s. 308. A confirmation of Bopp's view is afforded by the Laplandic languages. Herein the distinction between _one of two_ and _one of more than two_ is expressed by affixes; and these affixes are the signs of the comparative and superlative: _gi_=_who_; _gua-bba_=_who of two_; _gutte-mush_=_who of many_. 1. _Gi_=_who_, so that _guabba_ may be called its comparative form. 2. _Gutte_ also=_who_, so that _guttemush_ may be called its superlative. 3. Precisely as the words _guabba_ and _guttemush_ are formed, so also are the regular degrees of adjectives. {262} _a._ _Nuorra_=_young_; _nuor-ab_=_younger_; _nuora-mush_=_youngest_. _b._ _Bahha_=_bad_; _baha-b_=_worse_; _baha-mush_=_worst_. The following extracts from Stockfleth's Lappish Grammar were probably written without any reference to the Sanskrit or Greek. "_Guabba_, of which the form and meaning are comparative, appears to have originated in a combination of the pronoun _gi_, and the comparative affix _-abbo_."--"_Guttemush_, of which the form and meaning are superlative, is similarly derived from the pronoun _gutte_, and the superlative affix _-mush_."--Grammatik i det Lappiske Sprog, ss. 192, 193. s. 309. _Either_, _neither_, _other_, _whether_.--It has just been stated that the general fundamental idea common to all these forms is that of _choice between one of two objects in the way of an alternative_. Thus far the termination _-er_ in _either_, &c., is the termination _-er_ in the true comparatives, _brav-er_, _wis-er_, &c. _Either_ and _neither_ are common pronouns. _Other_, like _one_, is a pronoun capable of taking the plural form of a substantive (_others_), and also that of the genitive case (_the other's money_, _the other's bread_). _Whether_ is a pronoun in the almost obsolete form _whether (=which) of the two do you prefer_, and a conjunction in sentences like _whether will you do this or not?_ The use of the form _others_ is recent. "_They are taken out of the way as all other._"--Job. "_And leave their riches for other._"--Psalms. * * * * * {263} CHAPTER X. THE COMPARATIVE DEGREE. s. 310. The proper preliminary to the study of the comparative and quasi-comparative forms in English is the history of the inflection or inflections by which they are expressed. There is no part of our grammar where it is more necessary to extend our view beyond the common limit of the Gothic stock of languages, than here. In the Sanskrit language the signs of the comparative degree are two:--1. _-tara_, as _punya_=_pure_; _punya-tara_=_purer_; 2. _-[^i]yas_, as _k['s]ipra_=_swift_; _k['s][^e]p[^i]yas_=_swifter_. Of these the first is the most in use. The same forms occur in the Zend; as _husko_=_dry_; _husk[^o]-tara_=_drier_; _-[^i]yas_, however, is changed into _-is_.