340

The Loom oj Language

no> Portuguese nao, Rumanian mi), to which some such emphasizing
element may be added, and in French a double-barrelled negation
(ne-pas} is obligatory It arose in the following way In Old French^

:\IA,

FIG 38 —STONE SLAB FROM LEMNOS WITH EARLY GREEK LETTERING
The language itself, possibly Etruscan, is undeciphered The writing is from
7eft to nght, from nght to left, vertically upwards or vertically downwards.
non had just become nen, and later ne It was often strengthened by
other words Some of them tallied with ones used in Vulgar Latin as
above One was new:
je ne vots point I don't see a speck
je ne mange mie I don't eat a crumb
je ne bens goutte I don't drink a drop
je ne marche pas I don't do a step—from Latin passus