Árbók Háskóla Íslands - 02.01.1954, Page 13

11
to press together and to cover” and “to cut, dig”, cf. the
examples in my book “Gestural Origin of Language” pp.
80—87.
11) Of other imitations by the speaking organs of the shape
or‘ form of things in nature and of movement may especi-
ally be mentioned the type gel- and ger-, which in many
cases designate the round form, cf.
IE.
gel-
“round”
qer-
“curl”
Hebrew
gl-m
“to wrap
together”
kr-kh
“to sur-
round”
Chinese
glu-
“mound”
kiar
“enlarge”
(graph:
mouth)
Polyn.
karu
“the head’
Turkisli
hal-ka
“circle”
kur-sak
“the
stomach’
Greenl.
qal-ápok
“humps
his back”
qár-
ajukpok1)
“arched”
12) Consideration may be given to the omission of sounds in
some cases, cf. the laryngeal theory, esp. the studies of
E. H. Sturtevant and others, cf. Preliminary Reports of the
Seventh International Congress of Linguists, London, 1.—
6. Sept. 1952, pp. 142—145.
Initial sounds may have been dropped such as in the
combination IE. ang-: an initial velar has fallen out in the
course of time, but we will see that both IE. ank- “to
bend” and kenk- (to gird, to bind round) have approxi-
mately the same meaning. With these preliminary remarks
wre proceed to a special examination of the sound n.
As we know the n-sound is produced by vibration of the
vocal chords and allowing the air to stream out through the
nose. We might therefore “a priori” expect that the n-sound,
as other nasals, has originally come into existence to designate
something which continues, endures in contrast to those sounds
which designate a momentary action such as the labials or
dentals. The lips are open more or less when modelling the
sounds. The tip or front of the tongue makes a closure to the
1) See the examples in “Gestural Origin of Language” (pp. 210—213
and 224—225).