107. Nouns have not only a construct state as in Hebrew (83), but also an emphatic or demonstrative state, formed in singular masculine by adding -ō with or without change of vowels; in the plural masculine by changing in to -e, the n being dropped, and the vowels coalescing into e; in singular feminine, ending in ō, u, i, by adding -to, -ō being dropped, and various changes made in the vowels; in plural feminine by changing on to otō.1 In the feminine singular and plural t belongs to the noun, ō is the emphatic suffix. There is no nominative ending.2 The construct state is almost like the original form of the noun, and in the singular masculine it is the same; but in plural masculine it changes -in to -ai; -en becomes -yai; in singular feminine - and -ī become -ut and -it, and -ō becomes at (83); in plural feminine the ending is -ot.1 The stems of nouns undergo various changes in assuming the various endings and suffixes. The possessive suffixes are given in 51. 108. The system of the numerals is like Arabic and Hebrew. The masculine forms of the cardinals, except one and two, go with feminine nouns, and the feminine forms with masculine nouns.1 Fractions may be expressed by peculiar forms of the cardinals, as rubio, a fourth, from harbag, four.4 109. Adverbs of quality from nouns, adjectives, and participles end in oḥīt. Syriac has the prepositions b, d, 1, men, and many nouns used as prepositions. Some prepositions take the personal suffixes like plural nouns.6 Its conjunctions are similar to those of Hebrew, except that it has adapted many from the Greek, as 'aλλà, yàg, μèv, &c.? 110. Adjectives are more usual in Syriac than in Hebrew, but substantives governed in the genitive are very often used instead, as spirit rel. holiness I rel. flesh I ruxō de qudso, Holy Spirit; henō d'a bsar hanō, I am carnal; law emph. rel. spirit 3d masc. nomus ō d' rux (h)u, the law is spiritual; God emph. halloh, divine things 8 (114). indef. pron. pl. rel. hail ën d There is no adjectival expression of degrees of comparison; but sometimes the emphatic state expresses the superlative." 111. Adjectives of possession, custom, likeness, &c., are generally denoted by a periphrasis, the element of possession, &c., being expressed by a noun, and that which would be the root of the adjective being another noun, governed by the former, as in the genitive 10 (86). Self also is often expressed as in Hebrew by a noun.11 112. The emphatic suffix of the noun in Syriac differs from the definite article in Arabic and Hebrew. The article affects the sub 1 Cowper, sect. 153. Ibid. sects. 165, 166. 7 Ibid. sect. 171. 10 Ibid. sect. 176. 5. 2 Fürst, sect. 184. 5 Ibid. sect. 169. 8 Ibid. sect. 176. 2. 11 Ibid. sect. 202. 3 Cowper, sects. 154-164. 6 Ibid. sect. 170. 9 Ibid. sects. 188, 189. stantive idea, limiting it by defining or particularising it; the emphatic suffix merely strengthens the idea with additional attention to it. The noun in Arabic and Hebrew is thought more generally than in Syriac, more in the attributive part and less in the substance (Def. 4); and when a definite or particular idea is to be expressed, the general idea having been first thought, is then affected with the limitation, and then thought as limited; and the interest of the last thought overpowering the first, the first does not get expression, but the limitation of the article is followed in expression by the limited noun (Def. 23). On the other hand, the noun in Syriac, thought more particularly, does not, after having been emphasised, differ sufficiently from the noun in its simple state to overpower the latter, but this gets expression in its natural place, being followed by the emphatic element, and the emphasised idea is supplied without expression. A noun governing a genitive can be emphatic, but the genitive then generally has the relative d prefixed.1 113. Nouns used figuratively are often treated as of the gender of beast wild those which they represent (96), thus xayut seno, wild beast, though feminine, when it stands for Antichrist is masculine; so meltō, word, which is feminine, when it means Christ is masculine.2 An abstract noun put for a concrete may take its gender. Thus a feminine noun signifying an office may be treated as masculine when it stands for those who fill the office.2 An adjective sometimes appears in a different gender from its noun; and the same is true of pronouns.3 The quality, instead of agreeing with the substance of the noun, is sometimes expressed by an adverb, which sometimes precedes, with relative between. Nouns which are plural only are represented by pronouns, sometimes singular and sometimes plural. A plural pronoun masculine may follow a feminine collective when it applies to men. The plural of excellence does not properly belong to Syriac. Sometimes, however, the poets use the plural for the singular to give intensity to a word.4 114. The apposition of a proper name to its general noun is some country times expressed like a genitive with the relative d prefixed, as hatrō d'musia, country of Mysia 5 (66). The genitive may be denoted by following a noun which is in the construct state, but is more frequently expressed by prefixing to it d; and with this prefix it may follow a noun which is in the construct state. The construct state is often used when followed by a noun with a preposition prefixed to it7 (90). The noun in construct state, followed by the noun which it governs, serves to express a variety of relations, about, among, by, for, &c.8 The objective case is occasionally denoted in the Old Testament by the word oit1 (92). Verbal nouns may govern an object like the verb.2 Cardinal numerals from 3 upwards either precede or follow their noun. If the noun precedes, it generally takes the numeral in the emphatic form, but if it follows, in the absolute; but this rule is not uniform.3 115. Adjectives and participles follow their nouns, but demonstrative pronouns are wont to precede. Where an adjective and pronoun are both used, the common order is, substantive, pronoun, adjective; but even this is not uniform. When an adjective is emphatic it often precedes the noun.4 A possessive suffix which is thought as affecting a substantive object expressed by a noun governing a genitive, is generally attached name rel. holiness my to the genitive, as smō de・ qudsi, name of my holiness; for my holy name 5 (88). The object suffix is very often used with the verb though the object follows (92), and the possessive suffix frequently with the noun or in name his rel, Jesus preposition though the governed noun follows, as basm eh d'yasuÿ, in the name of Jesus." The relative d prefixed to demonstrative pronouns and adverbs, makes them relative (92); and is used like haser in Hebrew.7 116. The pure copula seems to be too fine an element to be thought separately as a verb (92); and it often coalesces with the thought of a personal pronoun as subject, being expressed by the pronoun. The pronoun thus involving the copula may combine with the predicate being subjoined to it, and the union is then so close as to impair the initial of the pronoun.8 Formations of this kind with the participles are much used (102). For the same reason also (86, 92, 111), the verb substantive takes up an objective thought of existence which is expressed by the substantive hit, which corresponds to Hebrew yes existentia. This substantive, with possessive suffix of the various persons, and involving the copula, is often used for the verb to be.8 It takes the suffixes of a plural noun. 117. The uses of the perfect and imperfect are similar to Hebrew, except that the present and the Greek imperfect are more frequently expressed by the participle and personal pronoun than by the imperfect, and that the imperfect is very rarely used for the past. There is thus more distinction of present, past, and future in Syriac, than in Hebrew or Arabic. The imperfect, as in Hebrew, is used for the subjunctive." The infinitive gives intensity to a verb, and generally precedes it (92). The infinitive Peal is not prefixed to the derived forms, but a noun or 1 Cowper, sect. 186. 2 Ibid. sect. 185. 5 Ibid. sect. 197. 2. 8 Ibid. sects. 196, 226. 3 Ibid. sect. 190. 6 Ibid. sect. 198. 9 Ibid. sects. 205, 206, 212. adjective is sometimes used in the same sense. rarely used as a noun.1 The infinitive is very The imperfect, with d prefixed, is often used as the object of another verb. Occasionally, however, d is omitted; and sometimes this imperfect precedes its governing verb.2 This corresponds to the English translation of gaudeo te valere, I rejoice that you are well. 3 Certain verbs often precede another verb in the same gender, number, and person, to affect it adverbially 3 (87). The second verb may be in the infinitive.1 The irregularities in respect of concord of verb and subject, in gender and number, which have been mentioned in 96 as existing in Hebrew, are much the same in Syriac.5 The constructio prægnans (93) also is used.6 The arrangement of the parts is for the most part as in Hebrew; but the order, subject, object, verb, which, Gesenius says, is common in Aramaic, is seldom found in Hebrew, and only in poetry.7 ETHIOPIC. 118. In Tigré, the northern province of Abyssinia, the Ethiopic language was spoken; and with the predominance of the people who spoke it, it spread from Tigré and its chief city Axum, so as to be the principal language of the kingdom, and to reduce the languages of other tribes to mere popular dialects. It came originally from Yemen, the region which forms the south-western corner of Arabia, and was brought into Abyssinia by the Gheez or free wanderers, as the immigrants were called. The ancient language of Yemen, the Himyarite, is described by all the Arabian writers as so different from the Arabic of Central Arabia that often the speakers of the two were unintelligible to each other.10 And Yemen is in fact quite a different region from Central Arabia, being within the province of the half-yearly rains. It is covered about Mareb and Sana with ruins, in which Himyaritic inscriptions are found in great abundance, supposed to have been written in the third and fourth centuries of our era.' 11 The alphabet used in these inscriptions appears evidently to be the prototype of the Ethiopic alphabet, being identical with that of the inscriptions of Axum of the fifth century; 12 and they are both so different from the other Syro-Arabian alphabets, that if all had a common source in the Phenician, the Himyarite-Ethiopic must have separated from the others in a remote antiquity." Notwithstanding this similarity of the characters, the language of the Himyaritic inscriptions is quite distinct from the Ethiopic 14 as known to us in writings. The earliest of these writings is a version of the Bible, written probably in the fourth century; 15 and the Ethiopic must have separated at a much earlier date from its sister languages of South Arabia.1 The Himyarite language is believed to be still spoken by the Ekhili between Hadramaut and Oman, and especially in the region of Mahrah, Mirbat, and Zhefar.2 The Ethiopic language, after having been the medium of a considerable Christian literature, consisting principally of translations from Greek, but including also original hymns after the model of the Psalms, followed the fortunes of the race to which it belonged. When the south-western provinces of Abyssinia rose in importance, and the seat of government (about A.D. 1300) was moved south of the Takazze towards the Sana lake, the Amharic became the language of the court; but still Ethiopic remained the literary language, in which all books and all official documents were written, and into it translations were made from Arabic, and sometimes from Coptic. At length the repeated incursions of the Gallas, beginning about the end of the sixteenth century, gave it its death-blow, and with the culture and literature of the country the old language perished. It has continued indeed even to the present day as a sacred ecclesiastical language, and up to the last century books were written in it, especially the annals of the country, but it was understood only by the learned, and even they wrote more readily in Amharic.3 119. Ethiopic makes less use than Arabic of vowel changes to express modifications of the radical idea, and it takes less note of the differences of the vowels. In its alphabet there is no distinction made between ě, ž, and u, and the same character serves for a consonant which has one of these vowels, and for the same consonant without any vowel at all. It distinguishes, however, è and ō, as well as ā, ū, ī, and ă; and in some cases an originally short or u has been lengthened so as to preserve it on account of its significance.4 As in Arabic, a often stands for ō.5 This loss of discrimination of the vowels must have already taken place when their notation in the alphabet was first used, which was about the fifth century after Christ; for though there are small Ethiopic inscriptions in which there is no trace of the notation of the vowels, in the Axumite inscriptions copied by Ruppell it is half developed.* In later pronunciation vě and yě came to be sounded as u and i, so that these vowels reappeared in the spoken language. 6 The vowels of a word are not subject to change, as in Hebrew, in consequence of additions or reductions in the word, or alteration in the position of the accent." In respect of the tendency to vowel utterance, Ethiopic is about on the same grade as Hebrew.8 120. In early times the language had given up the Arabic consonants 0, 0, and d.9 9 But these consonants have characters appropriated to them in the Himyarite alphabet,10 and the loss of them as well as the other 1 Dillmann, p. 8. 3 Ibid. pp. 334, 335; Dillmann, pp. 1, 2, 9. 6 Ibid. p. 30. 9 Ibid. p. 34. 2 Renan, pp. 309, 311. Dillmann, pp. 20, 28. 7 Ibid. p. 32. 10 Ibid. p. 13. |