118 On the Physiology of the Arabic Language. [No. 2. 



their example and they technically applied the Persian term sard, 

 cold ; to hill- stations. It would therefore be as absurd to derive card in 

 its technical meaning from the verb &j*c as it would be to derive the 

 proper name of Macadam from the verb to Macadamize. In like 

 manner the Greek word istoria, has been imported into the Arabic 

 language and it is pronounced istar, astar^**! and ostiira i)fk.«»\ 

 plural asatyr ; out of these corruptions, the Arabs took the three conso- 

 nants str jb~» and considered them as a verbal root meaning (in the 

 fifth form) to tell a story and to write. Again ^13 tarykh, date, is 

 composed of two Persian words. In this instance they again took the 

 three consonants £ j * and formed a tri-consonantal root meaning to 

 note the date. Still more arbitrary is the formation of the root 

 ;^i naccar in the meaning of making a Christian, it being derived from 

 Nazareth through ^[y^ a Christian or ^Uai Christians. 



It is clear from these examples, which might be multiplied, that it is 

 the genius of the Arabic language to attach the crude meaning to three 

 consonants of a word ; (if there are more, one is usually dropped, and if 

 there are less, one or even two are added) and to attach its modifica- 

 tions to the vowels and servile letters of which we shall have to speak 

 hereafter. That part of Arabic grammar which is usually called 

 Etymology, treats therefore exclusively on the manner in which the 

 three radical consonants are animated by vowels, or enlarged to form 

 substantives, adjectives, verbs, tenses, &c. 



After these examples we do not hesitate to consider ibn <^l son and 

 y>* bnw to build (German bauen) as separate and distinct roots, and to 

 repudiate the idea that in Arabic or any other language there existed 

 first roots which were like raw ore and that of these in the course of time, 

 words were coined. Such an opinion would be as coarse as if we were to 

 think that trees have been cut out of wood which pre-existed. The fact 

 is that man will naturally give to such objects or actions as have any 

 reference to himself, as short a name as he can, as " food ;" and he 

 will express the different modifications under which they appear to him 

 by modifying the sound of the word as " feed," " fed." We express 

 the difference between praying and commanding, caressing and scolding, 

 by the music of the voice : we modify the import of our words by 

 the intonation, and as the music of the voice rests mostly upon the 

 vowels, it was most natural that the vowel should undergo the changes 



