neinamma,' which accounts for the final PG. vowel. Miss ahn writes it'mah' S is noch so 'n anre glaener drup, it so mah grosse dicke kup, er doh uf English screech-owl haest, er midde drin hut ah sei nesht.' 's iss noch so n anre gleenǝr drǝp, 6 dær doo uf eng-lisch skriitsch-aul' heest, dær middə drin hət aa sei nescht. There is yet such another little fellow, with such a large thick head, this here English is called 'screech-owl,' the middle therein [of the tree] has also its nest. Remarking on " 'grosse dicke kup" in the second line, my everend friend Ziegler sends me the following declensions of he united article and adjective. The dative is used for the enitive, as will appear in the chapter on Syntax. Nom., Accus. on ('n) grosser dicker kopp, Dat., Gen. əmə (mə) grossə dickə kopp. Singular. iss guut. The red wine is good. sei, farb is schee ̧. CHAPTER IV. GENDER. § 1. Gender of English Words in Pennsylvania German. German gender and declension might be said to be in a state of barbarism, were it not that some of the languages of savages have refinements which are wanting in the tongues of civilised people. German gender being in a high degree arbitrary and irrational, there seem but few principles applicable to introduced words, and yet, the linguistic instinct produces a measure of uniformity. The clear distinction in modern English between a spring and a well, does not exist between the German der quell (and die quelle, PG. ‘dii qkel') and der brunnen, but German has der spring also, which may be used alone, or compounded in springquell or springquelle. Influenced by English, PG. uses 'dii schpring' for a natural spring of water, keeping 'd'r brunne' for a well, 'tsig-brunnə' for a draw-well with a windlas and bucket-but also 'laafəndə brunne' for a spring. As a German says 'dii' for the English article the, which he hears applied to everything singular and plural, and as this die is his own feminine and plural article, he will be likely to say 'dii fens' for the fence, 'dii set' (set, of tools, etc.), 'dii faundri' (foundry), 'dii bænk' (bank of a stream), ‘dii færm' (farm), 'dii plantaaschə' (plantation), 'dii téməti' (timothy hay), 'dii portsch,' 'dii schtæmp ('stämp' in print, for G. der stempel), 'dii watsch' (timepiece), 'dii bel hat geringt' (the 'bell' has 'rung'), "Stohrstube . . . mit einer offenen Front," (Store-room with an open front), "die Fronte1 des Hauses" (the front of the house), "Die Sanitäts Board," "Eine Lot Stroh,' ," "Eine Lotte Grund," etc. All of these are feminine 1 Such italics for English words are no part of the original. HAP. IV. § 1. GENDER OF ENGLISH WORDS IN PG. 25 PG., together with the English nouns alley, road, borough, quare (of a town) fair, forge, creek (a stream), climate, bowl, endue, court (at law), law, lawsuit, jury, yard (of a house),Als Herr Yost... einen groszen Neufundländer Hund in seiner Yardı ders anbinden wollte, fiel ihn das Thier an der Hund wieder an ihn orang, und ihn gegen die Fenz1 drängte, Der Pennsylvanier, Lebanon, a. Sept. 1, 1869. Of the masculine gender are river (PG. 'rewer'), bargain, rop, beef (but 'gedörtes beef' makes it neuter), carpet, turnpike or pike), store, gravel, shop, smith-shop, shed, and of course words like squire, lawyer, and "assignie." Of the neuter gender are "das främ" (frame), " das flaur' flour, influenced by G. das mehl), das screen, das photograph, as piano, das supper, das buggy. Wishing to know the gender of the preceding English words n another county, the list was sent to the Rev. Daniel Ziegler, of York, Pa., who assigns the same genders to them, dding der settee, die umbréll, die parasol, die bréssənt (prison), las lampblack, das picter (picture), das candy, das cash, das umber (building timber), das scantling, das pavement, das ownship.2 German die butter (butter) is masculine in PG. as in South Germany and Austria; and die forelle (the trout) is PG. ‘dær rél.' G. die tunke (gravy) is neuter under the form 'tunkǝs' n PG., which makes the yard measure feminine, although n Germany (and in print here), it has been adopted as masculine. Variations in grammatic gender are to be expected under he degenderising influence of English, but at present the 1 This mode of indicating words is used to avoid corrupting the text with talics. 2 As this essay is passing through the press, I add the following examples, which are all in print. Der charter, deed (legal), humbug, lunch or lunsch, ein delikater SaurkrautLunch. Revenuetarif, crowd, fight, molasses, Select-Council, crop (fem. with Miss Bahn). Im Juli-schreit der Whipper-will. Die jail, legislatur, Grandjury or grand Jury, ward (of a city), lane, toll, gate, pike or peik, bill (legislative), Cornetband or Cornet Band, eine grosze Box (of medicine), gefängniszbox, platform, manufactory, shelfing, counter. Das County, committee or comite, picnic, screen (coal-screen), law (also fem.), rial, verdikt, basin (reservoir), Groszes Raffle für Turkeys und Gänse, ausgeraffelt werden. German genders usually remain, as in der stuhl (chair), der pflug (plough, PG. 'pluuk'), der trichter (funnel, PG. 'trechtər”), der kork (cork, PG. karik), der indigo, der schwamm (spunge), die egge (harrow, PG. 'eek,' sometimes êk'), die bank (bench), die wiese (meadow, PG. 'wiss'), die kiste (chest or chist, PG. kist), das tuch (cloth), das messing (brass, PG. 'měs,' like Eng. mace), das füllsel (stuffing, PG. ‘filtsl'). § 2. The German Genders. In various aboriginal languages of America there are two genders, the animate and the inanimate—with a vital instead of a sexual polarity; and while German can and does associate gender and sex, its departure from this system is marked by objects conspicuously sexual, which may be of the neuter gender, and by sexless objects of the three genders. It is easy to see why das kind (the child) is neuter, but under the ordinary view of the rise of grammatic gender, it is not easy to see why, in modern German, der leib (body) should be masculine, and das weib (woman, wife) of the same gender as the child—why die liebe (love) should be feminine, and der friede (peace) masculine. In German, the genders are incongruous, in English they are congruous, the masculine and feminine being correlatives, with correlative relations to the neuter also, and by dropping the false nomenclature of the German genders, we may be able to get a more philosophic view of them as they now exist, independently of the Old High German system of gender and declension, which accounts for their later condition. If we adopt strong for the German masculine gender, there would be nothing gained if the feminine were called weak, but with the first as strong, the second as soft, and the third as dull, we would have three terms which do not suggest correlation or sex, and we might see nothing irrational in the fact that man might be of the strong, and woman of the dull gender; and that peace might be strong, and love soft: Of the strong gender are mann, dieb, freund, mord, mund, hase (of energetic action), aal, salm, fisch, tisch (díokos), käse (caseUS), schnee, klei, stock, fink strong-billed bird), apfel (naturally harsh), stahl, stiefel, schuh, strumpf, fusz, il, bart, baum, daum, dorn,1 punkt, stich, begínn, rubin, diamant, klump, mmer, verstand, name, tag, halm (a rough material), floh, krebs, skorpion, immer, hals, fels, saft, bau, rath, werth, zoll, flusz, Rhein, raub, acker, bogen. Of the soft gender are birne, hand, historie (Lat. -IA), liebe, hoffnung, wohing, stadt, burg (implying also jurisdiction), sonne, gluth, milch, rahm, amsel, ossel, butter, feder, gans, maus, ratte, luft, frucht, nacht, macht (as if personied), armuth, kraft, furcht, kunst, haut, frau, wurst, schnur, bahn, marsch, welt. Of the dull gender are weib, grab, brod,2 blei, eisen, gold, silber, zinn, (but der nk,) geld, feld, land, vieh, pferd (the type being agricultural), rind, joch, pech, ar, auge, bein, dorf, ding, mensch, mädchen, volk, hirn, leben, wort, buch, esetz, herz, gemach, loth, glück, werk, beil, messer, schwert, glas, fenster, -uer, licht, wetter, wasser, bier, malz, kraut, lamm, ei, haupt, kalb, loch. 1 From a Gothic masculine in -us,—das horn being from a Gothic neuter in -n. 2 Primitive bread was probably rather heavy than light-if a mnemonic view may be taken. |