An objector who should plead that homophones are not a nuisance might
allege the longevity of the Chinese language, composed, I believe,
chiefly of homophones distinguished from each other by an accentuation
which must be delicate difficult and precarious. I remember that Max
Müller [1864] instanced a fictitious sentence

ba bà bâ bá,

'which (he wrote) is said to mean if properly accented _The three
ladies gave a box on the ear to the favourite of the princess._' This
suggests that the bleating of sheep may have a richer significance
than we are accustomed to suppose; and it may perhaps illustrate the
origin as well as the decay of human speech. The only question that it
raises for us is the possibility of distinguishing our own homophones
by accentuation or by slight differentiation of vowels; and this may
prove to be in some cases the practical solution, but it is not now
the point in discussion, for no one will deny that such delicate
distinctions are both inconvenient and dangerous, and should only
be adopted if forced upon us. I shall assume that common sense and
universal experience exonerate me from wasting words on the proof
that homophones are mischievous, and I will give my one example in a
note[8]; but it is a fit place for some general remarks.

[Footnote 8: The homophones sun = son. There is a Greek epigram on
Homer, wherein, among other fine things, he is styled,

[Greek: Ellanon biotae deuteron aelion]

which Mackail translates 'a second sun on the life of Greece'. But
_second son_ in English means the second male child of its parents. It