LAXGUAGE AND EACE. 40B 



persistent, tlie questions arise : (1) Is it possible for one 

 tongue to assimilate a portion of the grammar of another, so 

 that a hybrid shall result? and (2) Can a race adopt an 

 entirely new grammar ? 



With regard to the first point, the possibility used to be 

 asserted, and was unquestioned: but further research has 

 modified this belief. The proximity of two languages implies 

 that a certain number of the population are bilingual; and 

 where this is the case to any large extent, the idioms of the 

 two will often be exchanged ; and with them it is natural to 

 suppose that an opening will be made for the introduction 

 of new grammatical forms. The use of the genitive and 

 dative of the personal pronouns in English (" of me " and 

 " to me ") in place of the Anglo-Saxon viin and me^ seems 

 to have been due to the Norman influence ; the Normans 

 themselves having previously adopted the change from the 

 conquered French. Persian has adopted the Semitic order 

 of words, which is so unlike the general structure of the 

 Aryan group, — saying, for instance, dil-i-mdn, " heart of 

 me," for " my heart," and cZasf-z-'tZmar, '' hand of Omar." 

 Converselv the Hararite is able to reverse the Semitic order, 

 and adopt a non-Semitic idiom by writing cimir askir, 

 instead of askar amir, for " the Emir's army." The same 

 sub-Semitic dialect shows the phenomenon of a grammar 

 which is decidedly Semitic in its main features, but which 

 makes use of post-positions. 



Persian, which contains a large Semitic word-element, has 

 even gone so far as to form one of its plurals by means of 

 the Arabic feminine plural in clt or jCif. Practically, how- 

 ever, this plural is confined to the imported Arabic words, 

 and so is a similar instance to that in our own tongue, when 

 we use Latin plural endings for adopted Latin words, such 

 as termini, from terminus. 



