116 On the Physiology of the Arabic Language, [No. 2. 



French je vais /aire ; funnel is composed of fun-dere and al, an 

 instrument ; chisel of scindere and al.* 



2. Instead of forming grammatical forms and derivatives by com- 

 position the Shemites change the vowels of the words (or roots) as 



Aorist Active, ta-gw/=sprich-st. 



Past active, £oZ-ta=sprach-st. 



Imperative, ^oZ=sprich. 



Aorist Passive, to-qdl= -» 



Past passive, qil-td (qyl) = J S e * s P l0C 



Subjunctive, ta-£oZ=spr8ech\ 



Substantive Sing. qawl=Spruch. 



Nom. actionis g'y/^sprech-en. 

 I have added the meaning in German in order to show that the 

 Hindu-germanic languages use to some extent the same means for 

 forming derivatives and tenses. To a more limited extent such forma- 

 tions also occur in English ; for instance, sing, sung, sang, song. In 

 our languages however, this is the case only in irregular verbs, but as 

 irregularities are to be considered as the remnants of a former period 

 of a language we may conclude that the Hindu-germanic and Shemitic 

 tongues did at one time agree in this peculiarity ; but they went 

 in opposite directions in their farther development. 



It is interesting to observe that there is no instance of change of 

 vowels except for the sake of euphony in the Tatar languages. They 

 are therefore just the opposite of the Shemitic dialects, whereas the 

 Hindu-germanic dialects stand between these two extremes and partake 

 of the peculiarities of both.f 



3. In Arabic one derivative is very seldom formed from another, 

 but from the root itself. Thus the plural of nouns is not formed from 



* Words of this form are very frequent in German as line-al, a ruler or instru- 

 ment for making lines ; Schliissel, a key, from schliessen to shut ; Sessel a chair, from 

 to sit ; Bick-el pick-axe (Hindee, kod-al or kod-ali, from khod-na to dig.) As it was 

 the genius of the language to give to names of instruments the termination el, 

 this syllable has been added to foreign words which already meant an instrument ; 

 as Orgel an organ. Alah <£/f plural al means an instrument in Arabic. 



f The euphonic rule in Tatar is that if the root has an i or a vowel which contains 

 a concealed i (as e=ai; o=oi; u=ui), the vowels of the suffixes and affixes 

 are equally changed into vowels similarly adfected, thus they say bak-mak and 

 sew-mek i. e. saiw-maik. 



