m what occurs in English. In these the Greek [Greek: tis]
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 Moeso-Gothic
there is no indefinite article. It may, in the present state of the
argument, be fairly said that the words _sum_ and [Greek: tis] are pronouns
with a certain sense, and that _a_ and _an_ are no more; consequently, that
in Greek the indefinite article is [Greek: tis], in Moeso-Gothic _sum_, and
in English _a_ or _an_.

A distinction, however, may be made. In the expression [Greek: aner tis]
(_anaer tis_) = _a certain man_, or _a man_, and in the expression _sum
mann_, the words _sum_ and [Greek: tis] preserve their natural and original
meaning; whilst in _a man_ and _an ox_ the words _a_ and _an_ are used in a
secondary sense. These words, as is currently known, are one and the same,
the n, in the form _a_, being ejected through a euphonic process. They are,
moreover, the same words with the numeral _one_; Anglo-Saxon, _['a]n_;
Scotch, _ane_. Now, between the words _a man_ and _one man_, there is a
difference in meaning; the first expression being the most indefinite.
Hence comes the difference between the English and Moeso-Gothic
expressions. In the one the word _sum_ has a natural, in the other, the
word _an_ has a secondary power.

The same reasoning applies to the word _the_. Compared with _a man_, the
words _the man_ are very definite. Compared, however, with the words _that
man_, they are the contrary. Now, just as _an_ and _a_ have arisen out of
the numeral _one_, so has _the_ arisen out of the demonstrative pronoun
_thaet_, or at least from some common root. It will be remembered that in
Anglo-Saxon there was a form _the_, undeclined, and common to all the cases
of all the numbers.

In no language in its oldest stage is there ever a word giving, in its
primary sense, the ideas of _a_ and _the_. As tongues become modern, some
noun with a _similar_ sense is used to express them. In the course of time
a change of form takes place, corresponding to the change of meaning; e.g.,
_one_ becomes _an_, and afterwards a. Then it is that articles become
looked upon as separate parts of speech, and are dealt with accordingly. No
invalidation of this statement is drawn from the Greek language. Although
the first pag