ter gender, as in what, that, it. In the present Danish, Swed ish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, and in the Old Norse and MosoGothic, all neuter adjectives end in t. It is used as a nominative and objective.

Irs. A possessive irregularly formed, the t being mistaken as an original part of the word. It has superseded the Anglo-Saxon his. The following forms were in use in the time of Queen Elizabeth and James I.: "Learning hath his infancy, when it is but beginning, and almost childish; then his youth, when it is luxuriant and juvenile; then his strength of years, when it is solid and reduced; and, lastly, his old age, when it waxeth dry and exhaust."-BACON, Essay LVIII. Here his is evidently used as the possessive case of it.

The word its is of late introduction into the language. It does not occur in the common version of the Bible, the substitute being his or thereof.

They, their, thEIRS, THEM. These words, borrowed from the demonstrative pronoun thaet (see § 308), replaced the pronouns hi, heora, heom. Theirs is in the same predicament with ours, yours, and hers. It is either a case formed from a case, and is a secondary genitive, or it is the case of an adjective. See § 302.

THE GERMAN USAGE.

301. The Germans, when addressing a person, generally use the third person plural of the personal pronoun.

Till within some centuries, the Germans, like the French and the English, addressed each other in familiar conversation by the second person singular, and in formal intercourse by the second person plural. Since that period another mode of address has been adopted as expressive of respect, viz., by the third person plural, while inferiors were, and still are, addressed in the third person singular.

Although the Germans adopted these modern forms, they still retained the ancient form. There exists, therefore, a considerable variety in accommodating the mode of address to the dif ferent relations of superiority, inferiority, friendship, and love. The use of the third personal pronoun in the plural is generally received in the polite conversation of people of education; and

even inferiors, if not in dependence on the speaker, would be offended if otherwise addressed. The second personal pronoun in the plural is used among peasants and other people of lower condition, and is never used by others, except in addressing persons of that description. This practice is, however, more common in the country than in towns. The third personal pronoun in the singular, er for male, and sie for female persons, is used only in addressing inferiors, particularly servants and others, who are dependent on the speaker. It is also employed by the country people of some German provinces in speaking to one another. Being considered, however, as indicating a want of respect, this mode of address should scarcely ever be used.

The natural address, Du, is much more usual at the present day in German than in other modern languages. As it excludes all ceremonious formality, it is reserved for relations of confidence, friendship, and love. They use it in addressing their family, their best friends, and the Supreme Being. See BECKER'S Grammar.

That my and mine, thy and thine, our and ours, your and yours, are personal pronouns in the possessive case, and not possessive adjective pronouns, may be seen in § 302.

THE LONGER AND THE SHORTER FORMS OF THE

POSSESSIVE CASE.

§ 302. The Genitive or Adnominal case of the pronoun has, in several of the Indo-European languages, given rise to a possessive adjective, which differs from the genitive or possessive case only in being declined like an adjective. Thus :

From Sanscrit mama, genitive of aham, I, comes mâmaka, my; from Sanscrit tava, genitive of tvam, thou, comes tavaka, thy.

From Slavonic mene, gen. of az, I, comes moi masc., moya fem., moe neut., my; from Slavonic tebe, gen. of ty, thou, comes tvoi masc., tvoya fem., tvoe neut., thy.

From Greek ἐμοῦ, gen. of ἐγώ, comes ἐμός, ἐμή, ἐμόν, my; from Greek oov, gen. of oú, comes oóc, on, oóv, thy (comp. Greek δημόσιος, from gen. δήμου, Ionic δήμοιο, a contraction of ancient δήμοσιο).

From Latin mei, gen. of ego, comes meus, mea, meum, my;

from Latin tui, gen. of tu, comes tuus, tua, tuum, thy; from Latin cujus, gen. of quis, quæ, quid, comes cujus, cuja, cujum, belonging to whom?

From Gothic meina, gen. of ik, I, comes meins masc., meina fem., mein neut., my; from Gothic theina, gen. of thu, thou, comes theins masc., theina fem., thein neut., thy.

From Anglo-Saxon min, gen. of ic, I, comes min masc., mine fem., min neut., my; from Anglo-Saxon thin, gen. of thu, comes thin masc., thine fem., thin neut., thy.

In Hindoostanee, also, the genitive case, so designated by the writers on that language, conforms itself in its terminations to the gender, number, and case of the noun by which it is governed, just as an adjective would do.

Notwithstanding these facts, there is, we apprehend, in the English language, so far as my and mine, thy and thine are concerned, no possessive adjective pronoun distinct from the possessive case of the substantive pronoun.

For, in the first place, adjectives are not inflected in English. There is, originally, no essential difference of meaning between the possessive case of the substantive and the possessive adjective, derived from the same substantive; and in languages which have no inflection, as the Chinese, it is a matter of indifference whether certain forms are called the possessive casc of the substantive or a possessive adjective. As adjectives in English are not declined, we have not this means of distinguishing them from substantives.

In the second place, mine and my, thine and thy, are severally both derived from an ancient genitive; as, mine and my, from Gothic meina, genitive of ik, Anglo-Saxon min, gen. of ic, and not from Gothic meins, meina, mein, Anglo-Saxon min, mine, min, the adjective. So thine and thy, from Gothic theina, gen. of thu, Anglo-Saxon thin, gen. of thu, and not from Gothic theins, theina, thein, Anglo-Saxon thin, thine, thin, the adjective.

And, in the third place, the different uses of my and mine, thy and thine, severally, are merely euphonic. The longer forms are used at the end of a sentence or clause for the better cadence. As the indefinite articles an and a are mere abridgments of the ancient numeral for one, being distinguished from

each other euphonically, so are mine and my, thine and thy, mere abridgments of the same ancient form. Thus we say, "It is my book;" but, "The book is mine," or "Mine is the book." Also, we say, "My book;" but anciently altogether, and now, in more solemn style, "Mine hour," "mine iniquities," just as we say, "A book," " an hour," "an elephant." Thus the longer forms are used at the end of a sentence or a clause, whenever the word with which it stands most immediately connected is either omitted or begins with a vowel.

Thus far concerning my and mine, thy and thine; but our and ours, your and yours, their and theirs, her and hers, stand etymologically on somewhat different ground.

In my and mine, &c., mine is the original or normal form from which my is derived by an apocope. But in our and ours, &c., our appears to be the original or normal form from which ours is derived by a process not yet fully understood. It is probably a capricious or abnormal form, involving a double or second exponent of the possessive relation (in imitation of the genitive of nouns, king's, John's). Compare the Latin genitives plural nostrûm or nostri, vestrûm or vestri.

But in usage, the distinction between our and ours, &c., is now perfectly analogous to that between my and mine, &c.; that is, it is merely euphonic.

The distinction in usage between the longer and the shorter forms of the possessive case is often very delicate. Thus we say, "The book is mine;" but if own follows, we say, "The book is my own." So "yours and her ancestors," if the ancestors are different; but if they are the same, we say, “your and her ancestors."

There is another form of the possessive, namely, of mine, of thine, of ours, of yours, &c., which has been usually explained as a partitive construction; but it is to be regarded as emphatic; or, rather, as indicating the logical importance of the term thus used. Thus: "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his."-Ps. xxx., 4. "And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar."-1 Sam., ii., 33. "My faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine."-Watts.

In the ancient language, a genitive might be employed either. before or after a noun, according to its logical worth or import

T

ance. Hence, in forming our modern language, when an emphasis fell on the genitive, the mind vacillated between the expressions "a book mine" and "a book of me," and finally adopted the mixed construction, "a book of mine."

If our views are correct, it follows,

1. We can not approve of the course of the older English grammarians, as WALLIS, GREENWOOD, WISEMAN, PRIESTLEY, who make my and mine, our and ours, &c., all adjective pronouns, unless one goes further, and makes, also, John's and Peter's adjective nouns. No one, we fancy, will incline to do this.

2. We can not approve of the course of most modern English grammarians, as LoWTH, MURRAY, BARRETT, INGERSOLL, LENNIE, who make my, thy, his, her, our, your, their, adjective pronouns, and mine, thine, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, personal pronouns in the possessive case; for the etymology or derivation does not sustain such a distinction, and the addition of a substantive following is no more necessary for an adjective than for a genitive case.

3. We can not approve of the principle adopted by a late celebrated English grammarian, that mine, thine, ours, yours, &c., are not the genitive or possessive case of the personal pronouns, but pronouns or substitutes which may stand of themselves directly in the nominative or accusative case, or be preceded by of, the sign of the genitive; for all the examples usually adduced may be explained by supplying the ellipsis of the substantive, and making the change in the form of the pronoun which the principles of euphony stated above require.

SELF USED WITH THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS AS A REFLECTIVE PRONOUN.

303. The word SELF, compounded with the personal pronouns my, thy, him, her, it, and their plurals our, your, their, them, has the force and supplies the place of a reflective pronoun; as, I abhor myself; thou enrichest thyself; he loves himself; she admires herself; it pleases itself: plural: We value ourselves; ye or you hurry yourselves; they see themselves. Self, in composition, both in the singular and plural number, is used only in the nominative and the objective case. There is no reflective pronoun in the English language, and