PREFIXES.

SUFFIXES.

75

usage, and is accounted for in most cases by the great difference of function of the two sexes. Thus men and women perform offices so different, and sustain characters so distinct through the various relationships of life, that we are not surprised at their being designated by different words. Adaughter' is literally the milker,' or 'milkmaid,' because that was the office that the daughters of the house fulfilled in early pastoral times. So the horse' and 'mare,' the bull or ox,' and 'cow,' the 'ram' and 'ewe,' &c., have broadly marked distinctions in their uses and employments, which probably suggested the difference of appellation in each case.

In a few instances there is a noun of common gender as well as separate designations of the sexes. Thus, 'child' (son or daughter), deer' (hart or roe), 'fowl' (cock or hen), 'horse' (stallion or mare), monarch,'' sovereign' (king or queen), 'parent' (father or mother), 'pig' (boar or sow), 'sheep' (ram or ewe).

We have also such compounds as foster-father, foster-mother;' gaffer (grand-père), gammer' (grand-mère); gentle-man, gentle-woman;' 'grand-father, grand-mother;' land-lord, land-lady;'mer-man, mer-maid;' 'moor-cock, moor-hen;' 'pea-cock, pea-hen; step-father, step-mother; step-son, step-daughter;' 'turkey-cock, turkey-hen ;' 'French-man, French-woman.'

3. II. By prefixing a word indicating the sex; as 'hegoat, she-goat;' 'cock-sparrow, hen-sparrow;' buckrabbit, doe-rabbit;' bull-calf, cow-calf;' man-servant, maid-servant;' man-kind, woman-kind.'

6

III. By the use of suffixes, or terminations; as 'author, authoress ;' hero, heroine.' The suffixes are 'ess,' 'ix,' 'en,' or 'in;''ster,' for adding to the masculine to make the feminine; and 'er,' 'rake,' for adding to the feminine to make the masculine.

ess. This is the termination most extensively employed. It is derived from the Norman-French, and is attached principally to words so derived. In many instances the vowel of the masculine is modified to make the feminine more easy and agreeable to pronounce; as 'master, mistress.' The following are the chief examples :

The termination 'ix' (the original form of the French ess') came direct from the Latin, and is employed for a small number of words :

in, ine, ina, en, are different forms of a termination occurring in various European languages. All the examples in English are derived from other languages, except 'carl, carl-inn' (an old woman), 'fox, vix-en.' The others are hero, heroine;' 'landgrave, landgravine;' margrave, margravine;' 'czar, czarina.' Names of women are formed by this ending, as 'Josephine,' Caroline,' 'Pauline,' &c.

Don, donna;' sultan, sultana;' signore, signora;' 'infante, infanta; exemplify one mode of forming the feminine in words of foreign origin.

ster is the proper English feminine termination. In Anglo-Saxon, it was 'estre,' or 'istre.' It is now preserved as a sign of the feminine gender only in 'spinster,' and 'foster-mother' (food-ster). As in early times the occupations of brewing, baking, weaving, spinning, fulling, &c., were carried on by women, the names of operatives in those crafts took this termination: 'maltster,'' brewster or browster,'' baxter or bagster,' 'webster,' 'spinster,' 'kempster.' A bar-maid was signified by tapster,' the barman being 'tap-er;' 'fruitster' was a female fruitseller, chidester,' a female scold. In 'seam-str-ess' and ' songstr-ess,' we have the Saxon and French endings combined. In the words youngster,' 'punster,'' gamester,' 'trickster,' the suffix expresses depreciation and contempt.

As a general rule, the feminine is formed from the masculine; but in the words' drake,' gander,' widower,' ' bride-groom,' the masculine is formed from the feminine. The two first (drake and gander) are explained by the circumstance that the flocks are mainly composed of female birds; these, therefore, were designated in the first instance, and the males afterwards by a derivative name. 'Rake' was a suffix in other Gothic dialects, and the present example is derived from the Scandinavian: duck' and 'drake,' however, are different words. The syllable' er,' the English suffix of agency (as seen in reader, writer), was originally a masculine suffix, being a word signifying a man. 'Widow' was in old English both masculine and feminine; but on its becoming restricted to women, a modification to express the other sex became necessary. Bridegroom' is formed by adding the word 'goom' (in Anglo-Saxon guma, man), which was corrupted into 'groom.'

4. Besides these various modes of expressing gender, we make extensive use of the Adjectives 'male' and 'female,' 'masculine' and 'feminine,' for the same purpose: a male child,'' a female elephant,' the feminine temperament' (for the temperament of women).

6

This usage does not properly fall under declension, or inflection for gender.

PERSONIFICATION.

77

5. Inanimate objects are sometimes spoken of as male or female, and are then said to be personified. Thus, it is customary with us, as with the Greeks and Romans, to speak of the Sun as masculine, and of the Moon as feminine.

The sun, time, summer, winter, the dawn, the morn, death, are made masculine; the moon, the earth, night, are feminine. The planets are some masculine and some feminine, according to the sex of the deities that they owe their names to: Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, &c.; Venus, Pallas, Vesta, &c. This is now considered a poetic licence.

The English practice of confining distinction of gender to difference of sex, renders those occasional deviations very impressive, by actually suggesting to the mind the idea of personal existence and attributes; whereas in such languages as Greek, Latin, and French, the assigning of gender to things inanimate produces no effect on the mind. A German speaks of his spoon as he, his fork as she, and his knife as it.

The motives for assigning the masculine gender to some things, and the feminine gender to others, are supposed to be the following:-Things remarkable for strength, superiority, majesty, sublimity, as Death, Time, Winter, War, have been looked upon as masculine. Gentleness, beauty, and grace, fertility or productiveness, belonging, or imagined to belong to things, suggest a feminine personification, as the Earth, Spring, Hope, Virtue, Truth, Justice, Mercy, Peace. Things very much identified with their owner are occasionally spoken of as she; the seaman calls his ship' she:' to call a watch or a clock 'she' is a common Scotticism.

6. The knowledge of the Gender of a Noun is necessary in order to the correct use of the Pronouns, 'he,' 'she,' 'it,' and their inflections and derivatives.

The concord of the common gender is arranged thus. For the more distinguished beings, we may use the masculine, in its representative sense; as in speaking of a member of the human family, we may say 'he,' although women are also included. The most correct form, although somewhat clumsy, is to say he or she.' (See SYNTAX-Concord of the Pronouns.)

NUMBER.

1. When a Noun (or Pronoun) names a single object it is said to be of the Singular Number, as 'book,'' man;' when more than one are named, the Noun usually undergoes a change, and is then said to be of the Plural Number, as books,'' men.'

The singular is the original form of the noun.

In the Anglo-Saxon a dual number existed in the personal pronouns of the first and second persons.

2. The Plural is formed in English, with a few exceptions, by adding 's' to the Singular: 'ship, ships.'

In Anglo-Saxon there was a select class of nouns forming the plural by the addition of 'as' to the singular, which in later English became es,' as bird, bird-es. This came very near the usage of the Norman-French, and the consequence was that the form in 'es,' was extended to English nouns generally, all the other Saxon plural endings being dropped. The change is said to have been in operation as early as the thirteenth century. The 'es' finally became 's, which led to the loss of a syllable in plural nouns: birdes,' 'birds.'

a. When the Noun ends in a sharp mute (p, f, t, th [in thin], k), the 's' has its sharp sound (sea): 'beliefs,'' cats,' wreaths,' books.'

crops,'

This is a necessity of pronunciation; we are unable to pronounce a sharp and a flat mute together; we cannot say 'cropz,'' beliefz,' catz,' without such a pause between the letters as would constitute a new syllable. The same reason determines the next rule.

b. When the Noun ends in a flat mute (b, v, d, th [the], g), in a liquid (m, n, l, r), or a vowel, the 's' is sounded in its flat sound z; as 'cabs,'' graves,' 'dogs,' 'brothers,' 'bogs,' 'hens,' ' pans,' 'bells,'' masters,' grottos.'

c. When the Noun ends in a sibilant or hissing sound (s, z, sh, ch, x) the original 'es' is retained; as 'cross, crosses ;' 'prize, prizes;' fish, fishes;' 'church, churches;' box, boxes.'

Without constituting a new syllable, it would be impossible to form a plural in such cases, the sound added being identical with that concluding the word. The vowel is a break in the articulation of the

hissing consonant.

These three rules express a general principle of euphony, or accommodation, applicable wherever words are inflected by the addition of 's;' as in the possessive case of nouns, and in the third person sing ular of verbs.

6

As a caprice of spelling, the 'es' is added to some other words, but without affecting the pronunciation; such are calicoes,' cargoes,' 'echoes,'' heroes,' 'manifestoes,' 'mulattoes,' 'negroes,' 'potatoes,' ' volcanoes,' &c.

Nouns ending in 'y' preceded by a consonant change the 'y' into ies' to form the plural, as duty, duties.' But boy,' 'valley,' &c., having a vowel before y, are regular: 'boy, boys,' valley, valleys.' A reason for this irregularity may be found in the fact that formerly

OBSOLETE PROCESSES.

79

such words as 'duty,' 'glory,' were written 'dutie,' 'glorie;' and the regular plurals of these, duties,' 'glories,' have been retained unaltered, while the singular has undergone a change. But this too is a mere matter of spelling, and not a proper inflection, or modification of the word.

d. Nouns of Anglo-Saxon origin ending in f,' and preceded by a long vowel, change the f' into 'v,'loaf, loaves;' half, halves;' wife, wives;' 'calf, calves.'

The 's' in this instance is sounded z, as a consequence of the second rule above given: the 'e' is unnecessary. The singulars of those words in Anglo-Saxon ended in 've,' and the plural has followed the old singular instead of the new.* Thus life' was 'live,' as in the compounds 'lively' and 'alive;' so 'self' in old English was 'selve.' With a short vowel preceding, as in muff,' the general rule is preserved-muffs;' so in 'mischief,' 'chief,' ‘grief,' 'relief,' 'handkerchief;' but thief,' has thieves.' 'Dwarf' is an exception, being 'dwarfs;' and 'beef,' a word of French origin, follows the Saxon rule, 'beeves.' 'Roof' and 'reef' make roofs, reefs;' 'staff' in its usual sense is staves,' in the military sense, staffs;' 'turf' is both turfs' and 'turves;' so with wharf.' 'Fife' and 'strife' are also exceptions to the general rule-'fifes,' 'strifes.'

·

The foregoing are the regular and modern processes of forming the plural in English.

3. A small number of Nouns form their plurals by obsolete modes of inflection; as 'ox, oxen;' 'man, men ;' 6 brother, brethren;' 'cow, kine;' child, children.'

One mode of forming the plural in Anglo-Saxon was to affix 'en to the singular; 'oxen' is the only instance remaining in modern English. Other examples are found in old English and in provincial dialects, as 'pull-en' (fowls), 'peat-en,' 'hos-en,' 'hous-en,'' shoon' (shoe-en), 'een' (eye-en), ' pease-en.' 'Swine' is singular.

In men,' 'geese,' 'mice,' feet,' we see a modification of the vowel of the singular. This process did not take place by itself, but along with the addition of 'en,' as in brother, brethren;' man, The 'en' was dropped in some cases, leaving the plural to be denoted by the vowel change alone. This is seen in 'cow, kine, kye.'

mannen.'

A third mode of signifying the plural consisted in suffixing 'er,' or 'ry.' This ending has a collective meaning in modern English, as is seen in heronry,' 'yeomanry,' 'jewry,' 'rookery,' shrubbery,' 'Irishry,' (for the Irish, used by Macaulay). In old English 'childer'

*The irregular pronunciation of the words-youths, cloths, paths, oaths, truths (opposed to the general principle seen in mouthz '), is explained on a similar historical circumstance; in Anglo-Saxon they ended in th' flat.