Árbók Háskóla Íslands - 02.01.1954, Síða 12

10
a shape or form such as straight, flat or round (curved,
bent, hollow, swollen etc) is not the starting, but the
final sound such as in IE. kap — in Lat. caput the head,
“the round one”, Hebrew gbh- bh “to be curved”, Chinese
kap “of cyclical character”, Polynesian hap-a “crooked”,
Turkish kafa “head” (o: round) and Greenlandic qup-oq
“keg, jar” (the curved form).
9) As the consonants are the fixed element in every language
and they only change with few exceptions, within their
own frame, viz. labials remain labials (cf. b>p, bh>b,
p>f etc. in IE. languages), dentals remain dentals (cf. d>t,
dh>d, t>þ>ð in IE.) and velars remain velars (g>k, gh>g,
k>h in IE.) we are justified in comparing forms of roots
starting with e.g. k, q, g, gh, in IE. languages with cor-
responding forms with g, h, k, in Semitic languages, h
and k in Polynesian, g or k in Turkish and q or k in Green-
landic, cf. the above mentioned examples1) and e.g.
IE. Hebrew Polyn. Turk. Greenlandic
qa(m)p- gbh-bh hop-ua geb-e qap-uk
“to bend” “curved” “hollow- “pre “foam,
ed” gnant” (with child) froth”
gambh- hph-n kap-u kob-ay kap-erdluk
“mouth” “the “the (cavy) “spine of a
hollow hollow bird” (the
of the of the curved
hand” hand” form)
10) One of the most original imitations by the speaking organs
of the shape or form of things in nature and of movement
seems to have been the sound group velar + vowel + labial
as in six unrelated languages more examples of this kind
than of other combinations have been collected in my
book “Gestural Origin of Language” (pp. 18—99). Roots
of this type: kap (velar + vowel + labial) do not only con-
tain the meaning “round, curved, vaulted” etc. but also
“to eat, to hold in the mouth, to grasp, to contain, to close,
1) See my Gestural Origin of Language pp. 82—85.