TRANSACTIONS i8qQ-'oO 



persons writing the English language will often detach a syllable 

 from one word and prefix it to the next, or will substitute for a 

 word, the force of which they do not feel, another of somewhat 

 similar sound, absolutely unmeaning as used, but which in some 

 way embarrasses them less than the other. I have often seen the 

 •expression "at all" written "a tall," and not long ago I received 



a letter in which occurred the following : ' ' Had Mr. of 



come to me, as he should t?/ done, etc." Here "of" takes the 

 place of ' ' have ' ' the force of which was not perceived — at least 

 not perceived in such a way as to prevent its being replaced by 

 an unmeaning preposition. If an earnest missionary from Tim- 

 buctoo were trying to acquire a knowledge of the English 

 language from people of this grade of intelligence he would 

 encounter difficulties not altogether unlike those which our mis- 

 sionaries experience in the dark places of the earth. 



If therefore we go far enough back, we get to a period when 

 as yet our venerable parts of speech were not. This is just what 

 we should expect according to the doctrine of evolution, which 

 tells us that progress is from the homogeneous to heterogeneous, 

 from the undifferentiated to the differentiated, from the indefinite 

 to the definite, from the unorganized to the organized. Just as 

 our forefathers chipped and polished flints to make axe heads, so 

 — though not with so clear purpose — they would chip away the 

 superfluous parts of a sentence involving some important concept 

 till the concept was isolated in a more or less convenient form. 

 What particular part of the sentence eventually remained in 

 possession of the meaning thus hammered out must, I imagine, 

 have been in many cases a matter of accident. I^et us take a 

 modern instance. The Eatins had a compound verb " anim- 

 advertere " meaning "to turn one's own (or another person's) 

 mind to (something or other)." Owing to the influence of 

 this much-used term the word ' ' advertere ' ' got to be understood 

 more or less as carrying the unexpressed accusative ' ' animum ' ' 

 with it. This ' ' advertere ' ' became the French ' ' avertir, ' ' to 

 warn or notify. "Avertir" yielded " avertissement," a warn- 

 ing or notification — in fact an advertisement. Now the word 

 " advertisement " has been cut down in all the printing offices — 

 at least the English ones— of this continent to "ad." Who 

 could have predicted that out of the Eatin word anima^v^Ure, 



