A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v3.c18.91

v3.c18.91

It is tempting to look for the origin of this habit of using suffixes to the Semitic languages, which, from the early conquests of the Arabs in Persia and Sindh, may have had an influence upon the speech of those countries. On the other hand, however, the presence of a precisely similar habit in Italian and Spanish, seems to show that there exists a tendency to such constructions even in the Aryan family; for I suppose that even if we see in the Spanish forms a trace of Arab influence, no such motive power can be argued for any part of Italy, unless it be Sicily.