Page:Compendious Syriac Grammar.djvu/81

§§ 60—62. In Syriac too the second and third radicals, when identical, are always kept in separate existence, if a long vowel comes between them, in the course of the formation, e. g. "pardoned";  "favour", &c., as well as when the first of the two is itself doubled, e. g.  ethḥannan "begged for pardon".

§ 60. With roots of four radicals we also rank such as are demonstrably formed originally from roots of three radicals with well-known suffixes or prefixes, but which are treated in the language quite like quadriliteral forms, e. g. "to enslave", properly a causative form from ;  "to estrange", "to alienate", from  "strange", from, &c

§ 61. Nouns, properly so called (Substantives and Adjectives), and verbs, have in all respects such a form that they are subject to the scheme of derivation from roots composed of three or more radicals, although sufficient traces survive to show that this condition was not, throughout and everywhere, the original one. The only marked divergences in formation, however, are found on the one hand with the Pronouns (which originate partly in the welding together of very short fragments of words), and on the other hand with many old Particles. To these two classes, the Pronouns and Particles,—we must therefore assign a separate place, although both in conception and usage they belong to the Noun. The same treatment must be extended to the Numerals, which, to be sure, stand in form much nearer to the usual tri-radical formations.

§ 62. Overagainst all true words, or words that express some conception, stand the expressions of feeling—or the Interjections, which originally are not true words at all, but gradually enter,—at least in part,—into purely grammatical associations, and even serve to form notional words. Thus "woe!" is a mere exclamation of pain, and "fye!" one of detestation; but "woe to the man!" or "fye upon the man!" is already a grammatical association of words, and "the woe" is a regular noun.