Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

Olbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 145
Just as, to quote an interesting parallel, the sacred literature in
Sanskrit is referred to as "veda," a term which is etymologically connected
with the Indo-European stem \/-wid-, "to know."^^
Incidentally it is interesting to draw attention to the fact that the
root of Cherokee a'kt^a'a', i. e., "he knows." is >/—kt*,— the original
meaning of which is "to see"; cf. "eye": akt'a'.
The same semantic evolution has taken place in the Indo-European
languages, where the comm.-Germanic \/-wit-, "to know," and the
Latin uideo, "I see," are both derived from the same Indo-European
stem -sZ-wid-. If now we go a step further, and see what a peculiar
meaning this stem has acquired in Sanskrit: "veda" = "the thing
known "> "the knowledge" viz, "the sacred knowledge," we find the
same evolution in meaning as we have in Cherokee.
Another term used, again both by the medicine men and by
the uninitiated, is Go'Ve'U'.
The present meaning of this is "paper," "book," "that which has
been written," as the formulas are usually kept jotted down in the
Sequoya syllabary by the medicine men. It is clear from this that
this name must be of comparatively modern origin, as it could of
course not have been applied to them prior to the invention of the
syllabary by Sequoya in 1821.
This term again throws an interesting light on the psychological
principles underlying the semantic evolution in languages even so
different and separated from each other in time and place to such an
extent as modern Iroquois and the older Germanic dialects. The
meaning "to write" of the Cherokee \/-W€'l- is comparatively recent:
It can not be much older than 200 years. Originally it meant "to
mark," and especially "to mark wood by burning designs on it," a
technique still in use among the Cherokee to mark the flat wooden
dice used in gambling.
As for its parallel in the Germanic dialects, we have but to remember
that our "book" traces its origin to "beech (tree)" (cf. Anglo-Saxon
"hoc," i. e., "beech tree"; "book." Old High German "buohha,"
i. e., "beech tree"). Beech boards, beech bark, and stencils made of
beech wood were used by both Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic peoples
as writing mateiial.^^ So we see the material used, beech, assume
the meaning of "a writing," "a collection of writings" (book), and the
latter meaning has again evolved to that of "the collection of sacred
lore" (cf. the Book, i. e., the Bible).
'^ Cf. also Kroesch, Samuel: "The semasiological development of words for
'perceive,' ' understand,' ' think,' * know ' in the older Germanic dialects." Diss.
Chicago, 1911. Repr. from "Mod. Phil." VIII, No. 4, Chicago, 1911.
'2 That also to the Italic herdsmen this use of the beech was not unknown,
appears from Vergil's Eclogue, V 13: "Carmina quae nuper in viridi cortice fagi
descripsi."