Page:The Brasilian language and its agglutination.pdf/19

 and songs have survived the generation, that saw them rise.

(3)

4.—The inflectional period. In this stage roots are modified by prefixes or suffixes, which were once independent words. In agglutinative languages the union of words, says Dr. R. Morris, may be compared to mechanical compounds, in inflective languages to chemical compounds.

« I call period of flections, adds Prof. M. Müller, that one, in which roots are blended in such a way, that none of them keeps a genuine and total independence, as it is found in the Aryan and Semitic families.

« The first period does not admit of phonetic alteration, at all.

« The second period does not admit of such alteration in the principal root, but admits of it in the secondary or demonstrative elements.

« The third period admits of phonetic altera-