The Galla iya, 'to cry, scream, give the battle-cry' has
its analogues in Greek (
Greek characters), 'a cry,' (Greek characters) 'wailing,
mournful,' &c. Good cases may be taken from a curious
modern dialect with a strong propensity to the use of
obvious sound-words, the Chinook Jargon of North-West
America. Here we find adopted from an Indian dialect
the verb to kish-kish, that is, 'to drive cattle or horses';
humm stands for the word 'stink,' verb or noun; and the
laugh, heehee, becomes a recognized term meaning fun or
amusement, as in mamook heehee, 'to amuse' (i.e., 'to
make heehee') and heehee house, 'a tavern.' In Hawaii,
aa is 'to insult;' in the Tonga Islands, úi! is at once
the exclamation 'fie!' and the verb 'to cry out against.'
In New Zealand, hé! is an interjection denoting surprise at
a mistake, hé as a noun or verb meaning 'error, mistake,
to err, to go astray.' In the Quiché language of Guate-
mala, the verbs ay, oy, boy, express the idea of 'to call'
in different ways. In the Carajas language of Brazil, we
may guess an interjectional origin in the adjective ei,
'sorrowful,' and can scarcely fail to see a derivation from
expressive sound in the verb hai-hai 'to run away' (the
word aie-aie, used to mean 'an omnibus' in modern
French slang, is said to be a comic allusion to the cries
of the passengers whose toes are trodden on). The Camacan
Indians, when they wish to express the notion of 'much'
or 'many,' hold out their fingers and say hi. As this is
an ordinary savage gesture expressing multitude, it seems
likely that the hi is a mere interjection, requiring the
visible sign to convey the full meaning.[1] In the Quichua
language of Peru, alalau! is an interjection of complaint at
cold, whence the verb alalauñini, 'to complain of the
cold.' At the end of each strophe of the Peruvian hymns
to the Sun was sung the triumphant exclamation haylli!
and with this sound are connected the verbs hayllini
'to sing,' hayllicuni, 'to celebrate a victory.' The Zulu
1 Compare, in the same district, Camé ii, Cotoxó hiehie, euhiähiä, multus, -a, -um.
- ↑ 1
