th in farther (because confused with further). s in island (as if derived from isle).

w in whole and its derivatives.

x in pickaxe. (as if connected with axe. Cp. M.E. picoys).

(3) Metathesis, or Transposition of Letters.

r third for thrid (cp. three), nostrils (for nosthirls), cp. trouble with dis-turb.

ps becomes sp, clasped (= M.E. clapsed), wasp (= O.E. waps).

sc becomes cs or x, hoax (O.E. husc), cp. O.E. ascian, M.E. axe for ask.

CHAPTER VI.

Etymology.

69. Etymology treats of the classification, structure, and history of words; its chief divisions are inflexion and derivation.

PARTS OF SPEECH.

70. Words are arranged in classes, according to the functions they perform in a sentence; these classes are called the Parts of Speech.1

INFLEXION AND DERIVATION.

71. The changes which words undergo to mark case, gender, number, comparison, tense, person, &c., are called inflexions.

The inflexion of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, is called declension; when applied to verbs, it is called conjugation.

A root or radical is that part of a word which cannot be reduced to a simpler or more original form.

According to their origin, roots are either predicative, as horse, white, write, &c.; or demonstrative, as he, the, &c.

When the root is modified by a suffix, it is called a derivative; thus wil-ful, good-ly, tru-th, are derived respectively from will, good, and true.

Derivates may be native or foreign, as know-ledge (English), sci-ence (Latin). Cognates must be carefully distinguished from derived words: thus father is cognate with the Latin pater: but paternal is derived from pater.

Two cognate forms of the same class may exist side by side; from (English), and fro (Scandinavian).

When a derivative or compound consists of elements belonging to different languages, it is called a hybrid, as shepherd-ess (English Romance), socialism, (Latin + Greek).

A word containing two roots is called a compound, as shepherd, fore-man, break-fast, &c.

Prefixes like be, fore, with, &c., are compounded with verbs as be-speak, fore-tell, with-stand, &c.

Compounds like won't, nill, (will not) are called agglutinative compounds. This term might be applied to all compounds, in which the elements are intimately fused; as none, naught, fortnight, gospel, &c.

72. Suffixes of inflexion and derivation are called formative elements.

All Suffixes are shortened forms of predicative or demonstrative roots.

The first step towards inflexion is collocation, just as

good-like has given us goodly. See Suffixes of Predicative origin.

The suffix s in Gothic hund-s, Lat. cani-s, which marks the nominative case, is nothing more han a shortened form of the old demonstrative pronoun, sa, O.E. se, the, that.

Thus vox voc-s, the calling, the voice, rex = reg-s, the ruling one, the king.

The ending -th in the third person sing. of verbs, as love-th, is another form of our demonstrative the, tha-t.

73. That which was not originally an inflexion often by usage becomes one. Thus the vowel change in the plural of nouns, and in the past tense of strong verbs was not originally an inflexion.

In feet, teeth, &c., a vowel and a plural suffix (s) have been lost from a very early period. See Plurals of Nouns by Vowel change.

The vowel change in held, fell, &c. is due to an original reduplication. See Strong Verbs.

The addition of a syllable causes a change in the root-vowel Cp. nation, and nåtional: fore, and forehead: break, and breakfast.

The loss of an internal letter causes the lengthening of a vowel, as right (pronounced rīte) was originally riht. Cp. ewt from evet, lord from hlaford.

The suffix - in ox-en was not originally a sign of the plural, but was added to the root, before the addition of the ordinary plural sign -s. After a time the -s dropped off leaving the inserted letter n to represent the plural inflexion. Cp. eaves, alms, riches, &c., which are now treated like plurals in -s.

The primitive plural of ox was not oxan but oxans. Chicken was once used as a plural, but the -en is no plural sign. In O.E. the plural of chicken = cycen-u from cycen, a chicken: after

a time it became chicken-e, or chicken. Cp. M.E. lenden for lenden-u or lenden-e, loins.

Such nouns as song, band, &c. are usually treated as derivatives of the verbs sing, bind, &c. This is an erroneous view. The O.E. sang, band, show that these words are the roots of which sing and bind are weakened forms.

74. The same word has sometimes come to have two different forms, with different functions, as to and too; of and off: through and thorough; one and an,

&c.

75. The loss of inflexion is supplied by the use of independent roots. Case-endings are replaced by prepositions; verbal endings by auxiliary verbs. Cp. the use of the prepositions of and to for the old genitive and dative inflexions: do, have, shall, will, &c. in the formation of tenses: more and most instead of -er and -est in the comparison of adjectives.

The preposition to has replaced the infinitive ending -an (-en) as, drinc-an = to drink.

76. There is a tendency in all languages to simplify whatever has become complex or obsolete.

Thus the plural suffix -s has replaced various others, in eyes, hands, sisters, O.E. eâg-an, hand-a, swustr-u. Many strong verbs have conformed to the weak or regular conjugation, as helped, O.E. heolp, &c. See remarks on Gender and Number of Nouns, and on Strong Verbs.

77. To supply losses, the functions of other parts of speech have been extended. The loss of the old