300 THE COPTIC ELEMENT IN 



are now found vinder the conditions of an earlier stage of existence. 

 In sucli a free state we find tlie Latin latus, broad, witli the Welsh 

 llydau, the Gaelic hud and the Irish lead, while the Greek platus, 

 the (j(evva.a.Vi. platt, the Dutch jjZaf, the Danish _y?cKi and our English 

 Jiat remain fixed by the old Coptic stem. The same relation between 

 the Greek and the Celtic languages subsists in the case of a word for 

 ship, which is ploion in Greek, but Hong in Welsh and long in Gaelic 

 and Erse. A still more familiar example is that of the Gaelic and 

 Erse athair as compared with the Greek and Latin pater and our 

 English ya^Aer. The order of relation is, however, inverted in the 

 word denoting anger ; this being orge in Greek, but fearg in Gaelic 

 and Erse and ^^rocA in Welsh. Nor do we find the Celtic tongues 

 agreeing among themselves, for while the Welsh pysg accords with 

 the Latin joisCTs, the Germanic Fisch and our English _/isA, the Gaelic 

 iasg and the Irish iasc have divested themselves of the prefix and 

 appear in a form nearer to that of the original word. The root of 

 ■our English j'XfflTOe is not easily recognized under the various forms it 

 assumes in difierent languages nearly related to each other. In 

 Coptic it is LOBSH, in Hebrew LAHAB, the same in ^thiopic, and 

 in Arabic LEHIB. The h of the Semitic form becomes m by one of 

 the commonest of all processes in language, exemplified in the 

 change of the Hebrew name of a town of the Philistines, JABNEH, 

 to the Greek lamnia or lamneia. Thus the lobsh, LAHAB, 

 LEHIB, of the Coptic and Semitic are transformed into the old 

 Saxon leoma and the Celtic laom, the broad o of the Coptic reassert- 

 ing itself and taking the place of the Hebrew and Arabic aspirates. 

 In the Gothic, however, the final 6 or m is dropped, and the aspirate 

 in consequence acquires additional power, LAHAB becoming log, a 

 word presenting much resemblance to the Latin lux. To this the 

 article is prefixed in Greek, and phlox appears, in Romaic phloga. 

 But, meanwhile, the final m has not been lost sight of, for, in the 

 same language, phlegma displays the full proportions of the word. 

 The Latin accepts the prefix but rejects the aspirate in flamma. 

 While, however, the later Germanic tongues restore the article, 

 which Gothic and old Saxon had discarded, as in fiamme and vlam, 

 the Spanish, daughter of the Latin, reverses the process, and, 

 although she still recognizes flama in her vocabulary, makes use 

 more frequently of the form llama. Finally, to show yet more 

 clearly the relation of the hard g of Gothic and Greek to the root, 



