Árbók Háskóla Íslands - 02.01.1954, Page 10

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tive of the Altaic family, Polynesian, Archaic Chinese (as
reconstructed by Prof. Karlgren in his Grammata Serica, Stock-
holm 1940) and Greenlandic and published my results in 3
books1) and some articles in “Nature”2). Among the many
philologists and scientists who in recent years have attemped
to throw new light on the most important of all questions in
philology “How did man learn to speak?” may be mentioned
the English scientist Sir Richard Paget3), who has come to
a similar conclusion in his studies. My method has been to
study the nature of the construed IE. roots, as these are
registered in the big IE. dictionary by Walde and Pokorny4)
and to compare the obtained results with roots of corresponding
forms in other unrelated languages. One should “a priori”
expect that some of the construed IE. roots might correspond
to roots in other unrelated languages as well in form as in
meaning, and this has also proved right, as I have shown in
my already mentioned publications. I cannot repeat here my
results, as they are available for every one in my books, but
I will before I report my investigations of the n-sound stress
the following:
1) Um frumtungu Indógermana og frumheimkynni (On the primitive
speech of the Indoeuropean people and their first home), published
by the University of Iceland 1943, with a summary in French, 191 pp.
Origin of Language. Four essays. H.f. Leiftur, Heykjavik 1949. B. H.
Blackwell Ltd., Oxford. With preface by G. R. Driver, Professor of
Semitic Philology, Magdalen College, Oxford 173 pp.
Gestural origin of language. Evidence from six “unrelated” languages.
Three essays. H.f. Leiftur, Reykjavík 1952. B. H. Blackwell Ltd., Ox-
ford. With preface by Cemal Enisoglu, Trabzon, Turkey.
2) Articles in “Nature”:
Gesture origin of the Indoeuropean languages. Nature 153, 171 (1944).
Gesture origin of the Semitic languages. Nature 154, 466 (1944).
Origin of language. Nature 157, 847 (1946).
Origin of language. Nature 162, 902 (1948).
The gestural origin of ianguage, evidence from six “unrelated” langu-
ages. Nature 166, 60 (1950).
3) Cf. his books “Human Speech” 1930 and “This English” 1935 and his
survey of the theory of gestural origin of language in “Science
News” 20 (Penguin Books) p. 82—94 (The origin of language).
Cf. further the survey by A. J. Sommerfelt: The origin of language.
Theories and Hypotheses. Cahiers d’Historie Mondiale I, No. 4
(Avril 1954), Paris, and the first chapter in Prof. Stuart Robertson’s
book: The Development of Modern English. Revised by Fr. G. Cas-
sidy, New York 1954, cf. also Sir Richard Paget: The origins of
language, v/ith special reference to the paleolithic age. Cahiers
d’Historie Mondiale I, No. 2, Paris 1953.
4) Walde-Pokorny: Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen
Sprachen I—III, Berlin und Leipzig 1930—32.