OF LANGUAGES. 



47 



The non-existence of words equivalent to brother and 

 sister in a language must be, to those who converse in 

 abstract tongues and who are accustomed to them from their 

 earliest childhood, a very striking phenomenon; hut an 

 examination into this subject will soon disclose the fact 

 that the absence of such terms is the rule and their presence 

 the exception. 



The concrete tendency discloses itself in various forma- 

 tions, which represent pretty nearly the different stages of 

 development. All concrete languages can possess a general 

 expression of consanguinity 50 irrespective of sex and age, 

 e.g. } in the Khasi dialects Para denotes consanguinity pure 

 and simple, but to distinguish between brother and sister 



in Winnebagoe in Isauntie 

 First daughter is called E noo ka. We no ka. 



Second ,, Wa hun ka. Ha pan 



Third Ak khe a ka. Ha pes ten na. 



Fourth E nuk ha ka. Wan ska. 



Fifth Ahkse gaho no ka. We ha ka. 



Compare also the Eev. S. R. Riggs, m.a., Grammar and Dictionary of the 

 Dakota Language, page 34. 



The Hebrew word Bachor in the meaning of "first-born" has nothing 

 in common with such names. The Sanskrit terms ay raja and anuja apply 

 originally to children, and are later used for elder and younger brother or 

 sister, for the first-born child is the elder brother or sister and the later born 

 the younger brother or sister. The French aim (ains-ne, ante-natus) 

 expresses the same sense, while cadet comes from capitellum, little chief, 

 a diminutive of caput. 



It lies in the nature of relationship, that words which originally were 

 intended to apply to children with respect to their age, should afterwards 

 be used by those children to determine their respective position among each 

 other. The terms which are thus given to children by their parents, are 

 often employed by their children in reference to their position as brothers, 

 and sisters. 



(50) The English language has no word to express the Latin consangtiinitas, 

 Ovidius (Her. XIV. 121 ; Met. VIII. 476), Statius (Theb. XL 407), and 

 Tibullus (III. 4, 87), use consanguineus for brother, and in Catullus (LXV. 

 118) consanguinea is equivalent to sister. Consanguinitas is used in Roman 

 law books in the same sense as the German Geschwisterschaft (Pand. 

 XXXVIII. 8, 4, Inst. VII. 44). The German word Geschwisterschaft points 

 really to consanguinity by sisters, but it is used in a wider sense. Another 

 word to describe this relationship affords the term Germanitas, which Cicero 



