b. By each, or some equivalent term, in English, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages—each other, English; elkander, Dutch; hverandre, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish.
c. By this, or some equivalent term, in Swedish and Danish (hinanden); in Lithuanic (kitts kittâ), and in Lettish (zitts zittu).
d. By other, or some equivalent term, in Greek and Armenian; [a]ἁλλήλους], irærats.
e. By man, used in an indefinite sense and compounded with lik in Dutch, malkander (mal-lik manlik).
f. By a term equivalent to mate or fellow in Laplandic—gòim gòimeme.—Rask, 'Lappisk Sproglære,' p. 102. Stockfleth, 'Grammatik,' p. 109.
2. a. In the expression of the object the current term is other or some equivalent word. Of this the use is even more constant than that of one expressive of the subject—l'un l'autre, French; uno otro, Spanish; [a]ἁλλήλους], Greek; geden druheho, Bohemian; ieden drugiego, Polish; weens ohtru, Lettish; irærats, Armenian; einander, German; each other, one another, English.
b. In Lithuanic the term in use is one; as, wiens wienâ. The same is the case for a second form in the Armenian mimœan.
c. In Laplandic it is denoted in the same as the subject; as gòim gòimeme.
Undoubtedly there are other varieties of this general method of expression. Upon those already exhibited a few remarks, however, may be made.
1. In respect to languages like the French, Spanish, &c., where the two nouns, instead of coalescing, remain separate, each retaining its inflection, it is clear that they possess a greater amount of perspicuity; inasmuch as (to say nothing of the distinction of gender) the subject can be used in the singular number when the mutual action of two persons (i. e. of one upon another) is spoken of, and in the plural when we signify that of more than two; e. g. ils (i. e. A and B) se battaient—l'un l'autre: but ils (A, B, C and D,) se battaient—les uns les autres. This degree of perspicuity might be attained in English and other allied languages by reducing to practice the difference between the words each and one; in which case we might say A and B struck one another, but A, B and C struck each other. In the Scandinavian languages this distinction is real; where hinanden is equivalent to l'un l'autre, French; uno otro, Spanish: whilst hverandre expresses les uns les autres, French; unos otros, Spanish. The same is the case in the Laplandic.—See Rask's Lappisk Sproglære, p. 102.