distinctions, be observed among all the various members composing it.
The unity of language is threefold: it may be traced in the roots, in
the inflections, and in the general features of the syntax. The roots
are, as a rule, bilateral or trilateral, composed (that is) of two or
three letters, all of which are consonants. The consonants determine
the general sense of the words, and are alone expressed in the primitive
writing; the vowel sounds do but modify more or less the general sense,
and are unexpressed until the languages begin to fall into decay. The
roots are, almost all of them, more or less physical and sensuous. They
are derived in general from an imitation of nature. "If one looked
only to the Semitic languages," says M. Renan,[31] "one would say, that
sensation alone presided over the first acts of the human intellect, and
that language was primarily nothing but a mere reflex of the external
world. If we run through the list of Semitic roots, we scarcely meet
with a single one which does not present to us a sense primarily
material, which is then transferred, by transitions more or less direct
and immediate, to things which are intellectual." Derivative words are
formed from the roots by a few simple and regular laws. The noun is
scarcely inflected at all; but the verb has a marvellous wealth of
conjugations, calculated to express excellently well the external
relations of ideas, but altogether incapable of expressing their
metaphysical relations, from the want of definitely marked tenses and
moods. Inflections in general have a half-agglutinative character, the
meaning and origin of the affixes and suffixes being palpable. Syntax
scarcely exists, the construction of sentences having such a general
character of simplicity, especially in narrative, that one might compare
it with the naïve utterances of an infant. The utmost endeavour of the
Semites is to join words together so as to form a sentence; to join
sentences is an effort altogether beyond them. They employ the {lexis
eiromene} of Aristotle,[32] which proceeds by accumulating atom on atom,