16 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 
nord, kedadt, and many others. Similarly, a final oxytone in prepositions may 
fall off, as in aa for azro. 
Proposition X VII.—It is manifest that both these kinds of amputation, by 
head and by tail, may be exercised upon the same word; and then there 
arises sometimes a new word consisting only of the middle syllable, or two 
middle syllables of the amputated diminutive, which it requires an exercised 
eye to detect. Of this double curtailment the following are a few familiar 
examples :— 
shore, yiadt, from  atyiaduor, aiyiadds. 
eye, pare, »  O@parvov, Oppa. 
fish, wapr, »  odpor, owov. 
companies, TEpL, » -€TaLpos, 
oil, hadz, i. €\aduov, €avov. 
vinegar, E61, »  O€¥d.or, 6&v. 
house, omitt, »  dorizov, (Lat.) hospitium. 
A perfect analogy to this system of double amputation occurs in many English 
words, when their present form is compared with the original German word. 
Thus, our “fought,” is “/oughten” in old English, and gefochten in German. 
Proposition X VIII.—As the Greek verb is the part of speech in which the 
formative instinct of that rich language blossonis out most luxuriantly, we 
should expect that in this domain the pernicious, or it may be in this case per- 
haps, the beneficial effects of amputation will best appear. And so in fact it is. 
For not only have individual verbal affixes and prefixes been lopped off, but 
whole tenses and moods totally disappear, to supply whose place auxiliary 
verbs after the fashion of the modern languages are freely used. But as this is 
a matter that affects largely the syntax of the language, I shall reserve what 
is to be said on these organic losses for another section. In this place it will be 
sufficient to say, that of verbal curtailments falling under the heads of apheresis 
and apocope, and not affecting the syntax of the language, the three following 
seem to be the principal :—(1.) The very irregular use and frequent omission of 
the augment. In this, however, it is superfluous to mention that the moderns 
follow the example of Homer, and that the loss is mostly as unimportant as 
that of the reduplicated second aorist of the poet was to the Athenians. 
(2.) The reduplication before the perfect participle passive is omitted—ypappevos 
for yeypappévos. This is a change precisely analogous to that which the Ger- 
man has suffered in passing into English, as in given for gegeben, and so forth. 
(3.) The infinitive of the present infinitive active, after cutting off the termin- 
ative v, becomes ea, as ypdde for ypddew, and that of the first aorist passive, 
