IIG 



♦ KNOWLKDGE ♦ 



[March 1, 1888. 



the interrogative h would lead us to assume a physical 

 reason for its use; but with regard to this I can only 

 hazard a conjecture that .just as the voice is raised in 

 interrogation, so the tip of the tongue thrust forward for 

 the demonstrative dental t rises in sympathy with the voice 

 for the palatal h of interrogation. T and k, it will be 

 remembered, are frequently interchanged. With regard to 

 the affirmative particle I hardly dare even venture a guess ; 

 but I would suggest that when, in the gesture of affirma- 

 tion — the forward nod — the teeth are clo.sed, the expulsion 

 of the air throvigh them which sometimes takes place in the 

 sudden nod would give rise to a hissing sound s orshi, while 

 if the mouth is partially opened an i or yi sound would 

 result. Some such cause must be at the root of the 

 resemblances in the affirmative particle which we find in so 

 many languages of different families. For example, it 

 is noteworthy that slii, jen, and ;/lil express acqui- 

 escence "yes" in Chinese, and may be compared, at 

 any rate as far as sound goes, with our >/es ; German ja. 

 In Arabic i>/ answers to our i/es or yea when followed by an 

 oath. 



Although the origin of the affirmative particle is not 

 satisfactorily discovered, that of the negative is quite clear. 

 When the infant is not hungry, or does not wish to take 

 anything into its mouth, it moves its head from side to side 

 to avoid the object offered, at the same time closing its lips 

 tightly, and when the voice is exerted through the closed 

 lips the sound m or /i is given out.* This accounts for the 

 widespread use of these sounds to express the negative, as in 

 the Greek ;)((', Latin ne, whence nego, French nier, Illyrian 

 nekaii, On. neila, vita, to sny iie, " deny, refuse." It will 

 be remembered that the expression of the negative is usually 

 accompanied by a lateral shake of the head. 



The simplest form of the negative in Latin and Teutonic 

 languages is ne, whence iwn from ne-unum, old form nenu, 

 in the same way as our none from ne one or no one, German 

 nein. from ne-ein, and later English no. From it the 

 Romans got the compounds ne-quis, ne-cuter {neuter), nuUiis, 

 the substantive ne-inon-, German, nie-mand, the adverbs 

 nunqiiain, n\isquam, and the verbs ne-queo, ne-scio, ne- 

 uolo, afterwards nolo. In Anglo-Saxon we have nis, " is 

 not," niU, " was not," ic ndt, " I wot not," >c nah, " " I own 

 not," with ic nali, "I own;" ic nabbe, " I have not," if 

 nelle, '"I will not," with a perfect noMe, similar to our 

 expression ii:illy-niUii, "whether he will or no." Jamieson 

 gives the old Scotch nam, " am not," 7wr, " were not," 

 nat, " wot not," as well as nold. The very word not itself is a 

 similar compound of Gothic ni-raiht, Anglo-Saxon naiviht, 

 German nicht, and our nawjht. Chaucer says, " They knew 

 him navght." Old Scotch has noct, E.. Brunne noght, and 

 Robert of Gloucester 7iogt. Lat. non is reduplicative, and 

 has a stronger sense than ne, as in the repetitive French ex- 

 pressions ne . . . pas, ne . . . point, ne . . . rien. Ma. is one 

 of the forms of the negative in Semitic languages ; in 

 Hebrew it is used as an interrogative, and in Arabic as the 

 negative of the definite or absolute present, and of the 

 perfect not. In Arabic there is also an interrogative form, 

 amd (used in the same way as the Latin nonnc), with 

 dialectic varieties, ama, liamd, liama, &c. ; in Hebrew there 

 is also a form with the interrogative he, followed by xm. 

 Another form of the negative is la in Aiabic, lb and al in 

 Hebrew, probably a derivative from the older ni form. 

 Both are combined in the Arabic lam, negative of the per- 

 fect lamma, '' not yet" ; Heb. lamma, " why? " 



In oaths the Hebrew im is a negative particle, but it 

 commonly means if. Probably the original meaning of im 



* See "Thought and Language," x. Knowledge, vol. vii., 

 pp. 474-47.5. 



was " is it not ? " A in in Hebrew ^ nothing, or 7iot ; as in 

 a in lee, I have not, is also used in an interrogative sense, 

 '• where," Arab, ai/in. Indeed, in most languages the 

 negative readily passes into the interrogative, as, " Is it not 

 so t " In Chinese the negative adverbs are : 7nii, " to be 

 without "^no or not, the opposite of yii', " to have ":=" yes 

 there is"; pil, not, the most common negative, which has no 

 other use ;_/?, " not to be — false," it is not opposed to sM, " to 

 be" = ''yesit is"; wn, "not to have " = '• without " = m«- 

 i/iii, also much used (the Canton dialect expresses the nega- 

 tive of possession by mo) ; mo, •' not, do not," a synonym of 

 p)'', " not," and m in the Canton dialect, which is the 

 equivalent of the mo and pn of the books. 



Here pa and /(' have doubtless their origin in the pooh, 

 faugh sound with which we reject a nauseous morsel, and 

 similarly an unpleasant proposition, while the w in wil is 

 most likely the phonetic representative of the earlier form 

 with in. With regard to the interrogative use of the 

 negative as in Aryan and Semitic languages, in Chinese mo 

 is a final interrogative in the Mandarin, and n'l in the 

 Canton dialect. In Chinese, as in several other languages, 

 two negatives make an affirmative : thus, mo-fl, in ngo mo ft 

 shivo-]nixing pu ch'tng, "I surely do not lie at all," and 

 uutf'i, and /7 with pa ai'e similarly used, as/7 fil pit. k'o, 

 " cannot do without him." IF?? is sometimes u.sed as a pro- 

 hibitive " Do not I " and so also is mo when it stands alone. 



Asironomt/ for Amateurs. Edited by John A. West- 

 wood Oliver. With the Assistance of T. W. Backhouse, 

 F.R.A.S. ; S. W. Burnham, M.A., F.R.A.S. ; J. Rand 

 Caprox, F.R.A.S.; W. F. Denning, F.R.A.S.; T. Gwvn 

 Elger, F.R.A.S. ; W. S. Franks, F.R.A.S.; J. E. Gore, 

 M.R.I.A., F.R.A.S. ; Sir Howard Grudb, F.R.S., F.R.A.S. ; 

 E. W. Maundee, F.R.A.S. ; and others. (London : Long- 

 mans, Green, & Co. 1888.) — Mr. Westwood Oliver and his 

 very able stafT of coadjutors have produced a work of endur- 

 ing value to the astronomical student in the volume before 

 us, of which it is not too much to say that it should be 

 carefully studied by every incipient observer who hopes or 

 wishes to do any work whatever of scientific value. For it 

 is especially with such work, as contradistinguished from 

 mere desultory stai'gazing, that this capital little book con- 

 cerns itself; and, no matter to what special branch of 

 astronomy the beginner proposes to devote his energies, he 

 will here find explicit directions, from a master hand, 

 for the most successful method of prosecuting his studies, 

 and enriching science by the results of his personal labour. 

 After a preliminary discourse on the leading divisions 

 of astronomical research by the editor, we have a thoroughly 

 practical chapter on the telesco)je and observatory by Sir 

 Howard Grubb. Then ISIr. Maunder follows with an 

 equally practical one on solar observation ; while it is only 

 necessary to mention Mr. Elger's name as the author of 

 the chapter on the moon to indicate its value and excel- 

 lence — a remark which we may equally extend to Mr. 

 Denning's dissertations on the planets and on meteors. 

 The last-named gentleman also contributes a chapter on 

 comet-seeking. The subject of double stars is admirably 

 treated by him who is Jacile princeps as their observer and 

 discoverer — we mean, of course, Mr. S. W. Burnham ; 

 while equal justice is done to that of variable stars by Mr. 

 Gore. Mr. Backhouse and Mr. Baird Gemmill treat 

 jointly on stellar distribution; a chapter on the zodiacal 

 light being founded on contributions by the gentleman first 

 named and Mr. Arthur Searle. The work concludes with 



