Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/35

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Nu; as from the root su, bear, we get the Sanscrit sunus and the English sunu, son.

Der; as from the root pa, feed, we get the Sanscrit pi-tar and the English fœ-der, father.

U; as the Sanscrit madhu (honey) is the English meodu (mead). Hence our scádu (shadow), seonu (sinew).

Our word silvern must once have been pronounced as silfre-na, having the suffix na in common with the Sanscrit phali-na.

We may wonder why vixen is the feminine of fox, carline of carle. Turning to our Sanscrit and Latin cousins, we find that their words for queen are râj-nî and reg-ina, coming from the root râj. Still, in these last, the n is possessive; the vowel at the end is the mark of the feminine.

What is the meaning of ward in such a word as heaven-ward? I answer, to turn is vrit in Sanscrit, vertere in Latin.

There is no ending that seems to us more thoroughly Teutonic than the like in such words as workmanlike. But this is seen under a slightly differing shape in the Sanscrit ta-drksa, in the Greek te-lik-os, and the Latin ta-lis. These words answer to our old þŷlic, which survives as thick or thuck in the mouths of Somersetshire peasants. So in Old English we find swŷ-lic, corrupted by us first into swylc, and then into such.

Our privative un is seen in Sanscrit, as an-anta-s, un-end-ing.

The Sanscrit kas, kâ, kat appears in Latin as quis, quœ, quid, and in English as hwâ, hwâ, hwo&#x0302;et (who, what).