Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/48

 Febhuatit, 1875.] SKETCH OF SABJ3AN GKAMMAB. 35 language from the very beginning bad no article at all, and herein be perceived a special ap- proach to the G e o z and the other Abyssinian languages. To Hak'vy this approach between tho" Ethiopia and the Sabajan appears very problematic. It is easily nnderstood that a language, like the latin or the Ethiopian, which developed no indefinite, had no need of a definite article ; but ifc is less intelligible how a language, such as the Sabamn, which had an indefinite article, sbould not have developed a particular form in order to indicate the much more salient idea of emphasis and of deter- mination. This reasoning Halevy thinks must suffice for a conclusion kfriati, that the Sabraan could not have been without a definite article. This new linguistic feature, more complicated than the inhumation, and affording a key to certain hitherto inexplicable Semitic flections, was discovered by Halevy after a diligent ex- amination of the texts. As a counterpoise to the mini, which imparts an indeterminate sense, the syllable <m is appended in the Sabamn lan- guage to a word in order to give it a determinate or emphatic sense ; this syllable is attached to proper as well as appellative nouns, e.g. veto cpsn win ' the town of Neskus (H. 282), rrpohj; the i often disappears in the writing— such is even the usual orthography— e.g. n^ata, mS, nam, r^rrr name of a divinity (H. 144, 8-1') ; in the divine name -row the waw has become yod, pro- bably in consequence of reaction of the preced- ing wow, whilst the n has fallen away in irp 'Ramon.' This *1 is visibly nothing else than the pronoun of the third person win, wn from which also is derived the indefinite Hebrew article -n, which has become a prefix ; whereas it is in Sabteana suffix, exactly like the emphatic »- of the Aramaean languages,— which is itself also a degradation of the pronoun wn. The particle in question may remain even at the end of words in flie«*a*l»cww*hw<MMi#: vmovi wo {lid. 176, 2-S) ' the sanctuary of Madhab,* or in old English phraseology ' Madhab his sanctuary/ !»& nara (//. 1 1 85,5) "in the day of Yeta'eh cstfiota (Hal 353, 9), 'KingofMa'in,' cast) nnbwTH (Hal. 465, 2) 1 the gods of Ma'in.' The Sabsan dialects often present an c instead of n, e.g. &* dotto (Os. xxix. 5) ' the sanctuary of Al'm,' cr crn (Hal. •20-. 3 k * the house of -esr', csro c=r« (Hal. 198. &)« • the people ot Ma'in.' Persian influence may have had something to do with this change into r, though Halt-vy makes no allusion to it here, and in some other cases he seems to disregard it. Even in compound proper noitns, the n tends to maintain itself, especially aftes monosyllables formed from the roots ^y, e.g. to noo (Os. i. 10), "torac (Fr. xux), crni-m (Hal. 588), though in closely united compounds the original sense of this particle, which properly means ' he, him,' has become almost effaced. Besides the signs of determination and indeter- mination, the Sabaaan has, in the form p, a third sign, which appears to be equivalent to a very energetic and almost demonstrative definite article; this termination, usually abridged to j, is visibly composed of in and of another prono- minal root, and thus resembles the Hebrew particle jj, 'behold,' the prolonged form whereof is rnrt. This energetic article is even of more frequent use than the other two terminations, e.g. ro© pisn (Os. xxix. 6), "(the gods ami goddesses) of this town of Sa-bota,' pra fi (Os. TH. 2) or only rora (Os. 1. 4; rv, 2, Ac), 'this table,' p = ni jn (Os. I. 4; IV. 3), 'because,' ssn jrw (Hal. 257, 1-2), c the, or this, house with flagstones,' pta (Os. xxvii. 1), 'thellinoean,' yrnzn (Hal. 682, 1-2), *she who belongs to the Anchito, 1 rro (Haf. 615, 30), ' he of the Kanrarani,' pvoi fxm (ffar. vr. 9-10), 'in winter and in summer/ rniTi pn vn» to 'all the houses of Hirrnn and of Thuran.' It is probably this organic compound p which forms the numerous class of proper nouns terminating in », eg. pa = cj ^, Jfu, jtzp, pm, ps, ym, pn, -ps:, ftt t pnti, pn?, fen &c. particularly frequent in the names of the ancient Horites, which seem to be of Knshite origin (Gen. xxxvi. 20, 27) ; 7=-*, -y^, %&t, rvv k , rg <kc. and also among the ,Abrabamites, the sons of Eeturah: $&, jjft j;td (ibid. XXV. 2). This exposition which embraces nearly all the varieties of nouns as far as they occur in the texts, seems to confirm the idea broached in the preceding chapter with reference to the original identity of the nominal and verbal categories in the Semitic languages, since the flections of those two categories of words take place by means of the same pronominal themata : *, vr contracted to n, ♦, «, S, P and for the com- pounds p and nu These themata axe in reality five, as follows : — 1st— The elative h of nouns; the to* form
 * Kaminaknm' (H. 327, 2), *m * the month of...'