[§ 310]. The proper preliminary to the study of the comparative and quasi-comparative forms in English is the history of the inflection or inflections by which they are expressed. There is no part of our grammar where it is more necessary to extend our view beyond the common limit of the Gothic stock of languages, than here.
In the Sanskrit language the signs of the comparative degree are two:—1. -tara, as punya=pure; punya-tara=purer; 2. -îyas, as kśipra=swift; kśêpîyas=swifter. Of these the first is the most in use.
The same forms occur in the Zend; as husko=dry; huskô-tara=drier; -îyas, however, is changed into -is.
In the classical languages we have the same forms. 1. in uter, neuter, alter, πότερος, λεπτότερος. 2. In the adverb magis, Lat. In Bohemian and Polish, -ssj and -szy correspond with the Sanskrit forms -îyas.
Thus we collect, that, expressive of the comparative degree, there are two parallel forms; viz., the form in tr, and the form in s; of which one is the most in use in one language, and the other in another.
[§ 311]. Before we consider the Gothic forms of the comparative, it may be advisable to note two changes to which it is liable. 1. The change of s into r; the Latin word meliorem being supposed to have been originally meliosem, and the s in nigrius, firmius, &c., being considered not so much the sign of the neuter gender as the old comparative s in its oldest form. 2. The ejection of t, as in the Latin words inferus, superus, compared with the Greek λεπτότερος (leptoteros).
[§ 312]. Now, of the two parallel forms, the Gothic one was the form s; the words other and whether only preserving the form tr. And here comes the application of the remarks that have just gone before. The vast majority of our comparatives end in r, and so seem to come from tr rather than from s. This, however, is not the case. The r in words like sweeter is derived, not from tar—t, but from s, changed into r. In Mœso-Gothic the comparative ended in s (z); in Old High German the s has become r: Mœso-Gothic aldiza, batiza, sutiza; Old High German, altiro, betsiro, suatsiro; English, older, better, sweeter.
The importance of a knowledge of the form in s is appreciated when we learn that, even in the present English, there are vestiges of it.
[§ 313]. Comparison of adverbs.—The sun shines bright.—Herein the word bright means brightly; and although the use of the latter word would have been the more elegant, the expression is not ungrammatical; the word bright being looked upon as an adjectival adverb.