In Gothic, will never expresses a mere future; but it does in Old High German, and still more in Middle High German, confined, however, to first person singular. New High German can say er will kommen veniet. In all the other dialects, including Anglo-Saxon, will retains its original meaning. In New High German alone, werden is introduced to express the simple future, wollen and sollen retaining a strong sense of their original meaning.1 170. Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse use the dual personal pronouns ; we two thus vit Skilling, for 1 and Skilling. Old Norse used the plural also they we in the same way, as ver Hakon, for we and Hakon; their Hrèidhar, for he and Hreidhar.2 This shows a tendency to mass objects together as if there was a weak sense of the element of substance in the substantive idea (144); see Sect. III. 9, 4; 49. Skilling defines vit like an adjective or genitive. 171. The article is in use in all the Teutonic languages. But the Norse uses it differently from all the others; for it suffixes the article to the substantive though it puts it before the adjective. The article which is thus used in Norse is declined as follows in the earliest writings : Nominative sing. inn masc. fem. fem. neut. inar in inna inna inna It is suffixed to the substantive, whether strong or weak, without interfering with the inflection of the substantive, except in the dative plural, whose ending melts into the article, becoming unum instead of uminum. The i of the article is absorbed by a final vowel of the substantive, aud unless when followed by nn, is dropped after ar, ir, In the neuter itt when suffixed drops one t. ur. The late origin of this formation is shown according to Grimm by its not affecting the radical vowel with any umlaut (142). In the Edda first appear a few traces of it; and in Old Norse prose it is used much less frequently than in the New Northern dialects; just as the article before the substantive is sparingly used in the early speech, though almost indispensable in the later. In the Edda the article sa, su, Oat, is often used before a substantive, but it is then a demonstrative rather than an article. In Swedish and Danish it is sometimes similarly used before a substantive, the demonstrative signification being very fine, so that the native grammarians call sa the defining article, inn the definite. In the old language the former is sometimes used before an adjective, but rarely without the latter intervening. In Swedish and Danish the use of the latter before an adjective has almost died out, the other having taken its place. The folk-songs often attach the suffixed article to the adjective, a construction which otherwise is unknown to the 2 Ibid. iv. pp. 294, 295. 1 Grimm, Gram., iv. p. 180-182. Northern dialects, whether old or new. The Norse languages show a tendency to suffixion (156, 168), which is probably due to Finnish influence (135, 138, 140, 142); for the northern languages of Europe and Asia all suffix the secondary elements to the primary. In the Teutonic languages the nominative takes the article more than the other cases. And a genitive governed by a noun which has the article is apt itself also to have the article.2, Sometimes in Anglo-Saxon prose the possessive pronoun precedes article, adjective, and substantive.3 172. In Old and New High German prose, attributive adjectives and possessives as a rule precede the noun, but in Middle High German they sometimes follow, being then not inflected. In Old Saxon and Anglo-Saxon there seems to be great liberty in putting them before or after, and in Middle Dutch; though New Dutch puts them before.5 The Northern dialects, old and new, like the Gothic, put them before or after.6 In Anglo-Saxon the subject usually stands before the verb, even when preceded by those particles, &c., which in New High German and Danish require an inversion of this order; but after the particle Oā or Oonne then, at the beginning of a consequent sentence the subject usually follows the verb. The object usually precedes the verb, this being last, but there is much freedom of arrangement.7 In Anglo-Saxon, when a short pronoun is in the dative case, it is usually placed as near to the verb as possible, between the subject and the verb.8 173. The Teuton is in a marked degree slower in his mental action than the Celt, and less ready to respond to an impression; and a similar difference, though perhaps in a less degree, seems to distinguish him from the southern nations of Europe. In Teutonic speech accordingly a tendency may be observed to take in a larger object in the single act of thought than is usual in Latin, Greek, or Celtic. In Celtic a tendency has been remarked to reduce the root to a smaller fragment of thought than in other Indo-European languages (131); and in Teutonic is to be seen the opposite tendency to make the root a larger object of thought, and to include along with it in the one mental act additional elements which affect it. Thus the thought of the verb as past, and sometimes the thought of it as present, is in part taken up into the root in the strong conjugation (157), part of it being expressed outside the root in the vowel before the person. And though something like this is to be seen in Latin and Greek, the tendency is not by any means so strongly developed in them as in Teutonic and Sanskrit (45). Indeed, the Teutonic past tense of the strong conjugation is strikingly analogous to the Sanskrit reduplicated perfect. And the verb in both makes a distinct approach, though only an approach, to the internal modifications of the Syro-Arabian 1 Grimm, Gram., iv. p. 373-380. 3 Ibid. iv. p. 431. Ibid. iv. p. 500-504. 7 Rask, Anglo-Saxon Gram., sects. 372, 373. 2 Ibid. iv. pp. 436, 438. 4 Ibid. iv. pp. 475, 496, 486. 6 Ibid. iv. p. 505. 8 Ibid. sect. 386. verb (15), just as Teutonic and Hindoo thought seem to make some approach to that medium degree of quickness which characterises the genuine Syro-Arabian races (chap. i., Part I. 6). The same tendency to give largeness to the individual acts of thought is to be seen in the heaviness of the elements which are put together in Teutonic speech, the constituent parts of a Teutonic word being thought more largely than those of Latin, Greek, or Celtic. And the same character of Teutonic thought is to be seen in one of the most striking features of Teutonic language, the umlaut (142). The partial change in the radical vowel which Grimm calls by this name differs from the change of the radical vowel of the verb for the past or present in this respect, that it did not make its appearance till the formative elements of words had to a certain degree decayed, and the words had come to be thought with increased singleness of idea. Then the vowel of the root began to be affected by that of the subjoined formative element. And as the change was thus accompanied by a weakening of the latter, it was plainly due not to the root being overpowered by the formative element, but to the formative element being gradually taken up in thought by the root (142). It is an instance of the changes which affect language as human progress goes on (chap. iv. 24), but shows also the Teutonic largeness of the single act of thought, and the comparative tendency of the Teutonic mind to spread on its objects. Such a tendency is, by the theory of Book I., chap. i., connected with slowness of mental action, though the particular forms in which it will manifest itself is determined by other causes. And the correspondences which have been shown between fine varieties of this mental quality, and fine varieties of this feature in language within the same family, is a striking confirmation of the theory which connects the one with the other. LITHUANIAN. 174. The Lithuanian branch of the Indo-European family of languages comprises the Old Prussian, which was spoken along the coast on the south-east of the Baltic between the Vistula and the Niemen or Memel river, but which in the second half of the seventeenth century was absorbed by German; the Lettish, which is spoken south of the Gulf of Riga in Courland and Livonia; and the Lithuanian proper, which is spoken in the parts of Russia south and west of the latter dialect, and in the northern part of East Prussia, within a line extending from Labiau on the Kurische Haff eastward to Grodno, thence towards the north-east to the neighbourhood of Dunaburg, and thence westward to the sea near Liebau.1 It is the last-named dialect which has been investigated by Schleicher, and of which an account will be given here founded on his grammar. This dialect is itself divided into two sub-dialectsHigh or Southern Lithuanian, and Low or Northern, called also 1 Schleicher, Gram. der Litauischen Sprache, sects. 2, 3. Zemaitish, which means low. These two dialects in the Prussian part of the region are divided by the Memel river, and they occupy corresponding positions in the Russian part. The Prussian Lithuanians belong to the lowest stratum of the population, but in Russia the Lithuanian is the language also of a better class.1 175. The Low Lithuanian being the northern dialect, is more within reach of Finnish influence; the High Lithuanian is in contact with German. And the difference between the two dialects is probably due in part to these two influences. The Finnish loves vowels (IV. 147), and the vowels seem to be better distinguished in Low Lithuanian than in High. Thus o, e or i, ao in the former correspond respectively to uo, ça, o in the latter; in which it is to be observed that of the three original vowels, a, i, and u, a and i are better preserved in the former, u only is better preserved in the latter. In Low Lithuanian also, the second vowel in ai, au, ei is preserved, but in High Lithuanian it is generally dropped. The High German aspirates t, d with a sibilation, Finnish in its purity does not aspirate at all, and accordingly t, d are preserved in Low Lithuanian, but aspirated with a sibilation as t, din High Lithuanian.2 But both the dialects betray Finnish influence, while they have of themselves a phonetic character of unversatile utterance akin to that of the Hyperborean languages, and a weak pressure of breath. The Finnish has such a tendency to vowel utterance that when it adopts a foreign word it is apt to change the vowel of the word to a diphthong, which is often done by inserting i before the vowel. And it gives such full utterance to the vowels, that though a diphthong is uttered as such, with one vowel passing into the other in the first syllable, where probably the accent gives it unity, elsewhere the two vowels of a diphthong are uttered as fully as if they were not united (IV. 147). Now there is in Lithuanian a tendency to concurrent vowels, such as to lead to the increase of the single vowels with an additional element, which though extremely light is yet distinguishable from them, and which makes them long except ea, which may short; such are do, uo, ça. Long e almost always has a light addition, ea or ee, but sometimes becomes e,3 which being closer saves breath. be The diphthongs ai, au, ei, when accented in the beginning of a word, are uttered as ai, au, ei, the first vowel predominating over the second; but in the middle or end of a word, whether accented or not, both vowels are fully uttered, as they are always in ui; ai, au, ei in the beginning or the middle of a word are always accented; they do not occur in the end.4 6 The Two vowels of different syllables may concur in composition. vowels o and are always long; a and e when unaccented are generally short; when accented and followed by two consonants they may be either short or long; when accented and followed by one consonant they are long as a rule.7 The weakness of the nasals and their tendency to be absorbed by a 1 Schleicher, sects. 3, 4. Ibid. sect. 7. 1. 2. 3. 2 Ibid. sects. 4, 7. 5 Ibid. sect. 7. 3. 3 Ibid. sect. 5. 3. 6 Ibid. sect. 5. 4. 7. preceding vowel, which was native to Lithuanian as to Slavonic, and probably due to indolent utterance, fell in with the Finnish tendency to give predominance to the vowels. It continues where Finnish influence does not reach. For there is a tendency, more in later times than formerly, and in High Lithuanian than in Low, to drop a nasal at the end of a word, also before s or z, and sometimes before t.1 This seems by its situation to have come from German influence. Perhaps it was due to the excessive lightness of n, m in Lithuanian, leading them to be disregarded by a German ear accustomed to strong utterance. 2 176. The tendency to insert i after a consonant before a vowel, which has been noted in Finnish, is in Lithuanian also 2 (140), which, moreover, tends to prefix y to a vowel in the beginning of a word or syllable. This probably arises from weak pressure of breath from the chest, coupled with an effort to strengthen the vowels (Def. 26). That there is weak pressure of breath in the utterance of the consonants appears from the absence of the usual aspirates. And the use of y and not of w to help the utterance of the vowels is probably due to their natural weakness, in consequence of which they involve small guttural action. The use of y favours a tendency to a soft sibilation (178). 177. Lithuanian is also characterised by a relaxation of consonant utterance, probably due to Finnish influence, which produces a palatal tendency; as the tongue when relaxed naturally lies close to the arch of the palate. 3 There are no double consonants; they are too intense for the habits of consonant utterance. In consequence of the palatal tendency, there is in Lithuanian a complete series of palatals and ante-palatals, except that like Finnish it has no aspirates of any order except t', and in High Lithuanian t and d, nor any spirants except v, y, and the sibilants. And with this exception there are also the usual post-palatals and labials, besides pi, bi, mi, vi, and also i. This consonant is in Slavonic also; and in the Tartar languages it is the 7 which belongs to words whose vowels are hard. It seems to have been developed by that distinction of hard or soft, and was probably got by Slavonic from Tartar languages. 178. There is another phonetic tendency in Lithuanian which has been alluded to above as resembling what is to be observed in the Turanian and Hyperborean languages generally of Asia and Europe, a deficient versatility of utterance which evades abrupt changes of action in the organs of speech, and slurs over the transitions of utterance in speaking. Hence the dentals take up i or y following them, and become antepalatal. Hence ore following k or g makes it palatal, following or r makes it ante-palatal; k and g before a, o, u, or a consonant, are deep gutturals; but ', g', also may precede a, o, u, as ki, gi. When follows a guttural or post-palatal it takes the post-palatal character, and 1 Schleicher, sect. 26. 3 Ibid. sect. 14. 2 Ibid. sect. 22. |