ABSTRACT
Few things have been more often quoted in works on linguistics than Voltaire's mot that in etymology vowels count for nothing and consonants for very little. But it is now said just as often that the satire might be justly levelled at the pseudo-scientific etymology of the eighteenth century, but has no application to our own times, in which etymology knows how to deal with both vowels and consonants, and—it should be added, though it is often forgotten—with the meanings of words. One often comes across outbursts of joy and pride in the achievements of modem etymological science, like the following, which is quoted here instar omnium: "Nowadays etymology has got past the period of more or less 'happy thoughts' {glücklichen einfälle) and has developed into a science in which, exactly as in any other science, serious persevering work must lead to reliable results" (H. Schröder, Ablautstudien, 1910, X; cf. above, Max Müller and Whitney, p. 89).
