2 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



remoter period represented the second and first grammatical 

 persons reflexively. 



At the time written language brings se to notice it is in 

 a worn-out condition. It retains no mark of gender or of 

 number. Even the genitive case has vanished. In actual 

 use the same inflexions of se are, according to the context, 

 considered either as singular or plural. It is highly probable 

 that in its earlier condition the reflexive se was fully inflected 

 for all relationships customarily represented by inflexion. 

 Logically there is necessity for reflexives in all three persons. 

 And if there were some primary sound sa there can be no a 

 priori reason why number, gender, case, and person should not 

 have been represented by developments of this radical. At 

 any rate it is now admitted as a working hypothesis that 

 verto-r is the same as verto-se, and on this hypothesis, as 

 verto se means " I turn myself," se here represents the first 

 person. 



On the general question that the reflexive verb precedes 

 the passive, that in the growth of verbal forms the middle or 

 reflexive verb is historically antecedent to the passive forms, 

 there has been since Eopp's time substantial agreement. 

 Bopp (ii. 648) enunciates his view briefly thus : Ma-vii, sa-si, 

 ta-ti, are sufiixes naturally formed by reduplication. If, then, 

 ma signifies me, ma-mi signifies myself. By parity of forma- 

 tion, sa-si, ta-ti, mean thyself, himself. Hence arise the 

 sufiixes of the present indicative reflexive of the Greek verb. 

 Ma-mi falls away into -/xat, sa-si into -o-at, ta-ti into -rat. 



Bopp points out that in Old Slavonic the Accusative of the 

 reflexive pronoun is added to the transitive verb to give it a 

 Eeflexive or passive significance. He illustrates from Lithu- 

 anian, which attaches the consonant -s without vowel media- 

 tion to the active voice to form the reflexive verb ; under 

 certain conditions also it prefixes the reflexive pronoun with 

 the same result. 



In 1846 Key advanced this view of the Latin middle voice, 

 as being not an application of the passive voice, but as being 

 the actual forerunner of the passive voice. Key said (Lat. Gr., 

 2nd edit., p. 59),— 



" In Latin a reflective suffix is added to a transitive verb, 

 so as to give it the reflective sense. 



" A reflective verb thus denotes an action upon oneself, and 

 in Latin is conjugated in the imperfect tenses with a suffix -s 

 or -V. An intransitive verb is generally in meaning reflective : 

 as cur — i.e., lyut oneself in a certain rapid motion; ambula — 

 i.e., put oneself in a certain moderate motion ; but, as the object 

 in these cases cannot easily be mistaken, no reflective pronoun 

 or suflix is added. 



" When the source of an action {i.e., the nominative) is not 

 known, or it is thought not desirable to mention it, it is com- 



