90 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



The terminations, which in the later period of a language 

 express generally the difference of gender, have in an earlier 

 stage hardly obtained an acknowledged position, to which 

 contingency we have alluded previously on page 84. In 

 Hebrew, e.g., the terminations of the feminine in the singular 

 are dh and eth, of the masculine in the plural %m, and of the 

 feminine in the plural 6th ; now db father has in the plural the 

 feminine termination 6th, dboth, fathers ; so have other mascu- 

 lines, as shem name, layil night, misbeach altar, ner light, kol 

 voice, shur wall, &c. ; while the feminine noun pilegesh 

 concubine takes the masculine termination %m in pilagshwi, 

 as do likewise debordh bee, milldh word, 'ir town, 141 and others. 

 The feminine Sanskrit nouns ending in short i and u take in 

 the Dative, Ablative, Genitive and Locative Singular besides 

 their feminine also the masculine terminations. The cardinal 

 numbers from 3 to 10 are in Hebrew masculines, when joined 

 with feminine terminations and feminines without them, as 

 sheloshdh m., shalosh f.j three ; arUddh m. and arVa f., four, 

 &c, and the numbers from 20 to 100 inch are of common 

 gender, though ending in the masculine termination. 



The pronoun of the third person is the most positive 

 evidence for the character of a language so far as it concerns 

 the question whether a dialect ignores 1 * 2 or denotes gender. 

 In the former case the pronoun does not express gender, in the 

 latter two or three forms are required, according as the idiom 



(141) Shemoth, Moth, misbechdth, ngroth, koloth, shuroth ; pilagshim, 

 deborim, milllm, 'Irim. 



(142) The language of the Kottes is the only concrete dialect which appar- 

 ently recognizes, as we have seen above, gender in the third personal pronoun ; 

 while the representative of an ancient abstract language, the modern Persian, 

 has dropped it even there. Bat then these exceptions are easily explained 

 when we consider the history of these respective nations. The influence of 

 the frequent invasions of Turks and Tatars into Persia is visible in the 

 Persian language, which acknowledges the concrete distinction of nouns 

 between animates and inanimates in the plural terminations an and ha. 



The case of the Kottes is also easily explained, when we remember what 

 Castren says about them, I.e., pages v. and vi : " Ich fand auf meiner 



