Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/352



340 WILLIAM H. GALVANI

in the Italian). To these primitive vowels all other vowels are traced as to a common source. This is recognized by the physiologist no less than by the linguist. The modifications, or gradations, of each were brought about under the influence of other vowels or consonants. In tracing these gradations we find that "e" and "o" philologically owe their derivation to "a" just as "ei" and "ai" to "i" and "iu" and "au" are traced to "u".

Hence, the first and the second "a" in Aragon, by the nat- ural process and according to phonetic laws, have imperceptibly become transformed into "o" and "e". Examples of this are as numerous in modern languages as they are in Sanskrit, the mother tongue of all.

In the light of these few observations even the plea of "the poet of the Sierras/' based upon "an orchestra of angels away up in yonder clouds, crying : Oye-el-agua Hear the water" must give way to an explanation based upon human sentiment and reason which somehow ever persists in perpetuating old familiar names, and to the fact that the name O r e g o n is certainly of most Spanish formation and sound, and espe- cially so when it is supported by the principles upon which rests all linguistic development ancient and modern.