Part 4

Deposits of chalk are found on some shores of the sea. A piece of chalk such as the teacher uses to illustrate something on the blackboard at school consists of the remains of thousands of tiny creatures that at one time lived in the sea. All of their bodies excepting the chalk--called carbonate of lime in scientific language--has disappeared and the chalk that was left was piled up where it fell at the bottom of the ocean, each particle pressing against the other with the water pressing over it all until it became almost solid. It took thousands of years to make these chalk deposits of the thickness in which they are found. Later on, through changes in the earth’s surface, the mountain of chalk was raised until it stood out of the water and thus became accessible to man and school teachers.

How Did Men Learn to Talk?

Talking and the words used came into being through the desire of men to communicate with each other. Before words became known and used man talked to those about him by the use of signs, gestures and other movements of the body. Even to-day when men meet who cannot talk the same language they will be seen trying to come to an understanding by the use of signs and gestures and generally with fair results. The need of more signs and gestures to express a constantly increasing number of objects and thoughts led to the introduction of sounds or combination of sounds made with the vocal cords to accompany certain signs and gestures. In this way man eventually developed a very considerable faculty for expressing himself. Sign by sign, gesture by gesture and sound by sound language was slowly developed. A man would be trying to explain something to another by sign or gesture and to make it more clear would make a sound or combination of sounds to put more expression into his efforts. Finally the other man would understand what was meant and he would tell some one else, using the same signs, gestures and sounds. Later on it would develop that to express thus any certain thought, act or the name of a thing, all of the people in the community would make this same combination of sounds, signs and gestures to express the same thing. Finally the gestures and signs would be dropped and it was found that people understood perfectly what was meant when only the sound or combination of sounds was produced. That made a word. All the other words were made in the same way, one at a time, until we had enough words to express all the ordinary things and the combination of words became a language. The children learned the language by hearing their parents talk it, and that is how men learned to talk.

How Did Shaking the Head Come to Mean “No”?

The origin of this method of indicating “No” is found in the result of the mother’s efforts in the animal kingdom of trying to feed her young. A mother animal would be trying to get her young to accept the food she brought them and tried to put it in their mouths. Perhaps, however, the young animal had had sufficient food or did not fancy the kind of food offered. The natural thing to do under the circumstances would be to close the mouth tight and shake the head from side to side to prevent the mother from forcing the food into the mouth. Thus we get the closed lips and the shaking the head from side to side to mean “No.” In other words, that kind of a way of saying “No” came from an effort to say “I don’t want any.”

How Did a Nod Come to Mean “Yes”?

The idea of nodding to mean “Yes” comes from the opposite of the action which, as just described, indicates a “No.”

When the young animal was anxious to accept the offered food, it made an effort to get at the food quickly. Hence, the pushing forward of the head and the open mouth (always more or less opened when you nod to indicate “Yes”) and an expression of gladness. You will notice if you see anyone nod the head to indicate “Yes” that the lips are open rather than closed, and that there is always a smile or an indication of a smile to accompany it. In other words, the nod to mean “Yes” is only another way of saying “I shall be pleased.”

Why Do We Count in Tens?

When man even in his uncivilized state found it necessary to count, the only implements at hand were his fingers and toes, and as he had ten toes and ten fingers, he naturally began counting in tens, and has been doing so ever since.

When we to-day count on our fingers we confine ourselves to our fingers leaving our toes stay in our shoes, where they naturally belong. But the first men who counted used both fingers and toes, and so he was able to count twenty before he had to begin over again, while little children to-day, when they count with their fingers, must begin where they started after they reach ten.

What Does Man Mean by Counting Himself?

The expression “counting himself” was originated by the first man who counted. Such a man would count all of his fingers and toes and the result would be twenty. Then, so that he would remember the number of times he had counted himself, he made a mark some place each time he reached twenty. The mark he made was a mere scratch in the dirt or on a hoe or something else. To make a scratch you merely, of course, score the surface of whatever you happen to be scratching on, and that is how it happened that the word “score” in our language to-day means as a term in counting, twenty.

There has been a great effort made to change our system of counting in tens to one where you count in twelves. That would fit in very well with our system of measuring which is based on the foot of twelve inches, and of our calendar for recording the passage of time which has twelve months. There are many arguments in favor of this change, among the principal of which is the fact that it would make our problems of division much easier, for our ten can be evenly divided by but two of our single figures, two and five, whereas twelve can be evenly divided by four of our single figures, viz., two, three, four and six. It is believed that sooner or later the system of counting by twelve instead of ten will be adopted by the entire world for counting everything. As it is now we do part of our counting by one system and part of it by another.

Where Did All the Names of People Originate?

There is no scientific plan by which people get their names. There is not much except curious interest to be gleaned from the study of how people got their names.

In the earliest days of the world, or at least as soon as men had learned to speak by sounds, all known persons, places and groups of human beings must have had names by which they could be spoken of or to, and by which they were recognized. The study of these names and of their survival in civilization enables us in certain instances to tell what tribes inhabited certain parts of the earth now peopled by descendants of an entirely different race and of another speech altogether. We learn such things from the names of mountains and other things, for instance, which still cling to them.

The story of personal names is very complex, but comes from very simple beginnings. The oldest personal names were those which indicated a group of people rather than individuals who may have been actually related to each other or even bound together for reasons of protection or other convenience. In the races of Asia, Africa, Australia and America examination shows that groups of people who considered themselves to be of the same relationship, attached to themselves the name of some animal or other object, whether animate or inanimate, from which they claimed to be descended. This animal or object was called the “totem,” and thus the earliest and most widely spread class and family names are totemistic. Such groups called themselves by names from wolves, turtles, bears, suns, moons, birds, and other objects, and these people wore badges with pictures of the animal or object from which they took their names to identify them to other people.

When, then, we come to investigate the giving of personal names among the tribes, we see that most uncivilized races gave a name to each new-born infant derived from some object or incident. So a new-born member of the “Sun” tribe would be named “Dawn,” and would be known as “Dawn” of the “Sun” tribe; or perhaps a new-born son of the tribe of “Wolf” would be called “Hungry,” and be known as “Hungry Wolf.” A member of the “Cloud” tribe would be named “Morning,” because he was born in the morning. He would always be known as “Morning Cloud.”

Later, as society became more established and paternity became recognized, we find the totem name give way to a gentile name. Among the Greeks and Romans the system was early adopted and proved satisfactory. Thus we have Caius Julius Caesar. Caius indicates that he is Roman; Julius is the gentile name given him and the Caesar a sort of hereditary nickname. On the other hand, the early Greeks began the system of introducing a local name instead of the gentile name. Thus Thucydides (obtained from the grandfather), the son of Olorus, of the Deme (township) of Halimusia.

~HOW DIFFERENT NAMES ORIGINATED~

This was all right and suited the purposes of the Greeks and Romans, who had plenty of time to give full explanations in this way. But in Europe, for instance, civilization demanded more speed, and the increase of population demanded more names, so that nicknames and names indicating personal descriptions and peculiarities came into use. Such names as Long, Short, Small, Brown, White, Green and others of the same kind came from this source, and as families grew these surnames stuck to the family and parents gave their children Christian names to further distinguish them as individuals. Other surnames such as Fowler, Sadler, Smith, Farmer, etc., became attached to people because of the occupations in which they were engaged, and yet other names were derived from places. The owner of an extensive estate would be designated by a Christian name which might be George (after his King) and then to indicate his landownership, von (meaning of) Wood, making the combination of George von Wood, meaning George, the owner of the place called Wood. On the other hand, he might have working for him a laborer who lived at the place and, if his name was Hiram, they would, to indicate where he belonged, put the Wood after the Hiram; but, lest there be confusion as to his class, they would put an At before the Wood and make him Hiram Atwood, indicating his Christian name, where he worked and the fact that he was not a landowner.

Many other names were invented in similar manner. When Adams became so common that there would likely be confusion on account of there being so many of them, a son of one of the Adams family would add to the name the fact that he was a son by writing his name Adamson, and thus start a new family name. Thus, in the same way also came Willson, Clarkson, and other names of that kind.

For a long time the Jews had only one word for a name, such as Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. They became so numerous that it was impossible to distinguish them, and so a commission was named to give surnames to all the Jews in addition to their other names. As the race was then, as now, held in derision by the rulers of many nations into which the tribe had become scattered, the people who had charge of the naming of the Jews took advantage of the opportunity to make sport of them, and gave them such names as

Rosenstock (Rose bush),

Rosenszweig (Rose twig),

Rosenbaum (Rose tree),

Blumenstock (Flower bush),