- a Sanskrit, 52;
- -a in fem., 392;
- in pl., 394
- abbot, 156
- ablaut, see apophony
- abstract terms, 429
- accent, see stress and tone
- accusative, name, 20
- actors, 276
- adaptation of suffixes, 386 f.
- adjective flexion, 129;
- concord, 348 f.
- African languages, see Bantu
- agglutination, 54, 58, 76, 376;
- agglutination theory, 367 ff., 375 ff.
- agreement, see concord
- ambiguities, 319, 341 ff.
- America, race mixtures, 203 ff.
- American English, 260
- American Indian languages, 57, 181, 187, 229, 233, 256, 334, 425, 427, 430
- analogy, 70, 93 f., 129 f., 162 f., 289
- analytic languages, 36, 334 ff., 422 ff.
- anatomical causes of change, 255
- aphesis, 273
- apophony, 46, 53, 91 ff., 311
- aposiopesis, 273
- appreciation of languages, 29 ff., 57 f., 60, 62, 319 ff.;
- formula, 324
- archaic forms, 294
- Armenian, 195 f.
- article, 378
- Aryan, name, 63 f.;
- languages, passim
- as, root, 49
- Ascoli, 192 ff.
- assimilation, 109, 168 f., 264 f., 280
- auxiliary words, 358
- babe, 157
- bacco, 171
- back-formations, 173, 178
- Balkan tongues, agreements, 215
- Bantu, 239, 352 ff., 365
- -bar, suffix, 377
- Basque, 210, 427
- Baudouin de Courtenay, 327
- Bavarian wo-st bist, 281
- Beach-la-Mar, 216 ff.
- bead, 175
- bhu, root, 49
- bilinguism, 147 ff.
- biographical or biological science of language, 8
- blending, 132, 281 f., 311, 312 f., 390
- Bloomfield, 390
- boon, 175
- Bopp, 47 ff., 56 n.
- borrowing of words, 208
- bound, 176
- bow-wow theory, 413
- boys, 146
- Bredsdorff, 43 n., 70
- Bridges, 286
- Bröndal, 200
- Brugmann, 92 f.;
- on gender, 391
- bube, 157
- buncombe, 409
- cacuminals, 196
- Caribbean, 237 ff.
- Carlyle, 145
- case-system, English, 268 ff.;
- in old languages, 337 ff.;
- importance, 341
- catch, 400
- ch becomes f, 168
- changes, causes of, 255 ff.
- child, 103 ff.;
- sounds, 105;
- understanding, 113;
- classification of things, 114 f.;
- vocabulary, 124;
- grammar, 128 ff.;
- sentences, 133;
- echoism, 135;
- why learns so well, 140;
- influence of other children, 147;
- word-invention, 151 ff.;
- influence of, 161 ff.;
- indirect influence, 178;
- new languages, 180 ff.
- Chinese, 36, 54, 57, 286, 369 ff.
- Chinook, 228 ff.
- classification of languages, 35 f., 54, 76 ff.
- classifying instinct, 388
- clicks, 415, 419
- climate, 256
- clippings, see stump-words
- coalescence of words, 174, 376 ff.
- Cœurdoux, 33
- Collitz, 45 n., 257, 381
- concord, verbal, 335;
- nominal, 348;
- in Bantu, 352 ff.
- concrete words, 429
- Condillac, 27
- confusion of words, 122, 172
- congeneric groups, 389 f.
- conjugation, see verb
- consciousness, 130;
- threshold of, 138
- consonant-shift, 43 ff., 195, 197, 204, 256, 258 f.
- contamination, see blending
- convergent changes, 284 f.
- copula, 48 f.
- correctness, latitude of, 282 ff.
- creation of new words, 151 ff.
- Creole, 226 ff.
- cuckoo, 406
- cultural loan-words, 209
- curry favour, 173
- curtailing of words, 108, 169 f., 328 f.
- Curtius, 83, 94
- -d in loved, 51, 381
- Darwin, 414
- dead languages, 67
- decay, 55, 59, 62, 77, 319 ff.
- declension, see case-system
- Delbrück, 93, 96
- dialect, study of, 68;
- spoken by children, 147
- Diez, 85
- differentiations, 176, 272
- diminutives, 180, 402
- ding-dong theory, 415
- divergent changes, 288
- doublets, 272
- Dravidian influence on Indian, 196
- drunken speech, 279
- dump, 313
- e original in Aryan, 52, 91
- ease theory, 261 ff.
- echoism, 135;
- cf. echo-words
- echo-words, 313, 398 ff.
- economizing of effort, see ease-theory
- effort in speaking, 261 ff., 324 ff.
- eglino, 281
- emotion, influence on sound, 276
- -en in plural, 385
- ending, see flexion, suffix
- English, Grimm’s appreciation, 62;
- foreign influence, 202, 210, 212 ff.;
- rapid change, 261;
- case-system, 268 ff.;
- future tense, 274;
- vowel-shift, 243, 284;
- word-order, 344 f.;
- genitive, 350
- entangling, 422
- equidistant changes, 284
- -er in plural, 386
- estimation of languages, see appreciation
- Etruscan, 195
- etymology, sound laws, 295;
- principles, 305 ff.;
- object of, 316;
- etymology of rag, 300;
- of sun, say, see, 306;
- of krieg, 307;
- of grog, ganz, 308;
- of hope, 309;
- of nut, stumm, 311;
- of mais, maar, men, 315;
- of moon, daughter, mother, 318
- euphemism, 245 ff.
- euphony, 278
- exceptions to sound-laws, 296 ff.
- exertion in speaking, 261 ff., 324 ff.
- expressive sounds preserved, 288
- extension of sound laws, 290;
- of suffixes, 386 ff.
- extra-lingual influences, 278
- f for th, 167;
- in enough, etc., 168;
- in Spanish, 193
- fable in Proto-Aryan, 81
- fain, 176
- fashion in language, 291
- father, 117
- Feist, 194 ff.
- feminine, 391 ff.;
- in -i, 394, 402;
- cf. woman
- Finnic, 197 f., 207
- flexion, 35, 54 f., 58 f., 76 ff., 79;
- origin of, 377 ff.
- foreign languages, mistakes in noting down, 116 f.;
- influence of, 191 ff.
- forgetfulness, 176
- forms, number of, 332, 337;
- origin of, 49, 58, 377 ff.
- French influence on English, 202, 209, 214;
- pronouns and verbs, 422 f.
- frequency, influence on phonetic development, 267
- -ful, suffix, 376
- Gabelentz, 98, 369
- ganz, 308
- gape, 288
- gender, 346 f., 391 ff.
- general and specific terms, 274, 429 f.
- genitive, name, 20;
- group, 351;
- s in, 382, 383 n.
- geographical distribution of languages, 187;
- influence on change, 256
- German language, appreciation of, 29, 31, 60;
- sound-shift, 43 ff., 195 f., 283;
- forms, 341 ff.;
- word-order, 344
- Germanic, see Gothonic
- gibberish, 149 f.
- girls, 146
- gleam, gloom, 401
- glottogonic theories abandoned, 96
- Gothonic (Germanic, Teutonic), 42;
- sound-shift, see consonant-shift
- gradation, see apophony
- grammar, children’s, 128 ff.;
- foreign influence, 213;
- of primitive languages, 421
- grammatical elements, origin, 48, 58, 61
- Greek linguistic speculation, 19 f.;
- vowels, 91;
- personal pronouns, 286 n.;
- Modern Greek, 301
- Grimm, 37, 40 ff., 60 ff.
- Grimm’s Law, 43 f.;
- see consonant-shift
- grog, 308
- group genitive, 129, 351;
- groups of words with similar meaning, 389
- h for f in Spanish, 193;
- for s, etc., 263
- habaidedeima, 322, 329, 331 f.
- Hale, 181 ff.
- haplology, 281, 329
- harmony of vowels, 280
- Hebrew, 21
- Hegel, 72 f.
- Hempl, 201 ff.
- Herder, 27 f.
- hereditary aptness for a language, 75, 141
- Hermann, 48
- Hervas, 22
- Herzog, 164 f.
- hide, 121
- Hirt, 192, 203 f., 382 f.
- historical point of view, 32, 42
- homophones, 285 f.
- -hood, suffix, 376
- hope, 309
- humanization of language, 327 f.
- Humboldt, 55 ff.
- hypercorrect forms, 294
- I, the pronoun, 123 f.
- i denoting small, feminine, near, 402
- idioms, 139
- imitation, 291 ff.;
- of sounds, 398, 413 f.
- imperative, 403
- incorporation, 58, 79, 425
- Indian grammarians, 20;
- cacuminals, 196;
- cf. American Indian, Sanskrit
- indirect ways of obtaining expressions, 438
- indissoluble expressions of several ideas, 334, 422 ff., 428 ff.
- Indo-European (Indo-Germanic), see Aryan
- indolence, see ease-theory
- inflexion, see flexion
- interjections, 414
- interrogative sentences, 137;
- particles, 358
- invention of words, 151 ff.
- irregularities in old languages, 338 f., 379, 425
- isolating languages, 36, 76, 366 ff.
- Japanese, 243
- jaw-breakers, 280
- jaw-measurements, 104
- Jenisch, 29 ff.
- Johannson, 341 ff.
- Jones, William, 33
- [ju·], 290 f.
- Karlgren, 372 f.
- Keltic languages, 38, 39, 53;
- substratum, 192 ff.
- Kuhn, 371
- kw becomes p, 168
- languages, rise of new, 180 ff.
- language-teaching, 145
- lapses, 279
- Latin, study of, 22 f.;
- influence, 209, 215;
- forms, 334, 338 f., 343;
- word-order, 350
- latitude of correctness, 282
- law as applied to sound-changes, 297
- leaps in phonetic development, 167;
- in meanings, 175
- Leibniz, 22
- lengthening, emotional, 277, 403;
- of words, 330
- Lenz, 204
- Lepsius, 370
- Leskien, 93
- life as applied to language, 7
- lingua geral, 234
- linguistics, position of, 64 f., 73, 86, 97
- little, 407
- little language, 103, 106, 144, 147
- living languages, study of, 97
- loan-words, sound-substitution, 207;
- general theory, 208;
- culture, 209;
- classes, 211;
- with symbolic sounds, 409
- loss of sounds, 108, 168, 328 f.
- love-songs, 433 f.
- Luxemburg, bilinguism in, 148
- -ly, suffix, 377
- m in adversative conjunctions, 314 ff.;
- case-ending, 382
- ma, maar, 314 f.
- Madvig, 84, 433
- magis, mais, 314 f.
- makeshift languages, 232 ff.
- mamma, 154 ff.
- man and woman, 142, 237 ff.
- Mauritius Creole, 226 ff.
- meaning, delimitation of, 118 f.;
- words of opposite meaning, 120;
- words with several meanings, 121;
- shifting of meaning, 174;
- cf. semantic changes
- meaningless gibberish, 149 f.;
- singing, 436
- Meillet, 55, 198 f.
- memory, children’s, 143
- men, 315
- mental states, words for, 401
- Meringer, 162 f., 280, 291
- metanalysis, 173
- metaphors, 431
- metathesis, 108, 281
- Meyer-Benfey, 256
- milk, 158
- Misteli, 79
- misunderstandings, 282, 286 f., 319
- mixed languages, 191 ff.
- modern languages, study of, 68;
- compared with ancient, 322 ff.
- Möller, H., 139, 308, 382
- mon, 358
- monosyllabic languages, 36, 367 ff.
- month, 318
- moods, 380
- moon, 318
- mother, 155, 318
- mother-tongue, 146
- movement, words denoting, 399
- mountains, linguistic changes in, 256 f.
- mouth-filling words, 403
- Müller, Friedrich, 79, 338
- Müller, Max, 88 ff., 414
- Murray, 269
- mutation, 37, 46
- mutilation of lips, 256;
- of words, 266
- my, 384 f.
- -n in mine, 384 f.
- names of relations, 118;
- proper, 439
- nasalis sonans, 92, 317 f.
- national psychology, 258
- negation, 136;
- redundant, 352
- neo-grammarians, see young-grammarians
- new languages, 180 ff.
- Noiré, 415
- nominal forms, 337 ff.;
- concord, 348 ff.
- number in verbs, 335;
- in pronouns, 347;
- in nouns, 129, 349, 355, 385, 394 f.
- numerals, 119;
- borrowed, 211;
- in succession, 281;
- distinct for various classes, 430
- nursery language, 179
- nut, 311
- o original in Aryan, 52, 91
- old languages compared with modern, 322 ff.
- on, 287
- oncle, 271 n.
- onomatopœia, 150, 313, 398 ff.
- opposite meaning, 120
- order of words, see word-order
- organism, language as an, 7, 65
- organs of speech, used for other purposes, 278;
- development, 416, 436
- orient, 175
- origin of language, 26 ff., 61, 412 ff.;
- of grammatical elements, 367 ff.
- Osthoff, 93
- ox, oxen, 385
- palatal law, 90 f.
- Panini, 20
- pap, 158
- papa, 154 ff.
- parenthesizing, 350 f.
- passive, Scandinavian, 50, 377;
- Latin, 50, 381
- patter, 407
- Paul, 94 f., 162
- periods of rapid change, 259
- personal forms in verbs, 53, 335, 383
- pet-names, 108, 169
- philology, 64 f., 97
- phonetic laws, see sound changes, sound laws
- Pidgin-English, 221 ff.
- pittance, 408
- Plato, 19, 396
- playfulness, 148, 298 f., 432 ff.
- plumbum, plummet, plunge, 313 f.
- plural, see number
- poetry, 300, 431 f.
- polysynthetic, 423, 425
- pooh-pooh theory, 414
- pope, 156
- popular etymology, 122
- portmanteau words, 313
- possessive pronouns, 384 f.
- prepositions, 137 f.;
- borrowed, 211
- prescriptive grammar, 24
- preterit, weak, 51, 381
- primitive languages, 417 ff.
- progressive tendency, 319 ff.
- pronouns, 123;
- borrowed, 212;
- possessive, 384;
- French, 422
- proper names, 436
- prosiopesis, 273
- Proto-Aryan, 80 f., 90 f.
- punning phrases, 300
- pupil, 157
- puppet, 157
- Pușcariu, 205
- question, 137;
- word-order and auxiliaries, 357 ff.
- quick, 407
- r in Latin passive, 381;
- sound of r weakened, 244;
- r- and n- stems, 339, 390
- race and language, 75;
- race-mixture, 201 ff.
- rapidity of change, 259
- Rapp, 68 ff.
- Rask, 36 ff., 43, 46
- rational, everything originally r., 316
- reaction against change, 293
- reconstruction, 80 ff., 317
- reduplication, 109, 169
- relationship between languages, 38, 53;
- terms of, 117, 154 ff.
- right, 180
- roll, 374, 408
- Romanic languages, 202, 205 f., 234 ff., 260;
- future, 378
- root-determinatives, 311
- roots, 52, 367 ff., 373 ff.
- Rousseau, 26
- s in passive, 50, 377, 381;
- case-ending, 213, 381 ff.;
- in English plural, 214;
- in Russian and Spanish, 266;
- Latin disappears, 362
- Sandfeld, 215
- Sanskrit, 33, 67;
- vowels, 52, 90 f.;
- consonants, 90 f., 196;
- drama, 241 f.
- savages, languages of, 417, 426 ff.
- saving of effort, of space, of time, 264
- Scandinavian influence on English, 212, 214;
- passive, 50, 377;
- article, 378
- Scherer, 96
- Schlegel, A. W., 36
- Schlegel, F., 34 f.
- Schleicher, 71 ff.
- Schuchardt, 191, 213, 219, 267
- scorn, words expressive of, 401
- Scotch, 193 n.
- screaming, 103
- secondary echoism, 406
- secret languages, 149 f.
- secretion, 384 ff.
- semantic changes, 174 f., 274 ff.
- Semitic, 36, 52
- sentences, 133;
- the earliest, 439 ff.;
- sentence stress, 272
- separative linguistics, 67
- seqw-, 306 f.
- sex, 146, 237 ff.;
- cf. gender
- shifters, 123
- shortening, 328 f.;
- cf. stump-words
- signification, how apprehended, 113 ff.;
- cf. semantic changes
- significative sounds preserved, 267 f., 271, 287
- similarities cause confusion, 120 f.
- simplification, 332 ff.
- singing, 420, 432 ff.
- slang, 247, 299 f.
- small, words for, 402
- smile, 278
- so, 250
- Société de Linguistique, 96, 412
- son, E., 120, 286
- songs, primitive, 420, 432 ff.
- sound changes, passim;
- see especially 161 ff., 191 ff., 242 ff., 255 ff.
- sound laws, 93;
- in children, 106 f.;
- extension and metamorphosis, 290;
- destructive, 289;
- spreading, 291;
- in the science of etymology, 295 ff.
- sound-shift, Gothonic, see consonant-shift
- special terms in primitive speech, 429 ff.
- speed of utterance, 258
- spelling pronunciations, 294
- splitting, see differentiation
- Spoonerism, 280
- stable and unstable sounds, 199 f.
- Steinthal, 79, 87
- strengthening of sounds, 404 f.
- stress, Aryan, 93;
- Gothonic, 195;
- nature and influence of, 271 ff.
- stumm, 311
- stump-words, 108, 169 f.
- substantive, see nominal and flexion
- substratum theory, 191 ff.
- subtraction, 173
- suffixes, origin, 376 f.;
- extension, 386 f.;
- tainting, 388
- suggestiveness, 408;
- cf. symbolism
- suppletivwesen, 426
- Sweet, 97, 161, 264
- syllables, number of, 330
- symbolism, 396 ff.
- syntax, 66, 95;
- foreign influence, 214;
- blends, 282;
- simplification, 340
- synthetic languages, 36, 334 ff., 421 f.
- ta, 159
- tabu, 239 ff., 431
- tainting of suffixes, 388
- tata, 158
- -teer, suffix, 388
- Telugu, 301
- tempo, 258
- Teutonic, see Gothonic
- th becomes f, v, 167
- they for he or she, 347
- this and that, 403
- Thomson, 90 n., 267, 427
- threshold, under the, 138
- ti, 358 f.
- time, a child’s conception of, 120
- tone, 111;
- in Chinese, 369, 370;
- in Danish dialect, 371;
- in primitive languages, 419
- Tooke, Horne, 49
- translation-loans, 215
- translators introduce foreign words, 210
- tripos, 115
- twins having separate language, 185 f.
- u, French, 192 ff.;
- English, 290 f.
- umlaut, 37
- understanding, a baby’s, 113 f.
- units of language, 422
- value, influence on phonetic development, 266 ff.
- verb, substantive, 48;
- flexional forms, 130;
- simplification, 332 ff.;
- concord, 335
- verbal character of roots, 374 f.
- Verner, 93;
- Verner’s Law, 195, 197 f.
- vocabulary, extent of, 124 ff.;
- in primitive speech, 429
- voicing of consonants, in Gothonic and English, 198;
- symbolic, 405
- vowel-harmony, 280
- vowels, number of Aryan, 44, 52, 91
- vulgar speech, 261, 299
- wars, influence on language, 260
- weak preterit, 51, 381
- weakening of words, 266
- Wessely, 197
- Wheeler, 293
- Whitney, 88, 323, 367
- Windisch, 208
- women as language teachers, 142;
- women’s language, 237 ff.
- word, what constitutes one, 125, 422 f.
- word-division, 132, 173 f.
- word-formation, 131;
- cf. invention, suffixes
- word-order, 344 ff., 355 ff.;
- in Chinese, 369 ff.
- worthless words or sounds, 266 ff.
- Wundt, 98, 258
- yesterday, 120
- yo-he-ho theory, 415
- you for I, 124
- young-grammarians, 93
- Zulu, see Bantu
About This Book
The author offers a historical and biological account of language as a socially grounded, habitual human activity rather than an independent organism. He examines child acquisition, individual variation and foreign influence, outlines a theory of sound change that questions blind sound-laws, and discusses processes of decay and progress in language. The study addresses the possible origins of speech and the practical consequences of an energetic view of language for pronunciation, grammar, and standardization, and concludes with consideration of constructed international languages and methodological guidance for further empirical study.