Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/28

vi are the necessary consequence of this simple and appropriate machinery. Thus, for example, andó and end&#xf6;&#x301; are the signs of the participle future, and are used the first for the male, as hal, root of halál (death), makes halandó, will die, or dieable; and the second for the female, as ég, root of égni (to burn), égend&#xf6;&#x301;, will burn, or burnable—as and es, as olvasás (reading), from the root olvas, reads—and szenvedés (suffering), from szenved suffers — at and et, as gondolat (thought), from gondol, thinks—épǘlet (a building), from épǘl, builds. So, again, the comparative is formed of abb or ebb, according to the ultimate syllable; as drága dear, drágább dearer —bölcs wise, bölcsebb wiser. Ság and ség make a quality from a personification—barátság, friendship, from barát, friend—emberség, manhood, from ember, man: talan, telen denote absence; as, szobátalan, without a chamber—kéretlen, unasked, i. e. without asking. And so are the Hungarian plurals, according to the vowels of the singular, formed in ak, ok, or ek. The same modification runs through all the declensions and conjugations.

This division of the language into male and female words may be pursued in its influences to some very curious results. It will be found that the letters a and o are usually employed in the words to which the ideas of grandeur, vastness,