c. _Ten_.--The older form is _ti-h-un_, in Latin _de-c-em_. The English -n is the Latin -m. Nevertheless, in the Greek and Norse the forms are δέκα and _tuo_. § 263. What explains this? The following hypothesis. Some of the best German authorities believe, that the -m, expressive of the superlative degree, was also used to denote the _ordinal character_ (_ordinality_) _of the numerals_; so that the -m- in _deci-m-us_, was the -m- in _ulti-m-us_ and _exti-m-us_. This is the first step in the explanation. § 264. The next is, to suppose that certain _cardinal_ numerals have taken and retained the _ordinal_ form; these being the-- _Latin._ _English._ _Greek._ _Norse._ _Sept-em_, _sev-en_, as opposed to the ἑπτα _sjau_. _Nov-em_, _ni-ne_ " " εννεα _níu_. _Dec-em_, _te-n_ " " δεκα _tíu_. I give no opinion as to the accuracy or erroneousness of this view. § 265. _Thir-teen_, &c., is _three_ with _ten_ added, or 3 + 10. § 266. _Thir-ty_, &c., is _three tens_ (_three decades_), or 3 × 10. In Mœso-Gothic we find the -ty in the fuller form _tig_ = δέκ-ας in Greek. * * * * * CHAPTER XIV. THE ARTICLES. § 267. In the generality of grammars the definite article _the_, and the indefinite article _an_, are the very first parts of speech that are considered. This is exceptionable. So far are they from being essential to language, that, in many dialects, they are wholly wanting. In Greek there is no indefinite, in Latin there is neither an indefinite nor a definite article. In the former language they say ἀνήρ τις = _a certain man_: in the latter the words _filius patris_ mean equally _the son of the father_, _a son of a father_, _a son of the father_, or _the son of a father_. In Mœso-Gothic and in Old Norse, there is an equal absence of the indefinite article; or, at any rate, if there be one at all, it is a different word from what occurs in English. In these the Greek τις is expressed by the Gothic root _sum_. Now, since it is very evident that, as far as the sense is concerned, the words _some man_, _a certain man_, and _a man_, are much the same, an exception may be taken to the statement that in Greek and Mœso-Gothic there is no indefinite article. It may, in the present state of the argument, be fairly said that the words _sum_ and τις are pronouns with a certain sense, and that _a_ and _an_ are no more; consequently, that in Greek the indefinite article is τις, in Mœso-Gothic _sum_, and in English _a_ or _an_.