Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/329

319 Particles of the English Language. 319 two modes of expressing the interrogative are wanting in the other Teutonic dialects. Notker ^^^ in his Psalms, and he alone, uses na to express a question ; appended generally, though not always, to the end of the sentence, and only when a negative particle has preceded. It thus answers very nearly to the Latin ne in nonne and the Gothic it in niu : for example, ne hist tu der na ? esne ille ? The Gothic aii heads the sentence ayi hica taujdima ? TL ovv 7roii](jo/ixeu ; Luke iii. 10. A7i hiias Grimm considers as equivalent to kol tl^^ and thinks that the first of these words gives an emphasis to the question, just as ec in ecqiiid^ which probably is formed by assimilation to the following consonant, from et-quid. The only case in which he quotes it in a subjective question is annuh Thiudans is Thu ? ovkovv (iao-Lev9 el av ; Luke xviii. 37. The Old High German particle answering to the Gothic annnh is innu^ inu^ eno^ or with a sort of reduplication, ifiunu. It sometimes expresses num and sometimes Jiojine^ and is principally used by Notker in affirmative questions, na in negative ; the former heads the sentence, the latter mostly closes it. I have thus ventured to try the patience of the reader by mentioning the principal forms of the old Teutonic inter- rogatives given by Grimm, without however entering into the detail or citing the examples which are to be found in his Grammar. He considers the simple an as a transposition of na^ and identical with the Latin an^ and suggests in a note the possibility of a relationship to the Greek particle av ; a supposition which does not seem improbable, when we con- sider the natural connection of the duties which both perform, and the application of such words as Traj^, Trore, /c. t. X. in an indefinite and interrogative sense. The result is that there are three forms of the simple interrogative particle ^^ 1st, The Gothic ?^, related probably to the Greek ov ; Sd, the Gothic nv., Old High German nn^ Sanscrit ?z?^, Latin n^, Greek /x/^/. Old High German na ; 3d, the Gothic an^ Old High German in^ Latin r/7?, Greek ovv, '^ Notker was a monk of St GaU, who died 1022, and was distinguished from two others of the same name by the epithet of Labeo. Plis Psalmsv were published in Schilter, Vol. i. ^^ P. 700. Vol. IL No. 5. Ss