— 2 —
(I)
— The monosyllabic period, in which roots are used, as words, without any change of form.
In this stage there are no prefixes or suffixes, and no formally distinguished parts of speech.
The Chinese is the best example of a language in the isolating or monosyllabic stage.
« Every word in Chinese is monosyllabic; and the same word, without any change of form, may be used, as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb or a particle. Thus, ta, according to its position in a sentence, may mean great, greatness, to grow, very much, very. »
« We cannot in Chinese (as in Latin) derive from ferrum, iron, a new substantive ferrarius, a man who works in iron, a blacksmith; ferraria, an iron-mine; and again, ferrariarius, a man who works in an iron-mine; all this is possible only in an inflected language. » [1]
In the languages of this last kind, the various relations of thought are declared by means of certain formative elements (suffixes and inflec-
- ↑ Dr. R. Morris, English Accidence, pag. 2.
