: In English and Anglo-Saxon the word is found in the present indicative only. In English it is inflected through both numbers in A. S. in the singular number only. The A. S. plurals are forms of what appears, in German, as seyn, a word of which we have, in the present English, no vestiges. Worth. This is a fragment of the A. S. weord-an = werden, German, be, become. Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day Lady of the Lake. * Found rarely; bist being the current form.-Deutsche Grammatik, i. 894. CHAPTER XXXV. FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE SO-CALLED STRONG § 412. THE previous chapters have been, more or less, general; the question with which they dealt being the meaning of the word irregular. The present chapter, along with those that follow it, is of a different character.. It deals with the details of our more remarkable strong præterites and participles. With some of the strong forms, the key to the apparent irregularity of a double præterite was found in the fact of the plural having supplied one form, and the singular another; but this only explained a part of the subject. The consideration of the phenomena of defect and complement, and the difference between real and fictitious irregularities, carried us farther. We may, however, go farther still. The first series of facts to which we now refer in our attempts at the arrangement of the so-called Strong Verbs, according to the divisions and sub-divisions of the great class to which they belong, lie in the older stages of our own languages, and the older allied dialects-pre-eminent among which stand the Moso-Gothic and the Anglo-Saxon; the Anglo-Saxon for its special relations to the English, the Moso-Gothic from its antiquity. The chief repertorium of examples is, as may be anticipated, the "Deutsche Grammatik.” An abstract of the doctrines of that great work may be found in the second volume of the "Philological Museum" (pp. 372-388); an able abstract, and something more, viz. some valuable criticism of the author's (Mr. Kemble). To this the English reader is referred. If we look to the possible combinations that a certain number of (say) ten vowels, and a certain number of (say) twenty consonants, are capable of supplying, we shall get a prodigiously high number. We shall not, however, do so if we look to what actually takes place. The actual roots of the German verbs that end in a vowel, followed by one consonant, as they appear in the MosoGothic, are all reducible to one of the following combinations -combinations which are grouped and numbered, for a reason which will soon be made manifest-(1.) al. am. an. ar. ap. ab. af. at. ad. ap. as. ak. ag. ah. (2.) il. im. in. aír (= er). ip. ib. if. iv. it. id. ip. is. ik. ig. aîh (= ih). (3.) ul. um. un. aúr (= ur). up. ub. uf. uv. ut. ud. uþ. us. uk. ug. aúh (= uh). (4.) ́él. êm. én. ér. ép. êb. éf. ét. éd. éþ. és. êk. ég. éh. (5.) ôl. ôn. ór. ôp. ôb. ôf. ôt. ôd. óþ. ôk. ôg. óh. (6.) áim. áin. áip. áib. áif. áiv. áit. áid. áiþ. áis. áik. áig. dih. áuv. áut. áud. áuþ. áus. áuk. áug. áuh. eif. eiv. eit. eid. eip. eis. eik. eig. eih. iut. iud. iup. ius. iuk. iug. iuh. (7.) áup. áub. áuf. (8.) eim. ein. eip. eib. (9.) iup. iub. iuf. iuv. And what is the case where the combination consists of a vowel followed by two consonants? 1. In the first place, the vowel so followed is always one of the following three, a, i, or u—not o, nor yet the German ö, nor yet ü. 2. In the second, the vowel (a, i, or u, as the case may be) is always short-a fact for which we are prepared by our knowledge of the chief phenomena of Phonêsis. 3. In the third, the consonant combinations are limited to the following-ll. mm. nn. rr. pp. tt. kk. lm. lp. lb. lf. lv. lt. Id. lp. ls. lk. lg. lh. mp. mb. mf. ms. nt. nd. nþ. ns. nk. ng. rm. rn. rp. rb. rf. rt. rd. rþ. rs. rk. rg. rh. ft. fs. zd. zg. sp. st. sk. ht. hs. Altogether, we have, in the Moso-Gothic, twelve classes. In the first four of these twelve Moso-Gothic classes the præterite is formed by reduplication-simple reduplication, the vowel being unaltered. In the two next, the reduplication is continued, the vowel being altered. In the last six the vowel is altered, but the reduplication is non-existent. The following table illustrates this : Exhibited more compendiously, the changes of the vowels in Moso-Gothic are as follows: § 413. With these preliminaries we may follow Mr. Kemble in comparing the A. S. with the Moso-Gothic-the oldest English with the oldest German, the earlier insular with the earliest continental, forms. The six first groups, though ceasing to be reduplicate, have not ceased to be regular. |