the Saxon tuxas. In like manner, we now say grass, cress, where the old forms were gærs, cærs1. There is observable at different eras in the language of a nation a certain revolution of taste in regard to sounds; and this exhibits itself in modifications of the vowel-system, and in conversions or transpositions of old-established consonantisms. It is not possible (apparently) to reduce such cases to any other principle than this,-that it has pleased the national ear it should be so. 639. This national taste is inherited so early, and rooted so deep in the individual, that it becomes part of his nature, and forms the starting-point of all his judgments as to what is fitting or unfitting in the harmony of sound with sense. The association between his words and his thoughts is so intimate, that to his ear the words seem to give out a sound like the thing signified; and that too even where it is an abstract idea or some other creation of the mind. So that it becomes a difficult matter to say how far certain words are really like certain natural sounds; or whether it is only an inveterate mental association that makes us think so. That is a difficulty which lies at the root of the onomatopoetic theory of the origin of language. That theory appeals to a sense which we have of likeness between many of our words and the natural sounds of the things signified. Authors. have given lists of words which, in their opinion, had an onomatopoetic origin. That is to say, they were coined at a blow in imitation of audible sounds, or they can at least be traced back to such a coinage. But such words are often resoluble into earlier forms, which had meanings widely distinct from the present meanings; and the onoma 1 Reversely, however, we say bird, third, cart, in preference to the old forms brid, thridde, cræt. Possibly cart has been touched by O. F. carrette, still used in Picardie (says Roquefort) for charrette. topoetic appearances are the results of that instinctive attention to fitness of sound, which is one of the habitual accompaniments of linguistic development. An onomatopoetic writer says,— From pr, or prut, indicating contempt or self-conceit, comes proud, pride, &c. From fie, we have fiend, foe, feud, foul, Latin putris, Fr. puer, filth, fulsome, fear. From smacking the lips we get yλukús, dulcis, lick, like. We shall all as Englishmen be ready to acknowledge that proud and pride do sound like the things signified. But how are we to reconcile the supposed onomatopoetic origin of these words with the fact that they have an earlier history 1, which leads us far enough out of the track of the idea here assigned to pr. 640. It is not too much to say that all the above examples rest upon the ground of a superficial appearance, and that their onomatopoetic origin will not bear inspection. The word like is here derived from the sound of smacking the lips. It is in fact the Old Saxon word for 'body' LIC, which in German is to this day Leich, pronounced almost exactly as our like. Great as the distance may seem between body and the liking of taste, it is measured at two strides. There is but one middle term between these wide extremes. From substance to similitude the transition is frequent and familiar ; and so Lîc 'body' easily produced the adjective like. That likeness breeds liking is proverbial. One of the words which has been thought to favour the onomatopoetic theory is squirrel. If this word had been destitute of a pedigree, and had been dashed off at a moment of happy invention, then its evidence might have been in 1 They are traced either to Old French prude, moral, decorous; or to the Latin prudens, providus, prudent, provident, looking forward.-Diez, Lexicon Linguarum Romanarum. voked in that direction. But when we perceive that it has a long Greek antecedent, and that the idea upon which the word was moulded was that of umbrella-tail, we can only marvel at the sonorous fitness of the word to express the manners of the funny little creature, after all traces of the signification of the word had been forgotten; and we must allow that somewhere in the speech-making genius there lives a faculty which concerns itself to seek the means of harmony between sound and sense. But 641. It would indeed be too much to say that the basis of this harmony is not in any absolute relations between things and ideas on the one hand, and sounds on the other. this may be said,-that while such absolute relations have been often maintained with a certain show of reason, there has not as yet been any proof such as science can take cognisance of. It seems rather as if each race had its own fundamental notions of harmony, and as if the consonance of words were continually striving to adapt itself to these with a sort of unconscious accommodation. Well as squirrel seems to us to harmonise with its object, we cannot doubt that in the judgment of a Red Indian it would sound very inappropriate, and that he would consider Adjidaumo as much more to the point. Boys shall call you Adjidaumo, Tail in air the boys shall call you. H. W. Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha. Language is beyond all doubt imitative. The Hindus. have a drum they call tom-tom, and this word is surely imitative. So much we may venture to assume without any knowledge of their speech. But whether the word originated in imitation is a very different question, and one which demands for its answer a close examination of the Hindu and perhaps other languages besides. Words may be imitative without having originated in an act of imitation. A connection has too hastily been assumed between imitation and initiation. On the fifth bell in Dunkerton Church, Somersetshire, besides the record, Thomas Bilbee cast all wee, 1732,' are found the lines: Harke how the chiriping Treable sound so clear, This is manifestly imitative; the sequence 'tom com tombeling' has plainly a sonorous motive which makes it worthy to be set beside the Indian tom-tom. Yet the imitation has nothing to say to the origin of the words, whereof the first is Semitic, the second Gothic, and the third Romanesque. 642. Our present interest in the onomatopoetic theory is rather incidental'. It bears by its very existence a valuable testimony to that principle which we are just now concerned to establish. There are men of cultivated faculties who perceive throughout language such a harmony of the sound of words with their sense, that they not only would rest satisfied with an account of the origin of language which referred all to external sound, but that it appears to them the most rational explanation. Those who reject the theory itself need not discredit the phenomenon on which it relies. They may admit that there is, running through a great part of human speech, a remarkable chime of sound with sense, and yet doubt whether language was founded upon imitation. The phenomenon itself may have been as primitive as it is persistent, for the strongest examples are among the latest 1 If the reader desires to enquire further into the onomatopoetic theory, he will find all that can be said in its favour in the philological writings of Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood; and there is a criticism of onomatopoeia by Professor Max Müller in the Ninth Lecture of his First Series. efforts of the genius of speech. Accompanying language at every stage, it comes out most avowedly in its maturest forms. That the motion of poetry should keep pace with the thought is an axiom: if the subject is toilsome, then The line too labours, and the verse runs slow. And as with the whole, so with the subordinate members. At every stage in the development of every word, there are a certain number of possible variations, or alternative modes of utterance; and before a word settles down into an established position, it must have been (unconsciously) recognised as the best for that particular purpose of all those that were in the field of choice; and among the qualifications and conditions of the competition, the satisfaction of the ear has never been absent, though it may have been little noticed. When we speak of the satisfaction of the ear, we of course mean a mental gratification; namely, that which arises from a sense of harmony between voice and meaning. There is a pleasure in this, and as there is a pleasure in it, so there is naturally a preference for it, and, other things being equal, the utterance which gives this pleasure will survive one that gives it not. 643. Taking it then as certain, that there is in speech a striving after this expressiveness of sound, we must next observe the varying ways it has of displaying itself in the successive stages of the development of human speech. It does not always occupy the same ground. The English language has passed that stage in which words are palpably modified to meet the requirements of the ear. And accordingly, those who make lists of words in support of the onomatopoetic theory, will be found to lean greatly to old-fashioned and homely and colloquial words, in short to such words as figure but |