eviatio est etiam in s
et th, quamvis retento charactere, in _house_, _cloth_, _path_."

s. 205. The words sounded _houz-ez_, _padh-z_, _yoodh-z_, taken along with
the extract from Wallis, lead us to an important class of words.--s. 199 b.

s. 206. Certain words ending in f, like _loaf_, _wife_, &c.

The regular plural of these would be _loafs_, _wifes_, pronounced _loafce_,
_wifce_, &c.

But this is not the case. The sound added to the final f is the sound of z,
not that of s.

And the plurals are sounded _loavz_, _wivz_ (_wivez_, _weivz_).

Furthermore, the sound of the final f is changed to that of v; in other
words, the _first_ of the two letters is accommodated to the second, in
violation to the rule of s. 199 b.

Can this be explained? Perhaps it can. In the Swedish language the letter f
has the sound of v; so that _staf_ is sounded _stav_.

Again, in the allied languages the words in question end in the _flat_ (not
the _sharp_) mute,--_weib_, _laub_, _calb_, _halb_, _stab_, &c. = _wife_,
_leaf_, _calf_, _half_, _staff_.

This makes it probable that, originally, the f in _wife_, _loaf_, &c. was
sounded as v; so that the singular forms were _wive_, _loav_.

If so, the _plural is_ perfectly normal; it being the _singular_ form on
which the irregularity lies.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE CASES.

s. 207. The extent to which there are, in the English language, cases,
depends on the meaning which we attach to the word case. In the term _a
house of a father_, the idea expressed by the words _of a father_, is an
idea of relation between them and the word _house_. This idea is an idea of
property or possession. The relation between the words _father_ and _house_
may be called the _possessive_ relation. This relation, or connexion,
between the two words, is expressed by the preposition _of_.

In the term _a father's house_, the idea is, there or thereabouts, the
same; the relation or connexion between the two words being the same. The
expression, however, differs. In _a father's house_ the relation, or
connexion, is expressed, not by a preposition, but by a change of form,
_father_ becoming _father's_.

_He gave the house to a father_.--Here the words _father_ and _house_ stand
in another sort of relationship, the relationship being expressed by the
preposition _to_. The idea _to a father_ differs from the idea _of a
father_, in being expressed in one way only; viz., by