G

“ All the world over, e and i have a tendency to convert a k or g, when it precedes them, into s, z, sh, zh, ksh, gzh, tsh, and dzh, or some similar sibilant. Hence, as often as a sign of tense consisting of k, is followed by a sign of person beginning with e or i, an s has chance of being evolved. ”

“ G minor has B♭ and E♭ for the signature, and is the relative minor of B flat major. G gives its name to the treble clef, the sign for which is nothing but a corruption of the letter. The Greek G gives its name to the gamut or scale. ”

“ On incompletion of the radical.—Let there be in a given language a series of roots ending in -t, as sæmat. Let a euphonic influence eject the -t, as often as the word occurs in the nominative case. Let the nominative case be erroneously considered to represent the root, or radical, of the word. Let a derivative word be formed accordingly, i.e., on the notion that the nominative form and the radical form coincide. Such a derivative will exhibit only a part of the root; in other words, the radical will be incomplete. ”

“ 'Well, I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. Some of my results are curious. For instance, here is a portrait of a man at eight years old, another at fifteen, another at seventeen, another at twenty-three, and so on. All these are evidently sections, as it were, Three-Dimensional representations of his Four-Dimensioned being, which is a fixed and unalterable thing. ”

“ On certain words wherein the fact of their being compound is obscured.—Composition is the addition of a word to a word, derivation is the addition of certain letters or syllables to a word. In a compound form each element has a separate and independent existence; in a derived form, only one of the elements has such. Now it is very possible that in an older stage of a language two words may exist, may be put together, and may so form a compound, each word having, then, a separate and independent existence. ”

“ These words, as is currently known, are one and the same, the n, in the form a, being ejected through a euphonic process. They are, moreover, the same words with the numeral one; Anglo-Saxon, án; Scotch, ane. Now, between the words a man and one man, there is a difference in meaning; the first expression being the most indefinite. Hence comes the difference between the English and Mœso-Gothic expressions. In the one the word sum has a natural, in the other, the word an has a secondary power. ”

“ A. The first declension comprises all substantives and adjectives which form their genitive in ae. The nominative of such of these words as are of purely Roman origin ends in a, that of a few Greek words in ē, ēs, and ās. Those in ā and ē are mostly feminine, the rest are masculine. ”

“ I have retained the division into Lessons, as the most suitable arrangement for a book of this description. A strict separation of the etymology and syntax, and a connected scientific treatment of the principles of grammar, however desirable in themselves, would have destroyed the characteristic feature of the method, which begins with sentences instead of isolated vocables, and thus applies the simpler principles of construction at the very outset. It is however by no means intended that those divisions called Lessons should be the task invariably assigned to the student. ”

“ As to the inflection of gender and case, there is no reason why all the numerals should not be as fully inflected as the Latin unus, una, unum, unius. It is a mere habit of our language that they are not so in English. ”

“ As a final it is very lightly sounded.
5. g is always hard, as in get, go. The soft g, as in gin, is here represented by j, but in the MSS. g was often used for it.
6. h has two degrees of sound. As an initial it is rather more lightly sounded than in English, except when it is a mutation of c (see Chapter II.) , when it is more strongly sounded. Then, and when it occurs in the middle of a word, it represents in a lighter p. 62form the guttural c’h of Breton, the ch of German, Welsh, and Gaelic, or the guttural gh of older English. ”

“ A few letters more or less were of no great consequence, but, generally, the writers tried to keep on the safe side, by putting in as many as they could find room for; prefixing a c to every k, doubling every w and g, and tacking on a superfluous final e, for good measure. ”

“ To speak in a metaphor, words like sang and fell are comparatively independent. Be this as it may, the German grammarians call the tenses formed by a change of vowel the strong tenses, the strong verbs, the strong conjugation, or the strong order; and those formed by the addition of d or t, the weak tenses, the weak verbs, the weak conjugation, or the weak order. Bound, spoke, gave, lay, &c., are strong; moved, favoured, instructed, &c., are weak. For the proof that the division of verbs into weak and strong is a natural division, see the Chapter on Conjugation. ”

“ For a full and perfect construction whether of an adjective or a genitive case, the possessive pronouns present the phenomenon of being, singly, incomplete, but, nevertheless, complementary to each other when taken in their two forms.
§ 450. In the absolute construction of a genitive case, the term is formed by the single word, only so far as the expression is concerned. A substantive is always understood from what has preceded.—This discovery is Newton's = this discovery is Newton's discovery. ”

“ That the question of the affiliation or originality of alphabets be considered not only with a view to the particular alphabet, but with a due recognition of the fact that, taking the world at large, the derivation of one alphabet from another, rather than the repetition of the very remarkable process of the analysis of words, and the symbolization of their articulate elements, is the rule, and that the apparent instances of the reverse are the exceptions. ”

“ The same series of derivative verbs occurs in G. and R. as in H. Thus, we have a potential passive (a simple passive in G.) formed by adding ā to the base, as in G. lakhavũ, to write, lakhāvũ, to be written; and a causal by adding āv or āḍ, as in lakhāvavũ, to cause to write; besavũ, to sit, besāḍavũ, to seat. ”

“ The last class of words that supply the materials of comment are the Substantives. Herein, the formation of the plural by the addition of le, probably occurs in several of the Australian tongues. I infer this from many of those words which we find in the vocabularies of languages whereof the grammar is unknown, and which are expressive of naturally plural objects ending in li, la, or l. ”

“ That it has a relation to the number of meanings belonging to the words: thus, when a single word has two meanings, the original inflexion expresses one, the English inflexion another—genius, genii, often (spirits) , geniuses (men of genius) .
3. That it occurs with substantives only, and that only in the expression of number. Thus, although the plural of substantives like axis and genius are Latin, the possessive cases are English. ”

“ Instrumental.—The following extracts from Rask's "Anglo-Saxon Grammar," teach us that there exist in the present English two powers of the word spelt t-h-e, or of the so-called definite article—"The demonstrative pronouns are þæt, se, seó (id, is, ea) , which are also used for the article; and þis, þes, þeós (hoc, hic, hæc) . They are thus declined:—
"The indeclinable þe is often used instead of þæt, se, seó, in all cases, but especially with a relative signification, and, in later times, as an article. ”

“ The former is the principle of versification, the latter the indispensable condition of a correct pronunciation and the very soul of living discourse. Of the Parts of Speech. J. The words of the Latin language, arranged according to the signification, may be reduced to nine classes, usually called parts of speech, of which five are inflected, and four invariable. The declinable parts of speech are: Substantives or Nouns, Adjectives, Pronouns, Verbs, and Participles. The indeclinable are: Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections. ”

“ When o forms a part of other letters, as a, d, g and q, it is a thickness less than a breadth.
b Is four lengths, and the same breadth as a and d at the bottom.
c Is made in the same manner as an o, only carry up the hair stroke, and make a square cut inclining to the body of the letter.
d Is three lengths, and similar to a and b at the bottom.
e Is the same as a c, except the loop at the top, which is half a length, and half a breadth.
f Is three lengths above the upper line, and three lengths below the under one. The loop at the top is two and a half lengths, and two-thirds of a breadth ”

“ The current statement that the syllable -ed, rather than the letter -d is the sign of the præterite tense, is true only in regard to the written language. In stabbed, moved, bragged, whizzed, judged, filled, slurred, slammed, shunned, barred, strewed, the e is a point of spelling only. In language, except in declamation, there is no second vowel sound. The -d comes in immediate contact with the final letter of the original word, and the number of syllables remains the same as it was before. ”

“ O may be regarded as the Key letter of an alphabet. Given an O and an I of any alphabet, we can make a very good guess at the forms of the other letters.
In fine Inscriptions the external line of O is commonly an almost perfect circle (see Plate II.) —i.e. its height and width are equal. This may be regarded as the ideal shape, though a slight widening or narrowing of the letter (fig. 157) is quite permissible.65
Fig. ”

“ A real nominative absolute is as illogical as a real accusative case governing a verb.
{499}
PART VI. ON THE PROSODY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
§ 630. Prosody deals with metre; and with accent, quantity and the articulate sounds, as subordinate to metre. For these the reader is referred to Part III. Chapters 1. 6. 7.
Metre is a general term for the recurrence, within certain intervals, of syllables similarly affected.
Syllables may be similarly affected: 1. in respect to their quantities; 2. in respect to their accents; 3. in respect to their articulations. ”

“ It is with the oblique cases of the present participles of the classical languages, rather than with the nominative, that we must compare the corresponding participle in Gothic; e.g., {349}ἔχοντ-ος (ekhontos) , Greek; habent-is, Latin; hapênt-êr, Old High German.
§ 402. It has often been remarked that the participle is used in many languages as a substantive. This is true in Greek,
Ὁ πράσσων=the actor, when a male. ”

“ Let the learner therefore be on his guard, remembering that grammar, both in its study and in its practice, requires the constant exercise of a rational discernment. Those letters which name themselves, take for their names those sounds which they usually represent at the end of an accented syllable; thus the names, A, E, I, O, U, are uttered with the sounds given to the same letters in the first syllables of the other names, Abel, Enoch, Isaac, Obed, Urim; or in the first syllables of the common words, paper, penal, pilot, potent, pupil. ”

“ Plural numbers, signs of tense, and other grammatical elements, are evolved by means of the juxtaposition of similar but not identical elements, e. g. one plural may be formed by the affix signifying many; another, by the affix signifying with or conjointly; one preterite may be the root plus a word meaning then; another the root plus a word meaning there. Futures, too, may be equally evolved by the [Pg 232] incorporation or juxtaposition of the word meaning after, or the word meaning to-morrow. ”

“ The language of the Latin grammar has, probably, been too closely imitated.
The first and second persons are formed by appending [Pg 172] the pronouns either in the nominative or the instructive form. That an oblique form of the pronoun should appear in the personal inflexion of verbs is no more than what the researches of the late Mr. Garnett, with which we are all so familiar, have taught us to expect. ”

“ We know that the first is short (pĭtied) , the latter long (pītted) . For all this, they are sounded alike: so that the difference in quantity (which, as a metrical fact, really exists) is, to a great degree, conventional. At any rate, we arrive at it by a secondary process. We know how the word is spelt; and we know that certain modes of spelling give certain rules of metre. Our senses here are regulated by our experience.
Let a classical scholar hear the first line of the Eclogues read—
Patulæ tu Tityre, &c.,
and he will be shocked. ”

“ The p and π sound alike in all languages, ph, ff as φυω, fusee, or fun, ψ as in Psalms, it being only a compound of p, and f as the v consonant in verb, but these letters are farther explained in the former treatise.
m represents a man’s body and arms or wings from the top of b and d, or the elbow part of the body, up to the neck, and the world, forms, and things, as surrounding and belonging to man, as shall be further explained amongst the particles. It sounds the same in all languages. ”

“ These always double the l in the derivative, whether the last syllable of the root be accented or not. The verb ‘to expél,’ will, by the above rule, naturally make its past tense, ‘expelled;’ but why should ‘trável’ give ‘traveller,’ or ‘équal,’ ‘equalled?’ These, though universally adopted, are clearly against the principle. Two other words are also exceptions, ‘worship,’ and ‘bias.’ These make ‘worshipped,’ and ‘biassed,’ with double consonants. The Americans refuse to admit these exceptions, and they write ‘traveler,’ ‘equaled,’ ‘worshiped,’ and ‘biased,’ with single consonants. ”