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Gestures Connected with the Origin of Writing
Though written characters
are generally associated with speech, they
are shown, by successful employment in
hieroglyphs and by educated deaf-mutes to be
representative of ideas without the
intervention of sounds, and so also are the
outlines of signs. This will be more
apparent if the motions expressing the most
prominent feature, attribute, or function of
an object are made, or supposed to be made,
so as to leave a luminous track impressible
upon the eye separate from the members
producing it. The actual result is an
immateriate graphic representation of
visible objects and qualities which,
invested with substance, has become familiar
to us as the rebus, and also appears
in the form of heraldic blazonry styled
punning or "canting."
Gesture language is, in fact, not only a
picture language, but is actual writing,
though dissolving and sympathetic, and
neither alphabetic nor phonetic.
Dalgarno aptly says: "Qui enim caput
nutat, oculo connivet, digitum movet in aëre,
&c., (ad mentis cogitata exprimendum); is
non minus vere scribit, quam qui Literas
pingit in Charta, Marmore, vel ære."
It is neither necessary nor proper to enter
now upon any prolonged account of the
origin, of alphabetic writing. There is,
however, propriety, if not necessity, for
the present writer, when making any remarks
under this heading and under some others in
this paper indicating special lines of
research, to disclaim all pretension to
being a Sinologue or Egyptologist, or even
profoundly versed in Mexican antiquities.
His partial and recently commenced studies
only enable him to present suggestions for
the examination of scholars. These
suggestions may safely be introduced by the
statement that the common modern alphabetic
characters, coming directly from the Romans,
were obtained by them from the Greeks, and
by the latter from the Phœnicians, whose
alphabet was connected with that of the old
Hebrew. It has also been of late the general
opinion that the whole family of alphabets
to which the Greek, Latin, Gothic, Runic,
and others belong, appearing earlier in the
Phœnician, Moabite, and Hebrew, had its
beginning in the ideographic pictures of the
Egyptians, afterwards used by them to
express sounds. That the Chinese, though in
a different manner from the Egyptians,
passed from picture writing to phonetic
writing, is established by delineations
still extant among them, called ku-wăn,
or "ancient pictures," with which some of
the modern written characters can be
identified. The ancient Mexicans also, to
some extent, developed phonetic expressions
out of a very elaborate system of
ideographic picture writing. Assuming that
ideographic pictures made by ancient peoples
would be likely to contain representations
of gesture signs, which subject is treated
of below, it is proper to examine if traces
of such gesture signs may not be found in
the Egyptian, Chinese, and Aztec characters.
Only a few presumptive examples, selected
from a considerable number, are now
presented in which the signs of the North
American Indians appear to be included, with
the hope that further investigation by
collaborators will establish many more
instances not confined to Indian signs.
A typical sign made by the Indians for
no, negation, is as follows: The hand
extended or slightly curved is held in front
of the body, a little to the right of the
median line; it is then carried with a rapid
sweep a foot or more farther to the right. (Mandan
and Hidatsa I.)
One for none, nothing, sometimes used
for simple negation, is also given: Throw
both hands outward toward their respective
sides from the breast. (Wyandot I.) |
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With these compare the two forms of the
Egyptian character for no, negation,
Fig. 118, taken from Champollion,
Grammaire Égyptienne, Paris, 1836, p.
519.
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| No vivid fancy is needed to see the hands
indicated at the extremities of arms
extended symmetrically from the body on each
side. |
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Also compare the Maya character
for the same idea of negation, Fig.
119, found in Landa,
Relation des Choses de Yucatan,
Paris, 1864, 316. The Maya word
for negation is "ma," and the
word "mak," a six-foot
measuring rod, given by Brasseur de
Bourbourg in his dictionary,
apparently having connection with
this character, |
| would in use
separate the hands as illustrated,
giving the same form as the gesture
made without the rod. Another sign for nothing, none, made
by the Comanches, is: Flat hand thrown
forward, back to the ground, fingers
pointing forward and downward. Frequently
the right hand is brushed over the left thus
thrown out.
Compare the Chinese character for
the same meaning, Fig. 120. This
will not be recognized as a hand
without study of similar characters,
which generally have a cross-line
cutting off the wrist. |
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Here the wrist bones follow
under the cross cut, then the
metacarpal bones, and last the
fingers, pointing forward and
downward. The Arapaho sign for child, baby,
is the forefinger in the mouth, i.e.,
a nursing child, and a natural sign
of a deaf-mute |
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is the same. The
Egyptian figurative character for
the same is seen in Fig. 121. Its
linear form is Fig. 122, and its
hieratic is Fig. 123 (Champollion,
Dictionnaire Egyptien, Paris, 1841,
p. 31.) |
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These afford an interpretation to the
ancient Chinese form for son, Fig.
124, given in Journ. Royal Asiatic
Society, I, 1834, p. 219, as belonging
to the Shang dynasty, 1756, 1112 B.C., and
the modern Chinese form, Fig. 125,
which, without the comparison, would
not be supposed to have any pictured
reference to an infant with hand or
finger at or approaching
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the mouth, denoting the taking of
nourishment. Having now suggested
this, the Chinese character for birth,
Fig.
126, is understood as the expression of a
common gesture among the Indians,
particularly reported from the Dakota, for
born, to be born, viz: Place the left
hand in front of the body, a little
to the right, the palm downward and
slightly arched, then pass the
extended right hand
downward, forward, and upward,
forming a short curve underneath the left,
as in Fig. 127 (Dakota V). This is
based upon the |
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curve followed by the head of the
child during birth, and is used
generically. The same curve, when
made with one hand, appears in Fig.
128. It may be of interest to compare with the
Chinese child the Mexican abbreviated
character for man, Fig. 129, found in
Pipart in Compte Rendu Cong. Inter. des
Américanistes, 2me Session,
Luxembourg, 1877, 1878, II, 359. The
figure on the right is called the
abbreviated form of that by its side, yet
its origin may be different. |
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The Chinese character for man, is
Fig. 130, and may
have
the same obvious conception as a Dakota sign
for the same signification: "Place the
extended index, pointing upward and forward
before the lower portion of the abdomen." |
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The Chinese specific character for woman
is Fig. 131, the cross mark denoting the
wrist, and
if the remainder be considered the hand, the
fingers may be imagined in
the
position made by many tribes, and especially
the Utes, as
depicting the pudendum muliebre, Fig.
132. |
The Egyptian generic character for female
is
(Champollion, Dict.,) believed to
represent the curve of the mammæ supposed to
be cut off or separated from the chest, and
the gesture with the same meaning was made
by the Cheyenne
Titchkematski, and photographed,
as in Fig. 133. It
forms the same figure as the
Egyptian character as well as can be
done by a position of the human
hand.
The Chinese character for to give water
is Fig. 134, which may be |
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compared with the
common Indian gesture to drink, to give water, viz:
"Hand held with tips of fingers brought
together and passed to the mouth, as if
scooping up water", Fig. 135, obviously from
the primitive custom, as with Mojaves, who
still drink |
| with scooped hands. Another
common Indian gesture sign for water to
drink, I want to drink, is: "Hand
brought downward past the mouth with
loosely extended fingers, palm
toward the face." This appears in
the Mexican |
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character for
drink, Fig. 136, taken from Pipart,
loc. cit., p. 351. Water, i.e.,
the pouring out of water with the drops falling
or about to fall, is shown in Fig.
137, taken from the same author (p.
349), being the same arrangement of
them as in the sign for rain, Fig. 114, p. 344, the
hand, however,
being
inverted. Rain in the Mexican picture
writing is shown by small circles
inclosing a dot, as in the last two
figures, but not connected together,
each having a short line upward
marking the line of descent. With the gesture for drink may be compared
Fig. 138, the Egyptian |
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Goddess Nu in the
sacred sycamore tree, pouring
out the water of life to the Osirian and his
soul, represented as a bird, in Amenti
(Sharpe, from a funereal stele in the
British Museum, in Cooper's Serpent Myths,
p. 43). |
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The common Indian gesture for river
or stream, water, is made by passing
the horizontal flat hand, palm down, forward
and to the left from the right side in a
serpentine manner. The
Egyptian character for the same is Fig. 139
(Champollion, Dict., p. 429). The
broken line is held to represent the
movement of the water on the surface of the
stream. When made with one line less |
| In the picture-writing of the Ojibwa the
Egyptian abbreviated character, with two
lines
instead
of three, appears with the same
signification. The Egyptian character for weep, Fig.
142, an eye, with tears falling, is also
found in the pictographs of the Ojibwa
(Schoolcraft, I, pl. 54, Fig. 27), and is
also made by the Indian gesture of drawing
lines by the index repeatedly downward from
the eye, though perhaps more frequently made
by the full sign for rain, described
on page 344, made with the back of the hand
downward from the eye—"eye rain." |
| The Egyptian character for to be strong
is Fig. 143 (Champollion, Dict., p.
91), which is sufficiently obvious, but may
be compared with the sign for strong,
made by some tribes as follows: Hold the
clinched fist in front of the right side, a
little higher than the elbow, then throw it
forcibly about six inches toward the ground. |
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A typical gesture for night
is as follows: Place the flat hands,
horizontally, about two feet apart,
move them quickly in an upward curve
toward one
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another until the right lies
across the left. "Darkness covers all." See Fig. 312, page
489. The conception of covering executed by delineating the
object covered beneath the middle point of an arch or curve,
appears also clearly in the Egyptian characters for night,
Fig. 144 (Champollion, Dict., p. 3).
The upper part of the character is taken separately to form
that for sky (see page 372, infra). |
| The Egyptian figurative and linear characters, Figs. 145 and
146 (Champollion, Dict., p. 28), for calling upon
and
invocation,
also used as an interjection, scarcely require the quotation
of an Indian sign, being common all over the world. The gesture sign made by several tribes for many is
as follows: Both hands, with spread and slightly curved
fingers, are held pendent about two feet apart before the
thighs; then bring them toward one another, horizontally,
drawing them upward as they come together. (Absaroka
I; Shoshoni and Banak I; Kaiowa I; Comanche
III; Apache II; Wichita II.) |
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"An accumulation of objects." This
may be the same motion indicated by the Egyptian character,
Fig. 147, meaning to gather together (Champollion,
Dict., p. 459). The Egyptian character, Fig. 148, which in its linear form
is
represented
in Fig. 149, and meaning to go, to come, locomotion,
is |
| presented to show readers
unfamiliar with hieroglyphics how a
corporeal action may be included in
a linear character without being
obvious or at least certain, unless
it should be made clear by
comparison with the full figurative
form or by other means. This linear
form might be noticed many times
without certainty or |
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perhaps suspicion that it
represented the human legs and feet
in the act of walking. The same
difficulty, of course, as also the
same prospect of success by careful
research, attends the tracing of
other corporeal motions which more
properly come under the head of
gesture signs. |
Indian Sign
Language |
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Sign Language
Among North American Indians Compared with
that Among Other Peoples and Deaf-Mutes,
1881
Free
Genealogy |
Indian
Genealogy |
Indian Sign Language
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,
mentioned by Tylor in his Early History
of Mankind, p. 103.
