76 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



(suffixes) possessing representative power. If the word for 

 " man" were formed with one suffix (-P or-Bi), and the word 

 indicating " woman" with another (-S), then other nouns of 

 each sex would be formed, with the same derivative suffixes, in 

 analogy with these." 



All these excerpts prove that whatever may be the origin 

 and the aim of these concords in the African languages, they 

 are by their very nature distinct from gender, which may be 

 incidentally, but not intentionally expressed by them. 



The explanation of what constitutes gender as we find it in 

 the excellent " Principles of Comparative Philology" 118 is, in 

 other respects, open to criticism. Professor Sayce says there 

 as follows : 



" Gender, consequently, is by no means engrained in the 

 nature of things. It is a secondary accident of speech, orna- 

 mental, perhaps, from an aesthetic point of view, but practically 

 highly detrimental ; and it is curious that modern English has, 

 in this, as in so much else, gone back to the simple beginnings 

 of the sexual relations, and distinguishes gender only by means 

 of the corresponding pronouns." 



It is evident, that Professor Sayce does not sufficiently 

 appreciate the nature and the importance of gender. It is a 

 grammatical distinction of a very high class, and is the product 

 of reflection. It may take time to mature the results of such 

 reflection, but a certain pow r er of abstraction is required in 

 order to conceive the idea of gender. This power of abstrac- 

 tion is wanting in concrete languages, it is existing in 

 abstract languages. Gender is therefore engrained in the 

 nature of all abstract languages; it need not show itself 

 present in form, but it is present in spirit. The existence of 

 gender in languages is in fact a proof of their abstract 

 character. 



It is very instructive to follow the Sanskrit grammarians 

 in their investigations, which regard to questions of this kind. 



(118) See La, page 272. 



