Far as the solar walk or milky way!”
As we ascend from Modern into remote ages, Human Language gradually reassumes its Metaphorical character. Moreover, it will appear that the transition may be traced occurring in different classes of words at different epochs: terms for newly-discovered substances or new inventions being descriptive in all languages; terms for the most common and conspicuous objects of nature, on the other hand, not exhibiting this quality, except in the most ancient Tongues; while in specimens of Language belonging to intermediate eras, an intermediate character is observable; terms for less common and less conspicuous natural objects being more generally descriptive than they are in modern Tongues, &c.
The nature and steps of this transition will be more distinctly perceived if viewed retrospectively:
1. Modern Languages.
In such languages as the modern English, French, and German, probably the great majority of terms are conventional, though we meet with numerous names of animals, birds, &c. which are descriptive, as “Black-bird.” In words applied to new inventions or discoveries, a descriptive character is commonly displayed, as in “Rail-road” (Eng.), “Eisen-bahn” (Ger.), “Chemin de fer” (French), i.e. “Iron-way.”
2. Ancient Specimens of the European Languages.
In the oldest written specimens of the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, &c., the vestiges of a descriptive origin rapidly increase. The names of Animals and Birds are found to be nearly all either descriptive or imitative, and Synonymes are much more numerous in certain classes of words.
The names for “The Sun, The Hand,” &c., and other objects enumerated at page 8, as the first on which appellations must have been conferred by Man, seem to have become purely conventional previously to the date of the earliest Celtic or Saxon MSS. But, on the other hand, a comparison of Languages serves to indicate that in this class of terms also these Tongues were Metaphorical in remote ages prior to the era of History. Thus “Grian,” The Sun, (Irish,) means “A Burner” in Welsh. Again, the Celtic and Gothic races have been too long separated to use the same conventional terms. But they frequently agree in the basis of the descriptive terms, from which the conventional terms are derived. Thus Llygad, “An Eye,” (Welsh,) is totally unlike the English “Eye,” (“Auge,” German;) but it is identical in its root with the English word Look. “Traed,” The Feet, (Celtic,) is unlike “Foot,” but its root is identical with “Tread” (English)! Celtic scholars have often derived the English “Tread” from the Celtic or Welsh “Traed;” but the Verb “Tread” (“Tret-en,” German) is used by all the Gothic nations from the Danube to Iceland!
The Greek and Latin also conspicuously exhibit a more Metaphorical character than the modern tongues of Europe.
3. The Sanscrit and the Hebrew.