or pet animals, expresses the verb 'to love' as nem-no-sha (to make n'm-n'). In more civilized countries these forms are mostly confined to baby-language. The Chinese child's word for eating is nam, in English nurseries nim is noticed as answering the same purpose, and the Swedish dictionary even recognizes namnam 'a tid-bit.'
As for imitative names of animals derived from their cries or noises, they are to be met with in every language from the Australian twonk 'frog,' the Yakama rol-rol 'lark,' to the Coptic eeiō 'ass,' the Chinese maou 'cat,' and the English cuckoo and peewit. Their general principle of formation being acknowledged, their further philological interest turns mostly on cases where corresponding words have thus been formed independently in distant regions, and those where the imitative name of the creature, or its habitual sound, passes to express some new idea suggested by its character. The Sanskrit name of the kâka crow reappears in the name of a similar bird in British Columbia, the káh-káh; a fly is called by the natives of Australia a bumberoo, like Sanskrit bambharâli 'fly,' Greek (
Greek characters), and our bumble-bee. Analogous to the name of the tse-tse fly, the terror of African travellers, is ntsintsi, the word for 'fly' among the Basutos, which also, by a simple metaphor, serves to express the idea of 'a parasite.' Mr. H. W. Bates's description seems to settle the dispute among naturalists, whether the toucan had its name from its cry or not. He speaks of its loud, shrill, yelping cries having 'a vague resemblance to the syllables tocáno, tocáno, and hence the Indian name of this genus of birds.' Granting this, we can trace this sound-word into a very new meaning; for it appears that the bird's monstrous bill has suggested a name for a certain large-nosed tribe of Indians, who are accordingly called Tucanos.[1] The cock, gallo quiquiriqui, as the Spanish nursery-language calls him, has a long list of names from various languages
- ↑ Bates, 'Naturalist on the Amazons,' 2nd ed., p. 404; Markham in 'Tr. Eth. Soc.,' vol. iii. p. 143.
