Belcher. — The Middle Voice in Latin. 5 



uouu sik (O.N.), sig (Swed. and Dan.), Lat. so, coalesces with 

 verbs and forms a reflexive suttix : as O.N. at f alia, fall down, 

 sik = self, produce the reflexive or middle verb at fallask. 



" Sk is still further worn down to st, and when added to 

 the verb renders it passive, as O.N. at kalla, to call, at 

 kallasi =^ to be called." 



In our own language there are a few traces of the same 

 formation: cf. bask = warm oneself in the sun; busk flx 

 oneself up (with clothing). Cf. Cleasby and Vigfusson, 

 Icelandic Diet., s.v. ; and Skeat's Appendix. 



Personally, I look to French for evidence that i)i the 

 streets and in the camp the so-called passive was commonly 

 used as a reflexive. Otherwise I cannot yet see how the 

 reflexive verb in French comes to replace and be used as 

 passive. Having counted in ten pages of Beroalde, and in 

 Brantome, all the verbs, I find the reflexive forms predomi- 

 nate, while in the majority of examined cases the passive 

 meaning is clear. It seems that, in the general ruin of in- 

 flexions during the transition of Provincial Latin into French, 

 the few reflexive tenses or inflections existing in Latin were 

 overwdielmed. *'Le deponent n'a eu aucune action sur notre 

 langue, et n'y a laisse aucune trace. Depuis longtemps il avait 

 disjDaru dans le latin populaire, ou, pour mieux parler, il y 

 etait passe a I'actif. Dans les formules et dans les chartes on 

 trouve sans cesse des formes telles que i)recare, 2)roiiciscere, 

 lanjire, &c." — Leon Gautier in notes to his edition of La 

 Chanson de Poland. 



The passive or reflective voice in Latin had three inflected 

 tenses : all other tenses were built up of the auxiliary verb. 

 In the reconstruction of the Provincial language morior is 

 je me meurs. The ancient pronominal suffixes are now expressed 

 analytically : the so-called passive form has given rise to a re- 

 flexive statement. How is so remarkable a change possible 

 unless in cominon speech the inflections called passive were 

 indifferently used both as reflexive and as passive ? 



If the fluctuations of other languages are so great that even 

 in the common run of conversation the same verb often slides 

 from one class into another class of usage, is it reason to 

 suppose that this observed flexibility of speech is wanting to a 

 language so widely spread and so long used as Latin ? 



It seems to me, then, that an exact study of the French 

 language as compared w th the Latin of Plautus would 

 indicate very clearly that our estimate of the Latin passive 

 has been much exaggerated, our translations of the past par- 

 ticiple forced and unnatural, and that, in a desire to be con- 

 sistent (in a world where consistency of action, conduct, and 

 speech is unknown), we have done violence to the thoughts 

 and expressions of the authors we have studied. 



