64 Some of the roots are of positional or pronominal origin; but the analysis of a word does not inquire into the origin of its separate parts: it is satisfied with proving that they are separate. 65 In the Greek, as in other languages of the Indo-Germanic family, the root is a monosyllable or quasi-monosyllable, which appears as the variable part in a number of words which are otherwise identical. In compound words there are two or more of such roots, but their disintegration is a different, and easier, task than that which we are now describing. 66 We conclude à priori that the constant part in the identical forms, which are thus varied by differences of root, is of pronominal origin; and we find on examination that all the elements of it can be referred to one or other of the primitive pronouns. 67 There are three primitive relations of position: here, near to here, and there; or juxta-position, proximity, and distance. 68 The three primitive articulations, which are used to express these three relations of position, are the three primitive tenues II, Q, T, pronounced pa, qua, ta; which we shall call the first, second, and third pronominal elements. 69 Whatever syllable, in the constant or positional accompaniments of roots, either contains one of these elements, or can be proved to have been derived from it, is to be explained in the same way as the pronominal element itself. 70 The first pronominal element, denoting juxta-position or here, is used to express (a) the first personal pronoun; (b) the first numeral; (c) the point of departure in motion. 71 The second pronominal element, denoting proximity or nearness to the here, is used to express (a) the second personal pronoun; (b) the relative pronoun; (c) the reflexive pronoun. 72 The third pronominal element, denoting distance, is used to express (a) the third personal pronoun; (b) negation; (c) separation. 73 The first pronominal element appears in Greek under the forms ma and μa only. μα 74 The second pronominal element, being originally a compound of guttural and labial, may present any form of the guttural, and any form of the labial (see above, 18, j) except ua, which is strictly appropriated to the first element. The derivation is in each case so easy, that no confusion can take place. The greatest apparent difficulty arises from the appearance of 7, 0, or 8 only, instead of the combination T, Ot, di representing the sound j. But this is only an apparent difficulty, for the original form presents itself in the first stage of the investigation. 75 The third pronominal element appears only as тa or va, the remaining dental articulations being appropriated to replace the sibilants, which result from the guttural part of the second element. The form va is sometimes transposed to av according to 19, b, i, and the v often evanesces, according to 85, 106, 114. 76 The dental sibilants, which have attached themselves as secondary forms to the second element, obtain a fixed value in the articulations pa or λa, which imply motion either to or from. 77 If any one of the elements of position is combined with pa=λa, it indicates motion and continuation in a direction of which the element in question represents the point nearest to the subject; and by subjoining any one of the pronominal elements to any other of them, we denote a motion or continuation from the position denoted by the first of these combined elements towards that denoted by the second of them: and so on if there are more1. 78 The following are some important exemplifications of this principle. Pronominal Words and Forms. πа-рá (= 1 + pa), "motion from here." π[a]-рo-τí (= 1 + pa + 3), "motion from here to there." та-ра (3 + pa), "motion from thence.” Ta-Fa (3+2), “motion from thence to this neighbourhood," i. e. 'approximation." (This combination is used to express the number 2.) Ta-Fa-pa (3+2+pa), "motion from the point gained in the last combination." (This combination is used to express the number 3.) 1 This principle was first elucidated in the New Cratylus, § 131. Ta-TOS (3+3), “thence to there" (used to express the superlative, as Tapa expresses the comparative). ταρα μe-tá (1+3), “companionship, or pursuit with a view to com panionship." a-μa (2+1)," conjunction." Root-words. 79 In exemplifying the analysis of words containing roots, we may select one which will show to the student how the pronoun may become applicable to the formation of a root; and consequently how the formative element may resolve itself into the material. The first pronominal combination mentioned above-namely, πa-pá -appears as the root of a large and important class of words, denoting actions which, in the strictest sense, imply and express their emanation from the subject as opposed to the object. The full investigation of this and other like procedures, belongs to a higher field than elementary grammar. It will be sufficient in this place to represent the facts as phenomena. Tα-ρá, pronominal word or preposition, "from the side of." πI-π-ρá-σкw, "to cause to pass over,"—" to sell." π-рâ-yos (A+2+3), noun, "an outward action." π-рá-ууw=πρáσow (A+2+2), verb, "to perform such an action." π-ρα-γ-μα-τ = πραγ-μεντ (Α + 2 + [1 + 3]), verbal noun, “such an action considered in reference to its performance.' π-pa-y-μa-тi-кó-s (A + 2 + [1 + 3 + 2]), adjective, "a person capable of acting." π-ра-у-μа-тεía (A + 2 + [1 + 3 + 2]), subst., "procedure." πрâу-σis = πρâğıs (A +2+2), "acting," and so on. § IV. Pathology. 80 From this short specimen it will be seen that the analysis of words, or the search for roots, presumes some knowledge of the legitimate interchanges or commutations of letters. The explanation of this tendency to change is called the Pathology (ý maloλo yikn) of a language, or the doctrine of the Affections (mán), to which it is liable. The word wálos might in itself denote any change in the root or inflexion of a word, in which case Pathology would include the third as well as the second part of this grammar. But we employ the term, as the older grammarians did, in a narrower sense to denote those changes, which, whether or not introduced by the process of inflexion, leave the signification of the word just as it would have been, if no such change had taken place. Thus there is a difference of form only, and not of meaning, between the common words γέγραμμαι, ἐλλείπω, τύπτων, &c. and their original and complete types γέγραφ-μαι, ἐν-λείπω, τύπτοντος, &c. In this narrower application, Affections are either euphonic, when they arise from the general repugnance of the Hellenic articulation to certain contacts or contiguities of sounds; dialectical, when they spring from the preference in certain tribes or certain districts of Greece for this or that sound or combination of sounds; and metrical, when the exigencies of some prevalent form of verse-composition have produced an influence on the structure of the language, as when the Homeric hexameter necessitated or suggested certain alterations in the measure of syllables. It is mainly to the first of these, or the euphonic affections of the Greek language in general, that the student's attention ought to be directed in a grammar like the present. 81 That letters pronounced by the same organ may be commuted for one another, is a fact which our daily experience teaches us: and no man can be acquainted thoroughly with his own language without having had his attention drawn to sundry changes resulting from dialectical differences of pronunciation, or an attention to what is called Euphony. The Pathology of the Greek language, of which we are about to speak, is not a treatise on Greek Dialects, but an explanation of phenomena in the language generally; a discussion which involves not only the question of dialects, but also those referring to the mutilations and corruptions which, according to the leading principles of Hellenism, may be expected to take place. The Affections are generally divided into the following classes: (a) quantitative (kaтà πóσov), when the word is increased or diminished; and these are (1) πρόσθεσις and ἀφαίρεσις, addition or diminution at the beginning; (2) ἐπένθεσις and συγκοπή, insertion or contraction in the middle; (3) παραγωγή and ἀποκοπή, addition or curtailment at the end: (b) qualitative (Kaтà TOLÓν), or the interchange of sounds : (c) local (κατὰ τόπον), (1) μετάθεσις, transposition, (2) τμñois, or separation of compounds. All these belong to both consonants and vowels. To consonants alone belong διπλασιασμός or doubling, and αναδιπλασιασμός or reduplication. Το vowels alone belong συναλοιφή or contraction, and ἔκτασις or lengthening. A. Affections of Consonants. 82 A consonant may be changed either (I) at the end; (II) in the middle; or (III) at the beginning of a word. In the first of these cases, the change will proceed from some absolute law of the language operating on a previous alteration: in the second, from the letters which precede or follow: in the third, there is either a prosthesis or prefix, which seems arbitrary until it is explained, or some change within the word, which brings into operation the rules of the second case. (I) Affections of Final Consonants. 83 It is an absolute law of the Greek language that no word can end with a mute, or with any other consonant than the three semi-vowels σ, v, p. For those, which terminate in § and y, are always combinations of a guttural or labial with s. And if we meet with ouk, ovx, and èx, we must remember that the two former never occur at the end of a sentence, or before a consonant; and that the latter is always prefixed to some word beginning with a consonant. In fact our or oux is a mutilation of où-ke, for which we have ovxí, and è or é represents e-xis: and being thus affected by the words which immediately follow them, these monosyllables are proclitic (above, 54). Obs. This general rule applies only to Greek words; foreign proper names, like Θεύθ (Plat. Phædr. p. 18 Β), Βήλ, Δανιήλ, Δαβίδ, Ἰακώβ, 'Ioaák, Xepovẞíp, and the like, are written as mere transcriptions from the original languages. 84 of the other three consonants which may be finals, v is often a representative of s, or contains it by absorption (95), and p is of comparatively rare occurrence. Moreover, when s is the final letter, it must not be preceded by a dental or the liquid v (92, 93). |