1851.] On the Physiology of the Arabic Language. 125 



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We observe farther from the above examples, that the addition of a 

 consonant is not confined to elements ending with a vowel ; but some- 

 times a consonant is added to elements ending with a consonant, as will 

 appear by comparing ^^ gahna, with can-o, J>? fataA, with pat-et, 

 (the roots co batt and £*.* fataq, have nearly the same meaning), 

 joi with fade ; p* or 2^ with ^/u, &c. 



If the element begins with a vowel or a weak consonant, they not 

 seldom with a view of enlarging it, put a hamzah or an e or even a 

 complete consonant before it; thus the word «^ hand is used in the mean- 

 ing of assistance and *jf ay ad means to assist ; the root derived from 

 the same element as over, German iiber, is spelt jf in Arabic that is to 

 say an 'ayn is prefixed, and if we compare ^J yawm, day with -qfxtpa it 

 would appear that the y does not form part of the element. The 

 element a to come (Hindustani ana, Persian amadan, ay) is enlarged into 

 the following roots <_£jl awa, (in this root the long a has been resolved 

 into two short ones and they have been separated by a weak consonant 

 w for the sake of euphony) lsj} bawa and *(j baa, (compare the Greek 

 /tan/a*, and Latin meo,) and ^ fa and *U ha. The element ur or ar, which 

 means fire, (iir means in Hebrew, fire, and jf means in Arabic inflam- 

 mavit,) was enlarged intoj^ fawr, (compare fire irvp) and into jU nar. 



It has been observed above that weak consonants which have been 

 added to the element in order to form a tri-consonantal root are fre- 

 quently rejected in the old forms particularly in the imperative. In 

 imitation with this rule of throwing off weak vowels, they sometimes 

 disappear though they form part of the element of the root. Thus 

 I i, is the imperative of <_$f* waii, to vow, (Latin vo-tum), where the 

 w forms, no doubt, part of the element. 



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