[§ 456]. The analogy of the forms mei and ἐμοῦ in Latin and Greek.—It cannot be denied that this has some value. Nevertheless, the argument deducible from it is anything but conclusive.
1. It is by no means an indubitable fact that mei and ἐμοῦ are really cases of the pronoun. The extension of a principle acknowledged in the Greek language might make them the genitive cases of adjectives used pronominally. Thus,
| Τὸ ἐμὸν | =ἐγὼ, |
| Τοῦ ἐμοῦ | =ἐμοῦ, |
| Τῷ ἐμῷ | =ἐμοί. |
Assume the omission of the article and the extension of the Greek principle to the Latin language, and ἐμοῦ and mei may be cases, not of ἐμὲ and me, but of ἐμὸς and meus.
2. In the classical languages the partitive power was expressed by the genitive.
"—— multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam."
This is a reason for the evolution of a genitive power. Few such forms exist in the Gothic; part my is not English, nor was dæl min Anglo-Saxon,=part of me, or pars mei.
[§ 457]. The following differences of form, are found in the different Gothic languages, between the equivalents of mei and tui, the so-called genitives of ego and tu, and the equivalents of meus and tuus, the so-called possessive adjectives.