[Ads-l] Quote: In etymology vowels count for nothing and consonants for very little. (Attributed to Voltaire)

[Peter Reitan]

Another early English example from 1834 (don't shoot the messenger).

From The Athenaeum, Number 332, March 8, 1834, page 185 (HathiTrust).
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.79231008;view=1up;seq=197

[Begin]
'Tabula Philologica.' - The ridicule thrown on philology has arisen from the facilities it affords ingnorant pretenders of assuming the semblance of knowledge, and the looseness of reasoning allowed in arguments, where vowels count for nothing, and consonants for very little.
[End]

The rest of the article includes a humorous derivation of King Pepin's name from the Greek for diaper, napkin, nipkin, pipkin, pippinkin, King Pepin, and then a review of a large engraving of an "ethnographic chart" (said to have been the largest engraving ever made at the time) by an M. Galli, which purported to "show that the name of the Supreme Being is the bond of connexion between all the languages of the world, and that in every instance it is found by combining the first personal pronoun with the verb substantive."  Apparently the author went insane before completing a book fully explaining his findings, but the reviewer recommended the chart if only as "a curiosity as a work of art.".


------ Original Message ------
From: "Ben Zimmer" <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 2/7/2019 3:25:26 AM
Subject: Re: Quote: In etymology vowels count for nothing and consonants for very little. (Attributed to Voltaire)

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Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Quote: In etymology vowels count for nothing and consonants
for very little. (Attributed to Voltaire)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are two early versions in English. The second one, from 1836/37,
pushes back the earliest attribution to Voltaire.

Edward Moor, _Oriental Fragments_, London, 1834, p. 240
In another place I have essayed to show that, in such speculations as
these, reasonable allowance must be made for non-efficiency, or impotency,
or nonimportance of vowels. Consonants are the vertebrae of language.
Without going the length of admitting, what has been pleasantly said on
this topic, that vowels are to stand for nothing and consonants for very
little...
https://books.google.com/books?id=3DfkTJBcGTPeEC&pg=3DPA240
Also appears in: The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India
and Its Dependencies, Vol. XIV, May-Aug. 1834, p. 177
https://books.google.com/books?id=3DvTo9AQAAMAAJ&pg=3DPA177


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