410 LANGUAGE AND RACE. 



after these consonants. This may be shown by an example 

 often used. Arabic uses a group of three consonants — 

 q, t, 1 — for everything which has to do with the shedding 

 of human blood. Thence are formed — qatala, he kills ; 

 qutila, he was killed ; qutilu, they were killed ; uqtul^ to 

 to kill ; iqtdl., to cause killing ; qatil^ killing ; qitl, enemy ; 

 qutl.j murderous, etc. In the verb, the middle vowel bestows 

 a transitive or intransitive meaning. By the vowel of the 

 first syllable of the radical the active (a) is distinguished 

 from the passive (u) ; and the vowel of the last syllable 

 denotes the mood, it expressing the indicative, a the sub- 

 junctive ; while in the imperative the vowel disappears. 

 The other changes of the verb are effected by prefixes and 

 suffixes, which also have a modifying phonetic influence 

 on the vowels of the syllables to which they are prefixed or 

 appended. Terminal syllables distinguish the singular and 

 plural, as well as the three cases — nominative, genitive, and 

 accusative. 



An equal, or, as many think, a higher, rank is occupied 

 by the Aryan tongues. They have an advantage over the 

 Semitic in that they recognise three, instead of two, gen- 

 ders, — or rather, sexual and sexless objects ; but this superi- 

 ority has been again partly lost in the course of time. 

 Armenian ignores all distinction of gender. Another dis- 

 tinction is that the Aryan tongues alone possess the verb 

 to he y so that in a Semitic tongue the idea of the gracious- 

 ness of God cannot be expressed by the words, " Grod is 

 gracious," and it is necessary to use a phrase such as " Glod, 

 the gracious," or " God, He the gracious." 



In the Aryan group the formation of secondary words 

 from the roots originally took place by the addition of a 

 post-fix ; while prefixes were only sparingly used, and this 

 chiefly in negatives with iin^ as in inigratefid • or with a. 



