OF LANGUAGES. 



81 



In their language between animate and inanimate beings ; 127 

 and the Singhalese decline differently nouns denoting animate 

 beings and inanimate objects. 



The Hungarian 128 and Dravidian, as "well as the Turkish, 

 Ugrian and other kindred languages appear to have possessed 

 originally this classification, though s©me did not retain 

 it, and others replaced it by a similar arrangement. All 

 these languages ignore sex, but they substitute in their 

 classification rational and irrational beings for animate and 

 inanimate creatures. The Brahmanized, or rather the Brah- 

 man grammarians of the Tamil and Telugu languages, called 

 "rationals" and "irrationals'' high caste (uyar tinai) and 

 casteless, {ahrinai) or majors (mahatox mahadvacakamulu) and 

 minors (amahat or amahadvdcakamulu) respectively. There 

 exists a slight difference in the application of the main 

 principle. Telugu and Grond have preserved the original 

 system in its purer form, while Tamil, Canarese and Malaya- 

 lam have somewhat modified it. 



Gods, devils and men are supposed to be endowed with 

 reason. Among men are only understood the lords of the 

 creation. All besides are deficient in reason. But this 

 system labors under one defect. Let the estimate which the 



(127) See M. Alexander Castren's " Versuch einer Jenissei-Ostjakischen 

 und Kottischen Sprachlehre . . herausgegeben von Anton Schiefner," pages 

 ix and 32. This concrete symptom in their language is the more important 

 as the Kottes are reported to distinguish a masculine and a feminine gender 

 in the pronoun of the third person ; two idioms which appear incompatible 

 with each other. The truth is, that what remains of the Kottes and their 

 language is in such a state of dissolution, that it is unsafe to rely on it. 

 The distinction of gender in the pronoun of the third person appears to he of 

 later origin in the Kottish language, and caused by adding the female 

 termination to the pronominal root. In the same manner it is added to the 

 term expressing consanguineous popes, ji-popes (male consanguineous) 

 brother, and popes + xa = popec'a sister. Compare the Yenissei Ostiak 

 bise'dp consanguineous, fig bisedp (male consanguineous) brother, Tchim bisedp 

 or bisedp x am (female consanguineous) sister ; Castren, I.e., p. 15. 



(128) The third personal pronoun when applied to rational beings is d in the 

 singular and ok in the plural ; when applied to irrationals it is respectively 

 az and arok. c 



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