[78] I have discussed this more in detail and added other m-words of a somewhat related character in Studier tillegnade E. Tegnér, 1918, p. 49 ff.
[79] Quoted here from John Wilkins, An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, 1668, p. 448: Wilkins there subjects Bacon’s saying to a crushing criticism, laying bare a great many radical deficiencies in Latin to bring out the logical advantages of his own artificial ‘philosophical’ language.
[80] Cf. also what Paul says (P 144) about one point in German grammar (strong and weak forms of adjectives): “But the difficulty of the correct maintenance of the distinction is shown in numerous offences made by writers against the rules of grammar”—of course, not only by writers, but by ordinary speakers as well.
[81] It has often been pointed out how Great Britain has ‘blundered’ into creating her world-wide Empire, and Gretton, in The King’s Government (1914), applies the same view to the development of governmental institutions.
[82] In the realm of significations he sees the ‘humanization’ of language exclusively in the development of abstract terms. An important point of disagreement between Baudouin and myself is in regard to morphology, where he sees only ‘oscillations’ in historical times, in which he is unable to discover a continuous movement in any definite direction, while I maintain that languages here manifest a definite progressive tendency.
[83] On the other hand, it is not, perhaps, fair to count the number of syllables, as these may vary very considerably, and some languages favour syllables with heavy consonant groups unknown in other tongues. The most rational measure of length would be to count the numbers of distinct (not sounds, but) articulations of separate speech organs—but that task is at any rate beyond my powers.
[84] Thus also the corresponding Lat. jecur by ficatum, Fr. foie.
[85] This ungainly repetition is frequent in the Latin of Roman law, e.g. Digest. IV. 5. 2, Qui quæve ... capite diminuti diminutæ esse dicentur, in eos easve ... iudicium dabo. | XLIII. 30, Qui quæve in potestate Lucii Titii est, si is eave apud te est, dolove malo tuo factum est quominus apud te esset, ita eum eamve exhibeas. | XI. 3, Qui servum servam alienum alienam recepisse persuasisseve quid ei dicitur dolo malo, quo eum eam deteriorem faceret, in eum, quanti ea res erit, in duplum iudicium dabo. I owe these and some other Latin examples to my late teacher, Dr. O. Siesbye. From French, Nyrop (Kongruens, p. 12) gives some corresponding examples: tous ceux et toutes celles qui, ayant été orphelins, avaient eu une enfance malheureuse (Philippe), and from Old French: Lors donna congié à ceus et à celes que il avoit rescous (Villehardouin).
[86] If instead of omnium veterum I had chosen, for instance, multorum antiquorum, the meaning of masculine gender would have been rendered four times: for languages, especially the older ones, are not distinguished by consistency.
[87] The change of the initial sound of the reminder belonging to the adjective is explained through composition with a ‘relative particle’ a; au becoming o, and ai, e. The numbers within parentheses refer to the numbers of Bleek’s classes. Similar sentences from Tonga are found in Torrend’s Compar. Gr. p. 6 f.