CHAPTER IX.

ETYMOLOGY.

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

Words denote the attributes or relations of things, and are of two kinds: (1) those significant of quality; (a) of material things, as sweet, bright, (b) of acts, as quick, slow, &c.; (2) those indicative of position (relating to time, space, &c.), as here, there, then, I, he. The first are called notional words, the second relational words. A root or radical is that part of a word which cannot be reduced to a simpler or more original form. Roots are classified into(a) predicative, corresponding to notional words.

(b) demonstrative, corresponding to relational words.

Inflexions are shortened forms, for the most part, of demonstrative, sometimes of predicative roots. Hence all inflexions were once significant.

59. THE PARTS OF SPEECH, OR LANGUAGE, are

(1) Abstract substantives, like virtue, which denote the qualities of things simply, significative only of mental conceptions.

(2) Concrete substantives, in which a single attribute stands synecdochically for many."

■ Fr. nom, Lat. nomen, from gnosco = that by which anything is known. 2 Cp. wheat, which originally signified white.

(3) Adjectives, i.e. attributes used as descriptive epithets; being sometimes simple, as black, white, &c., sometimes compound words, as sorrowful, godlike, friendly.

In Greek and Latin all adjectives have distinctive terminations, which were originally separate words. Most of these terminations have a possessive signification; others denote similarity, &c., analogous to our -like, -ful, -less; and in all cases they do not so much belong to the attribute as to the subject. The termination puts the word in condition to be joined to some substantive.

61. The Verb was originally nothing more than a noun combined with the oblique case of a personal pronoun; so that in am—

a

= as existence. m = of me, &c.

62. Pronouns are attributes of a peculiar kind, not permanently attached to certain objects or classes of objects; nor are they limited in their application. Only one thing may be called the sun; only certain objects are white; but there is nothing which may not be I and you and it, alternately, as the point from which it is viewed.

"In this universality of their application as dependent upon relative situation merely, and in the consequent capacity of each of them to designate any object which has its own specific name besides, and so, in a manner, to stand for and represent that other name, lies the essential character of the Pronoun. The Hindu title, sarvarnůman, 'name for everything,' 'universal designation,' is therefore more directly and fundamentally characteristic than the one we give them, pronoun, 'standing for a name.' ""—WHITNEY.

63. Adverbs are derivative forms of nouns, adjectives, or pronouns. Thus, our adverbial suffix -ly was originally lice = the ablative or dative case of an adjective ending in -lic-like, the adverbial ending -ment of Romance words is the Latin ablative mente, "with mind (Fr. bonnement = kindly = bonâ mente, "with kind intent").

Many relational adverbs are formed from demonstrative pronouns, as he-re, hi-ther, whe-n, &c.

64. Prepositions were once adverbial prefixes to the verb, serving to point out more clearly the direction of the verbal action by degrees they detached themselves from the verb and came to belong to the noun, furthering the disappearance of its case-endings, and assuming their office. The oldest prepositions can be traced to pronominal roots; others are from verbal roots.-WHITNEY.

65. Conjunctions are of comparatively late growth, and are either of pronominal original, or abbreviated forms of expression,

CHAPTER X.

SUBSTANTIVES.

I. GENDER.

66. GENDER is a grammatical distinction, and applies to words only. Sex is a natural distinction, and applies to living objects. By personification we attribute sex to inanimate things, as Sun in his glory, the Moon in her wane.'

The

This is called

The distinctions of gender are sometimes marked by different terminations, as genitor, genitrix; dominus, domina. grammatical gender.

67. Loss of Grammatical Gender in English. The oldest English, like Greek and Latin, and modern German, possessed grammatical gender.

So freo-dom (freedom) was masculine; gretung (greeting), feminine; and cycen, chicken, neuter.

Grammatical gender went gradually out of use after the Norman Conquest, owing to the following causes :

(1) The confusion between masculine and feminine suffixes.

(2) Loss of suffixes marking gender.

(3) Loss of case inflections in the masculine and feminine forms of demonstratives.

68. Traces of grammatical gender were preserved much longer in some dialects than in others. The Northern dialects were the first