26 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 
tion—xavw THY otpatay, to lose the way—képrw Travia, to make sail, &c.; and in 
respect of these also, it is comfortable to remark, that even in the lowest phase 
of the language they are much fewer than might have been expected, and in 
the more cultivated forms are becoming fewer and less prominent every day. 
Another severe syntactic loss which the modern dialect has suffered, is the 
disappearance of the dative case, and the confounding of that case, not only 
with the accusative, as in our English pronoun him, but with the genitive. The 
loss of the cases, as is well known, takes place naturally from the relations 
originally expressed by the terminational affixes having become obscured 
to the popular ear; a process which was sometimes precipitated by a con- 
fusion in the pronunciation of cognate diphthongs, as when rod was pro- 
nounced 7@, or the contrary. This loss is repaired, in the first place, by the use 
of prepositions along with case-affixes, in which conjunction they are in fact 
tautological, as in the Homeric phrase é€ €uéfevr. Afterwards, when the removal 
of all authoritative control, and the weakening of precedent, have allowed the 
affixes to be dropt or confounded, the prepositions take their place as the alone 
significant element, and attach themselves prominently or exclusively to the 
accusative as the dominant case. Thus, in modern Greek, azo takes the accu- 
sative, and eis, usurping the function of év, is joined with the same case, whether 
its signification be 7m or into. This is the case in Scotch also, as we say “a 
head wt? a muckle lot in till’t,” i.e., in 7¢; and both in Latin and in German there 
is only one form for «is and e&. 
In reference to the connection of clauses, there are only two observations 
more to be made: one, that the relative os is in the modern dialect frequently 
replaced by 6 ézotos (the Italian, a quale), or simply by the indeclinable ézoo, 
somewhat as in English we say, whereof and wherefrom, instead of of which and 
Jrom which. In German the adverb so is used in the same way; and among 
ourselves, with the uneducated, as often serves the same purpose. The other 
point is the confounding of os ay or cay with os; and combined with this the 
formation of some new conjunctions, of which the most common are,— 
aykaha, though. 
Oy, but. 
@s TOTOD, meanwhile. 
€us TO7ov omov, the while—while that. 
bg qn 
fe Ohov TovTo, nevertheless. 
Some new prepositions and adverbs, or old forms curtailed, may also 
here be noticed, as,— 
cuppa, near. 
He, with. 
