282 
REPORT —1847. 
verbs, for supplying an evident defect by new formations. These auxiliary 
verbs unite with the personal pronouns, and thus form a very periphrastic 
mode of distinguishing moods and tenses. The negative particles do the 
same; and the Coptic has a complete peripliraslic negative conjugation, 
of which there is not the slightest trace in the «>l<i Egyptian. The old 
ianguaga seems to uio to preserve tin*, indubitable germ* of two much more 
organic and higher forms. It shows a germ first of what I beg to call 
the Semitic conjugation, by which term 1 designate the modification of the 
predicute contained in each adjective verb, and even of the Saiiscritic coiyu* 
gation. which is intended to mark the mwlifiratioiis of which the cojiula i» 
capable, according to lime and mode of existence-. Now the development 
of those germs in the Coptic w not organic, as we find it in Hebrew 
Sanscrit, but on the contrary efioetod by a purely mechanical process. Ihe 
change is no real developuient. TIsus the verb tre or thre, uniting 'tsfij 
with the pronominal alfixcs, makes a verl) causative, as the Hebrew Ihpbu 
does. 
The ancient Egyptian had inconteslably the germs of the composition of 
words to express, by the union of two, a third, more abstract, or ideal notion, 
for whicli the language hail no simple expression. .Such an union original J 
took place by juxtaposition, later Ijy means of the prejmslfion li. Coptic lor* 
Illations, like mu-h-hdu, water of moisture, viz. rain, or tidm-h-heU to coiwumc 
the heart, viz. repent, are anulogous t<» the ancient language, but much more 
frequent. In many cases the original simple expressions may have become 
obsolete by having become unintelligible. IJe.dde.s there must have been m 
progress of time un iiicrenw'd consciousnci^s of intellectual moilc* ot existence, 
and this conseionsticsf calleil forth necessarily new formations in the Coptic- 
lint such formations .ire all conglomerations or agglutinalloiis of words, no 
compositions. The component parts exercise no inHuence one over t'* 
other; no change is prodnrod in thn root by jilacing before or adcr d » 
mollifying word or particle; but the ancient Egyptian language exlnli't* 
such an attraction. Tho Egyptian root is not tim unalterable parUcle, or 
rather sentence-word, of the Chinese, and, in composition, of the mudera 
Coptic. //«r, Ilorus, becomes in composition/<r, her. Hero a decided sen 
sibility ot the root is pcToepiible : it Is affected by the substantive which o 
lows it, and with wliich it U united. This is tlie same sign of lifR “ 
substantive shows in tlm Mebrow Hfnhis cojiittrurlus, when followed byano 
subHUntivc with which it is connectcil, by what wo call the relation ol 
genitive case : as ium, u lake; iiim (or io;n) /fbiercf, the lake of Gennesowi, 
shdmih,jx year; thnnUadondi, the year of the Lord. All Coptic abstrac^^ 
and derivative nouns are. formed by mechanical processes or mere juxbip^ 
tion: in order to make from skhApi, to iuhabit, a word for habitations^"®? 
mu-n say, a place to inhabit. mu-'.ikh6pi. Thus hap U jadgemeut, 
a place of judgement, tribunal. lo a eimilar way they form out ot w ’ 
honour; maifaio, amliiiious; literally, loving honour. There is no p^ 
manifested by one word over tbe other, as in Opwwos, or 
or harmherzig. It is a more mechanical agglomeration of the two w 
connected by a preposition and having oue accent. Much less of yp 
this the case in hybrid words; for the Greek nouns used by the Copts ns 
neither case nor iiuiuIkt. }inn (native), with the preposition’ 
prefixed to a simple noun, form derivative adjectives ; pty heaven; 
heavenly. i?</(probably from rn, to make, with the nominal formative/ p 
maker, is used in order to fonn a verb or substantive denoting him 'i , 
cises the function, or causes the action expressed by the verb, as /mm 
refnauy an inspector; ref-muut, qui affert mortem, the killer. The interm 
