78 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



express the inflections denoting gender, be it masculine or 

 feminine", 122 to abstract dialects only, nobody could gainsay 

 it, for it coincides with facts. Concrete languages are primarily 

 gender-ignoring, and the indications of gender they contain 

 are of a later origin. That every system has its shortcomings 

 and is not perfect, and that a classification which recognizes 

 gender, as do such languages as Hebrew and Sanskrit, offers 

 no exception to this rule, need not be commented upon. 



If we now return to the classification from which we started, 

 we will see that the South African, the great bulk of the 

 American, and some Asiatic languages acknowledge a 

 classification founded on the difference between animate 

 and inanimate creatures, while some other similar concrete 

 tongues, as Hungarian and the Dravidian dialects, prefer a 

 division between rationals and irrationals. In the Telugu 

 and Tamil grammars the latter go by the name of majors or 

 high caste words, and of minors or low caste words. 



Dr. Krapf says in his Outlines of Elements of the 

 Kisuaheli Language : 



" The mind of the South African divides, as it were, the 

 whole creation into two halves, of which the one is governed by 

 the principle of spontaneity of movement and of creative activity, 

 whilst the other follows the principle of passiveness and neces- 

 sity. The South African mind distinguishes the animate creation 

 from the inanimate, and again distinguishes in the animate 

 creation rational and irrational beings, men and brutes. 

 Furthermore, in the inanimate creation it distinguishes between 

 life and death as it were. In general, it would seem that the 

 South African mind, in the formation and cultivation of its 

 language, was guided by the impression of life, which pervades 

 the whole creation in various gradations or modifications." 123 



(122) See: Kenan, pages 25, 26 : " Plus les langues sont anciennes, plus la 

 distinction des flexions f eminines et masculines y est marquee : rien ne le 

 prouve mieux que le penchant, inexplicable pour nous, qui porta les peuples 

 primitifs a supposer un sexe a tous les etres, meme inanimes." 



(123) See " Outlines of Elements of the Kisuaheli Language," Part II, 

 Chap. II, page 36, as quoted in Rev. S. Ciwther's Yoruba Grammar, page 7. 



