hoi, Arabic wa, to express grief. Latin Ah, English Ah, Hebrew ach, Arabic ah, to express grief.

English interjections are divided into,

I. Natural exclamations, expressing passion or emotion, including, 1. Passive emotions, in which the human mind is overpowered: (1.) wonder or amazement; as, Oh, pronounced with a downward inflection; (2.) pain, grief, or lamentation; as, Ah, Oh, woe, alas; (3.) loathing or aversion; as, Fie, pish, pshaw, tysh, ugh (guttural).

2. Emotions under which the mind is still active: (1.) surprise or admiration; as, Heigh, hoity-toity; (2.) joy or exultation; as, Huzza, hurra, jɔy; (3.) desire; as, O; (4.) laughter; as, Ha ha; or tittering; as, Hi hi; (5.) threatening; as, Woe.

II. Natural exclamations, expressing a state of the will, addressed to our fellow-men, or else employed to allure or drive away domestic animals.

1. Addressed to our fellow-men: (1.) calling attention generally; as, O, ho, halloo; (2.) enjoining silence; as, Hush, 'st, whist; (3.) calling attention to a particular object; as, Lo, behold, see.

2. Addressed to cows; as, Coh, coh.

3. Addressed to goats and sheep; as, Knan, knan.

4. Addressed to dogs; a whistle made by sucking the breath through the teeth.

5. Addressed to cats; as, Minny, minny; also scat.

6. Addressed to pigs; as, Pig, pig; also shogh, shogh.

7. Addressed to draught cattle; as, Haw, jee, hwo:

III. Imitations of natural sounds, whether of animals or of inanimate objects.

1. Of animals: (1.) of cows; as, Moo; (2.) of dogs; as, Bow wow; (3.) of chickens; as, Peep, peep; (4.) of geese; as, Quack.

2. Of inanimate objects; as, of a bell, Ding dong; of a clock or watch, Tick, tick; of a drum, Row de dow dow; of a knocking at the door, Rat a tat tat; of a trumpet, Tantara, tantara; of removing a trumpet from the mouth, Bat, &c.

IV. Imitations of visible appearances; as, Flash, zigzag.

Other parts of speech are sometimes formed from interjections; as, To puff at, from puff; to ache, from Ah; the noun woe, from in terjection woe.

QUESTIONS UNDER CHAPTER X.

1. Give the definition of an interjection, and the origin of the term.
2. Explain the importance of interjections as a part of language.
3. Mention the different classes of interjections, with examples

CHAPTER XI.

DERIVATION.

§ 382. DERIVATION has been defined to be the drawing or tracing of a word from its root or original. In the grammatical sense, the cases, numbers, and genders of nouns; the persons, modes, and tenses of verbs; the ordinal numbers; the degrees of comparison are regarded as matters of derivation.

But derivation proper comprises only those changes that words undergo which are not referable to some of the heads just mentioned. It is in this latter sense that the word is employed in this chapter. Derivation in this sense, and historical etymology, are sometimes used as convertible terms.

Derivation, used in the widest sense, includes both classes of changes. In this sense, every word, except it be in the simple form of the root, is a derived word.

THE

CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE.

383. The English tongue, as it now exists, is not a pure, simple language, derived from one source, but it is made up of many languages.

The constituent parts or elements of the English language are the Anglo-Saxon basis, inherited from our ancestors; extensive admixtures from three dead languages, viz., the Latin, the Greek, and the Hebrew; exotic or foreign terms from various living languages; and words of mixed origin.

I. The Anglo-Saxon portion of the language is its basis or groundwork. Although the vocabulary of such words is comparatively small, yet it embraces all the pronouns and pronominal words; all the numerals, cardinal and ordinal, except second; all the primary particles; all the terminations necessary for the inflection of substantives, the comparison of adjectives, and the conjugation of verbs, as well as most of the verbs, adjectives, and substantives in common use. Hence whole paragraphs may easily be written with this

part of the language only, while without it hardly a sentence can be formed.

The Anglo-Saxon language belongs to the Gothic or Teutonic family of languages, of which the German, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish are also branches. With the Anglo-Saxon there was, without doubt, an intermixture of the Celtic, but it is not easy now to make the separation.

II. Admixtures from three dead languages, viz., the Latin, the Greek, and the Hebrew.

1. The admixture of words from the ancient Latin is owing to the conquest of England by the Normans, who spoke Norman-French; to the subsequent close intercourse with the French people; and to the influence of the learned class, who studied Latin, and wrote in that language. What is owing to each of these influences severally it is difficult now to determine, nor is it necessary. A few Latin words had already passed into the Anglo-Saxon, which we have also inherited.

This portion of our language is very considerable, whether we regard the number or the length of the words. As the English language is now studied, these words are imperfectly appreciated by those who have not learned Latin.

To the Latin family of languages belong the existing languages, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

2. The admixture of words from the ancient Greek is owing, for the most part, to a conventional usage among the learned of Europe, speaking different languages, of forming scientific and technical terms from the ancient Greek. A few Greek words had already passed into the Latin, or into the Teutonic directly, which have also come down to us.

This portion of our language is also considerable. To the common English mind these words are now so many proper names. New facilities are wanting to explain them to the young.

The ancient Greek, as a spoken language, has now been superseded by the modern Greek.

3. Admixture of words from the ancient Hebrew.

Although the Hebrew, as a spoken language, has never come in direct contact with the English, being far removed from it both in time and space, yet, through the sacred writings and other influences, the number of words derived by us from the Hebrew is not few. The Hebrew belongs to the Shemitish family of languages, of which the Chaldaic, Syriac, Aral and Ethiopic are also branches various living languages, owing

III. Exotic or foreign terms fro

to civil, commercial, or literary intercourse, form a third constituent part or element of the English language.

Words, more or less numerous, have been borrowed from most of the nations with which we have any intercourse, to express objects or things common among them, or in which we have been instructed by them. The meaning of such words has often afterward been extended.

IV. Words not reducible to either of the three preceding heads form a fourth constituent part or element of the English language. These include, 1. Proper English words of mixed origin; and, 2. Malformations and hybrid words.

NATURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEUTONIC PORTION OF OUR LANGUAGE.

384. The consideration of the natural development of language adds much to its right appreciation.

The natural development of the Anglo-Saxon or Teutonic portion of our language has been nearly as follows:

I. Instinctive forms and pronominal elements; as, Ah, oh; mew, peep; th, wh.

II. Stem-verbs or roots; as, Bind, swim.

III. Stem-nouns; as, Blank, much; band, arm.

IV. Reduplicate forms; as, Chit-chat, sing-song.

V. Primary derivatives; as, Chatter, toilsome, wisely, baker, freedom. VI. Secondary derivatives; as, Fearfully, tiresomeness.

VII. Words with prefixes; as, Arise, forbid.

VIII. Compound words; as, God-man, rats'-bane, pick-purse.
IX. Disguised derivatives and compounds; as, Daisy, not.

I. INSTINCTIVE FORMS AND PRONOMINAL ELEMENTS.

385. The natural or instinctive formations, the first or lowest step in language, include interjections and imitations of natural sounds; as, Ah, oh; mew, peep. These have been already considered.

If we take a general etymological survey of pronouns and pronominal words, they will be found to arrange themselves, not under verbal roots, like other parts of speech, but under certain elementary sounds or syllables.

1. Ic, the element of the first person singular subject, appears now only in the mutilated form I. Compare Anglo-Saxon ic, Old English ic.

2. M, the element of the first person singular object, appears in me, my, mine.

3. W, the element of the first person plural, appears in we, our,

ours, us.

4. Th, the element of the second person singular, intermediate between Latin t and German d, appears in thou, thy, thine, thee. Perhaps radically connected with th, the demonstrative element mentioned below.

5. Y, the element of the second person plural, appears in ye, your,

yours, you.

6. H, the element of the third person and of the nearer demonstrative, appears in he, his, him, her (genitive and accusative), it (Anglo-Saxon hit), its, hence, here, hither.

7. Th, the element of the more remote demonstrative, appears in that, those, this, these, the, thilk, thence, there, thither, then, thus, though, they, their, theirs, them. But this and these have been transferred to the nearer demonstratives, and they, their, theirs, and them are used as pronouns of the third person.

8. S, another form of the remoter demonstrative element, appears in she, so, some, also, as, such.

9. Wh, the interrogative element, appears in who, what, whose, whom, which, whether, whence, where, whither, when, how, why. All these words, excepting whether, are also employed as relatives.

II. TEUTONIC STEM-WORDS OR ROOTS.

§ 386. 1. With the exception of pronouns, interjections, and a few onomatopoetical forms, words in English, as well as in most other languages, are, as linguistical signs of ideas, composed of two parts, viz., the root, and the modifying element which is attached to the root and gives it its form.

2. It is obviously important for every one who would master the whole vocabulary of any language, or would possess a full and thorough knowledge of the words which he employs, to have a clear perception of the root whence a word is derived, and of the force of the various modifications by which the word has been affected. What is intended by calling one animal a sloth, another a hare, another a wolf, another a crab, is first fully understood and appreciated when we are able to trace back these words to their several roots, viz., English slow; Sanscrit s'as', to spring; Gothic walw, to seize; Norse kriapa, to creep. Without such knowledge language is merely a collection of proper names, or an assemblage of technical expressions, the application of which is to be learned by dint of memory, and the meaning of which, like that of foreign words, we may understand, but not see into.