Voltaire on etymology

[Kevin Tuite]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Dear colleagues,

Doubtless all of you have heard, and many have repeated, the remark
attributed to Voltaire that etymology is "une science où les voyelles
ne font rien et les consonnes fort peu de chose". I have just
borrowed a copy of Rüdiger Schmitt's 1977 collection "Etymologie",
and in fact four of the dozen or so linguists represented in the
volume -- from Ernst Tappolet in 1905 to Klaus Kohler in 1970 --
repeat the quote, and cite Voltaire as its author, without giving a
precise source. Two of them however specify that Voltaire was moved
to make this disparaging comment after examining Ménage's "Origines
de la langue françoise" (1650), in which, for example, "rat" is
derived from "mouse" (mus > muratus > ratus > rat), and "haricot"
from "faba" (faba > fabaricus > fabaricotus > (h)aricotus). In his
introduction to the collection, Schmitt himself refers to the
Voltaire quote, but expresses doubt about its authenticity ("... wenn
das Zitat authentisch ist - was mir nach wiederholten eigenen
Recherchen immer zweifelhafter wird ..."). Do any of you know if the
precise origin of this "definition" of etymology has been pinpointed?
I tried searching on the web, but only found the same sort of
imprecise attribution to Voltaire (and an interesting range of
variants of the quote itself).
thanks in advance
Kevin

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Kevin Tuite                                    514-343-6514      (bureau)
Département d'anthropologie                    514-343-2494 (télécopieur)
Université de Montréal
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Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7                          tuitekj at anthro.umontreal.ca
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