Page:The Brasilian language and its agglutination.pdf/20

tion, both in the principal root and in the desinences (flections). »

In most living languages we find traces of all these processes, and thus are enabled to see how one stage leads gradually to another.

Take, for example, the following.

English

He is like God, = monosyllabic
He is God-like, = agglutinative. ^[1]
He is God-ly, = inflectional.

German

Mann ist frei, = monosyllabic
Er ist frei-mann, = agglutinative
Er ist frei-mannes (gen.), = inflectional.

By carefully inquiring, we should be able to discover similar instances in the Romance-languages, although not so frequently, in relation to the monosyllabic and agglutinative forms.

5.—The very learned American linguist, Prof. Whitney, in his important book—« Life

1. Dr. Morris, book cit. pag. 3.