264 ANCIENT AND MODERN LANGUAGES. 
show what extraordinary liberties are taken in the 
transformation of words. There is apparently very 
little resemblance between ‘ Bishop” (Bischof) 
and “évéque,” yet these two words have the 
same origin, viz: the latin word “ episcopus.” 
Again, “head” and “chef” seem totally differ- 
ent; I believe them, however, to be identical, 
and to be both derived from, or related to, the 
latin ‘“‘ caput.” The Germans, by a process 
which shall have our attention presently, changed 
this word into “ Haupt;” hence “head.” The 
French, by another almost invariable process 
exemplified in “ cher” from “ carus,” “ cheval ” 
from “ cavallus,” changed the ¢ into ch, and soft- 
ened pt into f.* 
I have said that consonants are the roots of 
words. There are certain consonants which serve 
in most languages to express a certain situation. 
We find first of all S T, which invariably convey 
* The German and English words which are purely latin 
or French, as amusiren, Nation, science, facility, &c., are, of 
course, out of the question in the present paper. 
- In order to avoid confusion, Anglo-saxon, Greek, Spanish, 
Italian, and French words will only be introduced when the 
modern German and the latin shall not present the looked-for 
analogy. 
