PROPORTION OF THOUGHT TO TALK. [SECT. XV. Greek utterance was more versatile than Latin, and Latin than Sanskrit (ibid. VI. 2, 60, 80); which corresponds to the characters of the three races. Lithuanian and Slavonic are marked with want of versatility (ibid. 178, 204) agreeably to the monotony of the nomadic life. So that the principles of Book I., chap. iii., 16, hold through the languages. 4. Polynesian is remarkable above all the other languages for a predominance of the vowels over the consonants (Gram. Sk., III. 2); and the conditions of life of the race are equally remarkable for the degree in which they favour sociality and dispense with care, so that the tendency is rather to expression than to thought. The Melanesians being weaker and more timid, have more care; and their languages are more consonantal (ibid. 20). The conditions of life of the Malays are not so easy. They belong to the group of races referred to in Section XI. of this chapter (18; and in the Introduction 2) who find what they want supplied to them by nature, but have to look for it with care; and there is no such predominance of the vowel over the consonant in their language as there is in Polynesian (Gram. Sk., III. 71). It is very instructive to observe that the languages of the most northern nations, whose life is passed under the most rigorous conditions, are also marked with a highly vocalic character, the Eskimo (ibid. II. 11), the Samoiede (ibid. IV. 68), the Sirianian (ibid. 137), the Tscheremissian, the Lapponic (ibid. 125, 156), the Finnish (ibid. 147). And the same feature, in a somewhat less degree, may be observed in the nomadic languages, but more in Yakut (ibid. 2) than in Mongolian (ibid. 35, 46) or Tungusian (ibid. 51). Now, though all the conditions of life for these races are SO different from those of the Polynesian, in one respect they agree with the latter. For as the Polynesian has no need for thought, these have little scope for thought, and less scope the further north they live. So that both are naturally little characterised by thoughtful habits. The inhospitable region of the northern races renders necessary on their part ingenuity in acquiring the necessaries of life, and in the extreme north, the utmost skill in practising such arts as they have. But it limits the range of their interests, and furnishes little for them to think of. At the same time, the long darkness of the northern winters invites indoor occupations and promotes sociality. So that in their languages as well as in the Polynesian, we should expect to find the vowel predominant over the consonant, according to the principle of Book I., chap. iii., 16. The Africans are generally talkative and unthinking; and their languages generally have large use and development of the vowel. Kafir (Gram. Sk., I. 8) and Yoruba (ibid. 24) have a marked vocalic character. Woloff has eight vowels distinguished by the grammarian (ibid. 25), Vei eight vowels (ibid. 35), Oti nine vowels (ibid. 57), Barea eight vowels (ibid. III. 136), Dinka eight (ibid. 143), Bari seven (ibid. 151); and Galla and Kanuri have each a decided vocalic tendency (ibid. 161, 172). SECT. XV.] PROPORTION OF THOUGHT TO TALK. Amongst the American languages other than Eskimo, which has been mentioned above, Choctaw has rather a vocalic than a consonantal character (ibid. II. 52); Selish is predominantly consonantal (ibid. 60); Otomi has nine vowels, besides nasalisations of some of them, and eighteen consonants (ibid. 78); Chiapaneca seems to have a vocalic character (ibid. 89), and also Caraib (ibid. 100); Kiriri has twenty-one consonants and ten vowels distinguished by the grammarian, but no diphthongs (ibid. 121); Chikito has sixteen consonants, six vowels, no concurrence of consonants, and few concurrences of vowels (ibid. 129). The other American languages seem to have no marked character in this respect. With regard to the habits of these races information is so deficient that nothing more can be said than that there is no inconsistency between the above facts and the principle of Book I., chap. iii., 16. Chinese and Siamese have a vocalic character (ibid. V. 2, 15), which accords with the social convivial character of the people. Gutzlaff says that the Chinese " are in general a cheerful people, and never more so than at their meals, when all is joviality, and care is drowned in present enjoyment. They then talk incessantly, and endeavour to exhilarate their companions." 1 Burmese and Japanese are less vocalic (ibid. 20, 40); Tibetan has a marked consonantal character (ibid. 31). Arabic is remarkable for the balanced use of the consonant and the vowel, corresponding to the habits of the Arab, both thoughtful and social, characterised by "grave cheerfulness and mirthful composure. And the proportion between the two elements is much the same in the other Syro-Arabian languages (ibid. 75, 100, 119). Greek is more vocalic than Latin, and Latin than Sanskrit (ibid. VI. 60, 80), and the talkativeness of the races varies in similar proportion. The most talkative of the Indo-European races and the least burdened with care are the Celts, and in Celtic the vowel is more predominant than in any other of the Indo-European languages (ibid. 92). The native character of Teutonic in respect of the proportion of the vowel utterance to the consonant utterance was similar to that of Sanskrit (ibid. 133); both vowel and consonant being less developed. And to this corresponds the comparative taciturnity of the Teuton. Old High German had a fuller vocalisation than Gothic (ibid. 137, 147). Lithuanian is vocalic, probably owing to Finnish influence (ibid. 175). But Slavonic shows a striking curtailment of vowel utterance (ibid. 202). Bask is vocalic (ibid. Bask, 2). And throughout the languages studied in this work the phonetic characteristics of the language correspond to the habits of the race so far as the information of the writer reaches, according to the principle of Book I., chap. iii., 16. 1 Gutzlaff's China, vol. i. p. 486. 2 Palgrave's Arabia, vol. i. p. 68. CHAPTER IV. Decay of inflections and formative elements, tendency to detached singleness of stem, and detached elements of definition and connection, phonetic decay. Migrations, mixtures, progress in knowledge, arts, and civilisation. 1. THE reduction of the inflections both in fulness and in number in Greek and Latin compared with Sanskrit is a striking feature in those languages. The diminished fulness of the utterance of the inflections cannot be attributed to foreign influence; for such fine elements of expression are just those parts of a language which are liable to be ignored by foreign speakers. The change must be due to some influence affecting the native speakers of those languages; and that influence must have been one from which the speakers of Sanskrit were free. Now the Greeks and Latins migrated to distant lands, while the speakers of Sanskrit remained nearer to their native seats. And such migration must have very greatly enlarged the stock of ideas of the former, and increased the range of applications of their words. The words would thus acquire greater generality of idea; for they would be thought as applicable to a larger variety of objects of thought, and the meaning connected with them would become one which was common to a greater number of different applications. As the words thus became more general in meaning, and thought was in some degree drawn away from the present object to the more general associations which it awakened, the connections with the present fact, and other specialities belonging to the present object, would be more weakly thought. And according as the fulness diminished with which these elements were thought the fulness of expression with which they were uttered would diminish likewise; for the lighter thought naturally suggests the lighter utterance. As the inflections thus tended to be thought more abstractly, they would need to be supplemented in particular instances, in which the connection or modification was not adequately expressed by the abstract inflection. The supplementary expression, as it represented a second thought of what the inflection denoted, would tend to be detached as an independent member of the sentence, and might weaken or destroy the use of the inflection. In this fashion the stronger elements, for which originally there were inflections, would tend to be expressed. For as the inflections which originally expressed them became finer and more abstract in meaning, they would fail to give the due expres MIGRATIONS, MIXTURES, PROGRESS. sion. Their reduced meaning might coincide with what used to be expressed by other inflections and what these were still sometimes used for. By these, then, with the proper supplements when necessary, they would tend to be expressed, and to fall out of use themselves. And thus the great tendency to refine and to drop inflections, and to supplement or replace them by separate elements, is to be accounted for in its earliest appearance by the growing generality of the stems, according to the principle of Book I., chap iv., 6. 2. This tendency to increased generality in the elements of speech. was carried further by the advance of knowledge, arts, and civilisation, according to Book I., chap. iv., 8. And as it increased the need for particularisation, it developed in Greek the great use of the article, and of particles which signalise the sentence, that distinguish the Greek language from the Latin, and indicate the more general interests of Greek thought (chap. iii., Sect. XI., 21). 3. A great literature which is taken by the educated classes as giving a standard of correct language powerfully resists the tendencies to change; because a mode of expression unknown to literature is regarded as uncouth and barbarous. Such changes, however, are apt gradually to come even when the language has been little exposed to disturbing influences; for tendencies cannot but make themselves felt in time. But they affect the spoken language more readily than the written, as there is ordinarily less care for correctness in speaking than in writing. So the modern Greek differs from the ancient language more as it is spoken than as it is written. 4. It is not only the inflections which tend to decay as the meanings of the stems become more general; but also the formative elements added to the root to form the stem of the primitive noun or verb. For according to Book I., chap. iv., 6, the tendency is for the common essence of the various applications of the stem to take the place of the thought of the radical element, so that this becomes fainter, and the formative element of the stem which is relative to the root must become fainter along with it. The elements, however, which continue to be used to form derivatives from other words will of course retain the strength of meaning necessary for that purpose. In consequence of the weakening of the stem formatives, the variety of forms of the same inflection which was due originally to the variety of those elements added to the root to form the stem, lose the reason of their being. And as the distinctions of the stem formatives tend to disappear, the distinctions of inflections which have the same meaning with different forms will tend to disappear, and the most usual forms to take the place of the others. In the same way, when it happens that inflections which had originally different meanings lose by the weakening of their significance their distinctions of meaning, they will tend to lose their difference of form, and those which are most in use will tend to prevail over the rest. 5. These various changes are promoted by the influence of foreign speakers failing to note the finer elements of expression, and replacing MIGRATIONS, MIXTURES, PROGRESS. them when necessary by coarser methods, according to Book I., chap. iv., 4. 6. The process above described explains the various changes which have taken place in the structure of Greek, and which distinguish the modern from the ancient language. Thus the dative inflection having a stronger meaning than any other case endings, has disappeared from the spoken language. For in accordance with what has been said above, its due meaning could not be maintained as an element in the thought which the word expressed when thought was drawn away to the more general associations of the stem. And being thought only in part of its significance, it came to coincide in meaning with the more abstract genitive inflection, which then naturally took its place. Or it was supplemented by the preposition is, which then reduced it to the still more abstract accusative.2 The dual inflections also had too strong a meaning to be maintained. And they declined in significance so as to coincide with the plural inflections, and to be replaced by them. There was a general tendency to uniformity according as the original causes of the differences of forms passed out of the consciousness of the race. Feminine nouns ending in a make the genitive singular in -aç3 in the spoken language; because the dative having disappeared every other case had a except the genitive plural, which having always had -wv in all nouns, retained it in all.4 The inflection of the accusative singular being the most abstract of all the case endings, could not bear much reduction, and almost vanished out of thought and expression in the spoken language. Its final in the first and second declension came to be very faintly uttered, and the accusative singular of the third declension lost the sense of being the accusative, and came to be thought as the stem, adding -s for the nominative when it was masculine, so that ❝gxwv was replaced by ἄρχοντας, but πατρίς by πατρίδα.5 The genitive singular of masculines of the first declension, instead of taking -ov, tended to take the final vowel of the stem under the assimilating influence of the other cases. The final of the plural tended to be universalised from the third declension so far as to be added in the first, so that the nominative plural came to end in -ars, but when the final vowel of the stem is very strong, or belongs to a foreign word to be preserved with distinctness, the ending is more distinct, and d is taken to prevent hiatus, so that the ending is -de. The accusative plural is the same as the nominative, for there is no sense of difference between them." The masculine nouns of the second declension maintain their ancient forms, except that they drop in the accusative singular. This shows a superior strength in their inflections (Gram. Sk., VI. 8). 2 Ibid. p. 83. 5 Ibid. pp. 12, 17. 1 Vlachos, Modern Greek Grammar, pp. 8, 9. |