and continually'; and so on, throughout the whole range of the languages of the world.
The device of conveying different ideas of distance by the use of a graduated scale of vowels seems to me one of great philological interest, from the suggestive hint it gives of the proceedings of the language-makers in most distant regions of the world, working out in various ways a similar ingenious contrivance of expression by sound. A typical series is the Javan: iki 'this' (close by); ika 'that' (at some distance); iku 'that' (farther off). It is not likely that the following list nearly exhausts the whole number of cases in the languages of the world, for about half the number have been incidentally noted down by myself without any especial search, but merely in the course of looking over vocabularies of the lower races.[1]
Javan . . . iki, this; ika, that (intermediate); iku, that.
Malagasy . . ao, there (at a short distance); eo, there (at a shorter distance); io, there (close at hand).
atsy, there (not far off); etsy, there (nearer); itsy, this or these.
Japanese . . ko, here; ka, there.
korera, these; karera, they (those).
Canarese . . ivanu, this; uvanu, that (intermediate); avanu, that.
Tamul . . î, this; â, that.
Rajmahali . . îh, this; âh, that.
Dhimal . . . isho, ita, here; usho, uta, there.
iti, idong, this; uti, udong, that [of things and persons respectively].
Abchasian . . abri, this; ubri, that.
Ossetic . . . am, here; um, there.
Magyar . . . ez, this; az, that.
Zulu . . . apa, here; apo, there.
lesi, leso, lesiya; abu, abo, abuya; &c.= this, that, that (in the distance).
- ↑ For authorities see especially Pott, 'Doppelung,' p. 30, 47-49; W. v. Humboldt, 'Kawi-Spr.' vol. ii. p. 36; Max Müller in Bunsen, 'Philos. of Univ. Hist.' vol. i. p. 329; Latham, 'Comp. Phil.' p. 200; and the grammars and dictionaries of the particular languages. The Guarani and Carib on authority of D'Orbigny, 'L'Homme Américain,' vol. ii. p. 268; Dhimal of Hodgson, 'Abor. of India,' p. 69, 79, 115; Colville Ind. of Wilson in 'Tr. Eth. Soc.' vol. iv. p. 331; Botocudo of Martius, 'Gloss. Brasil.'
