166 Essay towards a Grammar of the Berber Language. 



In factj the n final seems to indicate plurality, alike in verbs, nouns, and 

 pronouns. Nay, in some cases an seems to be a masculine plural, and ant 

 a feminine plural. Thus in Luke iv. 26, 27, Of them is expressed by 

 Azzagaant, when speaking of the widows ; and by Azzagsan, when speak- 

 ing of the lepers \ though each is followed by the same sound. 



But here we must stop, for fear of misleading the reader. The truth is, 

 that the laws of concord (as ive view concord) are so pertinaciously vio- 

 lated by Asiatic and African languages, that it is hardly possible to know 

 what is feminine, what masculine, what singular, and what plural. 



For nouns there is no complex system of declensions. There are un- 

 doubtedly cases, formed by a prefix; and these prefixes occasionally modify 

 the syllabification of the noun, as in Hebrew. The cases are as follows : — 

 Rabbi, Lord God Baba, father, master 



el Rabbi, | the Lord, or, of the Em baba (for En baba), of the 

 er Rabbi, ) Lord father 



// Rabbi, ) ^ , Jbaba, to the father 



Jrabbi, 5 El baba, the father (accus.) 



El rabbi, 1 r^ , , v 



, ,. i- God (accus.) 

 Aa rabbi, 3 



The particle En or N, which forms the genitive, seems not to be readily 

 used with proper* Arabic words ; but in the latter the Arabic article El 

 suffices, and the word is to be supposed in construction with that pre- 

 ceding. Some few nouns have a construct form ; as Babad before a suffix 

 pronoun. Observing : that the genitive is expressed by el, before, not 

 Arabic words only, but some Berber words ; that it is et/ or ei/y before 

 many vowels j that it is em before words beginning with B, M, L j and 

 that it is generally before D, T, S, C, that en is found : the suspicion will 

 rise, that all are euphonic variations of El. Yet N before a vowel can 

 have no such explanation ; as Enaw, of me, Enak, of thee ; Amaqrhn 

 narba^, Lord of the quarter; i. e. Tetrarch : Qamarrod nagmas, wife of 

 his brother ; from Agma, brother. 



What we have called the accusative, is the accusative of Eastern rather 

 than of Western grammar: and a student would often be misled, if he expected 

 to find a coincidence. In fact, the similarity both of sound and of usage, 

 between El or *7X and the Hebrew JIK, is such as cannot be accidental. 

 For, first, each of them is equivalent to the preposition With : (as, Joseph 

 went with Mary, el Mariam : and next, each indicates the accusative 

 case. This accusative seems principally employed, (1) in pure logical 

 propositions, as the predicate ; (2) with the latter of two nouns which are 

 in apposition ;t — whether they refer to different subjects or not ; (3) to 

 give emphasis. 



* Even in ii. 26, "The Lord's Christ," is rendered El MeAx el Rabbi; which 

 might equally mean " Christ the Lord," as ». 11 of the same chapter shows. 



t The Attic idiom shows traces of this orientalism, making the accusative the case 

 nf apposition ; — 



