If it were possible, in any vocabulary, to disregard what is attributable to the mechanical laws of phonetics, to the inﬂuences of other languages, the rationalization of grammarians, and assimilatory processes, we should probably discover in the original form of each language a somewhat restricted system of expression, but such as would make it not entirely arbitrary, if we designate night by the word 'nuit', to use 'lumi re' for light.