Language Part 3

which can be used only in "definite" tenses. It is highly important to understand that the use of _-e-_ is conditional on that of _-s-_ or of certain alternative prefixes and that _te-_ also is in practice linked with _-s-_. The group _te-s-e-ya_ is a firmly knit grammatical unit. The suffix _-te_, which indicates the future, is no more necessary to its formal balance than is the prefixed _re-_ of the Latin word; it is not an element that is capable of standing alone but its function is materially delimiting rather than strictly formal.[31]

[Footnote 30: Including such languages as Navaho, Apache, Hupa, Carrier, Chipewyan, Loucheux.]

[Footnote 31: This may seem surprising to an English reader. We generally think of time as a function that is appropriately expressed in a purely formal manner. This notion is due to the bias that Latin grammar has given us. As a matter of fact the English future (_I shall go_) is not expressed by affixing at all; moreover, it may be expressed by the present, as in _to-morrow I leave this place_, where the temporal function is inherent in the independent adverb. Though in lesser degree, the Hupa _-te_ is as irrelevant to the vital word as is _to-morrow_ to the grammatical "feel" of _I leave_.]

It is not always, however, that we can clearly set off the suffixes of a language as a group against its prefixes. In probably the majority of languages that use both types of affixes each group has both delimiting and formal or relational functions. The most that we can say is that a language tends to express similar functions in either the one or the other manner. If a certain verb expresses a certain tense by suffixing, the probability is strong that it expresses its other tenses in an a.n.a.logous fas.h.i.+on and that, indeed, all verbs have suffixed tense elements. Similarly, we normally expect to find the p.r.o.nominal elements, so far as they are included in the verb at all, either consistently prefixed or suffixed. But these rules are far from absolute. We have already seen that Hebrew prefixes its p.r.o.nominal elements in certain cases, suffixes them in others. In Chimariko, an Indian language of California, the position of the p.r.o.nominal affixes depends on the verb; they are prefixed for certain verbs, suffixed for others.

It will not be necessary to give many further examples of prefixing and suffixing. One of each category will suffice to ill.u.s.trate their formative possibilities. The idea expressed in English by the sentence _I came to give it to her_ is rendered in Chinook[32] by _i-n-i-a-l-u-d-am_. This word--and it is a thoroughly unified word with a clear-cut accent on the first _a_--consists of a radical element, _-d-_ "to give," six functionally distinct, if phonetically frail, prefixed elements, and a suffix. Of the prefixes, _i-_ indicates recently past time; _n-_, the p.r.o.nominal subject "I"; _-i-_, the p.r.o.nominal object "it";[33] _-a-_, the second p.r.o.nominal object "her"; _-l-_, a prepositional element indicating that the preceding p.r.o.nominal prefix is to be understood as an indirect object (_-her-to-_, i.e., "to her"); and _-u-_, an element that it is not easy to define satisfactorily but which, on the whole, indicates movement away from the speaker. The suffixed _-am_ modifies the verbal content in a local sense; it adds to the notion conveyed by the radical element that of "arriving" or "going (or coming) for that particular purpose." It is obvious that in Chinook, as in Hupa, the greater part of the grammatical machinery resides in the prefixes rather than in the suffixes.

[Footnote 32: Wishram dialect.]

[Footnote 33: Really "him," but Chinook, like Latin or French, possesses grammatical gender. An object may be referred to as "he," "she," or "it," according to the characteristic form of its noun.]

A reverse case, one in which the grammatically significant elements cl.u.s.ter, as in Latin, at the end of the word is yielded by Fox, one of the better known Algonkin languages of the Mississippi Valley. We may take the form _eh-kiwi-n-a-m-oht-ati-wa-ch(i)_ "then they together kept (him) in flight from them." The radical element here is _kiwi-_, a verb stem indicating the general notion of "indefinite movement round about, here and there." The prefixed element _eh-_ is hardly more than an adverbial particle indicating temporal subordination; it may be conveniently rendered as "then." Of the seven suffixes included in this highly-wrought word, _-n-_ seems to be merely a phonetic element serving to connect the verb stem with the following _-a-_;[34] _-a-_ is a "secondary stem"[35] denoting the idea of "flight, to flee"; _-m-_ denotes causality with reference to an animate object;[36] _-o(ht)-_ indicates activity done for the subject (the so-called "middle" or "medio-pa.s.sive" voice of Greek); _-(a)ti-_ is a reciprocal element, "one another"; _-wa-ch(i)_ is the third person animate plural (_-wa-_, plural; _-chi_, more properly personal) of so-called "conjunctive"

forms. The word may be translated more literally (and yet only approximately as to grammatical feeling) as "then they (animate) caused some animate being to wander about in flight from one another of themselves." Eskimo, Nootka, Yana, and other languages have similarly complex arrays of suffixed elements, though the functions performed by them and their principles of combination differ widely.

[Footnote 34: This a.n.a.lysis is doubtful. It is likely that _-n-_ possesses a function that still remains to be ascertained. The Algonkin languages are unusually complex and present many unsolved problems of detail.]

[Footnote 35: "Secondary stems" are elements which are suffixes from a formal point of view, never appearing without the support of a true radical element, but whose function is as concrete, to all intents and purposes, as that of the radical element itself. Secondary verb stems of this type are characteristic of the Algonkin languages and of Yana.]

[Footnote 36: In the Algonkin languages all persons and things are conceived of as either animate or inanimate, just as in Latin or German they are conceived of as masculine, feminine, or neuter.]

We have reserved the very curious type of affixation known as "infixing"

for separate ill.u.s.tration. It is utterly unknown in English, unless we consider the _-n-_ of _stand_ (contrast _stood_) as an infixed element.

The earlier Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Greek and Sanskrit, made a fairly considerable use of infixed nasals to differentiate the present tense of a certain cla.s.s of verbs from other forms (contrast Latin _vinc-o_ "I conquer" with _vic-i_ "I conquered"; Greek _lamb-an-o_ "I take" with _e-lab-on_ "I took"). There are, however, more striking examples of the process, examples in which it has a.s.sumed a more clearly defined function than in these Latin and Greek cases. It is particularly prevalent in many languages of southeastern Asia and of the Malay archipelago. Good examples from Khmer (Cambodgian) are _tmeu_ "one who walks" and _daneu_ "walking" (verbal noun), both derived from _deu_ "to walk." Further examples may be quoted from Bontoc Igorot, a Filipino language. Thus, an infixed _-in-_ conveys the idea of the product of an accomplished action, e.g., _kayu_ "wood," _kinayu_ "gathered wood."

Infixes are also freely used in the Bontoc Igorot verb. Thus, an infixed _-um-_ is characteristic of many intransitive verbs with personal p.r.o.nominal suffixes, e.g., _sad-_ "to wait," _sumid-ak_ "I wait"; _kineg_ "silent," _k.u.minek-ak_ "I am silent." In other verbs it indicates futurity, e.g., _tengao-_ "to celebrate a holiday,"

_tumengao-ak_ "I shall have a holiday." The past tense is frequently indicated by an infixed _-in-_; if there is already an infixed _-um-_, the two elements combine to _-in-m-_, e.g., _kinminek-ak_ "I am silent."

Obviously the infixing process has in this (and related) languages the same vitality that is possessed by the commoner prefixes and suffixes of other languages. The process is also found in a number of aboriginal American languages. The Yana plural is sometimes formed by an infixed element, e.g., _k'uruwi_ "medicine-men," _k'uwi_ "medicine-man"; in Chinook an infixed _-l-_ is used in certain verbs to indicate repeated activity, e.g., _ksik'ludelk_ "she keeps looking at him," _iksik'lutk_ "she looked at him" (radical element _-tk_). A peculiarly interesting type of infixation is found in the Siouan languages, in which certain verbs insert the p.r.o.nominal elements into the very body of the radical element, e.g., Sioux _cheti_ "to build a fire," _chewati_ "I build a fire"; _shuta_ "to miss," _shuunta-pi_ "we miss."

A subsidiary but by no means unimportant grammatical process is that of internal vocalic or consonantal change. In some languages, as in English (_sing_, _sang_, _sung_, _song_; _goose_, _geese_), the former of these has become one of the major methods of indicating fundamental changes of grammatical function. At any rate, the process is alive enough to lead our children into untrodden ways. We all know of the growing youngster who speaks of having _brung_ something, on the a.n.a.logy of such forms as _sung_ and _flung_. In Hebrew, as we have seen, vocalic change is of even greater significance than in English. What is true of Hebrew is of course true of all other Semitic languages. A few examples of so-called "broken" plurals from Arabic[37] will supplement the Hebrew verb forms that I have given in another connection. The noun _balad_ "place" has the plural form _bilad_;[38] _gild_ "hide" forms the plural _gulud_; _ragil_ "man," the plural _rigal_; _s.h.i.+bbak_ "window," the plural _shababik_. Very similar phenomena are ill.u.s.trated by the Hamitic languages of Northern Africa, e.g., s.h.i.+lh[39] _izbil_ "hair," plural _izbel_; _a-slem_ "fish," plural _i-slim-en_; _sn_ "to know," _sen_ "to be knowing"; _rmi_ "to become tired," _rumni_ "to be tired"; _ttss_[40]

"to fall asleep," _ttoss_ "to sleep." Strikingly similar to English and Greek alternations of the type _sing_--_sang_ and _leip-o_ "I leave,"

_leloip-a_ "I have left," are such Somali[41] cases as _al_ "I am," _il_ "I was"; _i-dah-a_ "I say," _i-di_ "I said," _deh_ "say!"

[Footnote 37: Egyptian dialect.]

[Footnote 38: There are changes of accent and vocalic quant.i.ty in these forms as well, but the requirements of simplicity force us to neglect them.]

[Footnote 39: A Berber language of Morocco.]

[Footnote 40: Some of the Berber languages allow consonantal combinations that seem unp.r.o.nounceable to us.]

[Footnote 41: One of the Hamitic languages of eastern Africa.]

Vocalic change is of great significance also in a number of American Indian languages. In the Athabaskan group many verbs change the quality or quant.i.ty of the vowel of the radical element as it changes its tense or mode. The Navaho verb for "I put (grain) into a receptacle" is _bi-hi-sh-ja_, in which _-ja_ is the radical element; the past tense, _bi-hi-ja'_, has a long _a_-vowel, followed by the "glottal stop"[42]; the future is _bi-h-de-sh-ji_ with complete change of vowel. In other types of Navaho verbs the vocalic changes follow different lines, e.g., _yah-a-ni-ye_ "you carry (a pack) into (a stable)"; past, _yah-i-ni-yin_ (with long _i_ in _-yin_; _-n_ is here used to indicate nasalization); future, _yah-a-di-yehl_ (with long _e_). In another Indian language, Yokuts[43], vocalic modifications affect both noun and verb forms. Thus, _buchong_ "son" forms the plural _bochang-i_ (contrast the objective _buchong-a_); _enash_ "grandfather," the plural _inash-a_; the verb _engtyim_ "to sleep" forms the continuative _ingetym-ad_ "to be sleeping" and the past _ingetym-ash_.

[Footnote 42: See page 49.]

[Transcriber's note: Footnote 42 refers to the paragraph beginning on line 1534.]

[Footnote 43: Spoken in the south-central part of California.]

Consonantal change as a functional process is probably far less common than vocalic modifications, but it is not exactly rare. There is an interesting group of cases in English, certain nouns and corresponding verbs differing solely in that the final consonant is voiceless or voiced. Examples are _wreath_ (with _th_ as in _think_), but _to wreathe_ (with _th_ as in _then_); _house_, but _to house_ (with _s_ p.r.o.nounced like _z_). That we have a distinct feeling for the interchange as a means of distinguis.h.i.+ng the noun from the verb is indicated by the extension of the principle by many Americans to such a noun as _rise_ (e.g., _the rise of democracy_)--p.r.o.nounced like _rice_--in contrast to the verb _to rise_ (_s_ like _z_).

In the Celtic languages the initial consonants undergo several types of change according to the grammatical relation that subsists between the word itself and the preceding word. Thus, in modern Irish, a word like _bo_ "ox" may under the appropriate circ.u.mstances, take the forms _bho_ (p.r.o.nounce _wo_) or _mo_ (e.g., _an bo_ "the ox," as a subject, but _tir na mo_ "land of the oxen," as a possessive plural). In the verb the principle has as one of its most striking consequences the "aspiration"

of initial consonants in the past tense. If a verb begins with _t_, say, it changes the _t_ to _th_ (now p.r.o.nounced _h_) in forms of the past; if it begins with _g_, the consonant changes, in a.n.a.logous forms, to _gh_ (p.r.o.nounced like a voiced spirant[44] _g_ or like _y_, according to the nature of the following vowel). In modern Irish the principle of consonantal change, which began in the oldest period of the language as a secondary consequence of certain phonetic conditions, has become one of the primary grammatical processes of the language.

[Footnote 44: See page 50.]

[Transcriber's note: Footnote 44 refers to the paragraph beginning on line 1534.]

Perhaps as remarkable as these Irish phenomena are the consonantal interchanges of Ful, an African language of the Soudan. Here we find that all nouns belonging to the personal cla.s.s form the plural by changing their initial _g_, _j_, _d_, _b_, _k_, _ch_, and _p_ to _y_ (or _w_), _y_, _r_, _w_, _h_, _s_ and _f_ respectively; e.g., _jim-o_ "companion," _yim-'be_ "companions"; _pio-o_ "beater," _fio-'be_ "beaters." Curiously enough, nouns that belong to the cla.s.s of things form their singular and plural in exactly reverse fas.h.i.+on, e.g., _yola-re_ "gra.s.s-grown place," _jola-je_ "gra.s.s-grown places"; _fitan-du_ "soul," _pital-i_ "souls." In Nootka, to refer to but one other language in which the process is found, the _t_ or _tl_[45] of many verbal suffixes becomes _hl_ in forms denoting repet.i.tion, e.g., _hita-'ato_ "to fall out," _hita-'ahl_ "to keep falling out"; _mat-achisht-utl_ "to fly on to the water," _mat-achisht-ohl_ "to keep flying on to the water." Further, the _hl_ of certain elements changes to a peculiar _h_-sound in plural forms, e.g., _yak-ohl_ "sore-faced,"

_yak-oh_ "sore-faced (people)."

[Footnote 45: These orthographies are but makes.h.i.+fts for simple sounds.]

Nothing is more natural than the prevalence of reduplication, in other words, the repet.i.tion of all or part of the radical element. The process is generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repet.i.tion, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity, continuance. Even in English it is not unknown, though it is not generally accounted one of the typical formative devices of our language. Such words as _goody-goody_ and _to pooh-pooh_ have become accepted as part of our normal vocabulary, but the method of duplication may on occasion be used more freely than is indicated by such stereotyped examples. Such locutions as _a big big man_ or _Let it cool till it's thick thick_ are far more common, especially in the speech of women and children, than our linguistic text-books would lead one to suppose. In a cla.s.s by themselves are the really enormous number of words, many of them sound-imitative or contemptuous in psychological tone, that consist of duplications with either change of the vowel or change of the initial consonant--words of the type _sing-song_, _riff-raff_, _wishy-washy_, _harum-skarum_, _roly-poly_. Words of this type are all but universal. Such examples as the Russian _Chudo-Yudo_ (a dragon), the Chinese _ping-pang_ "rattling of rain on the roof,"[46] the Tibetan _kyang-kyong_ "lazy," and the Manchu _porpon parpan_ "blear-eyed" are curiously reminiscent, both in form and in psychology, of words nearer home. But it can hardly be said that the duplicative process is of a distinctively grammatical significance in English. We must turn to other languages for ill.u.s.tration. Such cases as Hottentot _go-go_ "to look at carefully"

(from _go_ "to see"), Somali _fen-fen_ "to gnaw at on all sides" (from _fen_ "to gnaw at"), Chinook _iwi iwi_ "to look about carefully, to examine" (from _iwi_ "to appear"), or Tsims.h.i.+an _am'am_ "several (are) good" (from _am_ "good") do not depart from the natural and fundamental range of significance of the process. A more abstract function is ill.u.s.trated in Ewe,[47] in which both infinitives and verbal adjectives are formed from verbs by duplication; e.g., _yi_ "to go," _yiyi_ "to go, act of going"; _wo_ "to do," _wowo_[48] "done"; _mawomawo_ "not to do"

(with both duplicated verb stem and duplicated negative particle).

Causative duplications are characteristic of Hottentot, e.g., _gam-gam_[49] "to cause to tell" (from _gam_ "to tell"). Or the process may be used to derive verbs from nouns, as in Hottentot _khoe-khoe_ "to talk Hottentot" (from _khoe-b_ "man, Hottentot"), or as in Kwakiutl _metmat_ "to eat clams" (radical element _met-_ "clam").

[Footnote 46: Whence our _ping-pong_.]

[Footnote 47: An African language of the Guinea Coast.]

[Footnote 48: In the verbal adjective the tone of the second syllable differs from that of the first.]

[Footnote 49: Initial "click" (see page 55, note 15) omitted.]

[Transcriber's note: Footnote 49 refers to Footnote 24, beginning on line 1729.]

The most characteristic examples of reduplication are such as repeat only part of the radical element. It would be possible to demonstrate the existence of a vast number of formal types of such partial duplication, according to whether the process makes use of one or more of the radical consonants, preserves or weakens or alters the radical vowel, or affects the beginning, the middle, or the end of the radical element. The functions are even more exuberantly developed than with simple duplication, though the basic notion, at least in origin, is nearly always one of repet.i.tion or continuance. Examples ill.u.s.trating this fundamental function can be quoted from all parts of the globe.

Initially reduplicating are, for instance, s.h.i.+lh _ggen_ "to be sleeping"

(from _gen_ "to sleep"); Ful _pepeu-'do_ "liar" (i.e., "one who always lies"), plural _fefeu-'be_ (from _fewa_ "to lie"); Bontoc Igorot _anak_ "child," _ananak_ "children"; _kamu-ek_ "I hasten," _kakamu-ek_ "I hasten more"; Tsims.h.i.+an _gyad_ "person," _gyigyad_ "people"; Na.s.s _gyibayuk_ "to fly," _gyigyibayuk_ "one who is flying." Psychologically comparable, but with the reduplication at the end, are Somali _ur_ "body," plural _urar_; Hausa _suna_ "name," plural _sunana-ki;_ Washo[50] _gusu_ "buffalo," _gususu_ "buffaloes"; Takelma[51] _himi-d-_ "to talk to," _himim-d-_ "to be accustomed to talk to." Even more commonly than simple duplication, this partial duplication of the radical element has taken on in many languages functions that seem in no way related to the idea of increase. The best known examples are probably the initial reduplication of our older Indo-European languages, which helps to form the perfect tense of many verbs (e.g., Sanskrit _dadarsha_ "I have seen," Greek _leloipa_ "I have left," Latin _tetigi_ "I have touched," Gothic _lelot_ "I have let"). In Nootka reduplication of the radical element is often employed in a.s.sociation with certain suffixes; e.g., _hluch-_ "woman" forms _hluhluch-'ituhl_ "to dream of a woman," _hluhluch-k'ok_ "resembling a woman." Psychologically similar to the Greek and Latin examples are many Takelma cases of verbs that exhibit two forms of the stem, one employed in the present or past, the other in the future and in certain modes and verbal derivatives. The former has final reduplication, which is absent in the latter; e.g., _al-yebeb-i'n_ "I show (or showed) to him," _al-yeb-in_ "I shall show him."

[Footnote 50: An Indian language of Nevada.]

[Footnote 51: An Indian language of Oregon.]

We come now to the subtlest of all grammatical processes, variations in accent, whether of stress or pitch. The chief difficulty in isolating accent as a functional process is that it is so often combined with alternations in vocalic quant.i.ty or quality or complicated by the presence of affixed elements that its grammatical value appears as a secondary rather than as a primary feature. In Greek, for instance, it is characteristic of true verbal forms that they throw the accent back as far as the general accentual rules will permit, while nouns may be more freely accented. There is thus a striking accentual difference between a verbal form like _eluthemen_ "we were released," accented on the second syllable of the word, and its participial derivative _lutheis_ "released," accented on the last. The presence of the characteristic verbal elements _e-_ and _-men_ in the first case and of the nominal _-s_ in the second tends to obscure the inherent value of the accentual alternation. This value comes out very neatly in such English doublets as _to refund_ and _a refund_, _to extract_ and _an extract, to come down_ and _a come down_, _to lack l.u.s.ter_ and _lack-l.u.s.ter eyes_, in which the difference between the verb and the noun is entirely a matter of changing stress. In the Athabaskan languages there are not infrequently significant alternations of accent, as in Navaho _ta-di-gis_ "you wash yourself" (accented on the second syllable), _ta-di-gis_ "he washes himself" (accented on the first).[52]

[Footnote 52: It is not unlikely, however, that these Athabaskan alternations are primarily tonal in character.]

Pitch accent may be as functional as stress and is perhaps more often so. The mere fact, however, that pitch variations are phonetically essential to the language, as in Chinese (e.g., _feng_ "wind" with a level tone, _feng_ "to serve" with a falling tone) or as in cla.s.sical Greek (e.g., _lab-on_ "having taken" with a simple or high tone on the suffixed participial _-on_, _gunaik-on_ "of women" with a compound or falling tone on the case suffix _-on_) does not necessarily const.i.tute a functional, or perhaps we had better say grammatical, use of pitch. In such cases the pitch is merely inherent in the radical element or affix, as any vowel or consonant might be. It is different with such Chinese alternations as _chung_ (level) "middle" and _chung_ (falling) "to hit the middle"; _mai_ (rising) "to buy" and _mai_ (falling) "to sell"; _pei_ (falling) "back" and _pei_ (level) "to carry on the back."

Examples of this type are not exactly common in Chinese and the language cannot be said to possess at present a definite feeling for tonal differences as symbolic of the distinction between noun and verb.

There are languages, however, in which such differences are of the most fundamental grammatical importance. They are particularly common in the Soudan. In Ewe, for instance, there are formed from _subo_ "to serve"

two reduplicated forms, an infinitive _subosubo_ "to serve," with a low tone on the first two syllables and a high one on the last two, and an adjectival _subosubo_ "serving," in which all the syllables have a high tone. Even more striking are cases furnished by s.h.i.+lluk, one of the languages of the headwaters of the Nile. The plural of the noun often differs in tone from the singular, e.g., _yit_ (high) "ear" but _yit_ (low) "ears." In the p.r.o.noun three forms may be distinguished by tone alone; _e_ "he" has a high tone and is subjective, _-e_ "him" (e.g., _a chwol-e_ "he called him") has a low tone and is objective, _-e_ "his"

(e.g., _wod-e_ "his house") has a middle tone and is possessive. From the verbal element _gwed-_ "to write" are formed _gwed-o_ "(he) writes"

with a low tone, the pa.s.sive _gwet_ "(it was) written" with a falling tone, the imperative _gwet_ "write!" with a rising tone, and the verbal noun _gwet_ "writing" with a middle tone. In aboriginal America also pitch accent is known to occur as a grammatical process. A good example of such a pitch language is Tlingit, spoken by the Indians of the southern coast of Alaska. In this language many verbs vary the tone of the radical element according to tense; _hun_ "to sell," _sin_ "to hide," _tin_ "to see," and numerous other radical elements, if low-toned, refer to past time, if high-toned, to the future. Another type of function is ill.u.s.trated by the Takelma forms _hel_ "song," with falling pitch, but _hel_ "sing!" with a rising inflection; parallel to these forms are _sel_ (falling) "black paint," _sel_ (rising) "paint it!" All in all it is clear that pitch accent, like stress and vocalic or consonantal modifications, is far less infrequently employed as a grammatical process than our own habits of speech would prepare us to believe probable.