Blair Collection > Celtic studies

20 Introduction.
teristic of feminines. In neuters the i is changed into e, but in
the plural tlie i again appears: mar-S, mar-is, mar-i-a. The
stems, hrevi, dulci, levi, of the adjectives, hrevis, dulcis, levis,
belong to this category.
GOTHIC. — Among the Gothic i-stems which correspond to the,
preceding, may be mentioned the primitive forms : masc, gastis,
gardis, balgis, existing in the Gothic, in the syncopated forms :
gasts, gards, balgs, but showing traces of the vocalic clothing of
the stem in the plural: nom., gasteis, gardeis, halgeis; fem.,
dedis, vaurtis, syncoj)ated in the Gothic to deds, vaurts; nom.
plur., dedeis, vaurteis. It will be seen from the preceding, that
the feminines also retain the nominative sign s, the feminine form
appearing to be marked by a gunation of the vowels of the
endings in the genitive and dative singular, thus :
Masc. Fem.
Nom. . . gast-s ded-s
Gen. . . gast-is ded-ais
Dat. . . gast-a ded-ai
As in the Greek there are no neuters formed from z'-stems.
In addition to the feminines above discussed, and all of which
belong to the strong declension, there is another peculiar class of
z'-stems belonging to feminine noims of the weak declension, such
as managei, gen. 7nanageins, which Avill be better imderstood
when I treat of the a-stems.
Adjectives derived directly from stems, and not through other
forms, although differing essentially from substantives in their
flexion, exhibited primitively the same distinction of stems into
a-, i-, and ?^-stems, corresj)onding to the Greek adjectives in og,
a, ov, and vg, em, v ; and to the Latin in us, a, um, and in is,
e. But the primitive distinction is very much obscm-ed in the
Gothic, in which, with the exception of traces, the z-stems have
wholly died out, while only a few of the ?<-stems remain ; and
even these pass in the oblique cases into the a-stems, with the
addition of a derivational i (see the discussion of this subject
under the head a-stems), so that the primitive character of the
stem is only recognizable in the nominative. In the Gothic
adjective there are consequently only a- and z<-stems to be dis-
tinguished.
A-STEMS. — GREEK AND LATIN. — Tlic a-stcms in tlic Gi'cck and
Latin admit of being divided into two classes : —
1. Stems in which the primitive a has been preserved un-
changed, or changed into rl, and which maybe subdivided into :
a. Stems with primitive short a.
/3. Stems with d or e.