Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/28

 Philosophy can not deal with the origin of language as a simple phase since at this point roots in linguistics the science has many divergent roots leading to biology, physiology, comparative anatomy, the gregarious instincts, anthropology, and the basic principles of psychology. But philosophy may deal with the origin of the parts of speech, or other factors of a tongue, as a relatively simple phase of an equally complex phenomenon.

Mystery, nevertheless, veils the origin of words even from the philosopher. He may study the phenomenon of their origin; but thus far he has not succeeded in explaining it to the satisfaction of his own mind. The faculty of speech seems to be inexplicable. How words came about, and just what they were at first, no man knows. Yet all men know that countless earlier forms have perished utterly, leaving no appreciable trace behind them.

The development of speech must have been inconceivably slow. Man did not become