Note 258 — Chapter X · ARE THERE ANY PROOFS OF A SINGLE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE?

Garnett’s Philol. Essays, p. 85, &c., where the supposed instances are examined. Most of them are, as might have been expected, simple onomatopœias of the most obvious kind. See Renan, Hist. des Langues Sém. p. 450 seqq. Nothing requires more care than an inquiry of this kind;—often two words which have identically the same letters have no connection with each other, while two others derived from a common source have not one letter in common. As an instance of the former case, take the French souris “a smile,” and souris “a mouse,” (from subridere and sorex respectively); as an instance of the latter, take the word cousin, derived from soror through consobrinus.