deserve separate treatment. In the sentence, "He passes an ordinary
brick house on the road, with an ordinary little garden," the words
_the_ and _an_ belong to nouns, just as adjectives do; but they cannot
be accurately placed under any class of adjectives. They are nearest
to demonstrative and numeral adjectives.

[Sidenote: _Their origin._]

172. The article the comes from an old demonstrative adjective
(_sē_, _sēo_, _ðat_, later _thē_, _thēo_, _that_) which was also an
article in Old English. In Middle English _the_ became an article, and
_that_ remained a demonstrative adjective.

An or a came from the old numeral _ān_, meaning _one_.

[Sidenote: _Two relics._]

Our expressions _the one_, _the other_, were formerly _that one_,
_that other_; the latter is still preserved in the expression, in
vulgar English, _the tother_. Not only this is kept in the Scotch
dialect, but the former is used, these occurring as _the tane, the
tother_, or _the tane, the tither_; for example,--

We ca' her sometimes _the tane_, sometimes _the tother_.--SCOTT.

[Sidenote: An _before vowel sounds_, a _before consonant sounds_.]

173. Ordinarily _an_ is used before vowel sounds, and _a_ before
consonant sounds. Remember that a _vowel sound_ does not necessarily
mean beginning with a vowel, nor does _consonant sound_ mean