1808.] 
former verb ; O Sir, and come Sir, being 
with them the same: and, « or ao, con- 
tracted O, is the sign of the vocative case 
in very many languages. But a, ao, ae, 
an, am, correspond with our word come, 
either in an leperative or participial 
sense; and, our a, an, one, are, I doubt 
not, descended from them, as the Greek 
esc, one Is from ess, to go, be: and, a, an 
are the most common terminations of the 
singular amongst’ the Indians; @ horse, 
one horse, horse come (positively). And 
to shew the probability that this verb 
may have reached us even from such a 
distance, I cannot avoid noticing its op- 
posites, ja, jao, jan, which have not only 
the same meaning as our go, gone; but 
as nearly the same shape and sound as 
can be expected to exist in words of a 
similar import, selected from dialects 
the most closely allied to each other. 
But, whether the deduction of one from 
the Indian dn, be rejected or admitted, 
is not a point of the first importance to 
this enquiry, if the o in other can be al- 
lowed to mean one; and, when regard is 
had to the German ander, in which un- 
doubtedly the first syllable 1s the Saxon 
ane one; and,to the manner in which 
other people have expressed the meaning 
of this word, as will be explained here- 
after; few will hesitate, I think, to grant 
this assumption. Let us, however, now 
endeavour to ascertain the import of ter 
or ther. This particle is yenerally the 
sign of comparison both in the Persian 
and Greek, and, though that sign in 
Saxon, German, and English, is for the 
most part less by the first letter; yet, 
considering that the two first mentioned 
languages are the predecessors of the 
three latter, or, at least, descended from 
the same stock as they; that the meaning 
we shall give to ter accords better with 
the subsequent word than, than the ehe, 
er, ere, before, of the German and Saxon; 
we will suppose the ¢ dropped by use, 
and our er to spring from the same root 
as the Persian and Greck ter. Indeed, 
we have further, the comparative of fur, 
though Johnson derives it otherwise ; 
and, we have there, denoting the remote, 
which is precisely the sense of ter, if we 
deduce it from the Arabic TERRA, abut, 
remotus fuit: for though I have deseri 
the Arabic as a distinct language, yet I 
anust be understood as speaking compa- 
ratiyely, not absolutely; the roots of 
gany words will be found in it, which 
have: become obsolete in other dialects. 
Deducting, therefore, fer fron the 
" * 
of other than, from Oriental roots. 
501 
Arabic terra, or taking it to have a si- 
milar meaning; and 0, one. from the In- 
dian @, do, an, oro from one; we have’ 
other, formed on the same model. as the 
Greek eregos, importing one remote, oné 
there. In the German ander, the an, one, 
is somewhat more conspicuous, though 
the nasal letter m often vanishes, as in 
either, which has evicently dropped the 
m, and which is plaiuly the same as we 
endeavour to prove other, though a little 
ditferently applied in use: and the soft ¢ 
in ¢er is written by the Germans. d, just 
as it is by the Saxons and Envlish th, 
through a predilection for those letters. 
The Arabic and Hebrew dkhar, poste- 
rior, conveys nearly the same idea: and, 
the Turkish ao bir, that one, one remote 
in comparison with the one, is exactly 
similar, The Indians say aur, bring, as 
aur log oonke siwa , * other peopie besides 
them ;” literally, “ bring people besides 
them:” and, [suspect that the Greek waac, 
as well as the Latin alius are constructed 
of the Indian a, an, one and da, bring. 
The Persians use dé gar, give, giving; or 
dusra second: the. former resembles 
much the Indian expression; but, the se- 
cond is the one separate, removed, apart 
from the one positives) its import is, 
therefore, the same as that we have attri-« 
buted to other. 
Though most nations make use of some 
sign to distinguish the comparative ad- 
jective from the positive; yet, such is 
not always the case: the Arabs frequently 
dispense with their prefix; the preposi- 
tion min, from, before the subsequent 
noun fully determining the sense: the 
Indians need not such an expedient; 
their postposition denoting from being 
‘deemed sufficient: and, the Vurks some- 
times omit the sign; the comparison bee 
ing clearly exposed by dun, the characte- 
ristic of the ablative, attached to the fole 
lowing noun. But, this daz is surely the 
original of the German dann, and ‘the 
English than; for, as itis the termination 
of the ablative, and its meaning is from, 
our than derived from it wil! accord with 
the words used for the same purpose in 
most other Janguages; and, the identity 
of words having so nearly the same form 
and sound, and exactly the same use, 
cannot with reason be doubted, 
Thus we have analysed other into come 
remote or one remote ; and, we have shewn 
that than has the force of from: we have, 
moreover, given some reasons for believ- 
ing that other has the original termina- 
tion of comparaiive adjectives; at least, . 
‘the 
