OF LANGUAGES. 



69 



These categories never change ; but how does language deal 

 with them P This is the question now before us, but the 

 answer to it is by no means simple. The position which a 

 language adopts towards these attributes — whether it ignores 

 them or not, and if they are acknowledged, in what manner it 

 is done — these are points of paramount importance. 



The two principal forms of speech, the noun and the verb, 

 are also those which most clearly exhibit the rules of 

 grammar. While noun and verb, as arising from one 

 common source, may be even identical in form, 107 or still 

 preserve a certain affinity to each other, so that a noun can 

 produce a verb and a verb a noun, 108 and have also in common 



(107) See above page 23 : " It is probable that all intransitive Vei verbs may be 

 used as adjectives and substantives ;" Koelle, Outlines of a Vei Grammar, page 

 40. In the Californian dialect Gallinomero, the word ehadiinamsLy signify either 

 seeing, or to see, or sight or watchful. In the Mexican Eudeve all verbs 

 are used as nouns, and as such are declined as well as conjugated ; hi6sguan> 

 ** I write" also means writer ; nemutzan, I bewitch, is also wizard. In Otomi 

 one and the same word can be a substantive, adjective, verb and adverb. See 

 H. H. Bancroft's work; The Native Races of the Pacific States, Vol. Ill, pp. 

 645, 700 and 739. In the Fiji language simple forms of the verbs are used as 

 nouns, e.g. , butako to thieve and theft, solco to sail and sailing, masu to pray 

 and prayer; see David Hazlewood's Fijian Grammar, page 7. Nouns and 

 verbs coincide in many respects in the Samoyedie languages, see Castren's 

 Grammatik der Samojedischen Sprache, pages 105 and 365. From Sanskrit we 

 can quote many examples, the few following suffice : Tcshudh to be hungry, and 

 leshudh, /. hunger ; guh to conceal, and as a f . noun, hiding place (Vedic) ; cit 

 to perceive, and f . n. thought ; ji to conquer, and victorious, or victor ; jyct, 

 to oppress, and f. n. overpowering force ; tan to extend, and f. n. continua- 

 tion ; tw to run, and m. n. warrior ; dis to show, and f . n. direction, quarter ; 

 dris to see, f . n. sight, eye ; dyut to shine, and f . n. splendour ; druh to hate, and 

 f . n. injury ; dhl to think, and f . n. thought ; nu to praise, and f . n. praise ; 

 nrit to dance, and f . n. dancing ; pis to adorn, and f . n. ornament ; b h% to 

 fear, and f . n. fear ; bhuj to enjoy, and f . n. enjoyment ; bhu to be, and f . n. 

 substance, earth ; mu to bind, and f.n. tying; ruj to break, and f. n. fracture ; 

 rud to cry, and f . n. cry ; vis to enter, m. n. a settler, f . n. entrance, 

 house ; &c. &c. 



(108) In the Kaffir language the infinitive of the verb is used as a verbal noun, 

 e.g., ukutanda to love and love ; tikutamba to go and journey. See : Eev. Davis' 

 Grammar of the Kaffir Language, page 6. In the Fiji dialect verbs are 

 occasionally derived from nouns, as bukana to add fuel, from buka fuel ; rubuna 

 to put into a box, from rubu a box, &c. See : Fijian Grammar, page 29. 

 Compare in English the book, to book ; the pocket, to pocket ; the ticket, to 

 ticket, &c, &c. 



