In the formation of certain tenses of the verb we find a process different from the .ombination of a nominal or verbal base with a pronominal syllable. The Latin sub the first conjugation, the. future in bo, the Greek optative and future, the Latin imperfect, and the perfect ending in ari, ui, id, consist of the verbal root with an already inflected form of the verbs z, to go, as and fa, to be. However strange this may appear at first sight, it is nevertheless a fact that, e.g., I would be (for id-17/y, Scr. Lat. originally meant I go (if I mistake not) in being, I am in doubt of the fact of being; that 5, thou wilt do, is literally translated, " thou mayst be doing." The Latin for or i-zit for quit, is still more clearly, " he was in the act of going." That auxiliary verbs sometimes assume the function of inflections is proved by the French future, whose forms like trourerat, finical, are easily recognized as composi tions of the infinitive with the verb awl?. (finirmi, I have to finish).
The inflections hitherto described affect the end of words, and possess the character of a composition of a significative word or root with a syllable of local import, or an inflected form of a verb. But language also employs other means of a symbolical nature, either in the middle or the beginning of verbs. with the object of representing the vari ous aspects in which au action can appear. We find that the present tenses generally have longer forms than those of the past. The additions commonly used are long vowels or diphthongs, inserted nasals and semi-vowels, or, lastly, reduplication. It seems that the weight given to the verbal root by these appliances is intended to exhibit the continuance of an action in the present tenses, in contrast with the fleeting or momentary operation of the past. In a similar manner the long vowels peculiar to the subjunctive in Greek convey the idea of doubt or uncertainty, by means of the longer interval required for the pronunciation of long vowel, thus expressing the hesitation of the speaker with regard to the reality of his judgment. The reduplication in the perfect, being originally a repetition of the root is not so much the sign of a past time as the symbol for an action having passed from the stage of incipience into that of completion.
The wear and tear of time exercises its influence as well on the radical part of words as on their inflections. Grammatical terminations of a totally different formation by corruption become obscured, and identical in shape with others of heterogeneous port. The Latin Ikmae takes on itself the functions of Roma-i-s (gen.), of lionai-1, (dat.),
(locat.), and Boma-i-es (nom. pl.); or populo those of popurt4, (dat.), populo-a (all.), and at a very early age that of populo-as. The absence of written standard works of such a national importance as to penetrate into the masses of a people, and to check their inclination towards misapplying or neglecting inflections which in progress of time have lost their inherent meaning, and therefore appear cumbersome, accelerate the change of the inflective system into theanalytical. The demand for a precise and, so to speak, material expression of those manifold relations appropriated to inflections in ancient languages, is felt more keenly with the waning distinctness of the latter; and sudden political revolutions, such as the invasion of taly by Teutonic tribes, or the conquest of England by the Normans, interrupting the influence of the privileged classes of a nation, bring the struggle to an issue, and give the ascendency to the popular move ment. Articles, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, take in modern languages the place of inflections; and notwithstanding that these are not entirely destroyed, they have a precarious existence, and are in danger of being finally supplanted by the ten dency to represent every distinct relation of words to each other by a distinct expres sion. The application of the s as a mark of the possessive case becomes more and inure limited in modern English, and the mistaken' effort to supersede this relic of Saxon inflection by the substitution of the pronoun his, has only been defeated because it pro ceeded from learned pedants, and not from the people. The termination nt as a sign of the plural in French verbs (aiment, aimaient), may be called almost a dead letter, only traditionally preserved in spelling. The loss of inflections has deprived modern lan guages of the wonderful simplicity and power of the ancient tongues, and the periphras tic mode of expression they have adopted prevents them from arranging all the parts of a sentence with the same degree of liberty. On the other Mind, they have gained in perspicuity. After all they have only reversed the process of the combination of pro nominal and auxiliary words with others; but by placing them in front, the attention of the hearer or reader is called at once to the particular modificatiox of every possible shade of a given thought.