Blair Collection > Celtic studies

4 Introduction.
according to wliicli these consonants appear, in passing from the
Greek or Latin to the Gothic, and thence to the Old High German,
to be shifted forward in the direction in which the sounds are na-
turally developed — that is, the labial, dental, and palatal medials
pass into the cortesponding tenues, and the latter into the aspi-
rates — thus the Gr. medial h is represented by the Goth, tenuis p
and by the O. H. G. aspirate jijA or/; the Gr. p by Goth. _/ and the
O.H.G. h, etc. ; the Gr. dental medial d by the Goth, temus t and
the O.H.G. aspirate th; the Gr. medial g, by the Goth, tenuis k^
and the O.H.G. aspirate cA, e.g.: Gr. Trove? gen. TroSot,-, Goth. /o-
tus, O. H. G. vuoz; SoKpv, Goth, tagr, O.H.G. zahar (the sibilant
z for the aspirate th) ; Lat. gelidus, Goth, kalds, O.H.G. chalt, etc.*
By the study of the phonetic laws which govern the permuta-
tions or letter changes in each member of a family of languages,
we may determine the w^ords in each family which have had a
common origin. On analysing these words we obtain a series of
residual syllables, which, like the words from which they were
obtained, difter from each other, and are nevertheless but forms
of the same root. The primitive form of the root could only be
found in the mother tongue of the family ; but as no monmnent
of this language has been handed down to us, we can only dis-
cover this root inductively, by a comparative study of all the lan-
guages of the family. What we obtain by the analysis of the
words of a language, are not, therefore, properly speaking, roots,
but only Moot Forms. The root forms of the same root may often
present so great a dissimilarity, that, without a knowledge of the
permutations of the letters, and a comparison of all the forms in
a family, we would not suspect any relationship between them.
Thus the German word xcer presents at first sight so little
resemblance to the Latin one ^wi's, that w^e could not suppose that
they were the same word, or even that they contained the same
root; and yet this becomes evident enough by comparing the
forms of the word in several languages, which give us the inter-
mediate links, e. g.: Skr. kas; Gr., ng; Lat., quis; Goih.^hvas;
O.H.G., Jnier; N. H. G., iver. The object of comparative ety-
mology is to determine first, the root forms, and then the roots ;
but it also includes that of the grammatical terminations which
arc added to the roots. Comparative Etymology may, conse-
quently, be considered as a species of Palaeography which has
for its object the determination, from their mutilated relics, of
' I do not i)rofess, in this Introduction, to discuss tlie value of particular
laws, my object being merely to explain the nature of Eoots, Stems, etc. I have
endeavoured to state Grimm's law as simply as possible, but, of com-se, the form
in which I have given it is not wholly unobjectionable; and this the more so, as
I am aware that some of the examples do not hai-mouize with Benary's impor-
tant law.