Now it must not be concealed that one of the arguments which apply to words like mine and thine being adjectives rather than genitives, does not apply to words like ejus, cujus, and hujus. The reason is as follows; and it is exhibited in nearly the same words which have been used in the work already mentioned.—The idea of partition is one of the ideas expressed by the genitive case. The necessity for expressing this idea is an element in the necessity for evolving a genitive case. With personal pronouns of the singular number the idea of partition is of less frequent occurrence than with most other words, since a personal pronoun of the singular number is the name of a unity, and, as such, the name of an object far less likely to be separated into parts than the name of a collection. Phrases like some of them, one of you, many of us, any of them, few of us, &c., have no analogues in the singular number, such as one of me, a few of thee, &c. The partitive words that can combine with singular pronouns are comparatively few, viz. half, quarter, part, &c.; and they can all combine equally with plurals—half of us, a quarter of them, a portion of us. The partition of a singular object with a pronominal name is of rare occurrence in language. This last statement proves something more than appears at first sight. It proves that no argument in favour of the so-called singular genitives, like mine and thine, can be drawn from the admission (if made) of the existence of the true plural genitives ou-r, you-r, the-ir. The two ideas are not in the same predicament.
Again, the convenience of expressing the difference between suus and ejus, is, to a certain extent, a reason for the evolution of a genitive case to words like is; but it is a reason to a certain extent only, and that extent a small one, since an equally convenient method of expressing the difference is to be found in the fact of there being two roots for the pronouns in question, the root from which we get ea, id, eum, ejus, &c., and the root from which we get sui, sibi, suus, &c.
Here the paper should end, for here ends the particular suggestion supplied by the word in question. Two questions however present themselves too forcibly to be wholly passed over:—
I. The great extent to which those who look in Latin for the same inflections that occur in Greek, must look for them under new names. That two tenses in Greek (the aorist like [a]ἔ-τυπ-σα], and the perfect like [a]τέ-τυφ-α]) must be looked for in the so-called double form of a single tense in Latin (vic-si, mo-mordi) is one of the oldest facts of this sort. That the Greek participle in [a]-μενος] ([a]τυπτόμενος]) must be sought for in the passive persons in -mini is a newer notice.
II. The fact that the character of the deflection that takes place between case and adjective is not single but double. It goes both ways. The change from case to adjective is one process in philology; the change from adjective to case another; and both should be recognized. This is mentioned for the sake of stating, that except in a few details, there is nothing in the present remarks that is meant to be at variance with the facts and arguments of five papers already laid before this Society, viz. those of Mr. Garnett on the Formation of Words from Inflected Cases, and on the Analysis of the Verb.
The papers alluded to really deal with two series of facts:—(A.) Deflection with identity of form.—In this the inflection is still considered an inflection, but is dealt with as one different from what it really is, i. e. as a nominative instead of an oblique one. Some years back the structure of the Finlandic suggested to the present writer:—
1. A series of changes in meaning whereby such a term as with waves might equal wavy.
2. The existence of a class of words of which sestertium was the type, where an oblique case, with a convertible termination, becomes a nominative.
3. The possible evolution of forms like fluctuba, fluctubum=fluctuosa, fluctuosum, from forms like fluctubus.
Mr. Garnett has multiplied cases of this kind; his illustrations from the Basque being pre-eminently typical, i. e. like the form sestertium. If the modern vehicle called an omnibus had been invented in ancient Rome, if it had had the same name as it has now, and if its plural form had been omnibi, it would also have been a typical instance.