Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/1062



2. By the prefixing of dis, in, or un: as, honest, dishonest; consistent, inconsistent; wise, unwise. These express a negation of the quality denoted by their primitives.

3. By the adding of y or ly: as, swarth, swarthy; good, goodly. Of these there are but few; for almost all the derivatives of the latter form are adverbs.

III. Adjectives are derived from Verbs in several different ways:--

1. By the adding of able or ible: (sometimes with a change of some of the final letters:) as, perish, perishable; vary, variable; convert, convertible; divide, divisible, or dividable. These, according to their analogy, have usually a passive import, and denote susceptibility of receiving action. 2. By the adding of ive or ory: (sometimes with a change of some of the final letters:) as, elect, elective; interrogate, interrogative, interrogatory; defend, defensive; defame, defamatory; explain, explanatory.

3. Words ending in ate, are mostly verbs; but some of them may be employed as adjectives, in the same form, especially in poetry; as, reprobate, complicate.

IV. Adjectives are derived from Participles, not by suffixes, but in these ways:--

1. By the prefixing of un, meaning not; as, unyielding, unregarded, unreserved, unendowed, unendeared, unendorsed, unencountered, unencumbered, undisheartened, undishonoured. Of this sort there are very many.

2. By a combining of the participle with some word which does not belong to the verb; as, way-faring, hollow-sounding, long-drawn, deep-laid, dear-purchased, down-trodden. These, too, are numerous.

3. Participles often become adjectives without change of form. Such adjectives are distinguished from participles by their construction alone: as, "A lasting ornament;"--"The starving chymist;"--"Words of learned length;"--"With counterfeited glee."

SECTION IV.--DERIVATION OF THE PRONOUNS.

I. The English Pronouns are all of Saxon origin; but, in them, our language differs very strikingly from that of the Anglo-Saxons. The following table compares the simple personal forms:--

Eng. I,     My or     Me;        We,      Our or       Us. Mine,                        Ours, Sax. Ic,    Min,      Me or      We,      Ure or       Us. Mec;               User, Eng. Thou,  Thy or    Thee;      Ye,      Your         You. Thine,                        or Yours, Sax. Thu,   Thin,     The or     Ge       Eower,       Eow or                        Thec;                           Eowie. Eng. He,    His       Him;       They,    Their or      Them. Theirs, Sax. He,    His or    Him or     Hi or    Hira or      Heom or              Hys,       Hine;     Hig,     Heora,       Hi. Eng. She,   Her or    Her;       They,    Their or     Them. Hers,                        Theirs, Sax. Heo,   Hire or   Hi;        Hi or    Hira or      Heom or               Hyre,               Hig,     Heora,       Hi. Eng. It,    Its,      It;        They,    Their or      Them. Theirs, Sax. Hit,   His or    Hit;       Hi or    Hira or      Heom or              Hys,                 Hig,     Heora,       Hi.

Here, as in the personal pronouns of other languages, the plurals and oblique cases do not all appear to be regular derivatives from the nominative singular. Many of these pronouns, perhaps all, as well as a vast number of other words of frequent use in our language, and in that from which it chiefly comes, were very variously written by the Middle English, Old English, Semi-Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon authors. He who traces the history of our language, will meet with them under all the following forms, (or such as these would be with Saxon characters for the Saxon forms,) and perhaps in more:--

1. I, J, Y, y, i, ay, ic, che, ich, Ic;--MY, mi, min, MINE, myne, myn;--ME, mee, me, meh, mec, mech;--WE, wee, ve;--OUR or OURS, oure, ure, wer, urin, uren, urne, user, usse, usser, usses, ussum;--Us, ous, vs, uss, usic, usich, usig, usih, uz, huz.

2. THOU, thoue, thow, thowe, thu, tou, to, tu;--THY or THINE, thi, thyne, thyn, thin;--THEE, the, theh, thec;--YE, yee, yhe, ze, zee, ge, ghe;--YOUR or YOURS, youre, zour, hure, goure, yer, yower, yowyer, yorn, yourn, youre, eower;--You, youe, yow, gou, zou, ou, iu, iuh, eow, iow, geow, eowih, eowic, iowih.

3. HE, hee, hie, se;--His, hise, is, hys, ys, hyse, hus;--HIM, hine, hiene, hion, hen, hyne, hym, im;--THEY, thay, thei, the, tha, thai, thii, yai, hi, hie, heo, hig, hyg, hy;--THEIR or THEIRS, ther, theyr, theyrs, thair, thare, theora, hare, here, her, hir, hire, hira, hiora, hiera, heora, hyra;--THEM, thym, theym, thaym, thaim, thame, tham, em, hem, heom, hiom, eom, hom, him, hi, hig.

4. SHE, shee, sche, scho, sho, shoe, scæ, seo, heo, hio, hiu, hoo, hue;--HER, (possessive,) hur, hir, hire, hyr, hyre, hyra, hera;--HER, (objective,) hire, hyre, hur, hir, hi. The plural forms of this feminine pronoun are like those of the masculine He; but the "Well-Wishers to Knowledge," in their small Grammar, (erroneously, as I suppose,) make hira masculine only, and heora feminine only. See their Principles of Grammar, p. 38.

5. IT, yt, itt, hit, hyt, hytt. The possessive Its is a modern derivative; His or Hys was formerly used in lieu of it. The plural forms of this neuter pronoun, It, are like those of He and She. According to Horne Tooke, who declares hoet to have been one of its ancient forms, "this pronoun was merely the past participle of the verb HAITAN, hætan, nominare," to name, and literally signifies "the said;" (Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 46; W. Allen's Gram., p. 57;) but Dr. Alexander Murray, exhibiting it in an other form, not adapted to this opinion, makes it the neuter of a declinable adjective, or pronoun, inflected from the masculine, thus: "He, heo hita, this"--''Hist. of Lang.'', Vol. i, p. 315.