Belchek. — The Middle Voice in Latin. 3 



moil to say that the action proceeds of the object itseU' : thus 

 ■vertitur, hterally he turns himself, is often used for he is turned. 

 A reflective so used is called a yassive. 



" This passive use of a verb with a reflective suffix is more 

 common than the proper reflective use. 



•'Hence passive verbs can only be formed from transi- 

 tives." 



In a foot-note Key calls attention to the parallel use in 

 modern European languages. 



In Metaphysics, the causes assignable for this priority of 

 use seem to be logically adequate. It is reason to suppose 

 that, after the primary notion of the verb as active has de- 

 veloped itself — that is, as soon as the subjective notion of the 

 verb as expressing the agent is fully established — the next 

 step in thought and in expression ^Yill be towards the object. 

 As the object grows out of the subject in conscious thought, so 

 the object grows out of the subject in expression. Between 

 the myself and the not-myself there is a whole mass of actions, 

 coincidences, and sequences belonging to the mutual relation- 

 ships of the myself and the not-myself. This condition of 

 consciousness represents a stage of experience, ultimately ex- 

 pressed with relative clearness by development of the appro- 

 priate suffixes. 



At this medial stage, the union of the subject-object being 

 substantially prominent in consciousness, there is a corre- 

 sponding mode of expression, the medial or reflexive suffix. 



The final stage in the growth of the verb is the establish- 

 ment of difference between subject and object, as when in 

 predication the subject of the statement is also the object of 

 the action indicated in the statement. Hence arises the 

 passive voice. 



This development is not attended by amplification of the 

 verbal suffix ; for there is a law of parsimony. Suffixes cannot 

 be invented, and language adapts old forms for new conditions. 

 Accordingly the medial verbal suffix is charged with this new 

 meaning, and, as the phenomena of experience increase, the 

 passive voice is more frequently used than the middle voice, 

 and in Latin partially displaces it. 



That the final r of the Latin passive is the s of the re- 

 flexive pronominal stem was observed seventy years ago. " It 

 was in the Annals of Oriental Literature," says Bopp, "that it 

 was observed that the passive r might owe its origin to the 

 reflexive- " (cf. Serial for 1820, p. 62). 



Key (Lat. Gr., § 405) arrives at the conclusion that — 



" The verb has two forms or voices, the simple voice (com- 

 monly called the active), which does not take the reflective 

 suffix ; the reflective voice (commonly called the passive), which 

 does take it." 



