Volapiik.] 8 [Jan. 6, 
have neither. More than this, in colloquial English and German, and 
always in English in the comparative degree, there is no distinction 
between the adjective and the adverb ; and upon this hint we perceive 
the inutility of the distinction and dismiss it as operose only. The 
comparison of adjectives should be by words equivalent to more and 
most, as is practically the case in the Romance languages, and never 
by comparative and superlative terminations, as in English and 
German, as our endeavor should always be to maintain the theme un- 
changed. 
This reduces our nine parts of speech to six, which are proved to be 
enough, by the facts quoted. 
The noun in German undergoes changes for gender, number and 
case. Of these the gender in all Aryan tongues except English and 
modern Persian, isan absurdity, without application to the object, and 
a most serious impediment to learners. Grammatical gender, there- 
fore, should be absolutely dismissed, and material gender expressed by 
the feminine adjective of sex, as in English and most American lan- 
guages (bear, she-bear, rat, she-rat, etc.). 
The Greek has a singular, a dual and a plural number. The dual 
has dropped out of modern tongues, and in many instances the plural 
is grammatical only and not material. Indeed, as in most American 
languages, so often in English and German, the plural form is not used 
even when the plural number is meant. Thus, we say, ten head of 
steers, six dozen herring, sechszehn Stiick Cigarren, sechs Uhr Abends, 
ete. It is probable, therefore, that both gender and number could be 
usually dispensed with in nouns. 
With regard to the case of nouns, it will be observed that the tend- 
ency of all the Teutonic and Romance languages has been to get rid 
of them. French and Spanish have succeeded completely ; the Eng- 
lish retains the genitive; the German the nominative, genitive, dative 
and accusative, in some instances. The cases have been supplied by 
the use of pronouns and prepositions, and we shall be wise to respect 
this tendency as indicative of linguistic progress. It is historically 
clear that to attempt to restore the case endings of nouns would be to 
steer directly against the current of linguistic evolution. There has 
even been an effort both in English and German to dispense with the 
genitive by substituting a possessive pronoun for the case ending, as 
* John his book,’’ ‘* Ludwig sein Pferd ;”? while the Berlin dialect of 
the lower classes has often but one termination for both genitive and 
dative, where pure German has two. 
The use of the possessive pronoun to indicate the genitive is simple 
and logical; it prevails in most American languages and most jargons ; 
and is quite adapted to the end. In fact, some: dialects, such as the 
French Creole of Trinidad, Martinique and St. Thomas, contain no 
pronominal adjectives, and make out very well by placing the per- 
sonal pronoun like any other attributive case, after the noun, as liv li, 
