216 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF GRAM- 

 MATICAL GENDER. [Abstract] 



BY A. F. Chamberlain, M.A. 



The ordinary view of the origin of Grammatical Gender is expressed 

 by Prof. Whitney (Language and the study of Language, 1803, p. 

 78) in these words : — " The whole language was the scene of an im- 

 mense personification, whereby sexual qualities wei-e attributed to 

 everything in the world, both of nature and of mind ; often on the 

 ground of conceptions and analogies which we find it excessively 

 difficult to recognize and appi-eciate." Canon Farrar attributes it to 

 the domination of the imagination (Chapters on Language, 187o, p. 

 188). Paul expresses a similar opinion (Princip. der Sprachgesch., 

 1886, p. 220). The common ground taken by those who try to 

 explain Grammatical Gender is that it arose from the fundamental 

 distinction of sex, through the medium of personification. 



The principal languages possessing Grammatical Gender are the 

 Indo-European, Semitic, Hamitic, Bantu (Hottentot, etc.), Oigob, 

 Caucasian (some only), the Khasia (of S. E. Asia) and perhaps a few 

 others. In an able essay (Das Nominalgeschlecht in den indog. 

 Sprachen, Internat. Zeitschrift f. allgem. Spi-achwissenschaft IV, 100- 

 109) the eminent philologist and grammarian, Kai'l Brugmann, en- 

 deavours with some success to prove that personification will not 

 explain the phenomena of Grammatical Gender in Indo-European 

 speech. Bleek's numerous essays on the Bantu languages are very 

 valuable, as also is the work of M. Lucien Adam (Du Genre dans les 

 diverses Langues, Paris, 1887), and much of value is to be gleaned 

 from the encyclopsedic volumes of F. Miiller. Regarding the American 

 group of speech. Dr. Brinton says : — " A grammatical sex-distinction, 

 which is the prevailing one in the grammars of the Ai-yan tongues 

 does not exist in any American dialect known to me" (Lang, of 

 Palaeolithic Man, 1888, p. 14). Along with the American stand the 

 Australian, Melanesian, Polynesian. Malayan, Mongolian (Samoyed,. 

 Ui'alian, Altaic, Japanese, Corean, etc.), Monosyllabic of S. E. Asia 



