Essay (owanls a Grammar of the Berber Language. 181 



seems beyond probability ; jet if otherwise, one of the two has acted upon 

 the other in a mode to which we remember no parallel. 



We are far from thinking that in the above list, no words can be traced 

 to the Arabic, except those which we have noted as snch. Our own ac- 

 quaintance with that very extensive language is but superficial; and where 

 a word occurs but once or twice in the Berber translation, or shows none 

 of the same family, we cannot always ascertain its real and primitive 

 sense. Most of the words to which we have put the mark (?), are a-Koi, 

 XtyofLEva. 



Yet after the most ample allowance on this head, our vocabulary seems 

 to contain abundant proof, that the original material of the Berber lan- 

 guage is not Sheraitic. Whether those who are acquainted extensively 

 with the relations of languages, will be able to identify it with any known 

 family, remains to be seen. At present, we shall make use of this language 

 to verify the assertion in our third number, that the strongest similarities 

 in the inflexion of verbs and nouns may exist between two languages per- 

 fectly distinct ; that is, as distinct as any other two on the face of the 

 earth. We do not wish to involve the question, whether at the confusion 

 of tongues all or many languages retained some parts in common. We 

 would not be tedious in recapitulating the similarities of the Berber in- 

 flexions to those of Arabic, and perhaps the shortest and most striking me- 

 thod to those unacquainted with the Sheraitic languages, is to lay before 

 them the following table. 



The termination un in Arabic indicates plurality in nouns and verbs 

 alike. The n is very commonly elided in the verb, just as final torn be- 

 comes tu. 



BERBER FORMS. 



Sing. Plur. 



3. Ixdam 3. Xadman 



f. (~)axdam 



2. QaxdajnUT 2. ®axda?narn 



1, Xadmay 1. Naxdam. 



It would seem as if the second person of each number, in Berber, had 

 been made up at each end out of two distinct Arabic tenses. The only 

 person in which there is no similarity, is the first pers. sing.; and it is 

 worthy of remark, that also in the Maltese Arabic this has been changed. 



