The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-01-14
Thc Finger Without a Mama.

Z All 2 IFS Ct MAlnVAt = Naulc.
The P1H 1f1B Gazette says: awe
wish to call attention to 4 aeuFious phi
lological question in connection with
the ring-finger. We prefer to call
the finger between the middle and
little finger The ring-fnger,' as that
finger is now generally called the
| third finger ; whereas, counting the
thumb as a finger, it used to be called
and notably is now called ia the
Book ofCOmmOn Prayer-the fourth
finger. Professor Hunfslyy is = we'll
known learned Hungarian savant,
Who short time ago was in London.
| and present az the International Con-
gress Of Orientaiists. This eminent
scholar stands alone as authority on
the TUranian languages, OF ten OF
which he is perfect master. He pre-
pared for the Congress an elsborate
paper Of great intrinsic value on Tu-
ranian subjects, but was unable to
read 1t for lack Of time. However, he
read an epitome Of it before the Fura-
nian section, and then placed it in the
charge OF Mr.. Douglas, OF the British
Museum, for future publication in the
proceedings OF the congress. In this
valuable paper there are several i'm
portant contributions TO our knoRl-
edge OF Turanian philosophy, but the
part OF it which possesses most inter-
est for the general reader is that in
which Professor Hunfalvy treats of
the nomenclature of the riag-finger.
1t appears th6t in every one OF the
ten Turanisn languages, from Fin
land, in the west to Manchuria, the
northern portion Of the Chinese EN-
pire in the esst, that finger is known
as the finger without a name The
Professor expresses in his paper a de-
sire to know whether such was the
case also in the Dravidian family OF
languages, as he had found no men
ton of the subject in the DraVidian
comparative graumar-the standard
work on the South Indian languages.
Strange to say, the ring-fi1ger is call
ed tine finger without o name in the
Dravidian tongues; but, stranger still,
it appears in these languages not az a
Dravidian word, but as n SanscTit one.
In Tamil, Lelugu and Canarese it ao-
pears as dHdmikG-'the nameless
thing from the Sanscrit mama, o
name, with the privatlve prefxed'
Now how did this peculiar expression
find place both In the Turanian fam
lily OF languages and in a family OF
languages so far apart from it as the
Aryan Did the Aryan borrow il
from the Turanian, or the Turaniau
from the Aryan? Then why should
the fing-finger be called the name
less finger {? These questions being
put to one or two Oriental scholars,
answers have been recsived more in
geniOus perhaps than convincing.
The finger, it has been suggested, is
called the 'namelesi' one because it
exercises no distinctive function
Any surgeon, it is said, Will tell a pa
tient that IL ne must sacrifice a fiuger
he had better part with his ring-fin-
ger, as be will be certain to miss it
less from his hand than he would any
one of the others. Then with refer
ence to the derivation OF the word
used to designate the finger, one ORR
entail scholar remarked that the tsrm
''nameless," as applied to the ring
finger, was most probably taken by
the Aryan from the furanian, since
the Turanian is especially rich, when
compared with the AryaR, IN specific
terms, while there is a more cOpious
variety Of generic terms in the latter.
For instance, the genius of the two
languages may be thus roughly exem-
plified An Aryan would speak,
generally, Of a tree the Turanian
would instinctively mention the sle-
cies of that tree, aud refer to it in con-
versatiOn or in writing as an oak,
fir, or an elm, as the case might be.
However, Whatever may be true an-
swers to the questions we have
brought before the reader, the simple
fact as it stands is a most curious one
that Ia host of different languages
the Ting-flnger has for ages and ages
gone by tue somewhat mystic and
p0etieal title OF "the nameless thing.U