY. 13
inestimable aid to the complicate and obsolete systems still in
use.*
§ 5. — TJie Dangers of Etymology.
If a special capacity for the practical acquisition of languages is not a science, etymology, on the other hand, can be looked upon neither as a science nor an art. In itself it is nothing but a sort of trick or sleight-of-hand, the greatest and most relentless foe to which is the genuine philologist. In a word, etymology, hi itself and for itself, is mere guess-work, ignoring all experience, over- riding all objections, and resting satisfied with specious show, and with results which are scarcely probable, or even at all possible. At first sight the German words, haben, to have; bereit, ready; ahnlieh, like ; abenteuer, adventure, seem to answer, letter for letter, with the Latin habere, paratus, the Greek dvaXoyos, and the French aoenture, as the English to call does to the Greek Kakeiv. And yet appearances are here deceptive, philological analysis show- ing the futility of such comparisons as these, which in fact cannot for a moment stand the test of sound criticism.
* This passage is suppressed in the second edition, and the following substituted : "Let us not be too sanguine as to the amount of success likely to be attendant on the introduction of a few elementary notions of comparative Grammar into the lower classes. A lad of ten, twelve, or fifteen years can scarcely show any sustained interest in the laws regulating the interchange of letters in the languages he is studying. He tries to learn Greek and Latin as ho has learned his mother-tongue, that is by dint of sheer practice, without paying any heed to rules more or less eruditely framed. But would it not be very useful, for those at least who are en- gaged in teaching, to be acquainted with the existenco of these laws, and to have some knowledge of the principal and most elementary of them ? In our opinion it would not bo going too far to insist upon so much." But the original passage is here retained in the text, because it points, how- ever timidly, at a great principle, which is gradually, but surely, making its way. The translator has himself devoted many years to the solution of the problem, how best to utilise the conclusions of comparative philology in facilitating the acquirement of languages. In spite of much opposition, and much ignorant contempt, ho has at least succeeded in convincing somo few intelligent teachers that the problem admits of solution, and that the
day i- perhaps not distant when science will be happily and advantageously combined with routine in the teaching of languages. — Note by Translator.
14 LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
It is by means of such-like fantastic methods that attempts have been made to compare languages absolutely unconnected with each other — the Semitic with the Aryan tongues, Irish with Basque. The most distinguished Semites, who have rendered the greatest services to the philology of the Syro-Arabic languages, have fre- quently allowed themselves to fall into this trap, and a large number of their works swarm with uncritical comparisons with Aryan roots and words. The celebrated Gesenius himself has not escaped from the misapprehension, so that it is not perhaps sur- prising that, following in his steps, orthodox interpreters have yielded to it with a keen relish. There is nothing more risky than to get hold of two ready-made words and compare them together. What at first sight seems to establish the most convincing relation- ship is often the most deceptive.
On the other hand, forms that we should never dream of com- paring together are often found to be most intimately related witli each other. Since their primitive connection and identity in one and the same form, each of them has been subjected to different modifying laws. But these laws are now discovered, and the absolute unity of the forms themselves placed beyond doubt. Thus, for instance, we reduce to one and the same primitive form the Greek rj8vs and the Latin suairis; the Latin solus, and the old Persian haruva, all; the old Irish il and the Sanskrit purus, nume- rous ; the Greek Us, poison, and the Latin virus ; the English Jive and the Croatian pet ; the Dutch vader and the Armenian hayr; the Armenian se, I, and the Croatian ja. It is thus, also, that words belonging to one and the same language, and which at the first blush seem to be in no way connected, belong in reality to one and the same root. For instance, in Trench, solide, solder, soldat, seul, serf; jeu, hon, jour, divin; auspice, sceptique, eveque, epice, repit; assister, couter, ('table, obstacle. We should be exceeding the limits assigned to this treatise were we to set forth in detail the principles that connect all these forms together, and which mere guess-work would, doubtless, never suspect of being so related.
What then is etymology? — or, rather, what ought it to be, to deserve consideration and lay claim to any scientific value?
Chap, i.] LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. 15
It is simply a result — -a result both of philology and of linguistics.
In the first case it is deductive ; in the second, historical. The history of the French language teaches us for example that dinde, turkey, is a contraction of poule d'Lide; that hussard comes indirectly from the Hungarian husz, meaning twenty ; that the English jockey represents the Old French jaguet. These are all so many examples of linguistic, or, if you will, of historic etymologies. In this department, in fact, it is historical criticism alone that can decide on the reasonableness or likelihood of sup- positions, on their improbability or incorrectness. It is historical criticism that deals with the multitude of etymologies relying on so many whys and wherefores, amongst which there are many which, however obvious at the first glance, must nevertheless be looked upon as absolutely arbitrary. Thus, according to the Latin jurists, the slave, servus, was so called because through the clemency of the victor he had been saved, preserved, from the death-blow. But the fact is, the primitive meaning of the word is that of protector or guardian, in its nominative singular form corresponding closely to the Zend haurvo, keeper, pacus-haurvo, guard or keeper of cattle in the Avesta. It is by means of the why-and-wherefore argument that feu, defunct, is derived from fait, he was. One step more and cadaver will come from ca [ro] da [ta] ver [mibus] = caw data vermibu8'} nobilis from non vilis; and digitus from (li-tjetuis = & kind of Ood.
Philological is <juite as dangerous — perhaps even more dangerous than linguistic etymology. "Do you know," asks the learned doctor, "whence conies the expression galant homme?" — Le Barhouille: "Whether it came from Villejuif or d'Aubervilliers, I care little." The Doctor: "Know that the expression galant homme comes from elegant; taking the g and the a from the I ijn ; and then taking the /, adding an u and the t\v. last Letters, that, makes galant; and then adding homme, that makes galant homme."
Tie- Least indifferent of such etymologies, if all are noi alike . maybe said without exaggeration to be but little superior
16 LINGUISTICS— PHILOLOGY— ETYMOLOGY. [Chap. i.
to this. Thus, it is not more reasonable to compare the Greek fj-npcpfj, form, figure, appearance, with the Latin forma, by assuming that the consonants m and / have simply changed place, than it is to derive galant homme from elegant. The Latin consonant / initial, as will he seen farther on, answers to an aspirated explosive (bh, dh, or gh) of the primitive Aryan form, here to dh, which gives us the Sanskrit dharma, meaning jus, justitia, and which explains the force of the Latin diminutive formula = form, rule, precept, whereas p-opfyr] is akin to fidpnTa = I seize, a totally different root. Yet how many take as perfectly natural this pretended and fallacious resemblance of p-op(prj to forma, Avho are the first to laugh at Menage for deriving rat from the Latin mus by means of the assumed intermediate form muratus, whence ratus.
The idea of looking on the philologist as a mere manufacturer of etymologies is far too common, though it can be entertained by those alone who have no notion either of the scope or the method of philology. In truth, the scientific linguist looks on the more or less striking resemblances that give rise to the so-called elegant etymological explanations as the very opposite of conclusive. Ex- perience has shown him how far they may be deceptive; but before and above all it has taught him that languages are not the result of mere chance, but, like all other functions, correspond to an organic necessity; that the laws regidating them reveal a precision all the more striking in proportion as they are the more methodically studied; that these laws, in a Avord, in many cases discover and explain the direct or indirect relationship of words ; but that the inquiry into such relationship is but an accessory, an accidental fact, void of all scientific interest.
The etymologist, it has been said, makes little account of the consonants, and neglects the vowels altogether. But this is not all. Hopelessly to shut the eyes to the true nature of linguistics, and, if possible, to be still more blind to the nature of philology — such is the basis, such the raison d'etre of the pretended science of etymology. It is by means of such etymological processes that Basque has been brought into relationship with Irish, that French and Provencal have been converted into Keltic dialects, that Latin
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 17
has been derived from Greek, that Phoenician has been transformed into anything or everything. It is by means of etymology that even now attempts are made to characterise the language of the ancient Iberians with the help of a few geographical terms taken at random; it is by the same medium that the Etruscan inscrip- tions have been recently read off fluently in two or three different languages.
It cannot be too often insisted upon that philology has nothing in common with these mental gymnastics. The very first shoal that it guards its followers against, is the temptation to deal with words ready made. The etymologist is fain to yield to this temptation, precisely because it forms the basis of his operations; and the phdologist himself must doubtless at times rest satisfied with mere assumptions. But these will have no Aveight either on his conclusions or his method of research. What he aims at dis- covering and studying are the simple elements of speech and their manner of coalescing together, the functions of organic forms, the laws that regulate tin.' development and subsequent modifications of these forms.
Philology is therefore nothing but a natural science, a truth which will be further confirmed by the consideration of a fresh subject connected with it.
CHAPTEE II
THE ! IlTB SPEECH— ITS LOCALITY AND IMPORTANCE
J.\ NATURAL BISTORT.
Max is man in virtue of the faculty of articulate speech. This proposition, at one time received with suspicion, lias now become a, truism, at least for those who believe thai metaphysics have ran their com e. Though it may not be a very convincing argument to
own authoritie i, we may still be per- mitted to quote, in connection with this subject, the opinion of authors, of whom science is justly proud Such, for instance,
c
18 ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. ii.
is that of M. Charles Martins : " Articulate language is the dis- tinctive character of man."* That of Ch. Darwin: "Articulate speech is peculiar to man, although, like other animals, he may be able to express his intentions by inarticulate cries, by gestures, and by the muscular movements of his features, "t That of M. Hunfaly: " The origin of man ought to be considered coincident with that of speech."! That of M. Haeckel : " Nothing can have transformed and ennobled the faculties and the brain of man so much as the acquisition of language. The most complete differentiation of the brain, its perfection and that of its noblest functions, that is to say, of the intellectual faculties, while reciprocally influencing each other, still kept pace with their manifestation in speech. It is therefore with good reason that the most distinguished cultivators of comparative philology look upon human speech as the most decisive step man has taken to separate himself from his animal ancestors. This is a point that Schleicher has ably handled in his work on the importance of language in the natural history of man. There is seen the connecting link between zoology and comparative philology, the doctrine of evolution, enabling each of these sciences- to follow step by step the origin of language." And farther on, " This man-ape did not yet possess true speech, that is articulate language expressing ideas."§
We shall return at the proper time to the question of the coincidence of the birth of man with that of the faculty of articidate speech. For the present, let us be satisfied with insisting on the capital point, that the faculty in question constitutes the one absolute characteristic of humanity.
In studying the comparative anatomy of man and other in- ferior animals, all attempts have failed to discover any difference
* " La Creation du Monde Organise," in the " Revue des Deux Mondes," December 15th, 1871, p. 778.
f " The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection," vol. i. p. 58.
J " International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology, Fifth Session," vol. i. p. 58.
§" History of the Creation of Organised Beings, according to Natural Laws." French translation, by Ch. Letourneau, pp. 592 and 614.
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 19
beyond one of degree between the two. And even this divergence has been greatly diminished in the eyes of all unprejudiced observers, since the discovery of the African anthropoids. The sentimental theory of the supremacy of man may be said to be at an end, and to have at last fallen into utter discredit. Man is no longer distinguished from the anthropoids, either by the structure of the teeth, the character of the intermaxillary bone, the formation of the hands and feet, the constitution and functions of the vertebral column, the structure of pelvis and sternum, the muscular system, the facts connected with the external sensorial apparatus, the digestive organs, or the anatomical and morphological characters of the brain.*
Xay more, there exists in this respect a far more serious gap between the inferior apes and the anthropoids, than between these latter and man.t Reliance was accordingly then placed on the so- called non-physical characters. But the inferior animals also were found to possess foresight, memory, imagination, the reasoning faculty, the amount of will compatible with their organic systems, giving the most unecpiivocal proofs of feelings of pity, wonder ambition, affection, love of ride, and method in their work.
At last recourse was iinally had to the two arguments hitherto held in ceserve — that is, to those based on religion and morality though with but indifferent success. And in truth it is easy to Bubject the religious sentiment to the same critique that takes cognisance of .-til other mental phases, and to show that it lias it^ origin in fear, the dread of the unknown: primus in orbe deos
* Broca, " Discours surl'Homme et les Animaux," in tho " Bulletins of the Paris AntLropological Society," 1866, p. 53 ; " L'Ordre des Primates," ib. L869, }>. --S; " Etudes sur la Constitution des Vertebras caudales ohez Les Primates Bans Queue," in the " Revuo d' Anthropologic," ii. 577. See also Vogt , " Lemons sur l'Homme," eighth lesson ; Schaffhausen, " Les Questions Anthropologiques de notre Temps," "Revuo Scicntifique," 1868, p. 76U ; Paul Bert, " Bulletins de la Xoriote" d'Anthropologie de Paris," L862, p. 473 : Bertfllon, ib. 1865, p. 605 ; Magitot, ib. 1869, p. 113.
t Broca, "L'Ordre des Primates, &c," op. rit. passim ; Dally, " L'Ordro 'lc Primafa .J et, ! ■ Transforniisme," in tho " Bulletins de la Socicte d'Anthro- pologie," 1868, p. 673.
0 2
20 ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. II.
fecit timer. The child is not born into the world endowed with the religions faculty : " On this point he knows what he is taught, but he guesses nothing; he has no intuitive perception."* All this has been excellently set forth by M. Broca : " The author of a religious conception brings into play certain active faculties, amongst which the imagination often occupies the chief place. Here we have a first species of religiosity which I will call the active religious sentiment. But this manifests itself in a very limited number of individuals only. The greater part, the vast majority of men, have nothing beyond a passive religion, which consists merely in believing what they are told to believe, without being required to understand it ; and this f eeling itself is for the most part nothing but the result of education. From his earliest infancy the chdd is reared in the midst of certain behefs, to which his mind is moulded without his being in a position to argue or to reason on the matter. No intellect can escape from the action of such systematic instruction, planned and perfected during the course of ages. The child submits in all cases, and frequently once for all. He bebeves without inquiry, because still incapable of examining for himself, and because in all matters, whether reli- gious or not, he refers blindly to the authority of his instructors.
In all this there is nothing to reveal the existence of a faculty, of a capacity, or of any. special promptings of the mind. But with years, experience, and especially study, this passive state always gives place to a certain degree of scepticism. We begin to lose confidence to a greater or less extent in the statements of others ; it is no longer enough merely to hear a thing asserted in order to accept it ; we ask for proofs, and when any one takes for granted everything that he is told, we say of him that he is credulous as a child.
* Letourneau, " De la Religiosite et des Religions au point de Vne anthro- pologique," in the "Bulletins de la Societe d' Anthropologic," 1865, p. 581 ; "Sur la Methode qui a conduit a etablir un Regne Humain," ib. 1866, p. 269; Lagneau, ib. 1865, p. 648; Coudereau, ib. 1S66, p. 329; Broca, " Discours,"' &c, ib. 1866, pp. 59 and 74; Dally, "Du Regne Humain et de la Religiosity," ib., 1866, p. 121.
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 21
The spirit of criticism, which grows with the growth of the intellect itself, is at first concerned with material actions, the events of everyday life, in many cases never getting beyond this order of phenomena. But in many others, without at all changing its character, it widens its circle so as to embrace metaphysical and religious thought. Hence in every country, and especially in those where the mind of man is cultivated, we meet with a great number of individuals Avho little by little give up a part or even the whole of their religious views. Has then this human sentiment, which you call religiosity, been effaced from their minds 1 Would you place on a level with brute creation those men, who are often distinguished by the extent of their learning and the vigour of their mental powers '?
Thus, from whatever point, of view we consider this religious element, it becomes impossible to look upon it as a universal fact, inseparable from the nature of man. The active sentiment, which gives birth to religious conceptions, exists in a few individuals only. The passive sentiment, which is but a form of obedience to authority, or of the adaptation of the mind to its surroundings, though indefinitely more diffused, is still very far from being universal. Were it otherwise, the zealots of the various forms of religion would not keep thundering as they do against unbelief.
It should be carefully borne in mind that this pretended sen- timent is not only not shared in by a great many men of science, but is further absolutely non-existent amongst a good many reputed savage peoples. It is needless here to reproduce the emphatic statements of a crowd of unprejudiced observers — statements which have been vainly called in question. Tribes living without definite faiths or forms of worship have been supposed to believe at least in supernatural forces and manifestations. But it is certain in fact, self-evident— that the very inferiority of these races lenders them incapable of at all distinguishing between the natural and the ^>-<;alled supernatural. Hence Lhe iieee ilv of in all cases again
ultimately falling back on that fear, in itself easily enough accounted for, which has been above spoken of— the Eeax of an
unknown, or rather of the unknown. But if in this we are to
22 AETICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. ii.
recognise a religion, then there is no animal, however low, to whom the religions sentiment can he denied.
It is needless to dwell upon the last objection — the assumed sentiment of morality. It is an ascertained fact that it does not exist amongst a multitude of savage trihes, as the records of eth- nology clearly prove ; while on the other hand, it is unmistakably ■to he detected in the acts of a large number of animals, at least of the social order.
Thus it is the faculty of articulate speech that ultimately and conclusively distinguishes man from the inferior creation, where no trace of this faculty has ever been detected. Xo argument can of course be based on the power of parrots to repeat words — words which are no doubt articulate, but the utterance of which is totally disconnected Avith any corresponding mental conception. This very correspondence and intimate association between the word and the thought precisely constitutes the true character of articulate human speech, which the parrot does but unconsciously echo.
I*his characteristic, again, is common to all the races of man- kind, which is in itself conclusive. However rude the idioms of the lowest types may appear, they have none the less a full claim to the title of true speech ; and the greater or less degree of harmony and grace possessed by them in no way affects their true nature. Besides, it should be observed that it is only the utterance and sounds of their languages that may seem strange, their structure being often far from rudimentary.
But it is objected that individuals not possessing this pretended distinctive human character, the deaf and dumb, for instance, from their birth, or persons stricken with speechlessness in consequence of some injury to the brain, could not in this case be considered as human beings, though on the other hand their claim to the title cannot be gainsaid.
This two-fold objection, though scarcely possessing the force of a specious argument, may still be Worth refuting.
What the mute lacks at birth is by no means the faculty here in question, but the power of exercising it. He is dumb only because
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 23
lie i.s deaf, his deafness alone preventing liim from making use of the faculty of speech. Besides, careful instruction may remove this obstacle, and in point of fact those born deaf and dumb do learn to speak and make use of the inherent gift of articulate speech. "The mute, properly so-called, is no more affected in the cerebral or vocal organs of speech than is a person whose legs are tied in the organs of locomotion. [Neither the one nor the other lacks the native faculty. They lack nothing but the liberty of exercising it, and this itself is due to a circumstance foreign to the faculty itself/'*
We shall consider more fully the case of a cerebral lesion resulting in the loss of speech. Assuredly there can be no doubt that persons so affected retain their right to be considered as human beings, even when speechlessness is complete. But the residts of the important studies made in Trance on this subject do not yet seem to be sufficiently known ; hence it is well, and even necessary, here to proclaim them. It may at the same time help to throw further light on the true nature of philological research.
The attempts made during the last century to localise the cerebral faculties v 1 em a sound principle, but they Avere necessarily
red misuccessful through the want of experimental processes. At the present day the question has been resumed by pathological anatomy, and it is diflicidt to overlook the great importance of the - arrived at by M. Broca in this domain, t We shall here pass them rapidly in review. +
* Vaisse, " Bulletins de la Societe dAnthropologie do Paris," 1866, p. 146.
f "Bulletins de la Societe' Anatomique," 1861, 1863; "Bulletins de la Societe de Chirurgie," 1861; "Bulletins de i.i Societe dAnthropologie do 1861, 18G3, 1865, 1866; " Expose des Titres et Travaux Scientifiqucs," 1868.
X What follows may be rendered more intelligible to tbe unscientific reader by a brief account of the. parts of the cncephalon alluded to. The cerebrum, or brain proper, as distinguished from the cerebellum, ou which it partly rests, is divided by the great longitudinal fissure into two lateral halves, known respectively as the right and left hemispheres. The under Surface of each hemisphere is marked off into three parts or lobes — anterior, middle, and posterior, according to their position; the posterior being that part overlapping the cerebellum, while the anterior and middle are clearly
2i ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. ir.
The exercise of the faculty of articulate speech would seem to he dependent " on the integrity of a very circumscribed portion of the cerebral hemispheres, and more especially of the left. This portion is situated on the upper border of the Sylvian fissure, opposite the Island of Eeil, occupying the posterior half, or probably not more than the third part of the third frontal convolution." It was the autopsy of those subject to aphasia, that is, of those the muscles of whose articulation are not in the least paralysed, that has demon- strated this localisation. In truth, this autopsy almost constantly reveals " a very decided lesion of the posterior half of the right or left third frontal convolution," nearly always, or about nineteen in twenty times on the left side. A serious lesion of the right has in many cases not affected the power of speech; but "this faculty has never been known to survive in the case of those whose autopsy has disclosed a deep lesion of the two convolutions in question."
"We need not here mention the series of operations bearing on this point, which, in our opinion, are entirely conclusive, and which have been placed on record by a number of anatomists. Those who are curious in the matter, will find them in the works quoted in the last note. The interesting question, however, presents itself, why the exercise of the faculty of articidate speech should depend so much more particularly on a convolution of the left cerebral hemisphere, than on the corresponding one on the right, although the functions of both hemispheres do not seem to be radically different. This curious phenomenon is due to the fact, that the convolutions of the left hemisphere have in general a much more rapid development
divided by a deep cleft known as the Fissure of Sylvius, or Sylvian fissure. On opening this fissnre there is exposed to view a triangular prominent por- tion of the cerebral mass, called the Island of Reil, marked by small and short convolutions, or gyri operti. These convolutions, concealed in the Sylvian fissure, are amongst the earliest to be developed, and are themselves surrounded by a very large convolution forming the lips of the Sylvian fissure, and known as the Convolution of the Sylvian fissure. Lastly, both hemispheres are moulded into numerous smooth and tortuous eminences, also called convolutions or gyri, and marked off from each other by deep- furrows, sulci, or anfractuosities. — Note by Translator.
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 25
than those of the right.* "The first are already clearly planned," remarks M. Broca,t "at a time when the others are not yet per- ceptible." The left hemisphere, on which depend the movements of the right members of the body, is therefore more precociously developed than the opposite one. Thus we see why the child, from the first moments of existence, more readily makes use of those members, whose nervous system is then more perfect ; why, in other words, he becomes right-handed. The upper right member,, being from the first stronger and more apt than the left, is on that very account brought more frequently into play, thus acquiring at the outset greater strength and skill, which of course goes on increasing with years. Hitherto I have called those right-handed, who more readily make use of the right, and left-handed, those who more readily make use of the left hand. But these expres- sions are drawn from the outward manif estation of the phenomenon, which, when considered in relation to the brain, rather than to its mechanical agents, teaches us that the greater part of mankind are naturally left-handed, so far as the brain itself is concerned, and that some few, those known as left-handed, are, on the contrary, exceptionally right-handed in the same sense. . . .
" The fundamental phenomenon of articulate speech lies neither in the muscles, nor in the motor nerves, nor in the motor organs of the brain, such as the optical layers or the striate bodies. Were there nothing beyond these organs, speech would be impossible; for they exist at times hi a perfectly healthy and normal state in indi- viduals that have become totally speechless, or in idiots who have. never been able either to learn or understand a language. Articu- late Bpeech therefore depends on the portion of the brain connected with intellectual phenomena, of which the motor organs of the brain are in a way nothing but the agents. Now this function of the intellectual order, governing the, dynamic no less than the mechanical part of articulation, seems to he the almost invariable concomitant of the convolutions "f the Left hemisphere, since the
* Gratiolet, MM. Bertillon, Baillar^cr.
f "On the Beat "f the Facility of Articulate Speech," in the " Bull de la Socii;tc d'Anthropologie do Pane," 1865, p. 3S3.
26 ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. 11.
lesions productive of speechlessness are nearly always found to exist in this hemisphere. This is as much as to say that, so far as speech is concerned, we are left-handed (if such a term can he applied to the brain) ; we speak, so to say, with the left hemisphere. It is a habit Ave acquire from our earliest infancy. Of all the things we have to learn, articulate speech is perhaps the most difficult. Our other faculties exist, at least, hi a rudimentary state, amongst other animals. 33ut although they undoubtedly possess thoughts, and although they are able to communicate them by the medium of a veritable language, articulate speech is itself altogether beyond them. It is this intricate and difficult task that the child has to grapple with from his most tender years, and he succeeds in mastering it by dint of much groping, and by brain work of the most complicate order. Xow, this very task is imposed on him at a period almost coincident with those embryonic stages in which the left hemisphere is in a more advanced state of development than the right. Hence there is nothing inconsistent in admitting that the most developed and most precocious cerebral hemisphere is in a better position than the other to guide the execution and co-ordination of the acts, at once intellectual and muscular, that constitute articulate sjieech. Thus arises the habit of speaking with the left hemisphere, a habit which at last becomes so much a part of our nature, that, once deprived of the functions of this hemisphere, we lose the power of making ourselves understood by speech. But from this it does not follow that the left hemisphere is the exclusive seat of the abstract faculty of speech, which consists in establishing a fixed relation between an idea and a sign, nor even of the special facidty of arti- culate speech, which consists in establishing a definite relation between an idea and an articulate word. The right hemisphere is no more alien to this special facidty than the left, and the proof is that the individual rendered speechless by a serious lesion of the left hemisphere is, generally speaking, deprived only of the power of himself reproducing the articulate sounds of language. He con- tinues to understand what is addressed to him, conseepiently he perfectly grasps the relations between the idea and the word. In •other words, the facidty of perceiving these relations belongs at
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 27
once to both hemispheres, which in case of disease may recipro- cally supplement each other ; but the faculty of expressing these relations by co-ordinate movements — a habit to be acquired only after long practice — seems to belong to one hemisphere only, -which is nearly always the left.
<:Xow, as there are left-handed people, with whom the innate pre-eminence of the motor forces of the right hemisphere imparts a natural and ineradicable pre-eminence to the functions of the left hand, in the same way we see how there may be a certain number of persons with whom the natural pre-eminence of the convolutions of the right hemisphere will reverse the order of phenomena here indicated. In their case the faculty of co-ordi- nating the movements of articulate speech will, in consequence of a habit contracted hi infancy, devolve definitely on the right hemisphere. These exceptional beings in respect of language may be compared to those who are left-handed in respect of the func- tions of the hand. Both alike are right-handed in respect of the
brain The existence of a few individuals exceptionally
speaking with the right hemisphere would very well explain the exceptional eases in which speechlessness is the result of a lesion of this hemisphere. It follows from the foregoing statement that a snbject, whose third left frontal convolution (the ordinary seat of articulate speech) happened to be in a state of atrophy from birth, would learn t i jp >ak, and would speak, with the third rigid frontal convolution, just as a child born without the right hand becomes as skilful with the left hand as others usually are with the right."*
To this quotation, which sums up the state of the question, we
have but one remark to add. It is, that the observations hitherto
led, which are very numerous, nil go to confirm the doctrine
of the locality of Bpeech. This main point is more conclusive than
all the rest, when the question is to show that the study of arti-
* Roc also Adr. Proust, "Alterations de la Parole," in the " Bulletins de ..'n- d'Anthropologie de Paris," 1873, p. 786; and by the same author, "De L'Aphaaie," in the "Archives Generates de Bfeaeoine," Tan's, 1872.
28 ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. ii.
culate speech is really a branch of natural history, as we have endeavoured to make clear in the preceding chapter.
At the same time the possession of the mere faculty itself can tell us nothing as to how it will be applied by the individual endowed with it. This application is, in fact, an art, and a very difficult one. The child stammers and stutters for a long time, until, thanks to a certain intellectual development, and to the habit thus acquired, he succeeds at last in using his native faculty like those around him. In other words, the faculty is natural, but its exercise is an art; the former being well expressed by the Greek term ivepyeia, as the latter is by epyov. Hence those purely auto- matic acts so constantly exhibited in the exercise of the function in question, no less in its normal manifestations than in its pathologic state.*
This distinction is important, and by overlooking it we would run the risk of forming the most extravagant and unscientific notions on the origin of speech.
In the second book of his history, Herodotus relates that Psam- meticus, king of Egypt, wishing to find out who were the oldest inhabitants of the earth, entrusted two new-born infants to the keeping of a shepherd, with injunctions to bring them up in seclusion, and never allow them to hear a human voice. Goats supplied them with nourishment, and after a lapse of two years the shepherd was hailed by them with the repeated cry of /3eKosv Psammeticus, on inquiry, ascertained that this Avas a Phrygian word, meaning bread ; whereupon the Egyptians acknowledged the right of the Phrygians to be considered the most ancient people.
This absurd story, which represents two chUdren, ignorant of every other word, inventing and seemingly declining an un- doubtedly derivative noun, gives us a tolerably fair estimate of the philological criticism of the ancients. The experience of Psammeticus implies a total ignorance of the essential and indis- putable fact, that the exercise of the lingual faculty is a difficult
* Onimus, " Dn Langage," in the " Bulletins de la Societe cV Anthropo- logic de Paris," 1873, p. 759, and following.
Chap, ii.] ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. 29
art — oik- that is acquired and handed down from generation to generation. To separate from his like a new-born and of course utterly inexperienced infant, and expect him to hammer out a glottic system of his own, betrays a state of mind absolutely devoid of methodic principles. A language, that has already passed through several phases of its existence, cannot be invented ; for here, as in all things else, the present is the result of the past. How could an isolated individual of himself possibly again build up that long series of different stages that all languages have under- gone'? A linguistic system is not a thing that can be manufac- tured ; it is formed and developed of itself step by step ; but it is formed when man is born— not the individual man, but man taken in the aggregate, the human race, if you will. As above stated, the appearance of the faculty of articulate speech determines the point of evolution when one of the primates becomes entitled to the name of man.
Schleicher, in his cursive though solid essay on the importance of language for the natural history of man, and in his no less remarkable treatise on the Darwinian theory and the science of language, has discussed this coincidence of the birth of man with the dawn of articulate speech. " If," he says, " it is language that constitutes man, then our first progenitors were not real human beings, and did not become such till language was formed in virtue of the development of the brain and of the organs of speech." Philology, like all the other natural sciences, compels us to admit thai man takes his origin in the evolution of inferior forms. We have ourselves alluded to this subject in connection with the Hen! communication on "The Precursor of Man," made by ML de Mortillet to the French A jociation for the Advancemenl of the Sciences,* on the occasion of the finding of the chipped Bints in the marl deposits of the limestone period at Beauce. According to ilc laws of paleontology, actual man could not have existed at that epoch. The succession of the fauna in the- various geological d fact, now well established From age to age animals
* Second Session, held at Lyons in August, 1878.
30 ARTICULATE SPEECH IN NATURAL HISTORY. [Chap. ii.
become modified, and their varieties fall off all the more rapidly in proportion to the greater intricacy of their organisation. Three times at least the fauna have been renewed since the formation of the above-mentioned limestone deposit at Beauce, and the mamma- bans contemporary with the flints in question belong to extinct genera, the precursors of, but distinct from, those now living. It is not reasonable to suppose that man alone has escaped from these modifications — man, above all, whose organisation is precisely of all others the most complicate. Hence the chipped flints of the middle tertiary epoch would belong to a genus the forerunner of present man. This opinion is in our eyes extremely probable, and corresponds in every respect with the doctrine set forth by Schleicher in the above-mentioned treatise.
If it cannot be admitted, without falling into metaphysical and chddish conceptions, that the lingual facidty was acquired all of a sudden, without cause, without origin — hi fact, ex nihilo — it must be allowed to be the result of a progressive development of the organs of speech. This assumes before man — fhat is, before the being distinguished by the faculty of articidate language — another being on the way towards its acquisition ; that is to say, on the way towards becoming man. As Schleicher teaches, we must admit that a certain number only of such beings succeeded in acquiring the facrdty under the influence of favourable circumstances, from which time they also acquired the right to the title of men ; while others again, less favoured by circumstances, broke down in their onward progress, and fell back into a retrograde inetamorphosis. Their representatives we may possibly have to recognise in the anthropomorphic creatures, the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the ourang- outang, the gibbon, and the like. We shall see farther on, when passing in review the various phases of languages, that these dif- ferent stages bear witness, in the most unmistakable manner, to constant progress, to natural development, and regular tendency towards perfection.
Thus, then, in the presence of this perpetual spectacle of evolu- tion unfolding itself before our eyes everywhere throughout nature, we cannot but acknowledge that the faculty of articulate speech
Chap, in.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 31
lias been acquired little by little, in virtue of a progressive deve- lopment of the organs of speech. It matters little whether this development he due to the various kinds of selection, natural or sexual, or proceed from other hitherto unascertained causes. This, however, is a matter on which we cannot now dwell. It belongs rather to the general study of the variations and permutation of species, which Ave can do no more than allude to. Here, doubtless, as in everything else, the function has had much to do with the progress of the organ itself ; but here also, as elsewhere, the organ, such as it is — that is, the organ in its actual form — must have necessarily proceeded from some lower organism.
It must be therefore definitely admitted that this distinctive property of man is purely relative. We detect its origin and its rudimentary state ; * we see that our progenitors accpiired it only by degrees, in the struggle for excellence, in which they were destined to prove victorious.
Bnt, though relative only, this faculty is not the less special and peculiar to man, and it is in virtue of it alone that the first of the primates is entitled to this name, which he has earned by incessant struggles, fought out during the course of ages.
CHAPTER III.
PIBST FOBM OF SPEECH — M0X0SYLLADIC — THE ISOLATING LANGUAGES.
< )!■■ all the various forms that languages or groups of languages may present, the monosyllabic is the simplest. In this elementarj
Estate .-ill the terms are mere root-words, or word-roots, corresj ling
in their essence with general conceptions, ami unrestricted by anj idea* of person, gender, number; of time or mood; of relationship,
* Lamarck, " Philosophic) Zoologiquc," ud. Ch. Martins, i. 346, Paris, 1S7:5; Darwin, " Descent of .Man," i. p. 5U; Hteckel, "Histoire do la Creation dee Ktres organises," trad, fr., p, 501 .
32 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. [Chap. hi.
prepositions, or conjunctions. In this first stage the language is made up of elements only, the sense of which is essentially general, without suffixes, prefixes, or any modification whatsoever, by which any kind of relation might be implied. Hence, in this first state, the simplest of all others, the sentence is made up of the formula : root + root + root, &c. &c, and it is particularly to be noted that these successive roots are always unchangeable.
From this brief statement it becomes clear why the languages of this class have received the name of monosyllabic or isolating, their words being in fact composed of simple monosyllabic roots, isolated, and, as a rule, independent of each other.
It may be well to state at once that all linguistic systems have passed through this monosyllabic period. The languages whose forms are the most complicate, that is those liable to inflection — as, for instance, the Aryan family — when subjected to scientific analysis betray unmistakable traces of a monosyllabic origin, remote and indirect it may be, but which cannot for a moment be gainsaid, as -will be shown in its proper place. We shall also see that the intermediate stage, the period of agglutination — that for instance of Basque, Japanese, and the Dravidian group — has given rise to the inflectional system, whilst itself deriving from the lower stage, that is the monosyllabic — with which Ave are now occupied.
Not that it can be asserted that all agglutinating idioms must some day become inflectional, or that all the isolating and mono- syllabic ones must pass into the agglutinative state. Many tongues belonging to the two lower orders have perished, and it is certain that amongst those now living, whether monosyllabic or agglutina- tive, the greater number are definitely fixed in those states. Thus, it may be unhesitatingly asserted that Basque and the idioms of North America will perish in their present form.
Besides, it is not without determining causes that such and such languages have definitely assumed their actual forms, whether monosyllabic or agglutinative, while showing but very feeble and rare tendencies to work into the higher stage. These causes may possibly have been multiplied, and may be of very different kinds, the discovery of which is an arduous task, not yet even attempted.
Chap, hi.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 33
Yet it must in the end prove successful, for the simple reason that there is a cause for everything, and we are making daily advances from the known to the unknown.
Doubtless the most powerful cause of the effect here spoken of is the fact that these languages have entered on their liistoric life, and have become the instruments of literature. This fact of itself alone proves that the language, such as it was, felt itself equal to the recpiirements of a developed nationality. In this sense it is not incorrect to say that, at Ins first step into liistoric life, man reaches the period which in natural history is called the period of retrogressive metamorphosis. This, however, may or may not be confirmed by the future ; nor is it possible, in the present state of scientific knowledge, to indulge in much more than purely conjectural assertions on the point.
It is easy to understand that a system of successive roots, all implying the most general ideas, coidd offer but a very limited resource to language. On the other hand, the imperious necessity "f expressing the various relations of ideas must have made itself felt at a very early stage. But we have seen that the essence of lie- root-words was the negation and even exclusion of the re- lational elements, such as active and passive, unity and plurality, pas!, present, and future. Yet such a period must have necessarily existed It must, doubtless, be removed hack to extremely remote prehistoric ages, and in all probability, it succeeded itself to a still more primitive period, 'luring which the routs were formed by the inn of the simple phonetic elements.
In course of time an ingenious expedient was devised asaremedy for the intolerable defect of precision. This consisted in rigorously the position of the roots, that is of the words, in the sentence. Thus syntax was born before accidence or grammar, properly so- called. As we shall have to show farther on, this expedienl of rigidly axing the position of the words in the sentence ultimately gave rise to the second, or agglutinative stage. By passing in rapid review the various monosyllabic languages, Ave shall see how important result was turned to account, as well as how its have gradually become oh cured.
i)
34 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. [Chap. hi.
However this be, we already see that the grammar of all mono- syllabic or isolating idioms is necessarily and entirely a question of syntax. In fact, the word in these tongues is inflexible ; in spite of all changes of position in the sentence, it remains in variable and always the same, position alone determining its value or force, as subject or predicate, noun or adnoun, substantive or verb, and so on.
It should also be noted, in a general way, that intonation is an important element in monosyllabic languages, a point which does not seem to have received sufficient attention in the various works on this class of idioms. Not the least important function of tone is the differentiation according to circumstances of a large number of homophones, that is of words identical in form, but different in their respective applications, a point we shall presently have to enter into somewhat more fully.
The principal monosyllabic languages — that is, those that con- stitute or represent an independent glottic system — are five in number: CJrinese, Annamese, Siamese, Burman, and Tibetan. To these, however, must be added a considerable number of isolated idioms in Transgangetic or Further India, such as the Pegu in British Burma, and the Kassia, confined to a small district in the south of Assam, on the left bank of the Brahmaputra, and about two hundred miles from the head of the Bay of Bengal. These, however, are not of sufficient importance to claim further notice here.
It is not our intention, nor would it here be possible, to treat in ininiite detail all these different languages. It will be enough to give some general information respecting each of them, while dwelling more particularly on Chinese, the most characteristic of all the languages of this class.
§ 1. — Chinese.
Its three great divisions are: the Mandarine, vernacular in the central provinces, and employed as a cultivated language through- out the empire ; the dialect of Canton ; and that of Fo-Kien. All
Chap, hi.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 35
three, while belonging to the same language, are vastly different, so that the natives of the northern and southern provinces have the greatest difficulty in understanding each other.
The study of Chinese is composed of two clearly-defined branches — the writing system, and the language itself. Let us first speak of the latter.
As already stated, it is purely and simply syntactic. The first rock it had to avoid, in common with all the isolating tongues, was the constant uncertainty of meaning, arising from the multiplicity of senses which one and the same form is susceptible of. Thus the form tao means indifferently : to reach, to ravish, to cover, tanner, corn, to lead, way, without reckoning two or three other senses in which it may he taken. The syllable lu stands for : to turn aside, vehicle, precious stone, dew, to forge, way, besides three or four others.
It was a somewhat artless, yet very exact expedient, to place
side by side two terms capable of being synonymous in some one
of their meanings, as for instance tao and lu, both answering to the
idea of way. Thus, while tao by itself might leave us to choose
between nine or ten senses, tao lu can mean nothing but way or
road. Is this, as has been assumed, a case of real composition1?
By no means, for a compound term always implies relationship,
while we have here nothing but a heaping-up of homonyms. Not
even the juxtaposition of two such words as f/i. father, and mu,
mother = parents, can be looked on as forming a true compound,
though at the first glance it may seem to be one; and so with
yuan, distant, and Jan, near = distance. In point of fact, in this
of coupling of words together, the first no more depends on the
ond do.s on the first.
It may well 1"' supposed that gender also can be determined only by means of a second term. Recourse, for instance, is had to nan, male, masculine ; niu, female, feminine whence nan tse = aon; ,..',/ tse =s daughter ; niu jin = woman. In the case of animals, the distinguishing terms are different, but the process is the same. Nothing can be simpler than fhis expedient, which we shall meet with in the agglutinating languages, such as Wolof, Japanese, &c, and even in the most highly-developed forms of
D 2
3G MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. [Chap. hi.
speech. In Latin, for instance, there occur the forms mas cards, femina canis, femina porcus, anguis fe.mina, and many analogous expressions. Thus it is that many phenomena peculiar to the first phase of speech have struggled on through the course of ages into the last and highest stage of all.
^Number is expressed, in principle, by the general context only. Still, at times use is made of some word expressive of multitude, totality : tojin = & crowd of people, many persons, people.
The subject is at once denoted by the fact that it is always the first word in the proposition. The direct object also, in simple sentences, is indicated by its always following the word expressing the action, much as we should say, "James strikes John," and " John strikes James." But in other circumstances the direct object is determined by the employment of certain accessory words ; which help-words, however, can in no case be looked on as true prepositions. They are always pure root-words, the only kind of words known* in Chinese, as already remarked ; but that they always and constantly retain their proper and independent value- in the mind of those who employ them can scarcely be. admitted. This value becomes gradually weakened and ever more subordinate ; and it is this very subordination that in time converts isolating into agglutinating languages.
The ideas of locality, of dativity, instrumentality, privation, and the like, are also conveyed either by the aid of certain words, or by position in the sentence. It will, doubtless, be enough to indicate this general fact, without entering into the analysis of a series of examples, which may be found in special works on the subject. The genitive is clearly expressed by placing the leading term after the relative, as in Hen tse, heaven son = sun of heaven; or in the. Mandarine language, by introducing the syllable ti between the two words placed in the same order as before.
The conceptions of quality and comparison are expressed in perfectly analogous ways. Lastly, that of action, on which the whole proposition turns, is also denoted by a purely syntactical process, or else will have to be deduced from the general sense of the context. Thus, there is nothing in Chinese answering to
Chap, hi.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 37
our imperfect forms, and the future also must at times be evolved out of the context. As to the moods, the Romance conditional is recognised by its syntactical position, while the subjunctive and the optative are eked out by auxiliaries.
In Chinese there is no more room for a verb than for a noun, and it cannot be too often repeated, that syntax alone defines the sense. Out of its place in the sentence the word is nothing but, a root taken in the vaguest possible way. In position alone, it awakens precise ideas of individuality, of quality, relation, action. Thus, for instance, the single syllable, ngan means to obtain rest, to enjoy rest, in the manner stated, repose. So with ta-=great, greatly, greatness, to make great', another = round, a ball, to round off, in a circle; another = to be, \ruLy, he, the letter, thus.
As above stated, and as we shall have again to repeat, the use of accessory words, in order to impart the recpiired precision to the principal terms, is the path that leads from the monosyllabic to the agglutinative state. The meaning of these auxiliaries becomes gradually obscured, until the time comes when they acquire a value partly arbitrary. But there was a period, the golden age, so to say, of the monosyllabic system, when their true sense, their full and independent signification, suggested itself at once to the mind. This is a fact that the Chinese themselves have observed with astonishing shrewdness, when they divided the roots into two distinct classes — the full and the empty words (chi-tsen and lin-tsen). By the first, they understood those roots that retained their Ml and independent meaning ; the roots that reappear in a translation as nouns and verbs. They called empty words those roots whose proper value was becoming gradually obscured, and which, little by little, acquired the function of fi-ging precisely the extremely vague idea of the full words, whose primitive sense was still fully preserved In this they showed a remarkable power of discernment, which, hetter than many other discoveries, gave, proof of a care degree of perspicacity. "What is grammar?" the Chinese teacher asks his pupil. "It is a verj
Useful art," replies the pupil; "an art that teaches us to (lis liii'juish between the full and empty word-.''
38 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. [Chap. in.
The different tones occurring not very frequently in Chinese, form so many methods of accentuation, extremely useful where it "becomes necessary to distinguish the meanings, at times very different, of syllables made up of the same phonetic elements. The Chinese vocabulary, of almost Academic authority, gives 42,000 different ideographic symbols, each of which has its pro- nunciation sharply determined. But as the spoken language possesses only about 1,200 consonances, " it follows that the same utterance must be given on an average to thirty characters"
(d'Hervey Saint-Denys). From this we see that if intonation
has not been able to meet every difficulty, it was, at all events,- of great service. This circumstance, as stated, is common to all the monosyllabic tongues. Special Avorks quote a number of examples which need not here be repeated, and without entering into further details, it will perhaps suffice to describe this ingenious and very practical process.
The Chinese phonetic system is not very intricate, without, how- ever, ranking with the most simple. Amongst the consonants g, d, and b are missing in the Mandarine dialect, but d oidy in that of Fo-Kien ; but in the latter the sibilants are less varied than in the former. The absence of r is a well-known fact. The vowels call for no special remark : they are often met with in the form of diphthongs, and frequently also nasalised.
It is a characteristic fact that the monosyllables begin with a consonant and close with a vowel, the signs n or ng, met with at the end of Chinese words transcribed in Soman letters, merely indicating the nasalisation of the preceding vowels. There is but one solitary word that has escaped from this strict rule of an initial consonant and final vowel — ml = two and ear.
Purely graphic questions do not come Avithin the province of philology. They form a special study, doubtless very interesting, but quite distinct and independent. It may still be useful to say a feAV Avords on the Chinese graphic system, and to sIioav Avith what skill this people have contrived to adapt to their singular speech a collection of characters seemingly but little suited for the service required of them.
Chap, in.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 39
Considering the great number of homophones in a monosyllabic Language, that is, of syllables formed of the same phonetic elements, but answering to totally different ideas, it became a serious difficulty how to determine the various meanings of such monads, in a written system. The Chinese solved the puzzle by employing two sorts of signs. The first is composed of nothing but images, or true designs — the picture of a tree, a mountain, or a dog — at times employed inde- pendently, at others, coupled together to reproduce a more or less complex idea. Thus, the image of water and that of the eye placed in juxtaposition convey the idea of tears. A door and an ear give the nation of listt ning or hearing; while the sun and the moon stand for brightness.
Amongst the true designs must also be included the grouping- together of lines or points, expressing either number — one, two, three — or superiority, inferiority, inclination to one side or another, and so on. There was a time when these ideographs, thanks to the correctness of their drawing, directly awakened the conception they were intended to represent. But these simple and truthful symbols gradually lost their original outlines, and in the signs now standing for the notions of dog, sun, moon, mountain, we can no longer, at the first glance, detect the primitive images that directly awakened
different ideas. The characters of this first category have been c dculated at least at about 200.*
The B ad class is more intricate, involving two (dements, a
phonetic and an ideographic. From all that has been said, it will be
v understood that the object of the latter is to determine, the, at times, very diverse value of the phonetic element. This last, if left standing alone, might leave the reader's mind wavering between
i iplicity of homophones. The ideographic element puts an end .:,, f ssting a definite conception, or at least a
,:■■,- of i i 1 1. Thus, the character taken in it-- totality denotes both the pronunciation and the meaning, each part being comple-
ixy to the other. I m ■ of them, however, is looked on as of no i its phonetic ralue is concerned, the utterance
• Abel Renrasat, "Beoherches sur l'Origine ei Is Formation de la Langue Ghinoige," ia " M£ uoirea de L'Acad. dee [ni oriptiona ei Belles-lettres," 1820.
40 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. [Chap. hi.
being determined by the other alone. If, for instance, the sign cheu, vessel, is placed before those representing huo, fire, and ma, horse, these last two will lose their phonetic value, and the whole will be read off as cheu, but this cheu will no longer mean vessel. In con- sequence of the character following it, its meaning wdl be either the flickering of a flame or a particular kind of horse.*
The Chinese have limited to 214 the number of signs which they call "tribunals," and to which European grammarians have given the name of "keys" or "radicals." Besides the 1G9 ideographs, whose object in association with a non-phonetic element has been explained above, these 214 keys comprise a small number of signs that are purely graphic, or simple pictures. They contain the ele- ments of all the Chinese characters, of which there are about 50,000 (43,49G according to a calculation based on the Imperial Chinese Dictionary), and to the keys all the rest must, therefore,. he subordinate. This is Avhat the Chinese, have done in then lexical classification, taking care to arrange the keys in consecutive order, according as they are composed of one, two, three, or more strokes, the last of all (jah, a musical instrument) being made up of seven- teen such strokes. This arbitrary classification, it is evident, has nothing to do with the language itself. In fact, as above stated, the study of Chinese embraces two distinct parts — that of the lan- guage, and the written system. Hence the serious difficulties met with by those beginning to study Chinese.
Let us add that all the signs may on certain occasions be employed as purely phonetic symbols. It is in this way that the Chinese are able to write foreign words or names, such as 'la si 'la, Asia ; 'In ki li, English ; 117 hi to Via, Victoria. We also know that it was from the Chinese characters, treated as phonetic signs, that was derived the Japanese system of writing, while the Japanese language is so totally different from the Chinese.
* Stephan Endlichers Chinese Grammar is the simplest we are ac- quainted with, though too often displaying a lack of criticism. — " Anfangs- griinde der Chinesischen Gratnmatik," Vienna, 1845. The rules for the posi- tion of the words in the sentence may be profitably studied in the " Syntax nouvelle de la Langue Chinoise," by Stanislas Julien. Paris, 1S69.
Chap, hi.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 41
As to the Chinese signs themselves, we have already seen that they arose out of a genuine pictorial system. They are still met in this primitive form on some old monuments, so that it becomes possible step by step to follow the gradual changes they have, undergone during the course of ages. Several graphic systems have been very clearly determined and employed during periods of many centuries, owing their more or less serious subsequent modifi- cations entirely to accidental circumstances. There, moreover, exist among the Chinese several other kinds of writing, amongst which is a very rapid cursive hand in common use.
But we cannot enter further into the question of the Chinese cha- racters, which is merely incidental to the subject, as we are not concerned with graphic systems, but with the structure and phonetic elements of speech.
§ 2. — Annamese.
This is the language of the extreme eastern portion of Further India, that is, of Cochin-China on the south and of Tonkin on the north. It is separated, at least towards the south-west, from the Siamese by the Cambodian, on the nature of which it is still very difficult to form an opinion. A very interesting ethnographic chart of the south-eastern portion of this peninsula has been drawn up by Francis ( rarnier.*
The Annamese language is absolutely independent of Chinese, both in its phonetic system and its roots, that is to say, its words, since the rout constitutes the word itself in all monosyllabic tongues. Gender and number are expressed, as in Chinese, by adding to the principal syllable others with the meaning of male, female, nil. many, and the like. The adjective is recognised by its position after the noun it qualifies. Lastly, in tie' verb, tense and mood are denoted by the simultaneous employment of the root on which the Sentence turn-, and of others, the general meaning of which is that of past, future, and so on.
What has been said of the structure of Chinese is, therefore,
* " Journal Afiiatique,'' Aout-Siptcinlirc, 1N7-.
42 MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. [Chap. in.
applicable in all its details to Annamese. Here, also, the tonic system plays a chief part, as in Chinese, distinguishing words, the utterance of which would he exactly alike, although their sense may he quite different. There are in Annamese six tones — the acute, very hard to describe ; the interrogative ; the pitched or rising, not very different from the interrogative; the subdued or lowering; the grave; and the equal or uniform.
The Annamite writing system is figurative, that is, ideographic, and was at a remote period borrowed from the Chinese, but has undergone serious modifications and numerous additions.
The language itself has also borrowed largely from Chinese, especially from the southern dialect. This fact has deceived some writers, who have endeavoured to compare the two languages, and derive them from one common source. But however great be the number of such borrowed words, they have nothing to do Avith the essence of the language, or with its proper roots. These, even were they much less numerous than they are, would still suffice to establish the undoubted originality and independence of Annamese.
§ 3. — Siamese or Thai.
Siamese occupies the region to the north of the Gulf of Siam, ex- tending to some distance into the interior, and also along the western shore of the gulf. Towards the east, it comes in contact with the still but little-known language of Cambodia ; and towards the west, with the Burmese, also a monosyllabic language. The name Thai, or Siamese, is peculiar to a certain people, but has been extended to the neighbouring and kindred races, as, for instance, to those of Laos to the north.
The Siamese phonetic system is one of the richest, especially in aspirates and sibilants. Its grammar, like the Chinese and Anna- mese, is purely monosyllabic, and it has four different intonations, serving to distinguish words of like form but different meaning.
§ I. — Barman.
Spoken in' the north-west of the peninsula, between Siamese and the Aryan languages of India. Its phonetic elements are not so
Chap, hi.] MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES. 43
numerous as the Siamese, and it reckons but one sibilant. Its intonations also are less numerous than the Chinese and Annamese, whilst its grammatical expedients and processes are absolutely the
same.
§ 5. — Tibetan.
Tibet is indebted to the Buddhism of India for most of its intel- lectual culture, including its alphabet and its not inconsiderable literature. It is difficult to say what Tibetan literature may have been before the great religious movement entirely revolutionised it. There are no documents dating from that period, and the Buddhist missionaries' first care was to translate into Tibetan the religious works composed in Sanskrit (or Pali). The alphabet employed by them, and which is still in use, was (a modification of the Devanagari) current in Northern India. Its origin is per- fectly clear ; and anyone who can read Devanagari may in a few hours learn Tibetan, which derives directly from it.
The different authors that have written on Tibetan have not made its monosyllabic character sufficiently clear. The processes employed by it are analogous to those made use of in Chinese, Annamese, and the other isolating languages. Thus it possesses neither number nor gender, expressing the latter by the addition of tier word meaning male or female: ra pho, he-goat; ra ma, s >at. And so with number, denoted by the help of some second term, generally implying the idea of all or multitude. The pre- tended Tibetan cas; - are no more cases than are those that have be d attributed to < !hin< se and Annamese. II. re also the full root is determined by words which become empty, that is, which lose a of their primary sense, and serve as adjuncts to the principal word.
In itself the term i no more a simple noun (or adjective) than it is a verb, its nature bi ing in each case determined either by its >ii in the :- ntence or by the addition of some empty root.
After what has been said of the monosyllabic tongues in general, and of Chinese in partic to go more minutely
into the structure of Tibetan, li does no! differ from that of the
4A SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. it.
other isolating tongues, and Ave must not be led astray by what grammarians without judgment tell us of its pretended gender, number, eases, persons, moods, and tenses. These are merely so many ways of speaking, which shoidd not be taken literally ; and all traces of which will disappear in the comparative syntax of the various monosyllabic languages, which will doubtless soon be com- posed. Anyone undertaking this task, without attempting to reduce to a common form the essentially different roots of these idioms, would supply one of the first desiderata of philology. It would above all be necessary that the idea be thoroughly dis- seminated that, in order to study any monosyllabic language whatsoever, we forget for a moment all that we know concern- in<* the structure and processes of our flexional forms of speech. Unfortunately, this woidd seem to be no slight difficulty.
CHAPTEE IV.
SECOND FORM OF SPEECH AGGLUTINATION.
Tlie Agglutinating Languages.
Of all known languages, those that by their form belong to this second class are by far the most numerous. Beyond all manner of doubt they belong to a great many stocks, very distinct, inde- pendent, and incapable of being reduced to a common source. Professed etymologists may have attempted to bring them back to one origin, herein more or less wittingly ministering to the ten- dency of theological systems ; but their efforts have been crowned with no better success than they deserved. Doubtless, all etymo- logists will lend themselves to a comparison of Magyar and Basque, of Tamil and Algonquin, of Japanese and the Australian dialects. But what is etymology? We have already explained that it is a mass of fictions and delusions, an intellectual trifling, a constant defiance of the most rudimentary principles of method, and most frequently of the first elements of common sense.
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION". 45
§ 1. — What is Agglutination.
While in the idioms of the first form, Chinese, Siamese, &c, the words are invariably monosyllabic forms, following each other without the least fusion or connection, and each retaining its proper force; in those of the second category many elements are placed in close association, in a way agglutinating, or agglomerating together, whence the name of agglutinating, or agglomerating languages. Of these diverse elements, one alone contains the leading idea, the main thought or conception, the others losing their independent value altogether. They certainly still retain a personal or individual sense, hut this is now entirely relative. The element preserving its primitive force, strike, take, keep, becomes surrounded by others determining its manner of being or manner of action, while these other elements themselves, thus tacked on to the primary one, play the exclusive part of so determining its manner of being or action.
Making i;, the initial of the word "root," stand for the essen- tial element of the. word, and rrr, for those that have sunk to the condition of mere elements of relationship, we may assume in an agglutinating language the following formulae: rE, where the primary root is preceded by a prefix of relationship; Rr Avhere it is followed by a ^uliix ; u R i;, where it stands between two rela- tional terms ; r R r r, and so on.
Two or three examples from the Magyar Language will make this explanation clear. In the indicative present kert'ek, you pray, leer is the vol, thai is the element whose meaning remains unclouded, while t'ek is the relational element, denoting person. Hence the formula here is R h. Iii the present optative kernetek, may you pray, where lie ne is also a relational sign, showing that ilc- genera] and prevailing idea of Jeer is taken in an optative sense, the formula \\ ill he I; it k.
Now )el ua take the p,ol ■_,!,-, to shili, and hi us consider some
of [\ called derivatives, which, in fad, are nothing hut cases of agglutination or juxtaposition. They put in the clearest light the real nature of this proce . Eere are a few of its forms in
46 SECOND FOEM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
the third person singular, where the element implying lie or she is understood : zdrhat, he can shut, formula R R ; zdrogat, lie often shuts, same formula ; zdrogathat, he can often shut, formula Rrr; zdrat, he causes to shut, formula Er; zdratgat, he causes often to shut, formula Err; zdratgathat, he can often cause to shut, formula R B R R.
Thus we see that two characteristic facts distinguish the agglu- tinating from the isolating class. In the former the word is no longer composed of the root alone, Irat is formed by the union of several roots. In the second place, one only of these roots thus agglomerated retains its real value, in the others the individual meaning becoming obscured and passing into the second rank. They serve now only to fix precisely the manner of being or of action of the leading root, whose primitive meaning remains unaffected.
The primary root being thus retained in its primitive form, the others lose their independence, and fall into their place side by- side of each other; and this is precisely what constitutes agglutina- tion. Here the word is formed by the union of several different elements or roots, and thus becomes complex. It is this that distinguishes it from the word as conceived in the isolating lan- guages, where it is composed of the root itself and of that alone.
In any case, let us state at once that in the agglutinating tongues there is no true declension or conjugation. The use of these terms, as well as of the corresponding words case, nominative, accusative, genitive, and so on, when speaking of Japanese, Basque, Wolof, &c, is merely a conventional way of expressing oneself, not, perhaps, to be absolutely condemned, but yet to be taken with great reserve.
We have stated that the agglutinating idioms are very nume- rous, in fact embracing the great majority of known lan- guages. We shall now proceed to notice at least such of them as seem best to illustrate the principal agglutinating systems. Some we shall have to treat very summarily, such as the Corean and those of the African negroes. But we shall have to enter more fully into the details of some others, such as the different
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 47
languages of the Uralo-Altaic group, the Basque and the American
languages. The relatively greater importance of the latter "will probably be a sufficient justification of the greater attention they must command at our hands.
After mentioning the principal agglutinating systems, we shall have a word to say on the " Turanian " theory, on the pretended " Turanian languages," and on the principal speculations that this theory has given rise to.
We shall begin with the agglomerating languages of Africa — those of the Hottentots, the Bushmen, the true Negroes, the Kafirs, the Fida tribes, and the Nubians. Proceeding eastwards, we shall then treat of the Negritos, the Papuas, and the Australians. Returning northwards, we shall meet the Malayo-Polynesian system ; ami still farther north, the Japanese and Corean, on the extreme east of the Asiatic continent. Eetracing our steps west- wards, we shall take the Dravidian group in the south of India ; the Uralo-Altaic family in Asia and Europe; the Bascpie at the foot of the Western Pyrenees ; and, crossing the Atlantic, the languages of the New World. AVe shall conclude with the idioms of the ' acasus, and certain other tongues either little known or not yet classified.
The first part of this category is purely geographical, but aw have had certain grammatical reasons fur arranging consecutively the Dravidian, the Uralo-AltaiV, Basque, ami American system--. It would be, perhaps, difficult here to explain these reasons, but they will become apparent later on, and more particularly when we com»; t" treat of tie- American languages.
§ 2. — South African Languages. Under this heading we do not include the idioms of the " Bantu"
;:;, which will be treated of farther on, under the nai >f
By South African, as b re u ed, we under- stand the languages of the Bottentots and of the Bushmen only.
(1) Hottentot
Tin; origin of bhifl race i involved in greal oh aor is that
48 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
of their language at all 1 tetter known. Attempts have unsuccess- fully been made to group it with the Hametic system, Old Egyptian, Coptic, etc. ; but, as it stands, it seems to be isolated and inde- pendent of all other tongues. It is, however, clearly agglutinating.
Of the Hottentot there are three dialects : Nam.a or Namaqua, Khora, and Cape Hottentot.
Of these, the first, spoken by some twenty thousand persons, is the most important. Converging northwards on the Herero (a Bantu idiom, of which presently), and limited on the south by the Orange River, Narhaqua Land is bounded westwards by the Atlantic, and eastwards by the Kalahari desert.*
Khora, or Klmrana, is spoken much farther to the east, in the district watered by the Vaal, Modder, and Caledon, about the 29° south latitude. It bears a certain affinity to the Namaqua tongue, but is rapidly dying out.
Cape. Hottentot is well-nigh extinct. It was formerly diffused throughout the colony, bordering north-eastwards on the idioms of the Kafir system, northwards on the Khora, and on the north- west on the Xamaqua. At present there remain but a small number of Griquas, Avho still speak Hottentot amongst them- selves, Dutch, English, and Kafir having elsewhere almost entirely extinguished it.
However, all these dialects differ but little from each other, so that the Griquas have no great difficulty in understanding the Namaqua of the Atlantic seaboard.
The Hottentot in his own language calls himself Khoikhoib, in the plural Khoikhoin, a word which means "man of men," or "friend of friends." — (Halvn, op. cit., p. 8).
The Namaqua phonetics are very varied, possessing a very deli- cately graduated series of vowels, all of which are capable of being nasalised. There are also a considerable number of diphthongs — about twelve altogether.
It is no less rich in consonants, besides the ordinary explosives
* Th. Hahn, "Die Sprache dor Nama," Leipzig, 1870; Tyndall, "A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Namaqua-Hottentot Language ;" Bleek, "A Comparative Grammar of the South African Languages," London, 1869.
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 49
(p, t, k, and b, d, g), including k, h, and several other gutturals ; the sibilants s and z (as in sister, zeal) ; a peculiar nasal, somewhat resembling the nasal sound heard in the German word enge; v, r, h, and a palatal, which, however, does not occur in the Namaqua dialect.
To these various consonants must be added four others of a special order — the so-called clicks. The dental click, denoted by a vertical stroke | , or, according to some writers, by the letter c ; the palatal, marked by two horizontal bars crossing a vertical one, =|±, or by the letter v; the cerebral, represented by a sign of exclamation, ! , or by the letter q ; the lateral, expressed by two vertical bars, ||, or by the letter x. These click-letters, though sounding strange to an European ear, are yet capable of being imitated. They will be found fully described in special grammars, all, at least, except the fourth, which is very peculiar, and is so called because the side teeth play an important part in its utterance.
The click-letters may precede the gutturals n, It, and all the vowels, and they occur moreover every moment — in fact, almost in every word.
Word-formation is extremely simple: root followed by a suffix — that is, by some derivative element.
Let us observe at once that these derivative elements have each a
fold form: one for the word when subject; another for the
word when object, whether direct or indirect — the first receiving
the name of subject or, the second that of i<hj,:<-tlrv • the third form
is the vocative or init rjective.
in, these suffixes have a singular, a dual, and a plural form, making for one and the same element altogether nine forms j as there may he a subjective singular, an objective dual, an inter- jective plural and so on.
We find on a the other hand confronted by a triple
supposition : The derivative element of the root may he an element
of t!r : o i (J, we two, we), ")■ of the second (thou, ye two,
common or third per ona] elemenl j and on il,i j
depends the nature of the suffix itself.
i:
|
Mas. |
Fem. |
Neut. |
|
|
Subjective |
... b |
s |
i |
|
Objective |
ba |
sa |
e |
|
Subjective |
kha . . |
ra |
kha or va. |
|
Objective |
kha . . |
ra |
• »; j) |
|
Subjective |
... gu .. |
ti |
n |
|
Objective |
ga |
. te |
na |
50 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
In the first two cases, words arc formed with the sense, for instance, of " I king, I who am king," " thou who art queen," and so on. In a word, the element, as already stated, changes nine times for one and the same word, according as the form is suhjective, objective, interjective, singular, dual, or plural.
Let us add that the suffix varies according as the individual is masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Passing from words derived hy an element of the first or second person to those formed by a common or impersonal suffix, Ave find the subjoined endings in the jSTamaqua dialect, to which these remarks are restricted :
Singular
Dual
Plural
Glancing at this scheme, we at once see that the word taras, woman, is subjective, singular feminine. In the expression " I see the woman," it will become tarasa ; in " the two women say," it will be tarara ; and so on. The form Tchoib, man, Avill be used in the sentences, " the man says," " the man strikes ; " in " the men say," " the men strike," it will be Jchoigu, and in " they strike the men," Jckoigci. All this, doubtless, requires a little attention and practice, but is otherwise easy enough.
Secondary derivation is effected by adding fresh suffixes to those already attached to the root ; and it is also by means of fresh elements thus added to the end of the word that are expressed the relations of locative, ablative, instrument, and the like. Adjectives also are derived from substantives by the same process.
Causatives, diminutives, intensitives, desideratives, are all formed by adding secondary or derivative elements to the principal root. As to the pretended verbal forms, they simply consist in the agglomeration of elements, one expressing person, another the principal root, a third, time — present, past, or future.
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 51
Lastly, Hottentot, like the monosyllabic tongues, distinguishes its homophones by uttering them in various tones. Of these tones there are three, as in the word ikaib, meaning either darkness, place, or linen, according to its intonation. Such homophones, however, are not very numerous.
On the other hand, the true accent falls invariably on the radical syllable, that is, on the first, the Hottentot formula always being : root + suffix, or root + suffixes. In the case of compound words, the accent falls on the principal component.
(2) Bushman Dialects. The Bushmen, who are scattered in a great number of small tribes over the country, have no generic name for their race. The Hottentots call them San, that is, aboriginal or indigenous; and the d ion of Bushmen was first given them by the Dutch.
But little is known of the various idioms spoken by the
Bushmen. If there is any common affinity between them, great
differences at least prevail amongst some of their tribes, Avhile the
attempt to connect them with the Hottentots has been unsuccessful.
■ as we know them, the Bushmen dialects are, hi fact, quite
independent of those of the Hottentots. In any case, they belong
to tli aating order of languages, and are said to possess six
click-letters.
It is not easy to fix their geographical limits. They are met
with ist of the Herero district, north-east of JSTamaqualand,
and north of the Kalahari desert; while some tribes arc round
south of this desert and of the Orange River, in the nor,:
' Colony. In fact, according to Fritsch, they must have at
id over the whole of South Africa, from the Cape to
the '/. mb -i, and even beyond that river,* whence th -.
■ iually driven by the pr sure of more powerful i
Languages of th. African Negroes.
Tl,< d irth of Africa is occupied pi rtly by Arabic, which be] to the Si initio, and partly by Berber, which belongs to the Bamitic
* "Dio Eingcborcncn Sfid-Afrika's." Brcslau, L872.
i: •_'
52 SECOND FOEM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
family. On the east coast there are also Semitic tongues, more especially related to the Arahic hranch ; and farther south, that is, immediately north of the equator, some Hamitic idioms, grouped under the general designation of Ethiopian languages. The whole of the south-fast, and a large portion of the south-west coast, are occupied by the Kafir tongues, forming a distinct family in them- selves ; while the Bushman and Hottentot dialects stretch thence southwards to the Cape. In the centre of the continent, going from the south of Upper Egypt westwards, we meet with the Nubian and Eida groups, neither of which have anything in common with the others here mentioned.
The rest of Africa, that is, the middle of the west coast, and a great portion of the centre, is in possession of idioms spoken by the negroes proper, who are anthropologically to be distinguished from the Kafir race.
The number of these negro dialects is considerable. Some of them are closely enough related to constitute together certain well- defined groups, though the common origin of these various groups cannot yet be scientifically proved. They all, doubtless, belong to the agglutinating order, but this in no way implies a common source. Notwithstanding numerous reciprocal borrowings, both their vocabularies, and especially their grammars, differ greatly. In the actual state of our information, we may say that there are a certain number of negro languages, or groups of languages, entirely distinct and independent of each other.
Fr. Midler reckons twenty-one of such groups, but whether this number will be increased or diminished by further research, it is impossible to say. For the present it will be enough to point out that the expression " Languages of the African Negroes," forming the title of this paragraph, is purely geographical, involving no necessary affinity between these languages themselves. We shall take them as nearly as possible in their geographical order, proceed- ing from the north southwards, and from the west eastwards.
(1) Wolof. There are a number of grammatical treatises on this language,
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 53
Avliose accidence and vocabulary are tolerably well known. Still all these works are deficient in method and critical acumen. They supply us with the materials for a scientific Wolof grammar ; but such a work has yet to be written, nor can it be looked for from the missionaries labouring in this field. Their numerous publications betray the most complete ignorance of the principles of the modern science of language, and they seem to be wholly unconscious of the true nature of an agglutinating tongue.
The phonetics of the Wolof are tolerably rich, possessing, besides the short vowels a, e (sharp), %, o, u, the long sounds d, 1, 6, u, e and a sharp e, also long, besides another e, seemingly answering to the e of the French je, te, Is, and a short a, which seems intermediate between the French a and e. In a few words there occurs a nasal a, answering to an in the French grand; but, as a rule, the vowel pre- ceding n is not nasal. Wolof also possesses the French u as in tu, hi, but only in words borrowed from that language.
The consonantal system is equally rich, possessing, besides the three pairs of simple explosives (k g ;t d;p b), a t and a d liquid, Bribed by /' d'; the nasals m n n' (gn French) and a nasal ibed as guttural, which is both initial, medial, and final; further, a very soft U and a guttural h', answering to the German ch in nach ; y, r, I, the hard fricative s and a z, for words taken from the French ; lastly, the fricative /and aw, very difficult to be grasped by European ears. The groups mp, mb, nt, nd, ng are very frequent, but they are mere combinations, not distinct sounds.
Nouns and adjectives are undeclinable, as in all agglutinating ies, ill" case endings of inflexional languages being expressed by particles or prepositions. When, however, the direct and indi- ted objed come together, as in "Give a book to John," the particle jsed at all, recourse being then had to a purely syn- in the isolating Idioms. In fact, the sense is deduced from the position o\ the word in the sentence, the indirect a! way.-: preceding the direct object. Nouns dependent on other nouns, Q ■• | he i i ' are placed after them, the conjunction u
intervening, though this particle is sometimes understood.
i j ,,.]. . . addition of some other term meaning
54 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
male or female, connected with the qualified word by means of a relational particle. The form of the word is otherwise invariable, even for number, the plural also being denoted by the particle i, which, in the case of a noun Avith a complement is inserted between the two words, thus replacing the above-mentioned particle u, this latter being restricted to the singular.
The noun is often accompanied by a determinating suffixed particle, composed of a consonant and a vowel. The consonant varies according to a euphonic law, regulated by the nature of the initial letter of the word so determined, as thus : bdy-ba = father-the, fds-vd = horse-the, kar-ga = house-the. The vowel also varies ac- cording as the determined object is present (i), near, but not present (u), at a distance (a), at a great distance (a). Thus, Mr-go, as above, implies that the house spoken of is at a distance; whereas it woidd become Mr-gi were the house close by, and so on. In the plural, again, the suffixed particle is also modified according to the four cases of greater or less distance ; thus becoming yi, yu, &c, and in certain cases, n'i n'u (n liquid) : kar-yi = ihe houses close at hand, &c. This determinating plural particle yi, yd, yu, obviously contains the above-mentioned plural sign i, whence we may con- clude that in the singular particles gi, bd, kit, &c, the real deter- minating element is the vowel, though the part played by the initial consonant g, b, k, &c, has not yet been clearly ascer- tained.
By means of these hints the learner begins to understand such elementary expressions as : fas u bur = horse-of-king ; fas u bur-bd = the horse-of-the king ; fas u bur-yd = the horse-of-the kings ; fas i bur = horses-of-king ; fas i bur-ba = the horses-of-the king; fas i bur-yd = tKe horses-of-the kings. Apart from the determinating element of this suffixed particle, the process is very elementary and easdy grasped. From these examples it appears that the first noun does not take the determinating sign, so that if the second is unde- termined neither of them take it : fas u bur; dah' u »//r/ = butter-of- cow.
Another means of still more closely determining the word, is by transposing the determinating particle : bi-bdy, bd-bdy, bu-bdy =
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 55
this father; or "by suffixing the particle U to the word already determined by the usual process : bdy-bi-le, bdy-bu-lc, &c, and even bile-bay, bvrle-bay, and so on ; these forms of course becoming in the plural yi-bdy, My-yi-U = these fathers.
It need scarcely be said that the Wolof verb is no more capable of being conjugated, than is the noun of being declined. The so- called verbal forms occurring in the endless schemes of Wolof grammars, drawn up on Greek and Latin models, are nothing but an accumulation of independent words placed side by side, as in all other agglutinating tongues. The root always retains its general or abstract force, and to it are tacked on, either as prefixes or suffixes, certain particles expressing the various relational ideas of past, future, conditional, subjunctive, &c. In all this there is no real change, the words so placed in juxtaposition never varying in form. Hence, in this so-called conjugation we have merely to supply the required pronouns, /, thou, he, &c. ; which, however, are placed, according to circumstances, in various positions in this agglomeration of words.
The number of such combinations is considerable, two-thirds of all Wolof grammars being usually devoted to this pretended con- jugation. Yet all that is needed, is a knowledge of a certain number of accessory words or particles, and of the place they occupy in the general scheme. Thus, the particle on, answering to tin' imperfect tense, is placed after the principal word and before the personal pronoun : mus-ad = have-1 ; mas-on-nd = having-was-L ! he forms, however, are usually much more complicated than this, at first sight appearing very intricate, and often involving six, seven, eight, or even more accessory elements. Thus mds-dgiirnu-won-sqpa- lu = Ave have not yet made a show of loving, is but one com- pound term, made up of sundry agglutinated particles, all fused her, liui each playing a fixed part, and occupying a settled place in the agglomeration. Hie last three elements mean "not to make a show of Loving ;" the first (mas) i spresses the action Itself \ agu implies that the action has no1 yel begun; nu is the persona] element, and won the i ign of the imperfect. We may add that this is by no means an exceptional case, and man)- other far more
56 SECOND FOKM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
intricate examples might be quoted, but tbe formative process is always tbe same.
Of all tbe pure Negro tongues, Wolof is one of the most important, so far as concerns the interests of European civilisation. Tbe French Senegal settlements are in daily contact with the Wolofs, who have borrowed a number of words from the French language. All along the river Senegal, Wolof borders on the Arabic spoken on its right bank, and stretches southwards over a large portion of Senegambia. It is the current speech of Jolof, Kayor, Walo, Dakar, and is also spoken hi Baol, Sine, and Gambia.
(2) Alcalde Group.
Mandingan occupies the southern portion of Senegambia, and the region of Upper Guinea. Bambara is spoken a little more to the north, and east of central Senegambia, To the same family belong the Susu, Vei, Tene, Gbandi, Landoro, Mende, Gbese, Toma, and Memo.
(3) Fdup Group
Also occupies the southern parts of Senegambia and the districts a little farther south. It touches at various points on the Mandingan, and comprises a number of dialects, such as Feltip, on the Gambia ; Filliam, on the Casamanze ; Bola, Severe, Pepel, in the Bissagos islands ; Biafada, on the river Geba ; Pajade, Baga, Kallum, Timne, Bidlom, Sherbro, Kissi.
(4) Sonra'i Occupies an isolated position on the Niger, south-east of Tim- buctu, about the 15° north latitude. It is therefore spoken in a portion of South Sahara, its domain confining on that of the Tuaric, which stretches more northwards. Speaking generally, it may be said to be spoken in the district lying between Timbuctu and Agades.
(5) Hausa, or Haivsa, "Which is split up into a considerable number of dialects, may
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 57
be described as the proper language of Soudan (or, more correctly, of the region lying between the Niger on the west and Lake Chad on the east). No other idiom of Central Africa is so diffused as the Hausa, which is the commercial speech of this part of the continent. It is now tolerably well known, thanks especially to the writings of the English missionary, the Rev. James F. Schon.
Its vowel system is rich; besides a, i, u, long and short, possess- ing o, e, an e and an i very short, not easily distinguished from each other, a labial intermediate between a and o, which may be lengthened, lastly a and e obscure and guttural. The consonantal system is less complicated, consisting of p, t, h ; b, d, g, m, u ; r, 1 ; /, s, z, s' (sh) ; j French ; ch, j, a; and a nasal analogous to the English wj in king.
Gender is distinguished not only by some secondary term mean- in- male or female, but also by the ending ia or nia, the force of which has not yet been quite cleared up : sa— bull; sania = covr. Its origin, however, is doubtless the same as that of the other process. Number also is denoted either by a particle, of which there are, several varieties, or by doubling the last syllable of the word. In practice this process presents certain difficulties, but is in itself simple and intelligible enough.
There is no true declension in Hausa any more than in any other fcinating tongues. The various relations of the Greek and Latin casi 3 are expressed either by the position of the word in the ace, or by the help of particles joined to the noun : masa = to him; marta—her; garesa = oi or from him The subject and the object are also denoted by their position, the latter naturally following the former. Lastly, the idea of possession is expressed by placing the principal word immediately before the other, or else by connecting the two with the particle na <>r n masculine, ta feminine.
in other agglutinating idioms, the pretended moods and
tenses of the Hai are formed by means of distinct words
that have reached the stage of particles. The Bystem seems at
lir-i somewhat complex, but it presents no difficulties that cannol
rercome by means of a little scientific analysis.
58 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
(G) Bornu Group Is situated in the neighbourhood of Lake Chad, to the east of the Hausa, and comprises some half-dozen dialects, amongst which Kanem, Tcda (or Tebu), both spoken by Tebu tribes, north and north-east of the lake, Kanuri, Murio, and Nguru.
(7) Kruli Group, Including Grebo (Basa, &c), brings us to the "Windward and Grain Coast, near the river St. Paul (in Liberia).
(8) Ewe or Ife Group
Occupies the western portion of the Gidf of Guinea, about the 7° north latitude, and somewhat farther north. It embraces four idioms, all akin to each other— Ewe, Yoruba, Oji (or O-tyi), and Gel or AJcra.
Besides these groups there remain to be mentioned the Ibo and Nupe spoken, the first in the north, the second in the south of the Niger Delta.
Michi, an isolated idiom, a little to the east of the foregoing, about the 7° north latitude.
Mosgu, Batta, and Lor/one, still farther east, south of the Bomu group and of Lake Chad, and forming a group of themselves.
Baghirmi, to the east of the preceding, in the very heart of Africa, and stretching south-east from Lake Chad (in the direction of Darfur).
Maba, in the same direction, and unconnected with the sur- rounding dialects.
Lastly, eastwards of Central Africa, south of Nubia, and west of Abyssinia, another negro group, known as that of the Upper Nile, and comprising the ShiluJc, on the west bank of the Bahr-el-Abiad ; Dinka, on the right bank of the same river ; Nuer, immediately below Shiluk and Bari, about the 5° north latitude (or between Gondokoro and the great equatorial lake system).
In conclusion, let us repeat that the various groups of languages, spoken by the negroes of Senegambia, Soudan, and Upper Guinea, are all independent of each other. We have here mentioned the
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 59
majority of the one-and-twenty groups hitherto recognised; but groups do not constitute so many branches or ramifications of some one linguistic family. They are no doubt all agglutinating, but, as already stated, this analogy establishes no sort of affinity between languages so constituted. In a word, Wolof, Hausa, Sonra'i, and Ban are no more cognate tongues than are Basque and Japanese, or Magyar and Tamil.
§ 4. — Bantu, or Kafir Family.
Occupies a wide domain, roughly comprising the whole of the smith-east of the continent, reaching southwards to the neighbour- hood of the Cape, and northwards a little beyond the equator, where it meets the Ethiopian group of the Hamitic family, and the dialects of the negroes of Guinea, thus spreading north and south over about one-half of the whole continent.
About one-fourth of the natives of Africa speak the various dialects of this family. These are very numerous, and are derived all from one common source, which, as we have seen, is far from being the case with the languages spoken by the negro tribes in the • and west of the continent. The mother-tongue of this great family is utterly unknown, but it may possibly yet be restored in all its essential grammatical and lexical features.
The general name of Kafir, often given to the Bantu family, is purely conventional The word, which is Arabic, and means inficL /, was at first applied to all the tribes of south-east Africa, but gradually limited, until it has now come to be restricted to those stretching from the north-east of Cape Colony to Delagoa llav. Bence it cannot with propriety be any longer applied to as the Kisuaheli, spoken in Zanzibar, or to the Fernandian, in the < lulf of < ruin< a.
The term Bantu is in every way preferable. It is the plural of. .old meaning man, lias the sense of men, population, people, and may readily be extended to the language itself.
The phonetic j tern of the whole family ; one of the richest, nor is it lacking in harmony. A a rule words are modified not by suffixing, but by prefixin ate of relationship.
60 SECOND FOEM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
It is divided into three great branches — a western, a central, and
an eastern, each of which is again subdivided into a number of
minor groups. They are thus classified by Fr. Midler and Halm* :
Eastern Branch. — Languages of the Zanzibar district ; languages
of the Zambesi ; Zulu-Kafir group.
Central Branch. — Sechuana and Tegeza.
Western Branch. — Kongo ; Herero, &c.
The principal dialects of the north-eastern or Zanzibar district are the Ki-Pokumo, a little to the south of the equator ; Ki-Suaheli, about the 5° south latitude ; Ki-Nika, Ki-Kamba, Ki-Hiau, about the 13° south latitude. Of the tribes speaking these idioms, the Suaheli is the best known.
Somewhat farther south are the Zambesi languages, Tette, Sena, and others. Makua, a little more to the north-east, is spoken in the Mozambique country.
Still farther south are the Kafir proper and the Zulu, closely related to each other, and tolerably well known through the writings of the English missionaries. t Zulu is spoken by the Amazulus, in Zulu-land and Natal ; Kafir, by the Amakhosas or Kafirs proper, south of Natal. To these is related the Fingu, spoken by the Amafingus, the Amasuazis, and some other obscure tribes. Thus this Kafir group reaches from Cape Colony to Delagoa Bay.
Of the two languages of the central group, Tegeza is the least known.
Sechuana, with which we are much better acquainted, is the language of the Bechuanas, north of the 20° and south of the 25° latitude. It includes eastwards the Sesuto, spoken by the Basutos ; westwards, the Serolowj and Seldapi, spoken by the Barolongs and the Bahlapis.
Coming to the west or Atlantic coast, we find the Bantu system less prevalent here than on the east coast.
Northwards it stretches four or five degrees beyond the equator, thus bordering on the languages of the Negroes proper.
The northern division of this western branch comprises the
* " Grundzuge einer Grammatik cles Herero," p. 5. Berlin, 1857. f Appleyard, " The Kafir Language." London, 1850.
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 61
dialects of Fernando Po, Mpongwe, Di-Kele, Isubu, Dualla, and Kongo, which last is the most important of the group.
More to the south are the Bunda (in Angola), Benguda, Londa, and Serero, abont the 19° south latitude, and reaching southwards as far as the Hottentot Namaqua dialect.
Bleek classifies all these languages somewhat differently, dividing them into three distinct branches.*
The first comprises Kafir, Zhdu, Sehlapi, Sesuto, and Tegeza.
The second embraces five subdivisions : 1, Tette, Sena, Mafcua, Ki^Hiau; 2, Ki-Kamba, Kir-Nika, Ki-Suaheli, Ki-Sambala; 3, Baydye (in the interior); 4, Herero, Sindonga (spoken by the Ovambo), Nano (in Benguela), Angola ; 5, Kongo, Mpongwe.
The third division includes the Di-Kele, Benga (in the islands of Corisco Bay), Dualla, Isubu, Fernandian.
It is difficult to venture an opinion on this arrangement, many languages in the interior of South Africa being unknown. But fresh discoveries and researches will doubtless enable us to classify more exactly the idioms already known.
Tin- phonetics of the Bantu family call for no particular remark, except that the vowels are liable to contraction, to euphonic sup- rions, and to rather numerous variations, but always in accord- ance with well-determined principles. In this respect the Kafir idioms an- more refined than many other agglutinating tongues; instances occurring in them of true vowel harmony, that is of the vowel of one syllable assimilating to that of another in the same
word.
The consonantal system seems somewhat complex, owing especially to the great number of double co , whose first element is a
nasal : nt, nd, mp, &c. <fec.
On the other hand we again meet here with some of the click- rsdescribed when treating of the Hottentot phonetics. The K,.,i, fco have borrowed them from their Hottentot neigh-
bours, as they occur in those Kafir dialects only thai border on the for in tance, in those of the Zulu branch.
* Bleek, " A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages," p. 5. London, 1
62 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
The farther we proceed from this neighbourhood, the less frequent these letters become ; hence they do not occur at all in Mpongwe. Nor can the clicks precede other consonants in Kafir as they can in Hottentot ; and of the four Hottentot clicks, two only (especially the dental) are of frequent occurrence. Of the other two, one is very rare and the other altogether unknown.
The number of other consonants is very considerable. They are subject to fixed euphonic laws, and interchange regularly between the various members of the Bantu family, a great many of such concordances being already well known and determined.* Kafir seems the most highly developed of the cognate tongues in its euphonic system.
All these languages have this in common : that the word is built up by elements not suffixed, but prefixed to the principal root. Thus the agglutinating formula in Kafir, Tegeza, Herero, &c, is R E (see p. 45).
Of these prefixes, some denote the singidar, others the plural. Thus, hi Kafir, the singular prefixes are : ill, izi, u, via, um ; those of the plural : aba, ama, imi, izi, izim, izin, o. Thus umntu = man, abantu = men ; udade = sister, odade = sisters.
These various formative prefixes of course differ in the various idioms of the Bantu family, but they all, nevertheless, derive from older common forms. At some unknown period there existed a common Bantu tongue, which subsequently broke up into different dialects, all characterised by special euphonic laws. Hence the various prefixes of this primitive speech were naturally modified in the various idioms derived from it.
A comparison with the other members of the family shows that the initial vowel of the Kafir prefixes um aba, above referred to, really constitutes another prefix. The words umntu, abantu would thus be decomposed into u-m-ntu, a-ba-ntu ; the elements m, ba, being, in this instance, the true derivative elements of the word. In Sesuto (a Sechuana dialect) the singular, motu, becomes plural, batu ; in Sena, munto and vanttu ; in Ki-Hiau (the Zanzibar dialect) mundu and vandu respectively. But in Herero, as in Kafir, we * Bleek, op. cit., p. 81.
Chap, iy.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION.
63
meet with another element prefixed: omundu, ovandu ; so also in Kongo : omuntu, oantu. Hence, those writers that employ the word Abantu as the general designation of the whole family, would do better to use the form Bantu for this purpose, this being the first or most direct derivative of the term.
Subjoined is a table of the singular and plural forms of this word in some of the languages in question :
|
Sing. |
PL |
|
|
Ki-Suaheli |
mtu |
watu. |
|
Ki-Xika |
mutu |
atu. |
|
Ki-Karnba |
mundu . . . |
andu. |
|
Ki-Sambala |
niuntu |
wantu. |
|
Ki-Hiau |
mundu . . . |
vandu. |
|
Sena |
muntto ... |
vanttu. |
|
Makua ... |
muttu |
attu. |
|
Kafir |
umntu |
abantu. |
|
Zulu |
umuntu ... |
abantu. |
|
Sehlapi ... |
rnothu |
bathu. |
|
Sesuto ... |
motu |
batu. |
|
Tegeza ... |
amuno |
vano. |
|
Herero ... |
omundu ... |
ovandu. |
|
Sindonga |
umtu |
oantu. |
|
Nano |
oniuno . . . |
omano. |
|
Angola ... |
omutu . . . |
oatu. |
|
Congo |
omuntu ... |
oantu. |
|
Benga ... |
moto |
bato. |
|
Duabla ... |
motu |
batu. |
|
Isubu |
motu |
batu. |
The case elements are also prefixed. Thus in Herero, the instru- mental sign being na, we get nomundu or namundu=wiiih or by the man. Eere a euphonic law comes into play, the first form being naomundu for na + omundu. So in Kafir, umntu = maxL, and abantu = mem, become ngomuntu =wiifo the man, ngabantu = with. the men. Eere the instrumental sign is nga, answering to the i na, and we sir how it is prefixed to the word formed by a primary derivative element singular and plural
Tin- adjective is formed with the si i derivative elemenl as the
noun it qualifies, or if there be a difference it is a1 Least vi ry slight. In Kafir, L'li" being great, umntu omkula will be great man ;
64 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
abantu abakulu, great men. The word into = thing, being izinto in the plural, into erikulu = great thing; izinto ezinkulu = great things. In a word, the adjective necessarily agrees, even in its formation with its noun.
Thus the word Jculu = great, may, in a sentence, have four or five different prefixes, if it happen to he repeated so many times as quali- fying so many words also formed by means of these prefixes. This process is common to all the members of the Bantu family, whence the title of alliteral languages, which has been given them.
The method of expressing the relations of mood and tense seems, at first sight, somewhat intricate, but is really cpiite simple, consist- ing, as is usual in agghitinating tongues, in tacking independent particles on to the principal root. But, as already stated, the special feature of the Bantu family is the formation of words by means of prefixes, hence the secondary elements are here placed, not after, but before the chief radical.
§ 5.— The Fulu Group.
The Fulas (also Pul or Peul) occupy the centre of Africa, between the tenth and twentieth degrees of north latitude ; on the west, ap- proaching the coast of Senegal, and stretching eastAvards towards Lake Chad. It is. a vast region, about 750. leagues in length, and divided into two nearly equal parts by the [Niger. Its mean breadth is about 125 leagues, between the tenth and fifteenth degrees of north latitude. The principal Fula dialects are the Futatoro, the Futajallo, the Bondu, and the Sokoto.
The phonetic system of this group is not very complex, possessing neither sli, the French j, nor the Semitic gutturals.
Fula knows no distinction between the masculine and feminine genders, but still divides beings into two classes. It distinguishes, on the one hand, everything belonging to humanity, and on the other, everything else — the brute creation and inanimate objects.
M. Faidherbe calls these two classes the liuman and the brute genders* This distinction is essential for the Fula grammar.
* " Genre hominin et Genre brute," in his "Essai sur la Langue Poule." Paris, 1875.
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 65
Words referring to human beings, whether nouns, adjectives, or participles, all end in the singular, in o, which is nothing but a pronominal root agglutinated : gorko = man. This class ends in the plural, in be, which again is the pronoun they (masculine and femi- nine). In the brute gender, the singular ends either with a vowel, an /. or am, o being very rare. The plural seems more complex, and certain euphonic laws seem to play a great part in agglutinating endings to the root. The initial consonants of words in the singular are liable to interchange with others in the plural. The verb, how- ever, is much simpler, its different tenses, as in all agglutinating idioms, being formed by the agglomeration of sundry elements, whose analysis remains always perfectly clear.
The Fida syntax is not very intricate, the order of the succession of ideas determining, in principle, the order of the words in the sentence. Thus, the name of the possessor is preceded by that of the thing possessed, and the object, whether direct or indirect, follows the verb (in the active voice). In fact, the whole difficulty of Fula consists in the great variety of its euphonic laws, but this is no slight difficulty.
With the adoption of Mohammedanism, the Fulas took over a certain number of Arabic words, religious, legal, and suchlike. But setting this element aside, it remained to be seen whether there were any, and if bo, what kind of relationship between certain Senegal idioms, such as the AVolof and the Serer, and the Fida. No one, of course, pretends to deny that they have all a certain number of words in common. But in the actual state of our knowledge it would be al least rash to base an assumed, and, in itself, a very pro- blematica] affinity on a rather weak lexical agreement. M. Faid- I is, '.villi good reason, very reserved on tin's pretended connection of the Fula with the Wblof and Serer. Theoretically it is the very of probable ; practically, it remains si ill to be proved. We know thai the Fulas reached Senegal only after having crossed Centra] Africa, and, in all likelihood, their primitive stock is to be looked for in Eastern Africa, where there may be found idioms related to theirs, if any still .survive.
66 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
§ 6. — Tlie Nubian Languages.
Ethnologists treat the Nubians and the Fulas as one race, of Avhich the first forms an eastern, the second a western division. But however this he, the languages spoken by them seem to he different.
Nubian proper, that is, the speech of the Barahras, is spoken in the Nile Valley, between the twenty-first and twenty-fourth degrees north latitude, by about 40,000 people.
Dongola, spoken somewhat farther south, differs but little from it.
Tumal is spoken in the south of Kordofan, north of Shiluk, and is a negro dialect.
Konjari, also spoken in parts of Dar Fur and Kordofan, has been included in this group, but the point is not yet quite settled. There may be also other idioms related to it, but in the absence of com- plete information, it is impossible to speak very positively on the subject.
§ 7. — Languages of the Negritos.
But little is knoAvn concerning the dialects spoken by the various Negrito tribes, so that for the present Ave can do no more than mention them.
The Negritos — by some writers connected with the Papuas, but by others, seemingly with more reason, distinguished from them — are met with in the Peninsula of Malacca, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and in certain districts of the Sundas and the Philip- pines. They have been traced farther northwards towards Japan, and are even supposed to exist in Central India. The geographical area occupied by the Negritos has been discussed by MM. de Quatrefages and Hanry, in their " Crania Ethnica," and in the first numbers of the "Eevue d'Antliropologie."
§ 8. — Languages of the Papuas.
These, also, are but indifferently known. Spoken to the east of the Malay, north of the Australian idioms, in New Guinea, and in
Chap, it.] SECOND FOKH OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 67
a number of the adjacent islands, they form several dialects more or less differing from each other.
But sufficient is known to pronounce them decidedly agglutinative. Thus, in one of their dialects, the plural element being si, the words snun= man, bien = woman, become, in the plural, snunsi, bi&nsi. The particles answering to the case-endings of inflectional tongues are here prefixed to the word : rosnun = of the man ; bemiin = to the man ; romunsi = of the men ; besnumi = to the men.
The languages of the Papuas have been treated by Mayer in the 67th vol. of the " Journal of the Vienna Academy."
§ 9. — Australian Languages.
The numerous Australian idioms seem all related to each other, bnt have no affinity with any other linguistic famdy.
Their phonetics are extremely simple, possessing neither sibilants nor aspirates. In nearly all of these idioms the idea of number is but little developed, and that of gender not at all. On the other hand, there is a certain wealth of suffixes expressive of nominal relations, constituting what are improperly called cases in the agglu- tinating tongues.
The Australian idioms are divided into three groups. The eastern branch, on the Pacific seaboard, is spoken in parts of Queensland and of New $outh Wales, ami includes the Kamiloroi or Kamilroi, near the river Barwan; the Koiriberri, the Wiraiuroi, the Wailwun, in the region of the Barwan, towards Fort Bourke ; the Kokai, farther north, on the rivers Maranoa and Kogun ; the Wolaroi ; the Pikumbul ; the Paiamha • the Kinlci; the I)i/>/>i!, north of Moreton Bay; the Turrubnl., near the river I.rishane.
The central group comprises the idioms spoken north of Adelaide, in South Australia.
The western group includes the dialects spoken in the south of Western Australia, to the east and south of Perth.
Thus all these languages belong to the southern portion of the Australian continent. Those of the centre and north may be said to 1)" as yet utterly unknot a,
r 2
6S SECOND FORM OP SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
The phonetics of the Australian tongues are very simple, in- cluding hut a small numher of vowels and consonants. They seem to possess the soft explosives only (b, d, g). Words are formed hy means of suffixes alone, the formative element heing placed always at the end of the word, as in Aryan, and never at the beginning, as in the Bantu system : tippin = bird ; tippinko — to the bird ; punnul = sun ; punnidko = to the sun.
The numeral system is one of the most limited. They reckon up to four inclusive, but after that they use some general term expressive of multitude, or a great quantity.
The language of the Tasmanians seems to have been related to those of the mainland ; but our information regarding it is very incomplete, and, as is well known, the Tasmanians are now ex- tinct, Truganina, the last of the race, having died in 1876.
§ 10. — The Malay o-Polynesian Idioms.
These are sometimes called Oceanic, although including some spoken in Africa (or its islands), such as the Malagasse, and others in Asia, such as the Forcnosan.
They are thus classified by Frederic Miiller, in his account of the cruise of the " Novara " round the globe,* and in his " Allge- meine Ethnographie " :
Melanesian Group. — Figi, Annatom, Erromango, Tana, Mallikolo, Lifoo, Baladea, Bauro, Guadalkanar.
Polynesian Group. — Samoa, Tonga, Maori, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Marquesas dialects, Hawaii or Sandwich.
Malay Group. — Tagala branch : Language of the Philippines (Tagala, Bisaya, Pampanga, Bicol, &c.) ; Ladrone or Marianne dialects ; Malagasse of Madagascar ; Formosan. Malayo-Javanese branch : Malay, Javanese, language of the Sunda Islands, Madura, Mankasar, Alfooroo, Battak, Dayak.
Two facts seem now firmly established : (1) That the Malayo- Polynesian idioms have all a common origin ; (2) That they are independent of all other linguistic systems. Bopp made an ill-
* "Reise dor osterreichischen Fregatte."
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. G9
starred attempt to connect them with the Aryan family ; while others have fancied that they belong to a pretended Turanian group, of which we shall have something to say in § 19 of the present chapter. But all this was labour lost. Their phonetic system is quite distinct from that of all others ; their roots are thorougldy original, and afford no elements of comparison with those of the Ar}ran, Uralo- Altaic, or any other system Avhatsoever.
According to Frederic Midler, the primitive Malayo-Polynesian phonetic system was composed of three explosives, A-, t, p; three corresponding nasals ; h, r ; the fricatives s, f, v ; and the vowels a, t, u ( = oo), e, o. It was not tdl a later period that the other sounds appeared — for instance, g, d, h, ch,j, y, I, &c.
The elements attached to the root to form words are sometimes prefixed, and sometimes suffixed, while in certain dialects they are intercalated, that is, incorporated in the body of the word.
Of the three Malayo-Polynesian groups, the Malayan seems to present the fuUest and most highly-developed forms, the Tagala branch being especially distinguished in this respect. Next comes the Melanesian; and last of all, the Polynesian, which shows great poverty when compared with the Tagala, Formosan, and Malagasse. But this would not justify the statement that the Malay group more faithfully represents the common forms that have given birth to ill'' Tagala and the Javanese, as well as to the Tahitian ami the Marquesas dialect. The view to take of the matter is that the Polynesian group was detached from the parent stock at a period when lln' language was not yet very developed, and that the state of its civilisation did not permit of its further development. " Whilst tin; inflectional languages," says Frederic Midler, "broke up into separate divisions at an epoch when their structure was already perfect, whilst their history henceforth reveals uothing but a continuous modification of their forms, the uninnectionaJ idioms .seem, on the contrary, to have split- up at a time when their ore was still in an unfinished state. Thus each of them, after having heroine detached from its congeners, was obliged to make provision out of its own resources for the completion of its
inner structure, Bence the identity of roots and of their formative
70 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
elements ; but hence also the rare coincidence of the ready-made words."*
The grammar of the Malayo-Polynesian idioms is like that of all other agglutinating tongues. There is no true declension, particles performing the functions of the Latin and Greek case- endings, and of our prepositions. Thus, in New Caledonian,* "belonging to the Melanesian group, vangaevu = lord, the lord ; o vangaevu = of the lord; vangaevu 04 = the lords; o vangaevu oi = oi the lords. In Maori (Polynesian group), te tanata = the man ; a te tanata = of the man ; hi te tanata = to the man.
No special element is agglutinated to the noun in order to denote number. In Fiji, for instance, a tamata means both man and men ; in Erromango, niteni = son and sons. Hence plurality is expressed by certain artificial processes, as in the Melanesian dialect of Mare, where the word nodei = crowd, is placed before the noun to make it plural : ngome = a man ; nodei gnome = men. In New Caledonian the noun is either preceded by the collective va, or followed by oi ; vangaevu = the lord; vangaevu oi = the lords. In the Malay group the noun is either doubled or else accompanied by some collective term. The repetition of the word is regulated by special laws, as in Formosan, which doubles the first syllable : sjien = the tooth ; sisjien = the teeth ; while in Javanese the whole word may be doubled : ratu = the prince ; raturatu = the princes.
Gender also is denoted not by agglutination but by some secondary word, as in Fiji, tagane = male ; aleva = female ; a gone tagane = boy ; a gone aleva = girl. In Tahiti metua means parent, of either sex, father and mother being distinguished by the accompanying words tune and vahine respectively. In the case of animals two other terms are used, such as oni and ufa. Thus : moa oni = cock; moa «/« = hen.|. Neither is there any true
* " Allgemeine Ethnographie," p. 285.
•f- H. V. D. Gabelentz, " Die Melanesischen Sprachen," " Memoirs of the Saxony Academy," Philosophy and History sections, vol. iii. Leipzig, 1861.
X Ganssin, " Du Dialecte de Tahiti, de celni des ilea Marquises, et, en general, de la Langue Polynesienne." Paris, 1853.
Chap, rv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 71
conjugation, the notions of tense and mood being expressed by means of affixes, or words no longer possessing anything more than a subordinate sense. As a rule, the verb itself comes last, as in the Melanesian dialect of Annatom :
Ek asaig = I say. Ek mun asaig = I have said. Ekis asaig = I was saying. Ekis mun asaig = I had said. Ekpu asaig = I shall say. Eku vit asaig = If I say, &c. &c.
Still this is by no means an invariable rule.
It has just been said that the secondary or relational elements may be placed either before the principal word, as in the Bantu family, or after it, as in the Aryan tongues, or, lastly, embodied in the word itself.
Tims in Mare (Melanesian group) from vose = to tie, and menenge = to dwell, are formed namenen<jc = a dwelling; navose = n, place, where the derivation is effected by means of prefixes; so also in the Xew Caledonian : ngavie = warrior ; ngaveka = giver — from vie = to light, veka = to give; and in the Malay: herpakei = dressed ; berbini= married — from pdkei= clothes, &&w=woman.
In Tagala, on the contrary, derivation is effected by means of suffixes, as in pwtian = whiteness — from puti — white; bigayan = gift — from bigay = giver.
Lastly, in the Malay group the derivative element is sometimes incorporated in the radical itself; but this incorporating process will be more fully discussed in the chapter devoted to the American Languages.
The Malayo-Polynesian tongues have all of them a more or less developed literature. The natives of Polynesia possess a great number of stories, tales, and traditional songs.* Malay literature
*A i table contribution to tho study of Polynesian oral literature
baa just been made by the Kev. William Wyatt Gill, by his "Myths and Bongs from the South Pacific," London, 1876. The interi I and importance (<f this work are not a Little enhanced by the admirable preface, from tho pen of Profi ssor Has Mullet-. Note by Translator.
72 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
itself is tolerably rich,* owing partly to its extensive borrowings. Its philosophic writings have been inspired by those of the Hindus or the Mussulmans. But its tales and romances are often indigenous, and its poetry is nearly altogether original. It embraces not only fugitive pieces, dialogues, proverbs, and fables, but genuine epic and dramatic poems.
Javanese possesses a literature winch is largely indebted to Sanskrit, not only for its general tone and spirit, but also for its vocabulary. It has also its original poems, songs, fables, and legends.
Malay is written with the Arabic characters, introduced with the Mohammedan religion, and the nature of its original writing system is now unknown. The other idioms of the Malay group, Tagala, Javanese, Mankasar, &c, have borrowed their different systems from an ancient Indian alphabet, as has been shown by Frederic Midler, f
§ 11. — Japanese.
The attempt has been too frequently made to compare Japanese with the Uralo- Altaic group — Mongolian, Turkish, Magyar, Suomi, and the cognate tongues. JN"o doubt the Japanese race must have originally passed over from the Asiatic continent to the islands now occupied by them. But does it f ollow from this, that their language must have a common origin with those of the mainland, even situated nearest to them 1 By no means, nor is a mere assertion enough to establish such a conclusion. Hitherto, apart from some fruitless and unmethodical attempts, little heed has been paid to any sound arguments that might otherwise demonstrate this pretended relationship. In vain lists have been complacently drawn up of fifty, a hundred, or a hundred and fifty words, which seem to offer more or less analogy with each other. This is nothing but etymology, not philology. We could freely give up the five hundred Mongolo- Japanese cpiasi-homonyms, without reckoning the five hundred or a
* L. de Backer, " L'Archipel Indien. Origincs, langues, litteratures, &c." Paris, 1874.
f " Ueber den Ursprung der Schrift der Malayschen Volker," in the " Bulle- tins of the Vienna Academy," 1865.
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 73
thousand others that might be discovered in two hours of wasted time, for the startling coincidence of the Portuguese definite article with the Magyar article a and the Basque article a. This is doubtless quite as little to the purpose, but appearances are here at least far better respected. And if we argue on the large number of assumed agreements between Japanese and Mongolian or Magyar words, the case will be made only the more hopeless ; the more such whims are indulged in, the less excusable we become. In vain also that such and such syntactical analogies are appealed to. "Would the Bulgarian, which places after the noun the article it has developed within itself, be on that account related to the Moldo-Wallachian, which also postpones the article to the noun 1 To expect syntax, whose laws are quite secondary, to throw any light on the affinities of languages, is but again to show the greatest ignorance of the true scientific method. Where the roots are not common, there is positively nothing from which we can hope for any serious proof of the common origin of two or more languages. Assumed syntactical resemblances are of no greater value than the comparison of a multitude of words already fully developed. The more we heap them up, the more we give proof of scientific inconsistency.
Until there is scientific proof of the contrary, we shall therefore continue to look upon the Japanese as an isolated language, inde- pendent of all other linguistic systems, so far, of course, as the individuality and irreductibility of its roots are concerned.
Japanese occupies the southern and central portions of the archipelago lying between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific. It comprises a number of dialects, which, however, do not seem materially to differ from each other.
The present writing system, which is not free from certain difficulties for those commencing the study of Japanese, is derived from the Chinese, characters, and is referred to about the third century of the Christian era. Strange to say, this ideographic writing seems to have been substituted in the place of an alpha- betic system adopted from the Coreans at a still earlier epoch. A fresh and very desirable change, thai is the adoption of the Etonian likely to take place at anj day.
74 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
At the first assembly of the Congress of Orientalists, this point was discussed, and the general impression seemed to he that this great undertaking had some hope of success.* At the same time, however, the urgent necessity was once more made evident of introducing some new and simple founts into our typographic establishments, for the purpose of avoiding dangerous misunder- standings in transcribing languages that do not make use of the Eoman characters.t For instance, sh, which is the French cJi, the German sch, the Polish sz, and the Hungarian s, would require to be represented by a single type, in the transcription of a text written in foreign characters. This might very well be the sign employed by the Croatians and the Bohemians. But without pretending to arrive at absolute simplicity, some practical system might perhaps be devised, to which Japanese (and other Oriental tongues) would adapt themselves without much difhciilty. J
Japanese phonetics are simple enough, and the formation of the words enables us clearly to show what an agglutinating language really is. The cases are very distinctly expressed by adding to the primary root certain secondary ones, that have lost their in- dependence, and now serve to denote relational ideas only. In transcribing Japanese texts, some writers would be inclined to separate by a hyphen the stem from these relational elements :
* Oriental Congress, Paris, 1873.
f E. Picot, " Tableau Phonetique des principals Langues usuelles," in the " Revue de Linguistique," vi. p. 362.
X A good foundation of such a system is offered by the little known but really admirable scheme of Colonel Henry CUnton, as explained and illus- trated by him in his " International Pronunciation Table, proposed as a basis for the establishment of a uniform method of denoting and describing the pronunciation of many of the sounds, separate and combined, used in human speech," London, 1870. This scheme is so simple, and yet so elastic, that, as the ingenious author justly remarks, " it might be translated into any language in which instruction in pronunciation is to be given ; when, mutatis mutandis, it might serve to aid in establishing, for popular use, a general system of denoting the pronunciation of all the most usual sounds of many languages." Its object is, of course, different from the more elaborate and better known, though, for international purposes, not quite so service- able, scheme of Mr. A. J. Ellis. — Note by Translator.
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 75
hito-no, of the man; hito-de, with the man ; but this plan can no more be justified than could that of separating, for instance, our plural sign s, and writing buolc-s, walls, stones. The closest juxta- position is the proper feature of agglutinating languages, nor can they be represented in writing, otherwise than they exist in speech, without effacing the strikingly characteristic manner in which words are formed in these idioms. At the most, the prefixes o, mc, denoting gender, might be so separated : neko, cat ; o-neko, tom-cat > me~ne7co, she-cat. The particles of number, such as tatsi, ought to be attached, like those of case, immediately to the stem : Mtotatdno, of the men; hitotatside, with the men ; as in the singular : hitono, hitode.
Like all agglutinating verbs, the Japanese verb admits of those series of elements placed in juxtaposition, which have already been spoken of, and which more or less precisely determine the sense of the primary root — negative, causative, optative elements, and the like. It seems needless to give a list of examples, which would be absolutely analogous to those already quoted, or to others we shall have to introduce, when speaking more in detail of the Uralo- Altaic group.
Japanese literature, though evidently interesting, has not yel found a historian. It is largely occupied with history, historical novels, stories, and romance in general. There are also a great number of works on religious philosophy and poetry, and amongsl the sciences, linguistics and botany have been cultivated. It will, doubtless, be no easy matter in these compositions to separate the purely national element from what is due to Chinese influence, which mad'' it.s> If felt more particularly about the third century of our era. Still, we may hope that this undertaking may be accom- plished at no very remote period.
All the Chinese words introduced through this literary pre- dominance have been subjected to the principle of juxtaposition, jus! as tli" Romance and Latin words have conformed to the encies of Low German accidence in English: conform-ed, conformring, rapid-ly, and so on.
We have Btated that the present alphabet is derived from the
VG SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
Chinese ideographic system ; and, like it, the characters are written in parallel columns from right to left. Besides this cursive writing, which is called hirakana, and is everywhere current, there is another, the katakana, vastly more simple, but employed mainly by foreigners little acquainted with the other system.
[This katakanu system — the i-ro-fa, as it is called, from the names of the first three signs — is strictly syllabic, consisting of forty-seven characters, each representing a full syllable : ri, ru ; wo, wa, &c. Of these, five are purely vowel sounds : i, u, o, a, a ; .the rest combinations in which the consonant in all cases precedes the vowel : ro, fa, ni, and so on. By the addition of the soft accent, nigori, consisting of two minute strokes to the right, of the hard accent, mctru — a little dot or circle also to the right — and of a sign for the solitary true consonant n, the original forty-seven characters are raised to seventy-three, and are then differently arranged. There are a few other orthographic signs, such as koto, tama, site, &c, but the whole system is so simple and ingenious that the Avonder is it has not long ago superseded the cumbrous, half-ideographic, half-phonetic systems, that still prevail everywhere throughout the country.]
§ 12.- — Corean.
This language has been grouped with various agglutinating idioms, more particularly with the Japanese. Without absolutely denying the possibility of such a connection, before admitting it we must wait till it is supported by some methodic arguments, which have so far not been forthcoming.
Of all the languages of the extreme east, Corean is the least known and the least studied. It possesses a true alphabet, com- posed of detached vowels and consonants, which is simple enough, and dates probably from the fourth century of our era. But in spite of all the hypotheses propounded on the subject, its origin is still clouded in mystery.
In Corean, as in other agglutinating idioms, suffixes are used to express the various relational ideas denoted by case-endings in the inflectional languages. ^Number is denoted either by repeating
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OP SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 77
the word, or by the addition of some secondary term meaning all or many.
In the Corean vocabulary there are a great number of Chinese words, Avhich, however, are easily recognised, though their pronun- ciation is by no means uniform.
§ 13.— Tito Dravidian Tongues.
This group, which is also spoken of as the Tamulu, the Tamil, and the .Malabaric family, derives its name from a Sanskrit word, originally denoting those Hindus who had settled in that part of India known afterwards as the Deccan. In course of time the word was applied to the country itself, and more particularly to that part of it where Tamil was spoken, which is the most important member of the group.
These languages occupy the whole southern portion of India proper, from the Vindhay mountains and the river ^Nerbudda to Cape Comorin. In this vast region, containing a population of about 50,000,000 inhabitants, there are a few European and Mussulman settlements; but the number of those speaking the Dravidian idioms exclusively may be estimated at upwards of 45,000,000.
In his important work on the Dravidian tongues, Caldwell
divides them into two groups, according as they arc cultivated or
not. The first consists of six languages : Tamil, Malayalam,
i, Kanarese, Tulu, and Kudagu. The second also comprises
six dial ets, which will be presently mentioned.
The Tamil, also (but improperly) Tamul (the second vowel in the Dative spelling being distinctly a short i, not a u), occupies in many respects the same position in the Dravidian group that Sanskril does in the Aryan, surpassing, as it does, all the others in the richness of its vocabulary, the purity and antiquity of its forms, and in its higher literary cultivation. It is the ordinary
spi li of 1 1,500,000 people, occupying the whole plain to the east
of the Western Ghats, from Pulicat to ('ape Comorin, and the west coast as far as Trivandram. Then- are also numerous Tamil
78 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iy.
communities in the north-west of Ceylon, and in the Nizam's Dominions.
The long strip stretching along the coast between the Ghats and the Arabian Sea, from Trivandram to Mangalore, is the home of the Malayalam, or Malayajma, spoken by about 3,000,000 of natives. It is looked on as an older dialect of the Tamil, into which a large number of Sanskrit words have found their way.
The Tulu, formerly spreading north of the Malayalam, is now confined to the neighbourhood of Mangalore, on the coast east of the Ghats, and is spoken by probably not more than 300,000. Though sometimes considered as a dialect of the Malayalam, it differs very decidedly from that language ; and, in fact, constitutes a real branch of the Dra vidian family.
The Kanarese, or Kannada, occupies the north Dravidian district, extending over the plateau of Mysore and the western portion of the Nizam's Dominions. The number of those by whom it is spoken is now estimated at about 9,000,000. This language is extremely interesting, as it often retains forms more antique and purer even than those of the Tamil.
The Telugu, also Telinga, is the Andhra of Sanskrit writers. It limits the Dravidian group on the east and the north, and is spoken by 15,500,000 natives. Its forms have been less faithfully preserved than those of its congeners, and its phonetic system has also been greatly changed, under the influence of harmonic laws, that have earned for it the name of the Italian of the Deccan.
Of all the cultivated Dravidian tongues, Kudagu is the least important, being spoken by not more than 150,000 natives, west of Mysore. Caldwell, who had formerly looked on it as a dialect of the Kanarese, gives it an independent position in the second edition (1875) of his " Dravidian Grammar."
Amongst the secondary dialects may be mentioned the Kota, the Tuda, the Gond, the Ku or Khond, and perhaps the Rajmdhal, and the Union.
The Kota is spoken by a half-savage tribe, reckoned at about 1,100, in the gorges of the JNTeilgherries. The Tuda is the dialect of another Neilgherry tribe, consisting of not more than 750. The
Chap, it.] SECOND FOKM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 79
Oond is the language of 1,600,000 in the hilly districts in the territories of Gondvana, Nagpore, Sangor, and the Nerbudda. The Ku, or Khond, is spoken at Goomsur, on the hills of Orissa, and in the eastern parts of Gondvana, by about 270,000. The Bajmahal, or Muler, and Urunn, are spoken in Central India — -the first by 40,000, the second by upwards of 260,000 — and both of these dialects are somewhat closely related to each other. Some writers add to this list the Badaga, current in a corner of the Neilgherries ; but Caldwell treats it merely as an old dialect of the Kanarese, •without any claim to be separately classified.
The territories still owned by France in these vast regions, which once rang with the names of a Dupleix, a Bussy, and a Lally- Tollendal, are so disposed that four of them are comprised within. the Dravidian province. The two most important, Pondicherry and Karikal, are in Tamil land ; Make is on the Malayalam coast, and Tanoan in the Telugu country.
In this rapid sketch of the limits still occupied by the Dravidian tongues, the question arises, Were they always so circumscribed? And are we to assume that they have been driven into their present domain by the first Aryan immigrations'? This, though likely enough in itself, has so far not been clearly proved. It lias been merely conjectured that the non-Aryan elements of the idioms spoken in Northern India may have a Dravidian origin. But, apart from the fact that they are very few and of but little importance, it is very difficult not only to analyse, but even to determine them. In the Dravidian family itself, a great deal of the vocabulary of certain rude varieties is of unknown origin. We should, therefore, accept with considerable reserve all statements made regarding a
I [hie former expansion of the Dravidian languages. Farther on
we shall have to speak <>f the language of Ceylon, whither Tamil has been extended, in comparatively recent times, possibly about the epoch of the great Buddhist emigration.
The Dravidian tongues may safely be regarded as an independent group, related to no other linguistic family. They have doubtle been connected, al one time, with the mythical Scythian languages; at another with the Uralo Altaic group, and again with the Aryan,
80 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iy.
the Semitic, and many others. But all such comparisons were absolutely void of scientific method. A number of Tamil or Telugu words were compared with certain Sanskrit or Hebrew words, or with others taken from any other quarter whatever — this being the usual method of those who confound fanciful etymological resemblances with, true philological affinity. It is not Tamil or Telugu that Ave have to compare with Sanskrit or Hebrew. The first thing to be done is to restore the primitive Dravidian type, by the comparison alone of which with other families can any satisfactory conclusions be arrived at. We repeat, however, that the deductions already firmly established, seem more than sufficient to show the absolute independence of the Dravidian family from any other.
Attention has long been directed to the Dravidian tongues, which were discovered some time before the Sanskrit, by the Dutch, Danish, French, and English adventurers. They were acquired by Europeans, at first, for trading purposes, and afterwards as a means of spreading Christianity among the natives. The Protestant missionaries were the first to compose grammars and dictionaries, most of which never have been published. The first Tamil grammar* is that of the Danish missionary Ziegenbald, written in Latin, and printed in 1716 ; but the first Malayalam grammar had already appeared in India in the year 1780. W. Carey did not publish his Telugu and Kanarese grammars till 1814 and 1817, at Serampore. Tulu has had to wait till 1872, when it was taken in hand by M. Erigel, of the Easel missions, whose printing establishment at Mangalore issues a number of sound works on the study of the Dravidian tongues.
* That is, the first composed iu an European tongue. The first in Tamil, known as the Tolkapyam, dates from about the eighth century of our era, and is, perhaps, the very oldest Tamil work extant. It was written by Trinadhumagni, one of the followers of Agastya, who is popularly supposed to have invented the Tamil language, in opposition to the Sanskrit of the north. The Tolkapyam, itself, however, is rather a treatise on grammar, composed in Tamil, than a Tamil grammar in the strict sense ; and though not written in Sanskrit must still be considered as an Aindra work, that is the work of a disciple of the Aindra school of Sanskrit grammarians. — Note by Translator.
Chap, it.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 81
They are also now cultivated in Europe by a certain number of linguists, and in France, especially by M. J. Vinson, to whom we are indebted for some valuable details on this subject. Dravidian scholars are by no means rare in England, and we may refer, before all others, to Caldwell, whose excellent treatise, although encum- bered with too many metaphysical theories on the so-called Turanian theory, and on the assumed probability of a common origin for all languages, has justly become a standard work on the Dravidian group of languages.*
Dravidian grammar may be said to be remarkably simple, its phonetic system presenting no serious difficulties, and being com- posed of not over-numerous elements. In the whole group of the five literary languages, there exist only the five vowels a, e, i, o, u, long and short, which seem primitive, besides the two diphthongs ai and an, of which the latter at least does not belong to the common Dravidian stock. In the course of time these vowels became weak and attenuated in their utterance, wbence arose a in number of intermediate sounds, unrepresented in their written systems. Thus it happens that the spoken Tamil differs very rihly from the literary language.
The consonants also are limited in number. They include five groups of strong and weak explosives — guttural, palatal, lingual, dental, and labial — -with their corresponding nasals; y, r, I, v, r strong ; two cerebrals; and one sibilant, .v. There may be added a new ■ if explosives peculiar to Tamil and Telugu, transcribed by Caldwell as tr, dr, but which M. A'inson looks on as dentals pre- ceded by a " mouillemeni." The aspirates are unknown in these idioi primitive consonantal system seems to have been
even -till more simple than at present. Thus, AT. Vinson flunks that the palatals — oh,j — are comparatively recent. However, these nants, like the rowels, have, been modified in the spoken language. Thus, both in Tamil and Malayalam, the dental-! are now showing a decide. 1 tendency towards the English ///
• " Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages." London, 1858-76.
O
82 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
soft* while in Telugu the ch and the j become at times ts and dz.
The utterance of these different sounds presents no very great difficulty, those Unguals alone, perhaps, excepted which are gener- ally but wrongly described as cerebrals. The final I in the English syllable ble gives an approximate idea of these lingual consonants, * of which there are five altogether : t, d, n, j, and r, transcribed in Eoman letters with a dot below. Sanskrit also possesses lingual consonants, but not organic, so that these letters would seem to form a distinctive feature of the Dravidian group.
Of the phonetic laws resulting from a comparison of these various idioms and their dialects, we shall mention but one, which is common also to the Aryan family. The Kanarese k often answers to the Telugu ch and to a Tamil c or s. Thus the word ear, which is sevi in Tamil and chevi in Telugu, becomes Jcevi in Kanarese, and this last must have been the primitive form. [Compare the Latin, Italian, and French caelum, cielo, del, where the initial, as pro- nounced, would be represented by the English letters Jc, ch, and s respectively.]
There are two other interesting facts peculiar to the Dravidian group. The letter r does not occur as an initial, hence, foreign words beginning with this letter must be preceded by a vowel. Thus the Sanskrit word raja appears in Tamil, as irdyan or irdsan. Again, no word can begin with a soft explosive, h, d, &c, while no hard explosive can occur alone, or isolated, in the body of the word. Hence Tamil, in borrowing the Sanskrit word gati, renders it by Jcacii, in accordance Avith this double rule.
But the phonetic laws of these important idioms have not been yet sufficiently studied to enable us definitely to fix the laws that have been brought into play in the formation of words. Enough, however, is known to allow of our classifying the Tamil, Telugu,
* The Dravidian cerebral r also has been identified by Mr. F. T. Ellworthy with the south-western or west Somersetshire r ; he further shows how com- pletely it differs from the trilled r of the north, from the French r grassey&} and the Danish uvular r. See his " Dialect of West Somersetshire." Publi- cations of the English Dialect Society, Series D.- -Note by Translator.
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 83
and their congeners, and ascertaining their relative ages. Dravidian words seem ultimately reducible to roots, or better, to dissyllabic roots, nominal and verbal. By a further comparison of these roots with each other, we see that the}", in their turn, can be reduced to still more elementary groups, each comprising several of the radicals in question. This study has so far been little more than just entered on ; but it maybe said to have already rendered highly probable the theory of the- primitive monosyllabic nature of the Dravidian roots.
Derivatives are formed by the strictly agglutinating process, in which the fresh elements are always suffixed.* Thus, to a verbal root will be added a syllable denoting present time, then another implying negation, then the sign of personality, this agglomeration resulting in a word meaning, for instance, thou dost not sen, but which should be thus transcribed: to see + now + not + thou. The sense of each of these elements is always present to the mind of the Dravidian, who treats them just as we do our pronouns, articles, and prepositions. Doubtless a large number of these derivatives have become so disguised that their primitive form can no longer be recognised. But many others, especially those in- tended to be placed last, and most of those serving to distinguish the so-called cases, are still independent words, retaining their natural sense of rest, contact, vicinity, conserpience, &c. &c. Many of those derivative elements pass from one allied language to another, which sufficiently establishes the original independence of their suffi
If it is easy to perceive the great advantage languages of this class have over the purely monosyllabic ones, where the roots are not thus subordinate to each other, it is, on the other hand, equally
* Not always suffixed, the vowels a, e, i (which aro tho initials of avan = that one; ivcm = this one ; and evan = which one ?) being prefixed, as in the- Tamil: "'" = that thing; ithu — this thing; ethu = which thing ? - Note by 7
f No donbi these raffixes wore originally independent words, as were the
eorresponding Semitic and Aryan caee-endingB. Bui in the pre
Tamil language, a native has no more sense of tin; primitive and
G 2
84 SECOND FOKM OP SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
evident how surpassed they must he hy inflectional tongues, in all that pertains to clearness and precision of expression. A certain vagueness is the logical consequence of the multiplicity of forms in certain agglutinating idioms. Hence, also, certain combinations peculiar to them, which seem very strange to us, accustomed as we are to the comparative simplicity of the Indo-European languages. In these last, the elements of personal relationship — amat, he loves; arnamus, we love — are confined to verbal inflection or conjugation. In the same way the elements intended to denote subject, object, position in space, are restricted to nominal inflection, or declension : films, son (subject) ; filium (direct object). But the agglutinative system allows of mixed processes. Thus we find in a great number of agglutinating tongues nouns combined with personal suffixes; these are true possessive substantives. In Magyar, for example, the noun haz, house, and the personal suffix am, in the verb denoting the first person, produce the noun hazam, my house.
We meet with the same thing in the Dravidian group ; but here, in words of this sort, the personal element imparts, so to say, an attributive sense, an assertion of existence. Thus, in Tamil, tevarir (from tevar, God, honorific plural ; and ir, second personal ending in the verb) means, you are God ; and, in fact, may be declined in the sense of you who are God. Here is another significant and curious fact, though now occurring only in the older texts, especially in ancient Tamil poetry, where we meet with forms such as sarndayJcku, to thee that hast approached — which must be thus analysed : sdr, to reach, approach, arrive ; n, euphonic ; d, sign of
independent meaning of the accnsative ei, the dative Tcu, or the genitive in, than a Eoman had of the corresponding em, i, and is, as in —
Tamil. Latin.
Ace. Kallai = lapidem = a stone (object). Dat. Kallukku = lapidi = to a stone. Gen. Kallin = lapidis = of a stone. Nom. Kal = lapis = a stone (agent).
Nor is the essential difference between agglutination and true inflection at all so clear in such cases as is generally assumed. But the subject is too extensive and too technical to be here discussed. — Note by Translator.
Chap, it.] SECOND FORil OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. S5
the past ; ay, thee, thou, verbal second personal suffix ; k, euphonic ; and lea, to, nominal dative suffix.
Tulu, one of the least important of the Dravidian group, offers a peculiarity which cannot be overlooked. In Tamil, Telugu, Kanarese, and Malayalam, every verb gives rise to a causative, by the insertion of a certain syllable between the radical and the element of tense. Thus, in Tamil, from seyven = I will do, we get seyvippen = I will cause to do. But in Tidu the number of such secondary forms is far more considerable. Thus, malpuve = I do, gives mdlpeve = I usually do (frequentative) ; malpave = I cause to do (causative) ; malt rurr = 1 do do (intensitive). By the insertion of a fresh element, each of these derivatives may become negative : 7ndipdvuji = l do not cause to do, and so on. This phenomenon is again met with in Turkish, where the verbs teem with examples of this process, and where one single word expresses, I cause to love, I can love, I love myself, they love one another • and so on.
The Dravidian group has no article, although in old documents instances occasionally occur of the demonstrative pronoun being employed in a determinative sense. The adjective, always unchangeable (as in English), is generally a mere noun of quality, invariably preceding the noun it qualifies. Distinction of gender must have originally been unknown, and even now it is applied only to human beings that have arrived at the years of discretion. The nouns referring to children are neuter in all the group, as are also the names of women in the singular in most of them. The verb has three tenses only — present, past, and indefinite future — and one mood, the indicative. Grammarians speak of two voices, a positive and a negative \ but this last is easily reduced to its primitive form, being made up merely of a negative particle, inal suffixes, and the simple radical verb.
The Dravidian vocabulary implies rather a low order' of civilisa- tion. Notwithstanding the pretended consensus of all mankind, before the arrival of the Aryan race the Dravidians possessed neither "God," nor "soul;" neither "temple," nor"priest." It .., the other hand, true thai they lacked words for "book," "writing," "grammar," and "will." Thej could not count as far
86 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap.iv.
as 1,000 ; and Telugu, the only Dra vidian tongue possessing a special word for this number, has derived it from ve = ardour, mul- tiplication. None of them can render the abstract sense of the verbs to be, to have.
After this sketch the reader, we may hope, wdl be able to form some idea of the nature of the Dravidian tongues. They are agglutinating idioms arrested in the development of their forms at a, so to say, premature period, and this check was, in all probability, due to the Aryan invasion. But however that be, it is easy to assign to the Dravidian system its natural place in the scale of the aggluti- nating idioms. They must be comprised among the first in the ascending order, that is among those immediately following the iso- lating system, and anterior to Turkish, Magyar, Basque, and the American languages. They show no trace of inflection, and the vocal modifications that they allow of are purely phonetic. These modi- fications in no way answer to any corresponding change of sense in the word so modified.
We have said that contact with the Aryans was the probable cause of the Dravidians entering on their historic life. In fact everything points to the Aryans as at once the conquerors of the plains and forests of the Deccan, and the civUisers of their savage occupants. A few wandering and wretched tribes, rude and difficult of access, still inhabit some scarcely yet fully explored districts of this fertile region. If we can but conjecture that the Dravidians were civilised by the Aryan invasion, it is at least certain that they owe to it their writing system. Their five literary languages are usually transcribed by means of three different alphabets. Tulu employs the same characters as the Kanarese — Kanarese itself and Telugu being written hi two varieties of the same alphabet, the forms of their letters presenting very little difference. This alphabet is characterised by the general round form of its signs. Tamil, on the contrary, possesses a special alphabet in which the square form prevails. It has, moreover, twenty-eight letters only, while the others faithfully reproduce the order and full number of the Sanskrit system. Hence, in writing Sanskrit, the Tamil Brahmans make use of a special alphabet
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 87
called Qrantham, derived from the Devanagari, and from which {lie ordinary Tamil alphabet is itself derived. Intermediate be- tween the Tamil and Kanaro-Telugu- comes the Malayalam, also derived directly from the Grantham. The old Dravidian in- scriptions are written in two different characters, one peculiar to Tamil, the other used in writing Sanskrit and the indigenous tongues, and closely resembling the old Devanagari forms. The latter would seem to be the prototype of all the alphabets of the Decean, whde the former, according to Burnell, was borrowed directly from the Semitic.
It may be asked whether races without a writing system can be paid to possess a literature properly so called. Many instances occur of utterly illiterate peoples, amongst whom long compositions, always in poetry, have been orally handed down through successive generations, and there are everywhere to be found popular songs and legends that have never been committed to writing. Though it cannot be positively asserted that this was the case amongst the ancient Dravidians, still their literature is very rich. At the same time all the works of which it is composed, down to the smallest fragment, are long posterior to their first contact with the Aryans. So far as number and worth are concerned, the Tamil and Telugu compositions far surpass the others; though Kanarese still offers a curious and not yet explored mine of wealth to the researches of the learned.
But in any ease the Tamil literature remains the most copious, the
mosl fruitful, the most interesting, and, at the same time, the most
ancient. Nor is it merely a simple reflex of the Sanskrit, without
any originality of its own. It has had the good fortune to have
Ion time the language of the Shiva sectaries, as well as
lie Jaina and Buddhist heretic . who wrote much, and whose
works are the masterpieces of ancienl Tamil poetry, it should be
added thai all the old Dravidian monuments, or al Lea I those pos-
v intrinsic worth, are always written in verse. Tamil
purer in point of style and mor rrecl than the prose,
and much mor< eludes foreign words. The opposite Is
the ca e in Telugu, Kanarese, and Malayalam poetry, in which Aryan
88 SECOND FOKM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iv.
words abound. The Tamil vocabulary is, moreover, very rich, and possesses a large number of synonyms.
Dravidian literature is particularly rich in moral poems, and in collections of wise saws and aphorisms, which constitute the most ancient monuments of Tamil poetry. It has also produced long epic poems, remarkahle for the exaggeration and minuteness of their details, and otherwise not very attractive to Europeans. To a more recent period must be referred a number of lyric songs, full of energy, some monotonous religious hymns, and erotic tales of a very licen- tious character. Still more recently were composed some scientific works, almost exclusively medical. At the present day the Dra vidians can do no more than hash up then* venerable poetry, faithful to the conservative instinct which Caldwell justly condemns, and which one of their most celebrated grammarians has thus formulated : " Propriety of composition consists in writing on the same subjects, with the same expressions, and in accordance with the same plan, as the classic writers."
§ 14. — TJie Finno-Tataric or Undo- Altaic Languages.
Let us state at once that these are divided into five groups : Samoyedic, Finnic, Turkic or Tataric, Mongolian, Tungusian.
They are entitled to special attention in this work, not only on account of the historical importance of some amongst them, but also because of their structure itself, which is so frequently and so justly appealed to in illustration of the agglutinating stage generally of articulate speech. The simplest plan will be to pass first in review the five groups and the languages comprised in them, and then proceed to discuss the questions of their affinity, of the best name by which to embrace them all, and lastly, of the extravagant " Turanian " theory, which it is to be hoped there will soon be no longer any necessity even of refuting.
The various idioms composing the five groups present great differences, as well in then structure as in their vocabulary. Still, whatever opinion we may form of the actual degree of their affinity to each other, it is easy to see that they have certain morphological features in common, sufficiently marked to allow of their being
Chap, iv.] SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. 89
comprised in a general notice of this sort. Thus they all in some way or other suffix the possessive pronoun to the noun, and divide the conjugation into definite and indefinite, the first being marked by the union of the direct pronominal object to the verb. They are alike also in the main features of their syntax, in their method of determining the noun, lastly, and above all, in their vocalic harmony, a most important fact, "which will challenge special notice in its proper place.
(1) The Samoyedic Group
(Stretches from the White Sea eastwards along the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Europe, and the western portion of the coast of Siberia in Asia. About 20,000 people speak Samoyede, of which there are five principal dialects, nearly all of which are again split up into a immber of sub-dialects.
Yurdk is spoken in European Russia and in the north-west of Siberia as far as the river Yenisei.
Yenisei Samoyede occupies the region watered by the Lower Yenisei.
Tagwi is spoken more to the east, as far as the mouth of the Khatanga.
Ostyak Samoyede lies more to the south-west, about the Middle Obi, and in the direction of the Tom and Chulim.
Kniini.txir is spoken by a small tribe in South Siberia.
The Finn < lastren, one of the founders of Uralo-Altaic philology,
published a comprehensive and scientific treatise on the
Samoyede dialects, in which he carefully compares them together.*
In his opinion Samoyede is more closely related to Finnish than to
other Uralo-Altaic group, both in its structure and component
element -.
The vowel system is simple enough, whereas that of the con- ; if highly developed. Of these there are more than thirty, amongsl them the liquids t, d, I, 8, and z.
We shall speak farther on of progressive vowel harmony, a feature of the Uralo-Altaic system, which is farfrom being uniformly
* " Gramnmtik der Samojedischen Sprachen." St. Petersburg, L854.
90 SECOND FORM OF SPEECH— AGGLUTINATION. [Chap. iy.
carried out in the Samoyede group. 1 icing in fact fairly developed in the Kamassic dialect alone. Here the strong vowels (a, u, o) cannot occur together with the weak (a, it, 6), while the neutrals (/, e) may readily occur in connection with either the strong or the weak.
As in the other Uralo-Altaic tongues, declension is effected in Samoyede by agglutinating secondary or relational particles to the principal root. Thus, in