hybrid, being made up of the Greek skole, leisure, school, and the Latin magister, a master. The student should ascertain the signification of the words of Latin origin from the lists already given of Latin stems. Words with their proper Prepositions. Eager in, for, after Embark in, for Embellished with Employ in, on, about Engage in, with, for F. R. L. acer, sharp, vigorous em, en French form of in, and bark, F. barque, a boat em and bellus, beautiful, F. belle L. emergo, I dip up F. employer, L. plica, a fold L. aemulus, a rival en (em, in) amor, love en (in, against) and contra, against connected with our crook, in Welsh crog en and devoir, F. duty L. dos, dotis, a gift, dower L. induo, I put on or in F. engager, en and gage, a pledge GENDER. WORDS are said to undergo inflexion when they are capable of appearing in different forms according to variations in the sense. Inflexion, then, is the general term which denotes this capability. And "the inflexions" is a phrase used to signify the changes themselves which the words capable of inflexion undergo. These remarks imply that some words are capable, and that other words are not capable of inflexion. John is a word capable of inflexion, for John may become John's. But with is a term which remains ever the same, and consequently is incapable of inflexion. Inflexion (from the Latin in, upon, and flecto, I bend) is a word of Roman origin, signifying a bending, that is, a deviation, and so denotes the deviations or departures of words from their root-form or condition. In the Latin language inflexion is a marked feature, and involves many important changes. In Engglish its prevalence is small. In general, the variations and rules of English grammar are somewhat indefinite, undetermined, and variable, wanting the prominence, the fixedness, and the sharp distinctions found in the Latin and the Greek. Some sort of remedy has been sought for in the application to English of the terms, the definitions, and even the laws of classical grammar. The effect has been to augment the trouble of the student, and to conceal or even destroy the natural simplicity of our vernacular tongue. Every language has facts and laws of its own. These it is the business of the philosophical grammarian to collect, systematise, and expound. The Latin grammar is one thing, the Saxon grammar is another, and the English is different from both. Let every language be studied in its own elements; let every grammar be an exposition of the laws of the language which it professes to explain. In grammar let there not be, as there was at Babel, a confusion of tongues. The usages of one language may throw light upon another, but the laws of the Greek must not be thrust on the observance of the student of English. Every language resembles an independent commonwealth, and, as such, is and must be governed by its own laws, and owes obedience solely to one supreme authority-that is, the usages and customs of its best authors. In order the more exactly and clearly to understand what inflexion is, study these examples : John We reads read read I will now present these words to you arranged so as to show severally their inflexions, In each of these five pairs of words there is, you see, a difference; thus, John becomes John's, reads becomes read, a becomes an, book becomes books, and I becomes we. Here, then, are five classes of words, which, admitting of variations, are capable of inflexion; these classes are the noun proper, the noun common, the verb, the article, and the personal pronoun. Nouns are affected by inflexion in gender, number, and case. I shall speak of gender in the first place. Gender is a distinction of nouns in regard to sex. As there are two sexes, the male and the female, so properly there are but two genders, for gender is simply the grammatical term for that which in physiology is termed sex. Accordingly, the very term neuter, as in what is called the third or neuter gender, signifies neither, so that neuter gender is properly the gender which is neither masculine nor feminine. Hence things without life being neither male nor female, are said to be in the neuter gender. THE GENDERS KNOWN FROM THE SEXES. and you will not only see what gender means, but learn also how gender in English is denoted; in number one, the feminine is indicated by a change at the beginning of the word, for man is made into woman; in number four, the feminine is indicated by a change at the end of the word, for heir is made into heiress; while in number two, the feminine is indicated by a different word. By a different word also is the feminine in number three indicated in appearance ;but in appearance only, for lady (Anglo Saxon laefdie, old Scotch euedi) is merely the feminine form of the Anglo-Saxon word hlaford, which is our lord, signifying master or proprietor. Gender is marked in various ways. The primitive way of denoting difference of sex is probably the employment of one word for the male and another for the female; this usage seems most in conformity with the simplicity which is an essential characteristic of the English language, e. g.: I have intimated that probably this is the original way of denot. ing difference of sex in English, because the words affected by it are words which must have been in use at the very beginning, such as husband, wife; father, mother; boy, girl; brother, sister. I subjoin a few explanatory remarks on words in the previous list. Of maid and maiden, the latter, from the Saxon maeden, is the original form, of which maid is a contraction; as is seen in maidenhead, the condition of a maiden. Spinster, that is, a female spinner, denotes an unmarried woman by her occupation in her father's house, as maiden designates her with reference to her sex. Bridegroom is in its original German form, brautigam, which derived from braut, bride, and gam, a male or young man (in old German brutigomo, compare the French gamin, a young fellow), signifies literally the bridesman - that is, not the bride's attendant, but the bride's betrothed, her intended husband. If, as I believe, this view is correct, this pair of words would properly stand in the ensuing list. Countess is properly the feminine form of the Latin derivative count, whereas earl is of Saxon origin. There are pairs of words commonly supposed to be different, which in truth are in each case forms of the same word varied according to sex, e. g. : 2. SEX DENOTED BY A CHANGE IN THE WORD. Belle is simply the feminine of beau. Goos in Dutch, and gans in German, give rise to our goose and gander, the former supplying the general term, which is also feminine, the latter supplying the specifically masculine denomination. King and queen in German are könig and königin; königin in pronunciation became queen. Queen is not to be confounded with quean, a low or bad woman, which comes from the Saxon cwen, a woman or wife, as Abrahames cwen, Abraham's wife. Lass (ladess) is, in a contracted form, the feminine of lad; lad and lass are still commonly used in Lancashire. Master and mistress are related to each other, as are lad and lass, mistress being the softened or feminine form of master; the Saxon for master being maester, which with the feminine ending became maestress, that is, mistress. So niece is nothing more than the softened or feminine form of nephew; in German the words are, masculine, neffe, feminine, nichte; in Saxon there are the forms nefa, nefene; the i in our niece is derived from the i found in the German; also in the Dutch nicht, and the Friesic nift. Sloven and slut, the former masculine, the latter feminine, come from the Teutonic schlotte (schlutt), dirt, filth; whence schlottern (sluddern), to hang loosely like ill-made, ragged, or foul clothes; to be slovenly. Wizard and witch both come from the German wissen (English wise, wit, to know.) A third mode of indicating sex is by a prefix, e. g. : 3. SEX DENOTED BY A CHANGE AT THE BEGINNING In female, the prefix fe is in substance the same as the Greek phu, in phuo, 1 produce (found also in the Latin fui), and so denotes the producer. Not dissimilar in its source is the prefix wo, which converts man into woman. To the class just spoken of may be referred nouns in which the sex may be considered as doubly indicated; I refer to proper names having before them a complimentary title: as, Master John, Miss Jane; Mr. Seymour; Mrs. Egerton. In animal names, also, sex is marked by a prefixed word, c. g. :— The usages may however be inverted, and a suffix be employed instead of a prefix to denote the gender, e. g. : GENDER DENOTED BY A SUFFIX. 4. More commonly gender is denoted by a suffix, e. g. :— These instances require no explanation, except one: Widow (from the Latin viduus, our void, and the Sanscrit vidhava, a widow) denoting a woman who has lost her husband, becomes by the masculine suffix er (as in baker, builder, reader) widower, a man who has lost his wife. 5. The last remark may lead to the question whether the terminations which denote sex might not be more correctly set forth as suffixes rather than as changes in the root or inflexions. By such changes, however, gender is signified. The terminational changes, employed to denote the feminine gender are a, ess, ix, ine. |