Page:Nature and Origin of the Noun Genders of the Indo-European Languages.djvu/20

10 calmer and more critical spirit began to pervade the science of language from about the year 1870. The more matter-of-fact learning of the newer linguistics, which supports itself on more solid foundations, was compelled to question seriously Grimm's hypothesis; and the decision had to be rendered that this theory, though idealistic and poetic, was not strictly scientific. Allow me to present to you in few words the reasons why I, as well as some other philologists, have come to the conclusion that it must be rejected.

Firstly. If we pursue a correct method and start from what we know empirically; if we confine ourselves to the facts that lie clearly before us and can be judged by the materials of our science,—facts that belong to the present or recent past of our Indo-European languages,—then we must assert that masculine and feminine as grammatical genders say and mean nothing for the speech of every-day life. And it is only the ordinary, every-day language that is of importance for this subject. By the grammatical gender, no idea of anything masculine or feminine, either in literal or figurative sense, is called up. The masculine and feminine suffixes differ entirely from other noun suffixes, to which grammatical terminology has assigned names on the