i \. 
 
 
 ft '■■-). ^-^ i^ ' -'^^'-f-M-' - 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V' 
 
 ^ 
 
 i.^'^^ ■ ' 
 
OF THK 
 
 t V 
 
 ^hiiuevsitg of ^itlif(r<t«ia» 
 
 Division 
 
 Bange 
 
 Shell S^i-S".. 
 
 Received .^^{-0^/ ^"^f 187 6 
 
 V 
 
 
 ■^.o^. 
 
 *»ft«tnl»- 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/dissertationonhiOOschwrich 
 
DISSERTATION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 History and Development 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 BY 
 
 EMIL SCHWERDTFEGER, 
 
 Class '77, Cornell University. 
 
 
 '^ '^ " " ^cu,^&^ ^/ ^*7? - ^^--^'^ 
 
 /L^.^ ^^-CkI^X^ 
 
 (t,:^.e£y^ ?t^^^^-V.J) 
 
DISSERTATION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 History and Development 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH VERB 
 
 BY 
 
 EMIL SCHWERDTFEGER, 
 
 Class '77, Cornell University. 
 
 NEW- YORK : 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. 
 
 1874. 
 
 f N V? 
 
 i Library, j 
 
 ^^ Callforn^*- 
 
// 
 
 //SS^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The present Dissertation on the English Verb was occa- 
 sioned by the offer of prizes to my Anglo-Saxon students in 
 The Cornell University, by the Early English Text Society of 
 London, through their Secretary, F. J. Furnivall, Esq., to 
 whom all students of the English language and literature 
 must feel deeply indebted, for the untiring energy he has 
 shown for years, in securing the literal reproduction in type 
 of the best existing MSS. of Early English works. 
 
 The prizes consisted of certain valuable publications of the 
 Society. But one subject was given to the classes — "The 
 History and Development of the English Verb"— and the first 
 prize was awarded, without a question as to its superior merit, 
 to the author of this Dissertation ; and it was on my testi- 
 mony to its value as a contribution to the study of the English 
 language, that his friend. Dr. J. C. Rodrigues, editor of "O 
 Novo Mundo," in New- York City, to whom he is indebted 
 for his education at The Cornell University, generously offered 
 to print it at his own expense. 
 
 It may not be considered out of place to state, that Mr. 
 Schwerdtfeger entered the University at the beginning of the 
 winter term of 1873-74, he not being of the required age, six- 
 teen years, to enter at the beginning of the year. His studies 
 in English philology have all been pursued since his admis- 
 sion to the University. He learned, during the winter term, 
 to read the Anglo-Saxon with perfect ease, and in addition to 
 what was read in class, during the winter and spring terms. 
 
 
 87H 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 namely, the Anglo-Saxon selections contained in my Hand- 
 Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English, he read all the Semi- 
 Saxon and Early English selections given, from Lajamon to 
 Chaucer, and either read entire, or examined with care, the 
 works cited on the last page. 
 
 This will be considered a pretty good ndpepyov, along with 
 all the other studies of the department of the University to 
 which he is attached ; but I make the statement as an evidence 
 of the honest work that has been bestowed upon the Disserta- 
 tion. 
 
 I would add that the author has received no help of any 
 kind in its preparation, beyond the regular instruction of the 
 class-room. The second-proofs were sent to me from New- 
 York, and I was obliged, by reason of other engagements, to 
 read them very hastily. The typographical and other errors 
 will, however, be found to be but few, and those unimportant. 
 
 HIRAM CORSON. 
 
 ^jThe Cornell University, 24 August, 1874. 
 

 Library. J 
 
 THE ENGLISH VERB, 
 
 I. 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (tILL II50 A.D.) 
 
 § I. The Anglo-Saxon Verb lias two voices, the Active 
 and Passive ; the latter, however, being found as a simple 
 form only in the past participle, the other parts being 
 compounds of the verbs weor^an and wesan, used as 
 auxiliaries with the past participle. There may origi- 
 nally have been a special passive form, of which some 
 traces are still perhaps to be found in the weak verbs 
 in -taUf the / corresponding seemingly to the Old Norse 
 terminations ga, ja^ ka ; which are allied to the Sanskrit 
 /, that has the same functions and is besides used to 
 form the passive ; and it seems probable that they (^^, 
 ja^ ka) may have been used for the same purpose, before 
 the origin of the modern passive of the Scandinavian 
 languages, formed by adding to the active -sk (later -j/) 
 in O. Norse, and -s in Danish and Swedish, these termi- 
 nations being weakened forms of the reflexive pronoun 
 sik."^ Of the Medial fonn nothing remains, exceptmg an 
 
 * Vide Holmboe's Det Oldnorske Verbum^ pp. 2, 12. What he says 
 there may apply also to the A.-S., for as Earle observes : "In fact, it 
 would be hardly too much to say, that a description of the elder verbs 
 of any of these languages (the Germanic) would, with very slight alte- 
 rations, pass for a description of the elder verbs of any of the others" 
 {Philology of the English Tongue, p. 226). " The endings ga, Ja, ka," 
 says Holmboe, "indicate partly the purely neutral state of existence 
 {det reent neutrale Tilstandsbegrei), partly inchoatives and passives, 
 partly causatives or factives;" and examples may easily be found 
 among the verbs in -ian, corresponding to these significations, as : i.) 
 steallian,wkian, to dwell, etc.; 2.) dagian^ to dawn; mistian, to become 
 misty, etc. ; 3.) hUdegian, to make bloody ; bldcian, to bleach, etc. It 
 
6 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 instance given by Koch, of ic hdtte occurring in the sense 
 of the Gothic haitada^ I call myself. * But both of these 
 forms must have disappeared at a very early period of the 
 language, in accordance with the general tendency of all 
 the Aryan dialects to discard them, which maybe observed 
 already in the Sanskrit in its somewhat irregular use of 
 the Medial, and still more so in the later Indian dialects.t 
 
 § 2. There are five moods^ the indicative, subjunctive, 
 imperative, infinitive, and participle; two simple tenses^ 
 the present and past ; two numbers, singular and plural ; 
 the dual, still found in the Gothic, having disappeared 
 from the verb, although still in use with the personal pro- 
 nouns of the first and second pers. ; and ^xt^ persons, the 
 first, second, and third. 
 
 § 3. As in the other Germanic languages, there are two 
 orders of verbs, the strong and the weak, the former of 
 which form the past by a change of the roQtJDWvel of the 
 infinitive, the so-called Ablaut of German grammarians, 
 while the pst. prt. ends in -en, either with or without ac- 
 companying Ablaut. The weak verbs form their past 
 tenses by affixing -de or -te, either immediately to the root 
 or with a connecting vowel (p, a, e), and the past prt. by 
 
 is also worthy of remark that most of the verbs in -tan are intransitive 
 (Loth's Angelsachshch-Englische Grammatik, p. 115) ; but it sdems to be 
 the general opinion that this i is merely a connecting vowel (Matzner's 
 Englische Grammatik, I. 320, Morris's English Accidence, p. 173, etc.), 
 and I would therefore be extremely careful to advance this opinion, 
 especially as it is at most only a conjecture. 
 
 * Koch's Englische Grammatik, I. pp. 243, 343. 
 
 tHolmboe's Oldn. Verb., p. 12. "In the Prakrit occurs only the 
 present and imperative of the passive, together with the participles ; in 
 Pali it shows strong symptoms of declining use; in Bengalee and 
 Hindustanee it is always circumscribed ; in Gothic it has only the in- 
 dicative and subjunctive present. But few traces of the Medial occur 
 in Prakrit and Gothic, while it has altogether disappeared from the Pali, 
 Bengalee and Hindustanee. In the O. Norse the Medial, as a sepa- 
 rate verbal form, is entirely unknown." 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 7 
 
 adding -d or -/, sometimes with and sometimes without a 
 connecting vowel. One class of the weak order has 
 moreover a change of the root-vowel in the pst. tense 
 and pst. prt. 
 
 §4. The sfrong verbs maybe divided into 21 classes, n 
 according to the root-vowel of the inf. (corresponding to 
 the root-vowel in the i p. sg. and entire pi. of the prs. 
 ind., the pres. subj., the imp. and prs. prt.); of the i p. 
 sg. of the pst. indie, (corresponding to the 3 p. pst. sg.) ; 
 of the pi. ind. pst. (corresponding to the 2 p. sg. pst. ind. 
 and the entire pst. subj.) and of the pst. prt The first 
 1 1 of these classes have the same root-vowel in the sg. 
 and pi. of the pst. ind. and subj., while in the remaining 
 10 classes, the i and 3 p. sg. ind. have a vowel different 
 from the other persons of the pst. ind. and the whole pst. 
 subj. The root-vowels of the 2 1 classes are : 
 
 
 Infinitive. 
 
 Past Sing. 
 
 Past PI. 
 
 Past Part. 
 
 I. 
 
 ea 
 
 eo 
 
 eo 
 
 ea 
 
 XL 
 
 a 
 
 eo 
 
 eo 
 
 a 
 
 III. 
 
 e^ 
 
 eo 
 
 eo 
 
 ea 
 
 IV. 
 
 6 
 
 eo 
 
 eo 
 
 6 
 
 V. 
 
 a 
 
 eo 
 
 eo 
 
 5 
 
 vi: 
 
 a 
 
 S(e6) 
 
 a(e6) 
 
 a 
 
 VII. 
 
 ^ 
 
 a(e6) 
 
 e(e6) 
 
 ffi 
 
 VIII. 
 
 a 
 
 e(e6) 
 
 e(e6) 
 
 a 
 
 IX. 
 
 a 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 a 
 
 X. 
 
 ea(a) 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 a (ea, », e) 
 
 XI. 
 
 e(a) 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 XII. 
 
 e 
 
 ae 
 
 ^ 
 
 e 
 
 XIII. 
 
 i 
 
 36 
 
 & 
 
 e 
 
 XIV. 
 
 i (eo, e) 
 
 ea 
 
 ea (», a) 
 
 i(eo,e) 
 
 XV. 
 
 e 
 
 » 
 
 ffl 
 
 
 
 XVI. 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 s 
 
 u 
 
 XVII. 
 
 e 
 
 se 
 
 "■ u' 
 
 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 
 Infinitive. 
 
 Past Sing. 
 
 Past PI. 
 
 Past Part. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 e (eo, i) 
 
 ea 
 
 U 
 
 O 
 
 XIX. 
 
 e6(a) 
 
 ea 
 
 U 
 
 o 
 
 XX. 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 XXI. 
 
 i 
 
 a 
 
 u 
 
 u* 
 
 *■ § 5. T^Q present indicative does not always contain the 
 stem- vowel, and so we find that in the 17th, i8th, 19th 
 and 20th classes, the original stem-vowel a has been 
 weakened in the pres. to // in the 15th and i6th classes 
 the stem-vowel a (a) to i (e) ; in the 12 th, 13th and 14th 
 the vowel a {ea^ ce) also to /, e j while in the 20th the 
 stem-vowel i is strengthened in the pres. to /. f The con- 
 necting vowel, which comes between the stem and the 
 personal ending, was in the strong verbs originally dr, 
 which is already weakened in the Gothic to i before s 
 and ]>, and this becomes e in the A.-S. A few strong 
 verbs have ia (ie) as a connecting vowel instead of a^ and 
 £ has been hardened to ^,' or been broadened to ig, and in 
 some words has assimilated. J Although the personal 
 ending has fallen off in the i p. sg. prs., the connecting 
 vowel has still been retained {heald-e siand-e). This per- 
 sonal ending, originally like the others a pronominal stem, 
 was in its full form -ma^ which was weakened first to 
 -mi and then to -m, preserved by the West Saxon in only 
 two verbs, eom and beom ; while in the northern dialect 
 it is still found {ic geseam, John 4. 19. ; ic gedojn^ Luke 12. 
 18., etc., Northumbrian Gospels ^ Koch), and also in the 
 weakened form -n {ic cue^on^ Matthew 6. 25., Koch). 
 The personal ending of the 2 p. was originally -tva, which 
 was weakened to -// and then softened to -si. It is found 
 in Gothic and Old Saxon as -j, which in A.-S. appears 
 
 * Loth's Ags.-E. Grammatik, p. 104. Corson's Hand-Book of Anglo- 
 Saxon and Early English, p. 547. 
 
 t Koch's Engl, Gr. I. 256, 268, 272, 288. 
 
 • Ibid. I. 324-325. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 9 
 
 rarely in the ind., the usual ending being -sty a strength- 
 ened form of the -s ; but, as with the endmg of the i p., 
 it is preserved in the North {^u hcefes, Luke 12. 19., Koch) 
 and especially frequently when the pronoun follows {spre- 
 ces ISu, Matt. 13. 10.; leornas t5«, Luke 10. 26., Koch) 
 which is sometimes joined enclitically to it (gesiistUf Matt. 
 7. 3 ; cue^esiUy 7. 4., Koch). The ending of the 3 p. is 
 -/, originally -ta, and in a weakened form -//, which the 
 O.-S. has as -d, and the Gothic and A.-S. as -)?, while the 
 Northumbrian already shows the modem -s (geheresy does, 
 getimbresy Luke 7. 24., Koch), which may have been de- 
 veloped from O. Norse -r, or may be only a corruption 
 of t5, probably the latter, as it elsewhere also takes the 
 place of -t5, where no -r is to be found in O. Norse ; as 
 for instance in the pL («/<? getrymesy tue gespreces, John 3. 
 II., Koch), where the O. Norse terminations are -ww, -adh^ 
 -and ; and in the imp. {gaas and cuoo^a'^y Mark 11. 7., 
 Koch), the O. Norse termination being -adh; and we even 
 find it taking the place of the A.-S. subj. {doa'^S sum huced 
 he to mh gectics^as [A.-S. secge~e\ John 2. 5., Koch). In 
 the 2 and 3 p. the connecting vowel e is often omitted, 
 the personal endings are joined to the stem, and at the 
 same time the vowel of the i p., unless /, ^, ^, or ^, is 
 changed, this being the so-called Utnlaut ; ^Mvch was, 
 however, probably caused already in the fuller forms by 
 the connecting vowel itself, and then retained by the syn- 
 copated forms. It occurs but rarely in the Sanskrit, more 
 frequently in Zend and Prakrit, a it^ times in the Greek, 
 and not at all in the Old Persian. In the Germanic lan- 
 guages it is of comparatively recent date, no trace of it 
 being found in the Gothic, and in Old High German 
 it occurs first in the 6th or 7th century. It is especially 
 developed in the Old Norse, A.-S., Middle High German, 
 and modern German, while it is hardly any more felt in 
 English, Dutch, and the Modem Scandinavian dialects. 
 
10 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 In A.-S. e and eo become /, sometimes y ; u becomes j^'/ 
 a becomes e ; ea becomes ^, and sometimes y;d becomes 
 (s; 3 becomes i ; and ed^ ed^ HI become j), the remaining 
 vowels being unchanged. When in consequence of syn- 
 copation the endings -st and -tS would come in contact 
 with a dental, various changes take place : after a -t of the 
 stem -st remains, but '5 is dropped {ete^ itst^ it) ; -d of the 
 stem is sometimes dropped before -st^ and in the 3 p. -d^ 
 becomes -/ {ridcy rist^ rtt)^ but -nd of the stem becomes 
 «/, before which -t5 in the 3 p. is dropped (findey fintst, 
 fint) ; -« of the stem is dropped before both terminations 
 {weor^e, wirsij wir6) ; -s of the stem is dropped before 
 -st and -tS in the 3 p. changed to -/ {drtse^ drtst, drtst) ; 
 and -st of the stem is dropped before the termination 
 -st^ while -t5 is omitted (berste, birst, birst). Besides these 
 changes a final -h of the stem is dropped in the i p. sg., 
 and a final -^, except when preceded by -«, is changed "/ 
 to -h before -st and tS {ic fled for fleoge ; fleoge, flyhst, 
 flyh^ ). The personal endings of the pi. were originally 
 compounds: ma-si (I and thou = we) ; ta-si (thou and 
 thou = ye) ; an-ti (from the pronominal stem atia-s^ 
 this one, and ta^ he, and therefore = he and he = they.) 
 But the endings of the i and 2 p. may have been 7n-as 
 and t-as^ in which case the m and / would designate the 
 person, while -as would denote plurality. Of the Ger- 
 manic dialects the Gothic and O. H. German show these 
 terminations most clearly, while the A.-S. and the O. S., 
 have but one ending for all three persons, the former -t$, 
 the latter -d^ which are equivalent to the Gothic -and, the 
 -n having dropped out before the dental. When the pro- 
 noun follows the verb -tS is dropped, and the connecting 
 vowel a weakened to e. * 
 
 * Koch's En£^l. Gr. I. 322, 324, 325, 333 ; Loth's A^s.-E. Gr. 102 ; 
 Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 545-546 ; Morris's Engl. Accid. 173, 175 ; 
 Holmboe's Oldn. Verb. 28-33 ; Helmboe's Det Norske Sprogs Vcesent- 
 Ugste Ordforraad; Brockhaus' Conversations-Lexikon, XV. 299. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. II 
 
 § 6. The formation of the past of strong verbs is a 
 very striking, though not entirely peculiar, feature of the 
 Germanic languages, and, as Grimm says, is one of their 
 chief beauties.* It is formed, as already mentioned, by 
 Ablaut^ which occurs with remarkable regularity and 
 agreement in all the languages of this family, thus clearly 
 showing its conscious use as a means of inflection. Strongv 
 verbs were undoubtedly originally reduplicative, although/ ^!!!^*" 
 in some their reduplication can not be clearly traced ; but 
 in those verbs whose past has the vowel of the present, 
 it is so strongly marked, that some grammarians make of 
 them a separate class of reduplicative verbs. The verb 
 don shows undoubted reduplication in its past dide. But 
 this method of forming the past tenses was lost at a very 
 early period, not being found in any of the Germanic 
 languages, excepting the Gothic, where it is restricted to 
 long-syllabled stems, and the vowel of reduplication is 
 always ai^ and not the stem-vowel, f Even the Sanskrit 
 seems to have had a tendency to make away with the use 
 of reduplication, while in the Prakrit and later Indian 
 dialects, it has disappeared without leaving a trace ; nor 
 has the Romaic retained any of the Greek reduplication 
 or the Romance languages the little occurring in the La- 
 tin. J The stem- vowel a {ea) of the 9th, loth and nth 
 classes is heightened to ^ in the pst. sg., and the stem- ^ 
 vowel I of the 20th to a. § There is no connecting vowel 
 in the past and the i and 3 p. sg. have no personal end- 
 ings. The -e in the 2 p. (O.-S. -/) may have come in from 
 the subj., thus also explaining the Ablaut of the plural, 
 unless we would have it agree with the Sanskrit babar-ita^ 
 in which case it might possibly be the connecting vowe 1 
 
 * Eine haupt-schb'nheit unsrer sprachen, quoted by Earle ; Philol. o f 
 the E. Tongue, 245. 
 t Koch's En^gl. Gr. I. 330. tHolmboe's Oldn. Verb. 23-24. 
 
 J Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 279, 288. 
 
12 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 I.* In the pst. pi. the stem-vowel a of the 17th, i8th, 
 19th and 20th classes has been weakened to u; the stem- 
 vowel a (ce) of the isth and i6th classes has been heigh- 
 tened to d {m) ; a («, ea) of the 12 th, 13th and 14th to 
 df &; and in the 9th, loth and nth, « {ed) to 6,\ The 
 (O.-S. ti) in the pi. may have arisen from the a in «;///, 
 while the -« found in all three persons has been developed 
 from the 3 p. pi. J In the 2 p. sg. and the whole pi. the 
 following final consonants of the stem are changed on 
 account of the following vowels: -h is changed to -g 
 (fiedh^fiuge^flugon) ; -« to -d {wear^ywurde^ wurdon) ; -s 
 to -r (ceds, cure^ curori). § 
 
 § 7. The subjunctive was originally an optative mood, 
 designated byj^, meaning to go^ which was shortened in 
 the Gothic present to /, and heightened in the past to jd. 
 The modal / comes between the connecting vowel and 
 personal ending, combining in O.-S. with the connecting 
 vowel a to ^, and in the A.-S. to -e, which appears in the 
 singular of both tenses in all persons, while the plural 
 takes -on as -en, like the ind. pst. pi. The pst. subj. has 
 the same Ablaut as the 3 p. sg. and entire pi. of the pst. 
 ind. 1 
 
 § 8. The imperative is, properly, no mood, consisting 
 merely of the verbal as present stem, with a pronoun 
 added as a vocative; the original terminations having 
 been dhi (from tva^ thou) and tat {ta-si, ye). The sg. 
 ending was lost already in the Gothic, which retains a 
 dual form -ts and the pi. -t5, the latter of which is found 
 also in the A.-S. The connecting vowel a is lost in the 
 sg., but reappears in the pi., and, when the pronoun fol- 
 1 ows, is changed to e, while the « is dropped. ^ 
 
 * Koch's Btii^l. Gr. I. 330. t Ibid- 1. 256, 268, 272, 279. X Ibid. 
 $ Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 546; Loth's Ags.-E. Gr. 102. 
 II Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 329 ; Morris's Engl. Accid. I73-I75- 
 H Ibid. I. 333 ; Morris's Engl, Accid. 175. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 13 
 
 § 9. The Germanic infinitive is very old and may be 
 traced back as far as the Sanskrit, which has the inf. end- 
 ing 'turn, found also in Pali and Prakrit ; but the latter 
 often takes -dum instead (cf. the Persian use of both -ten 
 and -deri)^ and at times even drops / or //, thus passing 
 over to the Bengalee form in -on^ -an ; which is found in 
 the Gothic and other Germanic dialects.* It may cor- 
 respond also to the Sanskrit nouns in ana, as gam-ana-m^ 
 from gam, where -m is merely a neuter suffix ; and the 
 inf. is, in fact, properly an abstract noun, and in the A.-S. 
 the so-called dative infinitive in -anne or -enne still shows 
 traces of inflection ; while in Sanskrit the dative and loca 
 live of nouns in ana{dBX gam-an-dya; loc. gamane) were 
 used as infinitives, and the ending -turn, like the Latin su- 
 pine, is the accusative of a nominative in tus. f The ori- 
 ginal locative idea of the inf. seems to be still expressed 
 in modem languages by the accompanying preposition 
 (^, a in the Romance languages, to, zu, etc. in the Ger- 
 manic dialects, except the Scandinavian branch, which 
 has aty att, which in Danish, as in English, must always 
 precede the verb, even where it has no longer the force of 
 a preposition. This at is not otherwise used as a prepo- 
 sition in Danish and Swedish, so far as I know ; its only 
 independent use being as a conjunction, that, but in Ice- 
 landic it is also used in the sense of the English word at, 
 which may perhaps be derived fi-om it). In the North 
 umbrian dialect the -n of the inf. is dropped [ge-cujnce, 
 Matt. 14. 28; cume, John 8. 22; cuma, 21, etc.; Koch). J 
 In A.-S. instances may already be found of the later con- 
 founding of the prs. prt with the dat. inf., the Rushwood 
 Gospels having sawende instead of td-sawenne (Mrc. IV. 
 3; Madden). Instead of -enne we sometimes also find 
 
 Holmboe's Oldn. Verb. 14. f Morris's Engl. Accid. 17&-177. 
 
 X Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 341. 
 
14 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 -ene^ which was occasionally written like the simple inf. 
 {td-secatiy Cod. Exon., 217, and in the A.-S. Chronicle, 
 wealdan^ a° 11 23, halden^ a° 1140, etc.; Madden).* 
 
 § 10. 'Xh^t present participle ends in A.-S. in -nd^ which 
 is joined by a connecting vowel. It is equivalent to 
 the Sanskrit at, which is a contraction for anta, a form 
 that returns in the inflection. In the Prakrit it occurs 
 partly unchanged, more frequently in the fuller form, and 
 partly with the dental weakened, -anda (fem. -andi).\ In 
 X\iQ past participle the stem-vowel a of the 17 th, i8th, 
 19th and 20th classes is weakened to w, and the stem- 
 vowel a {ce) of the 15th and i6th to u {p).X The Sans- 
 krit made a limited use of the suffix -«^, which becomes 
 more frequent in Gothic in the metathesized form an, 
 which appears in A.-S. weakened to -en. The participles 
 have never had reduplication. § The pst. prt. undergoes 
 the same consonantal changes as the pst. tense (cf. § 6. 
 ge/logen, geworden, gecorefi). 
 
 § II. Weak verbs may be divided into four classes, in 
 the first of which the connecting vowel (or a ; Gothic 
 and O.-S. 6) comes between the stem and the ending -de, 
 in the past ; in the second <?, while the third drops the 
 connecting vowel. The fourth also forms its past and 
 pst. prt. with 'de and -d (or, in some cases, -/<?and -/), but 
 the root-vowel is changed, not, as in strong verbs, by Ab- 
 laut, but rather by Umlaut. \ The third class in reality 
 belongs to the second, but the connecting vowel was cast 
 out by stems with long vowels, and also by those length- 
 ened by position with mn, ng, rm, m, Id, nd^ rd / and 
 finally by stems with short vowels, which assimilate their 
 consonants, so that Ij, mj, sj, dj, gj, cj,pj, become //, mm. 
 
 * Madden's Edition of Lcvramon s Brut, I. xlix. 
 
 t Holmboe's Oldn. Verb. 15. % Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 256, 268. 
 
 $ Ibid. I. 252. II Loth"s Ags.-Engl. Gr. 114. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 15 
 
 ss, dd, gg, cc, pp* Not much need be said of the prs. ind. 
 and subj., as they agree on the whole with the strong 
 verbs, except that in those of the ist class the connecting 
 vowel a appears in the 2 and 3 p. sg. {luf-a-si, iuf-a-% 
 which in the i p. appears as ~ige {luf-ige\ and in the pi. 
 as ia {luf-ia-'6) ; which is also found in the pi. of the 2d 
 class {ner-ia-'^), while in the 2 and 3 p. sg. the connect- 
 ing vowel e appears {ner-e-st, ner-e-^); in the i p. sg. -ie 
 (ner-ie). In the other classes the connecting vowel is 
 either retained or syncopated {dSm\e]^, sSc[e]6). Verbs 
 whose stem ends in a double consonant, drop one of the 
 consonants in the 2 and 3 p. sg. ind. {telle, ielsi, tem).\ 
 
 § 12. The characteristic of the weak declension is its 
 formation of the past by adding -de or -ie to the root, im- 
 mediately or with an intervening connecting vowel. Bopp 
 at first thought that in the sg. this was the pst. prt. with 
 personal endings, the Sanskrit giving examples of such 
 formations {gaid smi, iox gaiah asmi, I have gone); while 
 the pi, in his opinion, was formed by a verb equivalent to 
 do, which Grimm afterwards proved to be the case, not 
 only in the pi., but also in the sg., as may be clearly seen 
 in the Gothic inflection of weak verbs {-da, -des, -da; 
 dedum dedu\ didun), although the verb, with which these 
 weak preterites are formed does not exist independently 
 in Gothic! Another explanation has been proposed by 
 Holmboe: "that %a or «/ (the O. Norse forms) can be 
 considered analogous with the auxiliary i'd, pi. ie in the 
 Hindustanee, which signifies was, were, and in the Ben- 
 galee seems to have combined with the verbal stem as in 
 the O. Norse." § The terminations are -de; -dest; -de -don; 
 but the editor of t he Northumbrian Gospels cites instances 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 305-307. 
 
 t Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 550-553 ; g^oth's Ags.-Engl Gr. etc. 
 
 X Holmboe's Oldn. Verb. 25. 
 
 $ Holmboe's Sanskrit og Oldnorsk, 9-10 ; Oldn. Verb. 26. 
 
l6 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 from the Cod. Rush, of the i and 3 p. sg. ending in -n 
 (icfardurty John 8. 42, t5^ cuomon ^e hcelend, Matt. 26, 36, 
 Koch), which, at first sight, would in the former case 
 appear to be the ancient 1 p. termination -m in a weak* 
 ened form, but is probably only a corruption.* 
 
 § 13. The only other difference of the weak verbs from 
 the strong, besides the pst. prt., is in the imp. sg., which 
 in the ist class retains the connecting vowel {luf-a)^ while 
 verbs having a double consonant, take it single, with e. f 
 
 § 14. Compound tenses occur already in A.-S. but not 
 as regularly as in modern English. ^h& perfect is formed 
 with the present of habban and wesan, used auxiliarly with 
 the pst. prt., but with the distinction that habban is used 
 with transitives {^ds ]>ing we habbd^ be him gewritene ; 
 A.-S. Chr. a° 1087), dca^wesan with intransitives {Tid is 
 cumertj John 17. i). The pluperfect is formed with the 
 past of these verbs, observing the same distinction {He 
 \ds bSc hcefde geleornode^ Boeth. ; f^ gewordene wseron, 
 A.-S. Chr. a° 1087)4 The imperfectly occasionally formed 
 as in modern English, by the past of don with the inf. 
 (JVdne g^man ne dydan^ Oros.) Don is also, but rarely, 
 used with a noun {^a diden hi alle wunder^ A.-S. Chr. a° 
 1 137). Besides this we find the parts of wesan used, as 
 at present, with the pres. prt. {Gregorius \e6nde wees, M\- 
 fric). The present is often used in a future sense, as in 
 Gothic, and we also find the parts of wesan with the dat. 
 inf., used like the modern is to be {ysiS syllanne, Matt. 17. 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 333. 
 
 t Corson's tiand-Book of A.-S. 552 ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 333, 
 X The original meaning of possession in the use of habban may still 
 be clearly seen in A.-S., in the inflection of the participles, as in the 
 above examples: "we have these things in a written state," etc. A 
 somewhat similar and very curious mode of forming the past in Tur. 
 kish, is given by Max Miiller: "In place of an auxiliary possessive 
 verb, the Turkish language uses an auxiliary possessive pronoun to 
 the same effect." Lectures, I. 318. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. tj 
 
 22; Koch); but the fut. is likewise already formed as in 
 present English by the parts of willan and sculan with 
 the inf. Willan^ in its primary meaning as an auxiliary, 
 denotes an action as dependent on the will of the subject, 
 and hence the fut.* It is likewise used to denote re- 
 peated action {And wilddeor \(Er woldon id irnan, Boeth.) 
 Holmboe thinks that sculan is derived from Sanskrit sjan^ 
 to consider, just as munu^ the other fut. auxiliary in O. 
 Norse is allied to Goth, munan^ to think ; but he com- 
 pares with it sja, a suffix used to form the fut, which 
 Bopp regards as a remnant of a lost fut. of as^ to be 
 (Gramm. p. 903).f But it seems more probable that the 
 original present was scile^ I kill, so that sceal denotes " I 
 have slain and must therefore pay the wer-geld" hence 
 " I must." X It would then be probably allied to Goth. 
 skilja, a slayer; A.-S., scylan^ to cleave; O. Norse skilja, 
 Dan. skjehie^ Swed. skilja^ to separate ; O. Norse, skella, 
 to strike, hew off; O. Norse skdlk-fy a sword, a helm. 
 The initial s might have dropped off (cf A.-S. smeltan, 
 melt J- ancient Lat. stlocus^ locus ; stlis, lis, etc.), and it 
 would then possibly be preserved in cwellan, to kill, to 
 quell ; Dutch kwelen, Germ, qudlen, O. Norse kvelja, 
 to torture; Goth, qal, torture, etc. As the custom of 
 wer-geld is already mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania^ 
 it must have very early acquired its meaning of obliga- 
 tion, which it has already in Gothic, and which still clearly 
 appears in A.-S., although some cases occur where it has 
 certainly none other than a fut. signification ( We sculon — 
 
 * Koch's Etigl. Gr. II. 23. Cf. the Persian fut., formed by the verb 
 k'dhiden or k'dsten, willan, used as an auxiliary. Holmboe's Oldn. 
 Verb. 27. " In Chinese /a^ means to will, n£^d is I ; hence ngb^ad, I 
 will. The same root _y<z£>' added to /S'«^, to go, gives us ngo ^ad k'iu^ I 
 will go, the first germ of our future." Max Miiller's Lectures, I. 396. 
 
 t Holmboe's Det norske Sprogs Ordforraad, 309 ; Sanskrit og Old- 
 norsk, 10-12; Oldn. Verb, 
 
 t Morris's ^»^/. .<4<r<:w?. 185, etc. ..,*;/ 
 
I8 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 C<? sum bispell reccan^ Boeth.). It is used, also, like the 
 Germ, sollen^ to make a modest statement : " it is said, that 
 
 " i^d sceolde cuman \^re helle hund^ se sceolde 
 
 habban \nd heafdu^ Boeth. Der Hollenhimd^ der drei 
 Kopfe gefiabt haben soil, sollgekommen sein). The modern 
 potential mood is expressed by the auxiliary cunnan, which 
 as a transitive verb denotes knowledge {Afe ge cunnon, 
 John 7. 28; HUmeta can \es stafas, 7. 15), and thus natu- 
 rally came to denote at first an intellectual, afterwards a 
 physical, ability {Ine canne, i ne mai iellan, A.-S. Chr. a° 
 113s), just as we find scire sometimes used in the Latin 
 in the sense oi posse {Te flagrantis atrox hora CaniculcR 
 Nescit iangercj Horace), like the French use of savoir, 
 Magan also indicates ability or possibility, especially of 
 a physical kind {Hi ne mihton — begytan, A.-S. Chr. a^ 
 1083), and mttan, besides its modern use of necessity 
 {Ac hi mosion mid ealle \es cynges wille folgian, A.-S. Chr. 
 a° 1087), also denotes power {utonfledn — \d hwile '6e we 
 m6ton^ ^Ifric) and likewise permission i^xt ic mdte geseon, 
 ^Ifric). There is also found a compound imp., formed 
 by an auxiliary ttton used with the inf. to express a pro- 
 posal {uton agifan \cem esne his wif, Boeth.). Uton is 
 probably a corruption of the r p. pi. subj. prs. of wttan, 
 to go.* 
 
 § 15. The forms of the substantive verb have 3 roots, 
 from the first of which, as, meaning originally to breathe, 
 the present is formed : eom (Sansk. as-mi, Goth, i-iri) ; eart 
 {eas-t, Sansk. a-si, Goth, i-s) ; is (here the root as is wea- 
 kened to is, and the suffix -« or -/, still found in Goth, 
 and Germ., is dropped. Sansk. as-ti, Goth, is-t) ; sind 
 (this is equivalent to the 3 p. pi. in Sansk. santi-=zas-santi ; 
 sindon is a double pi. ; aron is found in the Northumbrian 
 
 * Koch's Engl, Gr. I. 360-361 ; II.]22-3o ; Morris's Engl. Accid. 183- 
 192, etc. 
 
THEJ ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 19 
 
 dialect, coming probably from the O. Norse i p. pi. erum, 
 Sansk. s-masj s-tha, s-anti ; Goth, sij-um, sij-W^, si-nd). 
 The subj. prs. is sie {sig, si^ seS) for all persons in the sg., 
 and sten {sin) for all in the pi. (Sansk. s-yd-m^ s-yd-s^ s-yd-t; 
 s-yd-maSy s-yd-ta^ s-yd-ni ; Goth, si-ja-u^ sij-ai-s^ sij-ai; 
 sij-ai-ma^ sij-ai-\, sij-ai-na). The second root (allied to 
 Goth, visatiy O. Norse vera^ Sansk. vas, to dwell), is de- 
 clined regularly as a strong verb of the 12th class {wesan^ 
 wcBSj webron^ gewesen), and is found in the pst. ind. and 
 subj., in the imp., both infinitives and both participles. 
 There is still another root, bd [fuiy (pvo))^ the prs., imp., 
 and inf. of which remain ;* the present being used, how- 
 ever, more in the sense of a future. 
 
 § 16. There are a number of verbs in the Germanic 
 and other languages, which use the preterites of strong 
 verbs that have been lost, in the present, and from these 
 form new past tenses according to the weak conjugation ; 
 and are therefore called preteritive verbs. In A.-S. they 
 are: 
 
 Infinitive. 
 
 X p. sg. pres. 
 
 pi. pres. 
 
 pst. 
 
 Agan, 
 
 dh. 
 
 dgOTty 
 
 dhtty 
 
 Cunnajtf 
 
 canuy 
 
 cunnon. 
 
 cMe, 
 
 Dugatiy 
 
 dedh. 
 
 dugoUy 
 
 dohtey 
 
 Durrarty 
 
 dear. 
 
 durroUy 
 
 dorstey 
 
 Magartf 
 
 mag. 
 
 magoHy 
 
 nieahtey 
 
 Mdtatiy 
 
 mdiy 
 
 mdtoriy 
 
 mostey 
 
 GemunaUy 
 
 geitian^ 
 
 gemunon, 
 
 gemtmdey 
 
 SculaUf 
 
 scealy 
 
 SCUlOUy 
 
 scoldCy 
 
 Unnatiy 
 
 anriy 
 
 unnouy 
 
 ii^ey 
 
 Wiian, 
 
 wdt, 
 
 witoTiy 
 
 wisiey 
 
 \utfan, 
 
 \earf, 
 
 Ipurfoftf 
 
 yofftey 
 
 
 beneahy 
 
 benugorty 
 
 benohte. 
 
 
 * Morris's Engl. Accid. 181-182 ; Koch's Engl. Gr, I.34S-346; Loth's 
 Ags.-Engl, Gr. 127-128. 
 
20 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 The original presents of these verbs were probably, ige^ 
 cintu (allied to Goth, kinnan^ to produce), deoge^ deorscy 
 meggy maie^ minne^ sciie, inne (this verb is not found in 
 the Gothic), wtte^ \eorfe. The last one, which is found 
 in Goth, as nahan^ is defective in A.-S. In these verbs 
 the I and 3 p. sg. are uninflected ; unnariy magan^ dgan, 
 and dugan have pi. Ablaut with -e in the 2 p. sg., while 
 cunnan and \urfan take both cunne^ \urfe and canst, 
 yearfst/ but the others have lost the strong conjugation 
 of the a p. sg,* Of imllan the Gothic has only the subj., 
 which is also indicated by he wile, and the same vowel in 
 the whole present If it were the ind. wdl would be 
 expected by pi. Ablaut, and this is confirmed by the 
 Northumbrian Gospels. The subj, has here gradually 
 taken the place of the ind. and taken -4 and -«tS.t 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 358-359 ; Loth's Ags..-Engi. Gr. 128-131 ; 
 Morris's Engl. Accid. 183-192, 
 t Koch's Engl Gr. I. 360; Loth's Ags.-Engl. Gr. 127. - 
 
II. 
 
 THE SEMI-SAXON PERIOD (1150-1250). 
 
 § 17. The Semi-Saxon period is represented by the 
 two texts of the Brut of La^^amon, the Ancren Riwle, 
 by Simon of Ghent or Bishop Poor, and the Ormulum, 
 by Orm, which is of a more recent date than the others, 
 and aheady shows many of the forms of Old Enghsh, 
 while " the language of Lajamon belongs to that tran- 
 sition period in which the ground-work of Anglo-Saxon 
 phraseology and grammar still existed, although gradually 
 yielding to the influence of the popular forms of speech ;"* 
 the language of the Ancren Riwle does not differ from it 
 in any important particular.f With some important dif- 
 ferences and in general a great confusion and uncertainty 
 in their uses, the A.-S. inflections are still found, the prin- 
 cipal change being the displacement of the vowels ^, o^ 
 Uy in the grammatical terminations by ^, a process that 
 may also be observed in the High German from the be- 
 ginning of the 1 2th century.f It begins already in the 
 latter part of the A.-S. Chronicle ()>^r wes for \cer wees, 
 ben for bedn^ alse for alswd, to-deld for io-d&ld, etc., a° 
 1137). Another important change is the so-called mm- 
 natiorif which consists in the addition of a final -n to cer- 
 tain grammatical terminations. It is especially frequent 
 in text A. of Lajamon, while B. and the Ormulum, which 
 generally drop the -Uj even in regular forms, show but 
 
 * Madden's Lct^atnon, I. xxviii. 
 
 t Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 513. 
 
 X Hadley's Introduction to Webster's I>ictionary, $ 31. 
 
22 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 little of it. Some uncertainty as to its correctness must 
 have existed, even in the earlier text, for many passages 
 occur in it, in which the -n has been erased by a second 
 hand and sometimes by the first.* The elision of -n is 
 more fixed and regular in B. and O. than in A., which 
 does not discard it wholly in any form, although omitting 
 it occasionally in very many.f These changes and others 
 will be more fully spoken of below, as they occur. 
 
 § 1 8. The 21 classes of strong verbs are more or less 
 confounded in S.-S., which is even more apparent in A. 
 and B. than in O., where these vowels are used with 
 greater consistency. As in A.-S., strong verbs in Laj. 
 change the / of the inf. and pres. into a ox a (B. d) in the 
 pst. sg., resuming /, however, in the pi. {arisen^ araSy ari- 
 sen ; biten^ baty biteny etc.) The constant tendency in all 
 the Germanic dialects of enlarging the weak conjugation 
 at the expense of the more ancient, the strong, here, too, 
 manifests itself; strong verbs, in some instances, having be- 
 come weak or using both forms {bcdh and bo-^ede; ferde and 
 for; scop and scupte^ etc.) The later text has sometimes 
 only the weak form, where A. has both {walkede for weol- 
 ken; iclembde for iclumen^ etc.), although in a few instances 
 the contrary takes place {soch for sohiey etc.) As in the 
 A.-S., certain transitive verbs occur, formed from the 
 preterite of strong neuter verbs ; and, although the con- 
 jugations are occasionally confounded, they are generally 
 kept distinct, the derivative verb belonging to the weak 
 order {cerneny eornen ; leggen^ liggen^ etc.). J 
 
 § 19. The I p. prs. ind. of strong verbs often ends in 
 -n, the use of which may still be seen in the Germ., 
 Dutch, and Friesic bin § (cf. the 1 p. pres. in the North- 
 
 * Madden's ZaJ. I. xxix. + Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. $ 103. 
 
 tMadden's La"^, I. l.-li. ; Hadley's /«//-. to W.'s D. $ 135. 
 $ Madden's iLdtj. I. xlix. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 23 
 
 umbrlan dialect, § 5), but the usual ending is -e yet. The 
 nunnation already spoken of appears chiefly in the i p. 
 sg. in verbs, which may be explained by the ancient Teu- 
 tonic form 07t, aftf en in the i p. sg., but other cases of its 
 occurrence in verbs can not be satisfactorily accounted 
 for.* The 2 p. ends in -est (O. -esst)\ but both in the 
 present and in the weak past, the final -/ is at times drop- 
 ped, a form prevalent in O. Saxon and which Thorpe also 
 points out as a peculiarity of the Exeter book. It is more 
 common in northern than in southern sources.t The 3 
 p. ends in -e\ (O. -e\\). Neither Laj. nor O. have the -j 
 of the Northumbrian dialect. When the base ends in -d 
 or -/ the 3 p. ends in -/, as in A.-S. | The variations of 
 vowels in Laj. make it uncertain whether the Umlaut 
 of the A.-S. in the 2 and 3 p. still remains, while Orm 
 has decidedly none, but this may be caused by his having 
 only full forms. In the A. R. the vowel of the 3 p. sg. 
 is sometimes changed {holden^ kalt ; hoten, hat ; fleon^ 
 fliJv^ ; iseon^ isiJt^^ the last also changes the vowel in the 
 2 p., isihst).\ The pi. endings are regularly -^J> for all 
 persons in A., B., and the A. R., but in O. it is of rare 
 occurrence, -enn being the regular termination, which was 
 probably derived from the subj. and pst. Some traces of 
 it appear to be found even in A. and B. || In a few in- 
 stances the pi. in Laj. ends in -t, which seems attributable 
 to the scribe {^if heo welwexit^ A. 981, Madden). When 
 a pronoun immediately follows the -\ is dropped as in 
 A.-S., and the ending -e is then sometimes, but rarely, af- 
 fected by nunnation [fusen we II. p. 465, Madden). ^ 
 
 * Madden's Z«j. I. xxix. 
 
 t Ibid. I. xlix. J Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 334, vide also $ $• 
 X Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 336; Madden's Z-aj. I, xlix. ; Corson's Hand- 
 BookofA.-S. 571. 
 
 $ Koch's Engl. Gr. I, 338 ; Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 572. 
 
 II Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 336; Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. § 131. 
 
 ^ Madden's La^. I. xlix., where he restricts it to the I and 2 p. 
 
24 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 § 20. The I p. sg. pst. sometimes ends in •<? in Laj.^ 
 and rarely takes the final -n. In the 2 p. sg. the pi. Ab^ 
 /<2«/with -^is still retained (|>« Me, A. 5045; \u come^O. 
 2812, Koch), but O. generally drops the -e (]>w gann^ 
 2805),* and is very frequently subjected to nunnation, par- 
 ticularly in weak verbs i^e eorl ferden, A. 21289, ferde^ 
 B.) t The pi. -on is weakened to -en and this to -^, which 
 is the rule with both orders of verbs in B., but occurs 
 only occasionally in A. {ise^en^ A. 20755, iseh%e, B. ; ho 
 bilafden, A. 20765, hii blefde, B.), which sometimes also 
 uses /- (A.-S. ge-) as a prefix {ise^euy 20755, where B. has 
 also iseh-^e)y a usage which is rare in the A.-S., if at all 
 known. I The 2 p. sg. and entire pi. undergo the same 
 changes as the A.-S. (§ 6). § 
 
 § 21. The terminations of the subj. are the same as in 
 A.-S., -e for all persons of the sg., and in the pi. the 
 weakened form -en^ which sometimes drops the final -;/. 
 The 2 and 3 p. sg. are subject to nunnatioUj unless some 
 of the instances of its occurrence be considered as ellip- 
 tical expressions, the inf. being employed and an auxiliary 
 understood ; for in some cases, although the verb has a 
 subjunctive force, it certainly appears to be in the inf. 
 {wunieny II. 103, beon, III. 145, nimen and scriuen, II. 
 347, etc.. Madden), and this seems also probable with 
 such expressions as, \at \u li^en^ III. 25, \at \u cumen, 
 JII. 24, etc, (Madden) and in many other cases. The 
 pst. subj. of one text is occasionally expressed in the 
 other by an auxiliary (]>^/ he hine gn^ede^ A. 31032 ; \at 
 he hi., grille wolde^ B., Madden). || The pi. Ablaut still 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 331 ; Hadley's Inir. to W.'s D. % 137. 
 
 t Madden's La^. 1. 1. Cf. $ 12. 
 
 X Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 331 ; Madden's Zcg. I. 1. 
 
 $ Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. $ 138. 
 
 II Madden's Lar^. 1. 1. li. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 25 
 
 continues in the pst. subj. (swunke^ Lag. 17909 ; he spceke^ 
 O. 16260).* 
 
 § 22. The imp. sg. is simply the verbal stem, as in 
 A.-S., although an -^ is frequently added as in the i and 
 3 p. sg. pst. t The A.-S. imp. pi. has been weakened to 
 -<j^, which in A. is subject to nunnatioji as well as the sg. J 
 
 § 23. The inf. ends in -en (O. -enri)^ the final -;/ of which 
 is sometimes omitted in text A., and generally so in B., 
 and it is also commonly preceded by the preposition A?, 
 but is occasionally governed by a preceding verb without 
 a preposition ; and in B., as in O. English, for is some- 
 times used for for to (for habbe to cwiefte, B. 4380 ; to 
 habben to are quene^ A., Madden). Laj. and the A. R. 
 still preserve the dative inf. in -euTte or -ne^ while O. has 
 only the simple inf. form, the doubling of the -n being 
 merely a sign of a short syllable. The A. R. especially 
 in longer words, frequently confounds it with the inf., and 
 Laj. with the prt. in -nde {^a gon he to fled^ie^ A. 21650 ; 
 \o gonne hit tofleonde^ B.), which is more apparent in R 
 than in A., but is common to both, nor are similar in- 
 stances wanting in A.-S. (Cf. § 9).§ 
 
 § 24. The pres. prt. is extremely rare in S.-S., only 33 
 instances being found in both texts of Laj., of which A. 
 supplies two thirds. The usual ending in A. is -ende or 
 4ndey the latter being also the regular form in the A. R. 
 Three participles have the double ending -ejide and inge^ 
 and one has inge alone. In B. both terminations are 
 found, but the proportion in -inge is one half. Occasion- 
 ally B. has -ende^ where A. reads -inge. Orm has -ennde 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 332. 
 
 t Koch's Engl, Gr. I. 333; Vide Matzner's Englische GrammoHk,!*. 
 320-321. 
 
 X Madden's Zaj. 1. 1. ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 333. 
 
 ^ Madden's ZaJ. I. xlix. ; Koch's EngL Gr. I. 340-341 ; Corson*S 
 Hand-Book of A.-S. $jo. 
 
26 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 alone, the forms in -ing being substantives as in A.-S. 
 The -ande of the Northumbrian gospels is retained only 
 in northern documents.* The participial form in -inge is 
 probably a corruption of -inde rather than of -ende or 
 -andcy the sounds of -inde and -mge being no doubt 
 closely related, and Morris even quotes an instance of 
 their rhyming together {^finde^ kervynge^ K. Alys. II. 
 6551-2).! It is also a curious fact that the Sandwich 
 Islanders can not see the difference between d and g^ % 
 and even Webster " goes so far as to maintain in his In- 
 troduction to his English Dictionary, that in English gl 
 is pronounced dl ; glory is pronounced dlory" (Max 
 Miiller's Lectures, II. 168-169). The pst. prt. ends in 
 -en^ the augment ge- being represented by the weakened 
 form /-, which hardly ever appears in O., while in the 
 
 A. R. it is almost invariably used, except before certain 
 prefixes. It is declined like an adjective as in A.-S., and as 
 such retains many marks of the former declension, hav- 
 ing also traces of the definite and indefinite forms. The 
 final -n is generally dropped in B. {Andhii blefde of-slawe^ 
 
 B. 20765; and ho bilafden of-sla'yzn. A.) and sometimes 
 in A. The pst. prt. of some verbs is found both strong 
 and weak, as with the pst. tense {ay?nged, a^eongefi ; ileo- 
 sed and iloren^ etc., Madden). § 
 
 § 25. The weak verbs may be divided into two classes : 
 those which form the pst. by adding -de (or -te after a 
 surd) directly to the root (a k or ch is sometimes changed 
 to h before this -te and the root-vowel e to o^ as sechefiy O. 
 
 * Madden's Zaj. I. li. ; Koch's En^l. Gr. 1. 342 ; Corson's Hand-Book 
 of A.-S. 570 ; Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. $ 133. 
 
 t Morris's Engl. Accid. 180 ; Morris's A'^enHte of Inwyt, Ixiv. ; 
 cf. Genesis and Exodus, xxxviii. 
 
 X Max Miiller's Lectures, II. 167. 
 
 ( Madden's La'^. I. li, ; Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 566, 570 ; Had- 
 ley's Intr. to W.'s D. % 134. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 2/ 
 
 sekenn^ being the same as the 4 class in A.-S.) ; and those 
 which have an intervening connecting vowel, e. The lat- 
 ter class is a remnant of the conjugation in -iajt^ which 
 may be still clearly distinguished, although in O. the / of 
 these verbs has been lost. The inf. of this conjugation 
 ■ in A. and the A. R. is ien^ while B. has / [wunien, A. 
 20960; wonie^ B. ; i^olien^ A., \olie^ B. 21 150; luuien, 
 A. R., etc.), no fewer than 65 verbs being thus formed in 
 it, and of these 1 1 are also found in A.* 
 
 § 26. The terminations of the pres. of weak verbs 
 have changed but little ; sg. ind. -^, -est (O. -esst\ -t5 (O. 
 -^W) j P^' "^ (^* -^^^' The terminations of the past 
 have likewise remained, the 2 p. sg. rarely dropping the 
 -/ in -est^ as in the pres. of strong verbs. This is already 
 found in A.-S. {yu /tjes^eSy Cs&d. ; wendes \u^ 268, 22, 
 Koch), t Nunnation is of the most frequent occurrence 
 in the 3 p. sg., but occurs also, as in strong verbs, in the 
 I and 2 p., and this, too, is already met with in the 
 Northumbrian gospels (§ 12). Several instances pf a 
 contracted form of the pst. tenses occur in both texts, 
 but principally in K.\ The subj. retains its terminations 
 in both pres. and pst, being subject to nunnation like 
 strong verbs. The imp. sg. of the second class ends in 
 -e (-fl, -^, in A.-S., vide § 13), which is sometimes omitted 
 
 * Madden's Lar^. I. li. ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 340 ; Corson's Hand' 
 Book of A.-S. 577 ; Hadley's Intr. to IV.' s D. $$ 139-141. 
 
 t Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 327, 334. 
 
 t Madden'j La"^. I. 1. "7«r«(f is probably the contracted (or strong) 
 form of the past tense turnede, in the same manner as wone for wonede, 
 cleope for cleopede, somne for somnede, answere for answerede, gadere for 
 gaderede, etc., all of which occur in the later text, and similar forms are 
 found nearly two centuries later, in the Wycliffe Bible. In the earlier 
 text, also, we meet with ysreke, luue, wune^ make, cleope, dune, etc., 
 written by the first hand, but subsequently corrected in some passages 
 to "^cerekede^ luuede, wunede, ntakede, cleopede, dunede. We have also the 
 forms gadere, answare, help, etc., left uncorrected." III. 454, note to 
 e 1970. 
 
aS THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 {loc^ O. ; M, B., but both have also loke^ etc.). The imp. 
 sg. of the other class coincides with the verbal stem, and 
 the pi. in the i class is -^, in the 2d -ie^ (A.-S. ia^ ).* 
 What was said of the prt. of strong verbs applies also to 
 weak ones. The pst. prt. of weak verbs, ending in -d or 
 -/ takes -e in the pi. and often doubles the consonant in 
 d {ibredde, iladde^ etc.), but in B. the -e or -//<? is some- 
 times dropped, t 
 
 § 27. The mode of forming the compound tenses of 
 the past has not changed, D6n being still used with the 
 inf. to form the imperfect, and the parts of Habban and 
 Be6n with the pst. prt. to form the perfect and pluperfect, 
 observing the same distinction in their use as in A.-S 
 Willan and Sculan are still the auxiliaries of the fut., 
 which, as in A.-S., is frequently expressed by the present. 
 The O. Norse munu, used for the formation of the fut., is 
 employed in nearly the same manner by O. (Ofdredd \ait 
 all his gode dede ne mune himm nohht beon inoh^ 7927, 
 Koch), and is also used in conditionardauses (For yf he 
 wrohhte brad off stan \a munnde he seon l^ati mahhte 
 ann munnde trowwen wel ]>all he Crist Godes Sune wcBre^ 
 11613-11617). Be3n is also used, as in A.-S., with the 
 dat. inf. with a fut. signification of necessity or possibility. 
 Cunnan the potential auxiliary {cu\enn tellenn^ O. 11969) 
 is still transitive {ci^e \ene wceiy A. 21559), ^^ ^^^^ ^^ 
 the similar auxiliary Magan (trans. : he ma%% ofer ]>a, O. 
 
 8042, Koch; aux.: JVe maj;^ libben^ O. 11344). 
 
 Motan denotes permission {yf heo moten Men^ A. 20873) 
 
 and obligation or necessity {He Tnot ekenn^ O. 57); 
 
 \urfan^ used as in A.-S. to denote permission {Ne \urfe 
 we iseon^ A. 8367, Koch), is still found transitive 
 
 * Corson's Hand-Book of A.-S. 577-580; Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. 
 $141. 
 t Madden's Lay I. li. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 29 
 
 (Nmt mann ne \urfte off himm^ O. 161 64, Koch). 
 Lajamon preserves the imp. auxiliary Utofi in uten we 
 (A. 20635, Koch), where B. has hotie. The fut. aux. Scu- 
 Ian is also used in an imp. sense {Ge ne shulen habben, 
 A.R.), and Lebian inclines in S.-S. to the auxiliary use of 
 modern E, serving to circumscribe the imp. subj. espe- 
 cially in the i p. [Loet deluen \as dich, A. 15894, Koch).* 
 Jgan is still a transitive verb {al \el he ouhte^ A.R.), but 
 already begins to be used as an auxiliary, debere, as in 
 
 modern E. {hwi me ouh luuien, A.R.), being thus first 
 
 used in Lajamon's he ah to don (8289). I know of no 
 other Germanic dialect in which the verb Agan is thus 
 used, excepting the Icelandic, where it is used both as 
 own and ought {vildi ekki star/a \att, sein hann dtti at 
 skipi giora ; " would not do the work he ought to do on 
 the ship." Islandsk Laesebog, p. 114) ; and perhaps this 
 use of Agan was borrowed from it, like the pi. are^ and 
 other forms. 
 
 § 28. In the substantive verb the northern form am, 
 first found in the Northumbrian gospels, is retained and 
 is the only remnant of the i p. suffix -w. The 2 p. is (eri, 
 art, eart (L.), arrt (O.), ert (A. R.) ; 3 p. is (iss, O.) ; pL 
 sunden (A.), sinndenn (O.) ; subj. prs. si, pi. sion (not found 
 in O.). Of the second root we have i and 3 p. sg. pst. 
 was (wcBS, wes, wass), 2 p. wass, O. (were ? ) ; pi. weren 
 (wcerenn, O.); subj. sg. were (wcere, O.), weren (wce- 
 renn, O.). Bedn still retains the fut. force of the A.-S., 
 so that wor^e, B. represents beon. A., and shal be, B. 167 
 (Koch) stands for he be\ in A. Its parts are : i p. beon 
 (L.), 2 p. beost, bist (best, O.), 3 p. beo'^, be^, btb ; pi. beo'^, 
 be^, bi6 (arn, ben, O.) ; subj. beo, beon ; imp. sg. beo, be 
 (L. has also the imp. wes, seo) ; pi. beo'^, be^ ; inf. beon, 
 ben ; pst. prt. ibeon, beon, ben, ibe. In B. and O. eo is 
 often contracted to e (best, ben, etc.). Negative forms 
 * Koch's En^l. Gr. I. 3S7-3S8 ; II. 19-30- 
 
30 
 
 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 occur as in A.-S. by compounding with ne (nam^ nart, nis; 
 naSy nere).* 
 
 § 29. The preteritives are mostly retained, but some 
 have, to a great extent, disappeared. In Lajamon they 
 appear as 
 
 Inf. 
 
 1 p. sg. prs. 
 
 pi. prs. 
 
 pst. 
 
 A^hen, 
 
 a/ty 
 
 aytty 
 
 ahte 
 
 Cunne, 
 
 catty 
 
 cunnetiy 
 
 ci/^e 
 
 
 der(r)y 
 
 durreriy 
 
 durste (dorsie) 
 
 
 viceiy 
 
 mageuy 
 
 mihte 
 
 
 moty 
 
 moteny 
 
 mosie 
 
 
 scaly 
 
 sculeUy 
 
 scolde 
 
 Witen, 
 
 wat (wot) 
 
 witetty 
 
 wuste 
 
 A-^hen in the A. R. forms the negatives nouhsty nouhy no- 
 wen, O. besides cann has also cunne\ in the 3 p. sg. 
 (12276, Koch). Dugan seems to have been displaced by 
 Magany being probably retained longer at the north, for O. 
 still has ic amm \cstt \ing \attnohht ne dceh (4872, Koch) ; 
 the A. R. also retains the 3 p. sg. deih. Magan has mu- 
 ihcy mu^hen in the prs. pi. ind. and prs. subj. in O., which 
 is probably a corruption. Bosworth cites mtigon already 
 in A.-S. JVsLiid 5 often interchanging we find mawe, B. 
 1520, ma-^ey A. (Koch) ; and in the A. R. we find the pi. 
 muwen, muwcy and also instead of mihte in the pst. muhte 
 and muhtest. The A. R., already has the 2 p. sg. prs. of 
 Mdtan as mosty instead of mote as in L. and O. Munan 
 is preserved by O. ; L. has the weak form niunien. A. 
 has mostly sc in the forms of Sculany rarely schy which is 
 the regular form in the A. R., while B. has generally sim- 
 ply s. Unnan has still a few forms left. Witan is best 
 preserved in O. ; the A. R. like L. has wuste in the pst, 
 and it has likewise the prs. pi. wutelSy and the prs. subj. 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 345-348; Corson's Hand-Book, of A.-S. 580; 
 Hadley's /«//•. to W.'s D. $ 144. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 31 
 
 wute, \urfan occurs in but few forms in the A. R., while 
 L. has only the prs. Nahan has altogether disappeared. 
 The Ablaut forms mage^ age^ cunne^ etc. first disappear in 
 L., which shows that they were no longer felt as forms of 
 the pst. L. has wille d^xA wolle in the prs. of the irregu- 
 lar verb WillaHy and in the subj. wullcy wolle; O. has 
 wile in the prs. ; A. R. wulle ; while the pst. in all is 
 wolde (wolldej O.).* 
 
 " Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 349-359 ; Corson's Hand-Book ofA.-S. 580-581 , 
 
III. 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD (1250-1550). 
 
 § 30. " The periods in the history of our language 
 which are known as the Old English and the Middle 
 English, differ chiefly in their vocabulary : in grammatical 
 points they are not so far unlike as to require a separate 
 treatment." (Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. § 147). The 
 strong verbs are now greatly reduced, many having been 
 added to the weak class, a process already seen to take 
 place in S.-S., and which was at work already at a much 
 earlier period and has not yet ceased. The classes of the 
 remaining verbs have become much confused and ob- 
 scured, and of some we find both weak and strong forms 
 at the same time {slepte^ sleep ; wepie^ weep; etc.). The 
 dropping of the final -«, already so marked towards the 
 close of the S.-S. period, as seen in B. and especially O., 
 has become general, being freely omitted in all forms, and 
 we even sometimes find the unaccented e before the -n 
 dropped in writing, as it may have been occasionally in 
 pronunciation, though generally sounded in Chaucer.* 
 
 § 31. The I p. sg. prs. still ends in -^, but already fre- 
 quently drops it, and according to the verse it appears to 
 have been usually silent even when written. The 2 p. 
 retains its termination -est and the 3 p. -^J>, but as in the 
 
 1 p. the -€ is frequently dropped or interchanged with /, 
 y. Especially the northern dialects frequently drop the 
 -/ in the 2 p. and have es^ is^ys. The Scotch has also the 
 
 2 p. in -is. Thou is often enclitically united to the 2 p., 
 
 * HadleyV Intr.\ ta W.'s D. ^ 165 166. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 33 
 
 so that it is doubtful whether the -/ belongs to the flection 
 or to the thou {woltou, hastou, P. Plowman, Passus V. 
 152-153). The -ey of the 3 p. is found in Robert of 
 Gloucester, WyclifFe, Chaucer, and Maundeville, but Peter 
 Langtoft and the <A.-S. and O. E. Psalter' frequently 
 have -es^ and Chaucer, who himself uses only -eihj has the^ 
 clerks from the north use -s. The southern dialect shows 
 the same preference for the inflection -ih, that Jennings 
 notices in his observations on the dialects of the west of 
 England, and in many cases it distinguishes the sg. from 
 the pi. If the verbal stem ends in -/ or -d, or even in -x,' 
 -/ takes the place of -eth (agelt, K%. of Inwyt, but immedi- 
 ately after, agelteY). In some verbs the vowel is changed 
 in the 3 p. sg. {healden^ halt ; hoten^ hat ; etc.). The pi. 
 in 'e\ is still retained, but the northern dialects here too 
 have es {is^ ys), this form coinciding with the 3 p. sg. 
 The ending -^J> is found in Robert of Gl. ; P. Langtoft 
 has -e]> and -es, P. Plowman, -eth and -en, the latter being 
 by far the most frequent form in Chaucer and Wycliffe 
 and the regular one in Maundeville. These two termina- 
 tions are sometimes found together [A//e that helpen the 
 innocent, And holden with the rightfulle Withouten mede 
 doth hem good And the truthe helpeth, P. Plwm. p. 57 
 Matzner). The -n is frequently dropped in the termina- 
 tion -e7t, as in all other endings.* 
 
 § 32. The I and 3 p. of the pst. of strong verbs is still 
 properly without personal ending or connecting vowel, 
 but in northern writers they are often supplied with a final 
 -e {atstode — and drof, R. of GL), which may be referred 
 to the 2 p. sg. pst. and the sg. subj. pst., as they were con- 
 founded at an early period already. This -e was likewise 
 
 ■* Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 325, 334-337 ; Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 320-325 ; 
 Morris's A-^enbite of Inwyt^ lix.-lx. Ixxxiv. ; Morris's Early English Al- 
 literative Poems xx.-xxi. ; Hadley's Intr. to W.'s Z>.'<5 167. 
 
34 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 added to other endings, especially those in -eth {comethe and 
 brennethe^ Sir J. Maund.) It was undoubtedly silent, so 
 that we find both forms used together {toke^ toky etc.) The 
 2 p. sg. for a long time retained the pi. Ablaut and the 
 termination -e {Thow gefe — and breke — ahd sete^ P. Plwm. 
 p. 2)^^ \ Matzner), but this form is exceedingly rare in the 
 northern dialects, and the tendency to cast it off has been 
 seen already in O. (§ 20). But when the distinguishing 
 Ablaut was dropped, -e not sufficiently indicating the 2 .p., 
 the -est of weak verbs began to take its place, especially 
 when a weak form of the verb existed. The pi. ending 
 -en is found in the southern and Midland dialects, while 
 the northern inflects neither sg. nor pi. of the pst. ; the -n^ 
 however, is frequently dropped. While the -n is dropped 
 from the pi. it is frequently transferred to, the sg. in 
 Maundeville, reminding of nunnation in Lajamon.* 
 The southern dialect still preserves the pi. Ablaut, but 
 the northern furnishes no examples of it {starf, A5. of 
 Inw. p. 165 ; storven, p. 67 ; Morris), t 
 
 § 33. The subj. retains its terminations in both numbers 
 of both tenses, although -n is not frequently found. The 
 -n of the subj. is frequently dropped already in the A.-S., 
 when followed by a pronoun, as with the -^^ of the pres. 
 pi. and imp. pi. {hwcetete we, hwcdt drince we^ Matt. 6, 31 ; 
 Koch).t 
 
 § 34. The imp. of the sg. often adds a final -«?/ the pi. 
 ends in -]> (herkeneth, taketh, Ch. Cant. Tales, 782-783), 
 which the northern dialects have as usual in the form -s. 
 Already before the end of the 14th century, however, the 
 sg. form is found occasionally for the pi. (Adrawe^ y?ure 
 suerdesj and loke — R. of Gl.). The subj. with we was 
 
 * Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 321, 325-326 ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 330-331, 
 334-337; Morris's -(4 J. of Inw. Ix.-lxi. ; Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. $ 168. 
 t Morris's A"^. of Inw. Ixi. 
 t Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. $ 170; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 337. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 35 
 
 early used for the imp. {Go we, and sle we hym, and pittie 
 we hym in an olde sis fern, Gen. xxxvii. 20).* 
 
 § 35. The inf. generally drops the -n of the termination 
 and appears as -e, the common form in WyclifFe, and espe- 
 cially frequent in the north. Chaucer uses both forms, 
 but the fuller is comparatively rare, and seems to have 
 been required more by the verse, to prevent the -e from 
 being elided before a following vowel. Thus there are 
 221 infinitives in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, of 
 which 2 drop thein£ ending entirely, 175 drop the -n and 
 only 44 have retained it. Of these, ^^ stand before vow- 
 els and 10 alone before consonants, while i ends a line. 
 Of the infinitives in -<f, 64 end lines, 50 stand before 
 consonants, and the remaining 61 before vowels, most of 
 them being: elided. The dat. inf. survived as late as the 
 14th century, but it generally appears like the simple inf. 
 {to nimene and of-hyealde, K%. of Inw.), and may proba- 
 bly still be seen in the so-called long forms of Chaucer's 
 inf. {to done, to slane). The dat. inf. early became con- 
 founded with the pres. prt., and when the latter was 
 changed to -inge or -ing it also assumed that form.t 
 ' § 36. In southern dialects, the pres. prt. ends in -iyide, 
 in the Midland in -end, and in the northern in -ande j but 
 in the first two the tendency to use the form in -inge, 
 shown already in S.-S. (§ 24), is very strongly marked. 
 R. of Gl. has 4nde, -ynde and -inge ; Trevisa (a.d. 1387) 
 uses only -inge or -ing, while Peter Langtoft, Sir Tristrem, 
 and the Psalter, have only -and, which is rarely used by 
 Chaucer, he usually having -ing, while his contemporary, 
 Gower, generally uses the Midland form -end. In Wycliffe, 
 
 * Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 326-327 ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 333, 337 ; Mor- 
 ris's A"^. of Inw. Ixxvii.-lxxxii. ; Hadley's Intr. to W.'s D. $ 171. 
 
 t Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 328 ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 340-342; Hadley's 
 Intr. toW.'s D. $ 172; "MoTTis's A'^.o/ Inw. Ixiii.; Morris's Engl. Auid. 
 176-177. 
 
36 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 the translations vary, Purvey's revision has only -inge, 
 -ynge as participle and substantive, while in the ori- 
 ginal 13 books distinguish between -inge and -ende. 
 Northern writers never omit the -n of the pst. prt., 
 while it is very frequently omitted in the southern dia- 
 lects, all Trevisa's pst. participles of strong verbs end- 
 ing in -e. The full form is often retained, however, 
 when the participle is used as an adjective in the pi., 
 as ybrokene, etc. Chaucer drops the -n even from par- 
 ticiples, which is never done in modem English, and, 
 indeed, there seems to be a tendency at present to restore 
 it to all past participles {hadde he be^ C. T. 60). The 
 southern dialect retained the /- or _y- as a prefix up to a 
 very late time, while the northern omits it entirely, and 
 Midland writers, with northern tendencies, like Orm, fre- 
 quently drop it.* 
 
 § 37. The connecting vowel, <?, of weak verbs, is occa- 
 sionally yet preserved in the past, but was lost at an early 
 period, while / (^, /, ig) long remained in many forms. 
 Thus^y {i) is found in the ind. and subj. pres. for/ and ig^ 
 and where it is transferred to the pst. tense and pst. prt. 
 the connecting vowel appears twice, both as y (/) and 
 -e {ymaried^ R. of Gl.). It is, however, of most frequent 
 occurrence in the inf. as zV, ye^ y, yen (serui and \onki 
 — louie and worssipie, Aj. of Inw.), being very common 
 in the southern dialect and occurring also in the West 
 Midland, but very rarely so in the East Midland and not 
 at all in the northern. Old French verbs in -ier were 
 analogously treated, and other A.-S. and French ones 
 assimilated to them {susteini, conseili^ robby^ etc. R. of Gl.) 
 
 § 38. The past of weak verbs has the same endings 
 as the strong and is affected by the same changes. The 
 
 * Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 327-328 ; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 342 ; Hadley's 
 Intr. to W.'s D. $ 173-174; Morris's ^5. of Inw. Ixiv.-lxv. ; Morris's 
 Eng. Acad. 180. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 3/ 
 
 I and 3 p. sg. end in -de^ with or without the connecting 
 vowel -e {louede^ iealde, etc.) ; and, as may be seen in the 
 latter example, the Umlaut form of the pst. has still been 
 preserved. The 2 p. ends generally in -est, but in the 
 same manner as this -est has affected the 2 p. sg. of strong 
 verbs, it has itself been affected by the regular ending of 
 strong verbs, which it occasionally takes {Thou maide^ 
 Townely Myst. p. 20, Matzner). The pi. ends in -euy 
 often dropping the -n. The imp. sg. in -e is still pre- 
 served {Make me, Luke 15. 19). The pst prt. ends in 
 -edy but -id is also found {embrowdid, C. T. 89), even 
 as late as Burns {biggiij etc.), and it occurs also as -ud 
 (bathud, C. T. 3, enspirud, 6, etc.).* This connecting 
 vowel -u is found likewise in other forms {^ou — bryngust ; 
 me clepuy, R. of Gl.). 
 
 § 39. Chaucer and others still occasionally use Weot- 
 l^an to form the passive {worth cheyned, P. P., Matzner), 
 but Beon has almost displaced it. The distinction be- 
 tween Be6n and Habban in the formation of the perfect 
 and plup. has partly been lost, the latter being used with 
 both classes \has — be? Townely Myst., Matzner; is 
 abide, Trevisa). The past of Beon is used with the pres. 
 prt. to form the imperf. {Syngynge he was, orflowtynge — , 
 C. T. 91). Besides D6n there was another auxiliary used 
 to form the imperf., gan (gan—praye, C. T., 302; gan 
 wende, R. of GL), which was probably displaced by the 
 other, but still exists as a compound in be-gan. Sculan 
 and Willan, as auxiliaries of the fut. were not yet distin- 
 guished as in modem English, but used indiscriminately. 
 The latter is frequently yet transitive {he wolde, Isaiah, 
 53. 7 ; I wolde, 55, 11). The past of these auxiliaries is 
 
 * Matzner' s Engl. Gr. I. 153, 320, 325, 327-328; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 
 333, 335, 341; Morris's A"^. of Inw. Ix., Ixiv. ; Morris's Engl. Accid. 
 173; Hadley's /w/?*. to W.'s D. $ 169. 
 
33 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 used to form the conditional mood i^ef he schulde^ R. of 
 Gl.) Bedn^ as at all other periods of the language, is 
 used with the dat. inf. with a fut. sense of necessity ()>/«- 
 ^es \at to comene dep, R. of Gl. 3056, Koch). Cunnan, 
 the potential auxiliary {couthe endite — couthe pynche — 
 couthe pleyn, C. T. 327-329), is still frequently used in its 
 original signification of knowledge {the wisdom that he 
 can, C. T. 373). As an auxiliary it is probably in great 
 part an imitation of the French savoir, although occurring 
 already in A.-S. (§ 14). Magan, having the auxiliary 
 force of Cunnan {ne mype non atstonde, R. of Gl.), is some- 
 times still used transitively (hii nop ne my%te, R. of Gl.), 
 MStan is still used to denote permission {^Welcome mote 
 Ipou be, 10680, R. of Gl. Koch), and, as at present, to ex- 
 press obligation {Men mooten y.ven — C. T. 232) ; the past 
 most, beginning to be used, as in modern English, in a 
 present sense. Agan as a transitive verb was gradually 
 displaced by ow?i, which has come either from the verb 
 dgnian, or from the pst. prt. dgen, awen, owen, which be- 
 came adjective in its use. The present forms of the verb 
 are found as auxiliaries (/ own not to be conseiled by thee^ 
 Mel. Koch), but the past, ought, began to be used as a 
 present. An impersonal form is also in use ( Well ought 
 us — honouren, Legende of G. W. 27). A compound 
 imp. is formed by Lmtan with the inf. {Let se — C. T. S^^), 
 and DSn is used in a similar manner, being thus first ap- 
 plied, according to Morris, by Lydgate {Do gyf glory — 
 Morris) but this use may already be found in A.-S. {Swd 
 dd^ nu — wr6standan, Koch). It did not, however, come 
 into general use till the 15th century. Sculan is also used 
 imperatively i^ou ne sselt zuerie, Aj. of Inw.)* 
 
 * Koch's En^l. Gr. I. 358, II. 19-30; Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 314, 316, 
 374 ; Morris's Engl. Accid. 183-192 ; Earle's Phil, of the Engl. Tongue, 
 949-353- 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 39 
 
 § 40. In the substantive verb, the forms of the root as 
 are with slight variations identical with those of modern 
 English : we find ert beside art, es beside is, and ere, er, 
 am beside are ; while the * A.-S. and O. E. Psalter' fur- 
 nishes an example of is for art. The root bd is still found 
 in the entire present {be, beest, bes ; be\, ben, or be) ; in 
 the pres. subj. {be) ; the imp. {be, be\, bes) ; the inf. {ben, 
 bin, beo, be) ; pres. prt. {beende) ; pst. prt. {be?ie, bien, ben). 
 These parts are still sometimes used in a fut. sense as in 
 A.-S. and S.-S. The i and 3 p. sg. of the past are was 
 or wes ; the 2 p. is uncertain, the pi. Ablaut form, were, 
 being yet retained, but as this Ablaut was disappearing 
 from the language we also find was (cf. 2 p. sg. of O. § 
 28) and the modem form wast. The pst. subj. is were 
 in all persons and numbers. The negative forms nam, nis, 
 nes, nere are used very little by northern writers, but very 
 frequently in the southern dialect,* 
 
 § 41. The preteritives are 
 
 Inf. 
 
 Owen, 
 Conne, 
 Daren, 
 
 Mowe, 
 Moten, 
 
 I p. sg. pres. 
 
 auh, 
 
 can (con), 
 
 dar, 
 
 may, 
 
 mot, 
 
 schall, 
 
 wot (wat). 
 
 pi. pres. 
 owen, 
 
 cunnen (0), 
 . durren, 
 mawen, 
 moten, 
 schullen, 
 
 witen. 
 
 past. 
 ow%te, 
 coude. 
 dorste, 
 my%te. 
 moste. 
 
 schulde (0), 
 wiste. 
 
 Witen, 
 
 Dugan has not yet entirely disappeared {non ne degh, 
 Peter Langtoft, 7445, Koch). Magan (mowe) still pre- 
 serves my-^t in the 2 p. sg.,- and we find also the pres. prt, 
 mi^tand and the pst. prt. might. Munan has entirely disap- 
 peared and Unnaft nearly so. \urfan has likewise almost 
 disappeared, and where it is met with it has been cor- 
 
 * Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 347-348 ; Matzner's Engl. Gr. 366-367 ; Mor- 
 ris's A-^. of Inw. Ixv. Ixxxiv. ; Morris's Engl. Accid. 181-182. 
 
40 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 rupted to thar^ which Chaucer uses impersonally {hym 
 tharnot winnen wel, 4318, Koch). The old form tharf 
 is still found in Sir Tristrem {tharf him, 3. 69, Koch). 
 Willan is nearly unchanged {wolen, will \wolt\t wilen 
 [wolen], wolde). In these verbs the 2 p. sg. very fre- 
 quently drops its personal endings {thou can, etc.).* 
 
 * Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 322, 370-374 ; Koch's Engl. Gr. 349-359 
 Morris's ^5. of Inw. Ixxxiv.-lxxxv. ; Morris's Engl. Accid, 183-191 ; 
 Earle's Phil, of the Engl. Tongue, 250. 
 
fx' '-'^ ^'\ 
 
 , Library, j 
 
 IV. 
 
 ELIZABETHAN AND MODERN ENGLISH. 
 
 § 42. The English of the Elizabethan period was in its 
 forms and vocabulary materially the same as the modern, 
 but still there are some important differences, but mostly 
 of a syntactical nature. " It must be remembered that 
 the Elizabethan was a transitional period in the history of 
 the English language (Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, 
 p. 6) ; it was an age of experiments, and the experiments 
 were not always successful " (Abbott, p. 15). Thus ad- 
 jectives are used with the utmost freedom as verbs with- 
 out adding the ending -en^ which Abbott calls the old 
 infinitive termination, and which has been restored in 
 modern English, as well as in the pst. prt. of strong 
 verbs, the -en of which was frequently omitted, in accor- 
 dance with the tendency of the time to drop the -«. 
 There was also a great freedom in changing intransitives 
 to transitives and vice versd, but this is a general pecu- 
 liarity of the English,* and not of the Elizabethan period 
 alone. Impersonal verbs are also more frequently used 
 than at present {s^ie opposes her Two G. of Verona, III, 
 2 ; the music likes you noty IV. 2) ; and as "an abundance 
 of impersonal verbs is a mark of an early stage in a lan- 
 guage " (Abbott), we find more in Early English than in 
 Elizabethan, more in A.-S. than in Early English.t 
 
 * Keitte Sprache bedient sick der Freihelt die Thatigkeitsbegriffe zu ver- 
 tauschen in denselbem Umfange wie die Englische, Matzner's Engl. Gr. 
 I. 310- 
 
 t Abbott's Shakespearian Gtammat^ $ 290-297 ; Matzner's Engl. Gr. 
 I. 309-313. 
 
42 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 § 43. The sg. endings were the same as they are now, 
 the I p. having no termination, the 2 p. -est^ the 3 p. -eth 
 or -X, and as now in terminationibus -est -eth -ed vocalis e, 
 fere ad placitum per syncopen tollitur (J. Wallis, Matzner). 
 The termination -es {-isy -ys) of the 2 p., frequently found 
 in northern dialects (cf. § 31) is occasionally still used at 
 a very late period (comes thou^ M. N. D. III. 2). This 
 is of particularly frequent occurrence in verbs ending in 
 -/, 'tesi^ and is used perhaps for the sake of euphony 
 {calVst— and affrights, B. and Fl., Abbott). The pi. of 
 the present is uninflected, but we still find traces of older 
 forms, the one in -en being regularly used till a very late 
 period : " The persons plural keep the termination of the 
 first person singular. In former times, till about the reign 
 of King Henry VIII. they were wont to be formed by 
 adding en thus: — Loven, sayen, complainen. But now 
 (whatever is the cause) it is quite grown out of use, and 
 that other so generally prevailed that I dare not presume 
 to set this on foot again" (Ben Jonson, Abbott). Spenser 
 very frequently uses it as an archaic form, and it is some- 
 times also used thus by Shakespeare {waxen, M. N. D. II. 
 i). It is still preserved dialectically, as in Lancashire, 
 Gloucestershire, and other counties. The terminations -eth 
 and -es remained longer than -en, being found till late in 
 the 17 th century, especially in northern writers {rebels — 
 prevails, drawgoons does, Cleland's poems [1697], p. 30, 
 Matzner). This form remained particularly in the 3 p. 
 pi., and in Shakespeare is often thus found as -s, but is 
 generally altered by modern editors. This almost seems 
 to have been the regular inflection " when the subject is 
 as yet future, and, as it were, unsettled" (Abbott), being 
 particularly common in the phrase there is {But there is 
 two hard things, M. N. D. III. i; Thete is two or three 
 lords and ladies more married, IV. 2). But it is some- 
 times only ^seemingly a plural, the verb not having the 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 43 
 
 preceding pi. noun, but the clause as its subject {Amf all 
 their minds transfigured so together^ More witnesseth than 
 fancy's images^ M. N. D. V. i), and the -s inflection is also 
 frequently used when two singular nouns are the subject 
 (Hanging and wiving goes by destiny^ M. of V., II. 9, Ab- 
 bott), but other Shakespearian plurals in -s may be con- 
 sidered misprints.* 
 
 § 44. Not much need be said of the past of strong 
 verbs, except that Shakespeare shows a preference for u 
 in verbs of the 21st A.-S. class {sung^ swum^ etc.). This 
 vowel of the past is a relic of the pi. Ablaut^ which has 
 otherwise disappeared, although Byron is quoted as still 
 using it in the 2 p. sg. {Thou^ who didst call the furies 
 from the abyss ^ And round Orestes\ bade them howl and 
 hiss), but he also uses this form in a weak verb {thou once 
 formed), but this Matzner explains as being a weak verb 
 affected by the ending of the 2 p. sg. pst. of strong verbs 
 (cf. § 38.) Verbs whose inf. ends in -/ are more frequently 
 unchanged in the past in Shakespeare than at present 
 (Stood Dido^and waft, M. of V. v. i. Abbott), t 
 
 § 45. The subj. was much more frequently used than 
 now, but, having the same form as the ind. it can some- 
 times be recognized by the context alone ; in which case 
 it is occasionally placed before the subject {Did I tell this 
 — who would believe me ? M. for M. II. 4, Abbott ; cf. 
 the German : Sagte ich dies wer wUrde mir glauben ?) 
 The simple form is sometimes used together with the aux- 
 iliary one {If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee, 
 etc. T. of Ath. IV. 3. Abbott). Where neither doubt nor 
 
 *Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 321-325; i'Ci^oVC % Shakespearian Gr. p. 8; 
 $ 332-340. This plural may possibly be preserved among the lower 
 orders, who use it in all persons of both numbers (/ wants, you wants, 
 they pretends, etc, Martin Chuzzlewit, Ch. 49), it having^perhaps crept 
 into the i and 2 p, sg. from analogy with the pi. and the 3 p. sg. 
 
 t Matzner' s Engl. Gr. I. 325 ; Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. $ 339-341. 
 
44 THE ENGLISH VERB. -■ 
 
 futurity is implied, the indie, takes the place of the subj., 
 but these moods are sometimes used indiscriminately to- 
 gether (Therefore ^ if thou bring thy gift to the altar ^ and 
 there rememberest — Matt. 5. 23, Abbott). The optative 
 subj. was much more frequently used than in modem 
 poetry {Oh, that that were out! Two G. of V. III. i). 
 The subj. is frequently used, with or without that, to ex- 
 press purpose, but sometimes it is also used after that in 
 dependent sentences, where simple futurity is implied (/ 
 doubt not you [will] sustain what youWe worthy of by your 
 attempt, Cymb. I. 4, Abbott), and it is likewise common 
 after verbs of command, since command implies a pur- 
 pose ^T^j/^i? heed the Queen come not, M. N. D. II. i). 
 After a past tense the auxiliary should is used (She bade 
 me — I should teach him, Othello, I. 3, Abbott). * 
 
 § 46. To was sometimes used before the inf. where we 
 omit it {They would — to have defeated, M. N. D. IV. i), 
 and on the other hand is omitted where we use it {would 
 enforce me marry. Two G. of V. IV. 3), and especially in 
 such phrases, as // were best ("'twere best pound you, Two 
 G. of V. I. i). It is sometimes omitted in the former of 
 two clauses and inserted in the latter, this being especially 
 frequent where the principal verb is an auxiliary or in form 
 like one.t To is often preceded by for, when expressing 
 a purpose, similar to the Old French por (pour) h with 
 the inf , a usage which is still more common in Early 
 English (Cf. the Scandinavian languages, which likewise 
 use other prepositions in the same way). The use of to 
 still shows traces of the old dat. inf. being not only used 
 with the simple inf, but also to express any relation of the 
 gerund {Thoti'lt torture me to leave [for leaving] unspoken 
 
 * Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. $ 361-369. 
 
 t But in the instance given by Abbott {And let thein\all encircle him 
 about. And fairy-like to pinch the unclean knight), the to may be the A.-S. 
 intensive particle /^, German zer, as Prof. Corson suggests. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 45 
 
 that Which to be spoke [by being spoken] would torture 
 thee^ Cymb. V. 5. Abbott).* May not this inf. be pre- 
 served in the phrase givett tOj as given to talking? (Cf. the 
 German dem Sprecheti zugegeben^ where the inf. is used as 
 a noun in the dative). Spenser and Shakespeare have an 
 archaic use of the inf. in -en (To killen^ Pericles II.). 
 In some dialects of southern England the inf. in -ie {^-ye, 
 -y ; A,-S. -iaii) still exists [Che II whistley and zing and 
 capery vor ollyow cheesen^ Exmoore dialect ; Morris).f 
 
 § 47. The participial termination -ing represents the old 
 dat. inf., the prs. prt., and the verbal noun in ung, and 
 Shakespeare appears to have used it occasionally for the 
 -en of the pst. prt. {his all-obeying breathy A. and C. III. 
 13. 77, Abbott). The ancient termination may perhaps 
 be represented by the in\ frequendy occurring in Scotch 
 writers, the -d having probably been dropped, as in many 
 other words where it follows an -n (An'' getiin^ fou and 
 unco happy f Tam O'Shanter), and this appears the more 
 likely as the Scotch retain the participle in -and till a very 
 late period; the -d being perhaps silent, as in Swedish and 
 Danish. J The form -and still occurs in Spenser {glitter- 
 and, I. 7, 29, Koch). In some points the verbal has 
 changed in its use ; thus, we do not use it as a noun fol- 
 lowed by ofy unless preceded hy the or a defining adjec- 
 tive, but this was frequently done in Elizabethan English 
 {admiring of his qualities, M. N. D.I. i; warbling of one 
 song, III. 2) ; while it was sometimes omitted where we 
 
 * Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. $ 349-359. 
 
 t Morris's A^. of Inw, Ixiii. ; Morris's Engl, Accid. 173 ; Koch's 
 Engl. Gr. I. 340. 
 
 X " If an / or « precedes a c? in the same syllable, it is always silent," 
 Ollendorflf's Danische Gramtnatik, p. 9; Schwedische Grammatik, ix. 
 Perhaps in early English this -d was also silent, and the ending -en 
 (d) then corrupted to -ing, as even at the present day the colored 
 minister at the South may leave his kitching duties to address his 
 brether'mg. 
 
46 THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 could not do so {In the delaying deaths M. for M. IV. 2, 
 Abbott). An adjective is sometimes used without the 
 pit. {yoy absent^ grief is present — Rich. II. 1. 3, Abbott), 
 which, in the case of a simple word like beings is some- 
 times implied {With this field-dew [being] consecrate — M. 
 N. D. V. 2). The -en in the pst. prt. of strong verbs fre- 
 quently drops the -n as already said, and sometimes we 
 also find irregular participles {have droven^ A. and C. IV. 7, 
 Abbott). The -d of the pst. prt. of weak verbs ending in 
 -te, -/, and -d is more frequently omitted than now {create, 
 consecrate, M. N. D. V. 2). The prefix y- is rarely used 
 and then only archaically, being thus found also in more 
 modern English. Sackville is quoted by Abbott as using 
 it even before a pres. prt. {y-causing), to which we may 
 add Milton's star-ypointing (Epitaph on Shakespeare). 
 The -ed of this prt. has occasionally the force of -able 
 {Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, Rich. III. I. 4, Ab- 
 bott), and is also used more commonly than at present in 
 the manner of the A.-S. dat. absolute {who removed, Earl 
 Surrey was sent thither, Henry VIII. II. i, Abbott) and 
 sometimes expresses a condition where we would use if 
 {This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled, M. N. D. III. 
 2).* 
 
 § 48. The imperfect is either a simple tense or is com- 
 pounded by did with the inf. {called, did call). The per- 
 fect is formed by the present of have, the plup. by the 
 past, with the pst. prt., both with transitives and intransi- 
 tives. The use of the parts of be with intransitives for 
 the same purpose was more common in Elizabethan than 
 in present English. The fut. is formed by shall and will 
 used with the inf. ; the fut. perf. by the same auxiliaries 
 used with the perf. inf., observing the distinction in both 
 
 * Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. % 342-34S, $ 372-381 ; Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 
 327; Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 342; Morris's Engl. Accid. p. 180. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 47 
 
 tenses of using shall in the i p. sg. and pi. and will in 
 the other persons. In Shakespeare's time this distinction 
 was not yet made : " we had not then reached that stage 
 of politeness which shrinks from the appearance of speak- 
 ing compulsorily to another" (Fowler). Shall was used 
 in all three persons to denote inevitable futurity, being 
 connected in meaning with must ; and gradually assilmed 
 the meaning of compulsory necessity in the 2 and 3 p., 
 when displaced in its fut. signification by willy which is 
 sometimes used with the 2 p. in an imp. sense, like the 
 Greek optative with av [you'll leave your noise anon, ye 
 rascals; Henry VIII. v. 4, Abbott). The fut. is sometimes 
 used for the subj. and inf. [If thou refuse and wilt encoun- 
 ter with my wrath J W. T. II. 3, Abbott), similar to the 
 use of the fut. for the subj. in the silver age of Latinity 
 ( — iia ewn, qui res invenire et disponere sciet — Quint. X. 
 I.); and it seems also to have signified habitual recur- 
 rence ( When a man's servant shall play the cur with him. 
 Two G. of V. IV. 4). The past of these auxiliaries is 
 used with the inf. to express the present conditional, and 
 with the perf. inf. to form the past of the same mood. 
 Should, the past of shall, underwent the same modifica- 
 tions of meaning, and is therefore not used with the 2 p. 
 to denote simple futurity; but in a conditional clause, 
 where there can be no idea of compulsion, it is retained, 
 would following in the consequent clause; but Shake- 
 speare uses should in both clauses {you should refuse to 
 perform your father's will, if you should refuse to accept 
 him, M. of V. I. 2. 100, Abbott). Should is frequently 
 used to express contingent futurity {Any mortal hearing it 
 should straight fall mad, T. A. II. 3, 102, 104, Abbott) 
 and also in the sense of ought {Every man should take 
 his own, M. N. D. III. 2). Like the German sollen it 
 denotes a statement not made by the speaker {But didst 
 thou hear without wonder how thy name should be so 
 
4? THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 hanged and carved about these trees y A. Y. L. III. 2, 
 Abbott, cf. § 14), and occasionally has the force of was to 
 (About his son that should have married a Shepherd 's 
 daughter, W. T. IV. 4, Abbott). The tenses of the poten- 
 tial mood are formed by may and can. The present with 
 the inf. forms the pres., with the perf. inf. the perf. ; the 
 past with the inf. forms the imperf., and the pluperf. with 
 the perf. inf. Can sometimes retains its original significa- 
 tion {All lean, Two G. of V. I, 5), and may is also still 
 found in the sense oimagan {I might see, M. N. D. II. 2 ; 
 / never may believe, V. i), and is frequently used opta- 
 tively like other verbs in Elizabethan English. Must, also 
 used as a potential auxiliary, originally meant ability ^or 
 power, but passed over into the signification of ought, and 
 is now generally used in a compulsory sense; in Shake- 
 speare, however, it sometimes denotes merely definite fu- 
 turity {A tomb must cover thy sweet eyes, M. N. D. v. i). 
 The I and 3 p. of the imp. are compounded by let with 
 the inf. In negations do was not always inserted before 
 not in Shakespeare's time {she not denies it, M. A. about 
 N. IV. i).* The passive of all verbs is formed by the 
 parts of be used with the pst. prt. ; weor^an being pre- 
 served only in the phrase woe worth the day (Bible ; Lady 
 of the Lake).t 
 
 § 49. In the substantive verb, Wallis gives bee, beest, bee; 
 ^\. bee, as regular forms for the subj., but also, for the ind., 
 being especially used in the pi. {Those be rubies, M. N. D. 
 II. i). ^^ is generally used with some notion of doubt, 
 question, thought, etc. {I wonder if the lion be to speak, 
 M. N. D. V. i), and the same applies to were in its subj. 
 use. Early writer^ show a tendency to use were for be 
 after that in subordinate clauses and also should for shall 
 
 * Abbott's Shakesp. Gr. $ 295, 303-329, 346. 
 t Matzner's Engl. Gr. I. 314, etc. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 49 
 
 in the same case {Go we fast that we were //^^ai^, Abbott). 
 Wast, weri are modern formations and not found in Early 
 English, Were is the only verb in the language that 
 retains the distinction of sg. and pi. Ablaut, and we find 
 the latter used in the 2 p. sg. yet, even as late as Shake- 
 speare (Thou were, K. Lear, Matzner).* In Northamp- 
 ton, Bedford, and Somerset, am is retained in all persons : 
 he^m, we^77i,you'm; in Somerset, I be, thee bist, we be, you 
 be, they be are also usual, and in Cheshire and Shropshire 
 we been, you been, they been, while in Dorsetshire we find 
 I be, thee bist, heis ; we be, you be, the be; and in north- 
 em dialects the forms of Chaucer's clerks are still custo- 
 mary : / is, ye is, we is, you is, they w.f 
 
 § 50. Agan, as already said (§ 39), was displaced by 
 own, but it is still represented by the weak verb owe, which 
 Shakespeare uses for own. Ought is properly a past of 
 owe, but was already used by Chaucer as a present. The 
 / in could has crept in, in modern times, probably from 
 analogy with should and would. The weak verb con is 
 derived from Cunnan, as also cunning, properly a pres. 
 prt., and uncouth a pst. prt. Dugan is perhaps retained 
 in the phrase how do you do ? (but cf. the Dutch Hoe 
 maakt gij het?) The weak verb dare is derived from 
 Durran, which is still found as a genuine preteritive in 
 the 3 p., he dare. The y in may represents an older g^ 
 mceg, as in many other words {dceg, day, etc.). Of Mdtam 
 nothing has remained but the pst. must, but it is occa- 
 sionally used in an archaic way {All that mote to luxury 
 invite, Childe Harold I. xi.). Munan has disappeared 
 and also Unnan, unless we accept the etymology that de- 
 rives an from it, just as if was once held to be derived 
 
 * Abbott's Shakesp, Gr. $ 298-301 ; Matzner's En^L Gr. I. 366- 
 Morris's Engl. Accid. 181-182. 
 t Koch's Engl. Gr. I. 348. 
 
THE ENGLISH VERB. 
 
 from Gi/atty both being said to be imperatives. Own^ 
 meaning to confess, may have arisen from the i p. sg. 
 {an, on). Wis/, the past of Witan, frequently occurs in 
 the Bible, and is still occasionally used at the present day 
 (wist not whose they were, Bryant ; Matzner) as well as 
 the present wot. Shakespeare has /, you, they wot and 
 also wotting, and it is found in a weak form in Sackville* 
 wotted. The dat. inf. td-witanne is preserved in to wit, 
 used adverbially, but I wis is probably derived from the 
 adverb >'Z£//V (German gewiss). The o in the Early English 
 forms of Willan is still preserved in wont. It is some- 
 times still found combined with the negative ne (/ nill 
 relate, Pericles, III.).* 
 
 * Morris's Engl. Accid. 183-191 ; Matzner's Engi. Gr. I. 370-374, 322 ; 
 Koch's Engl. Gr. 349-359; Earle's PhU. of the Engl, Tongue, 250. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE IRREGULAR VERBS IN ENGLISH. 
 
 I. 
 
 STRONG VERBS. 
 
 None of the strong verbs of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 17th 
 classes have been preserved as strong verbs in the Eng- 
 lish. The remnants of the other classes are as follows ; 
 
 NINTH CLASS. 
 
 FIRST 
 
 CLASS. 
 
 Fall 
 
 Feallan 
 
 Hold 
 
 Healdan 
 
 Wax 
 
 Weaxan 
 
 SECOND 
 
 CLASS. 
 
 Blow 
 
 Bldwan 
 
 Crow 
 
 Crdwan 
 
 Know 
 
 Cndwan 
 
 Mow 
 
 Mdwan 
 
 Sow 
 
 Sdwan 
 
 Throw 
 
 \rdwan 
 
 Awake 
 
 Wacan 
 
 Bake 
 
 Bacan 
 
 Draw 
 
 Dragan 
 
 Forsake 
 
 Forsacan 
 
 Grave 
 
 Grafan 
 
 Load) 
 Ladef 
 
 Hladan 
 
 Shake 
 
 Scacan 
 
 Shave 
 
 Scafan 
 
 Stand 
 
 Standan 
 
 Take 
 
 Tacan 
 
 THIRD CLASS. 
 
 Beat Bedtan 
 
 Hew Hedwan 
 
 FOURTH CLASS. 
 
 Grow Grdwan 
 
 EIGHTH CLASS. 
 
 Hang Hangan 
 
 TENTH CLASS. 
 
 Slay Sleahan 
 
 ELEVENTH CLASS. 
 
 Heave 
 Swear 
 Shape 
 
 Hebban 
 Swerian 
 Scyppan 
 
52 APPENDIX. 
 
 
 TWELFTH CLASS. 
 
 TWENTIETH CLASS. 
 
 Eat Eian 
 
 
 
 Quoth Cwe^an 
 
 Abide 
 
 Abtdan 
 
 Speak Sprecan 
 
 Bite 
 
 Biian 
 
 Tread Tredan 
 
 Chide 
 
 Cidan 
 
 
 Drive 
 
 Drifan 
 
 THIRTEENTH CLASS. 
 
 Ride 
 
 Ridan 
 
 Bid Biddan 
 
 Rise 
 
 Risan 
 
 Lie Licgan 
 
 Shine 
 
 Scinan 
 
 
 Slide 
 
 Slidan 
 
 FOURTEENTH CLASS. 
 
 Smite 
 
 Sinitan 
 
 Get Getan 
 
 Stride 
 
 Stridan 
 
 Give Gifan 
 
 Strike 
 
 Strican 
 
 See Seon 
 
 Thrive 
 
 \rifan 
 
 
 Writhe 
 
 Wr^an 
 
 FIFTEENTH CLASS. 
 
 Write 
 
 Writan 
 
 B3ar Beran 
 
 
 
 Break Brecan 
 
 TWENTY-FIRST CLAS 
 
 Shear 5^^rdr« 
 
 
 
 Steal »$•/<?/«« 
 
 Begin 
 
 Beglnnan 
 
 Tear 7>m« 
 
 Bind 
 
 Bindan 
 
 Weave W^^w 
 
 Cling 
 
 Clingan 
 
 
 Drink 
 
 Drincan 
 
 SIXTEENTH CLASS. 
 
 Find 
 
 Findan 
 
 Come Cuman 
 
 Grind 
 
 Grindan 
 
 
 Run 
 
 Rinnan 
 
 EIGHTEENTH CLASS. 
 
 Shrink 
 
 Scrincan 
 
 Fight Feohtan 
 
 Sing 
 
 Singan 
 
 Help Helpan 
 
 Sink 
 
 Sitican 
 
 Melt Meltan 
 
 Sling 
 
 Slingan 
 
 Swell Swellan 
 
 Slink 
 
 Slincan 
 
 
 Spin 
 
 Spinnan 
 
 NINETEENTH CLASS. 
 
 Spring 
 
 Springan 
 
 Choose Ceosan 
 
 Sting 
 
 Stingan 
 
 Cleave C/^^^^w 
 
 Stink 
 
 Stincan 
 
 Fly Fleogan 
 
 Swing 
 
 Swingan 
 
 Freeze Fredsan 
 
 Swim 
 
 Swimman 
 
 Rive Reofan 
 
 Win 
 
 IVinnan 
 
 Seeth ^^^t7« 
 
 Wind 
 
 W^indan 
 
 Shoct ^^<f^/«« "^ 
 
 Wring 
 
 Wringan 
 
APPENDIX. S3 
 
 The following verbs are weak in Anglo-Saxon: 
 Dig Dician String Strengan 
 
 Ring Hringan Strow Stredwian 
 
 Show Scedwian Wear Werian 
 
 Stick Stkiaji 
 
 The verb from which Strive is derived is unknown, but 
 it belongs probably to Jhe 20th class; Fling is derived 
 from northern dialects; Saw is derived from A.-S. sage, 
 and should properly therefore be weak. 
 
 II. 
 
 IRREGULAR WEAK VERBS. 
 
 The following weak verbs, whose stem ends in -d with 
 a long vowel, form the past by shortening the stem-vowel : 
 
 Bleed 
 
 Bledan 
 
 Lead 
 
 Lsedan 
 
 Breed 
 
 Bredan 
 
 Read 
 
 Redan 
 
 Feed 
 
 Fidan 
 
 Hide 
 
 Hydan 
 
 Speed 
 
 Spidan 
 
 Betide 
 
 Beiidan 
 
 The following verbs, whose stem ends in '/ with a long 
 vowel, form the past in the same manner ; 
 
 Meet Metan Light Lihtan 
 
 The following verbs ending in -d, with preceding liquid 
 and short vowel, change the -d to -t in the pst. : 
 
 Bend ^endajt Shend Sceftdan 
 
 Lend Lsena?t Spend Spendan 
 
 Rend Hrendan Wend Wendan 
 
 Send Sendan Gird Gyrdan 
 
 The last named is also regular ; Build is wanting: in 
 A.-S., probably derived from Bold, a house; Geld, which 
 is also regular, is of uncertain A.-S. derivation. 
 
54 APPENDIX. 
 
 , The following verbs shorten the stem -vowel and add -d : 
 Hear Hyran Shoe Scojan 
 
 Flee is from Fledhan of the strong conjugation. 
 
 Keep (CSpan) shortens the vowel and adds -/ in the 
 past, and the following verbs, which were strong in A.-S. 
 have probably been imitated : 
 
 Creep Credpan Weep Wipan 
 
 Sleep Slmpan Leap Hledpan 
 
 Sweep Swdpan 
 
 The following verbs change v into /before the suffix t : 
 Leave Lsefan Reave Redfian 
 
 Cleave is from the strong verb Cleofan, The following 
 verbs also belong here : 
 
 Lose Losian Feel Felan 
 
 Mean Mmnan. 
 
 Deal (Dselan) is sometimes regular, as well as Lean 
 [Hlinian) ; Kneel, which is also regular, was probably- 
 formed by a mixture of A.-S. Cneowian and French genou- 
 iller ; Dream, also sometimes regular, is related to A.-S. 
 Dreman^ to shout, exult ; while the corresponding words 
 in German and Danish mean to dream. 
 
 If /, J, Xy //, or / follows a short vowel of the stem, 
 
 some verbs add -t instead of -ed^ this being formerly more 
 
 frequent than now : 
 
 Dip Dyppan Mix . Misca?i 
 
 Drop Dropian Learn Leornian 
 
 Step Sieppan Spell Spellian 
 
 Bless Bletsian Spill Spillan 
 
 Burn is from Beornan^ which is strong and Bernafty 
 
 weak. Some verbs of French derivation are sometimes 
 
 conjugated thus : Pass, Press, etc. 
 
APPENDIX. 55 
 
 Words ending in -/ with a preceding consonant, remain 
 unchanged in the past : 
 Let Lsetan Sweat SwsRfan 
 
 Set Settan Thrust \rmstan 
 
 Shut Scyttan Wet Ws^tan 
 
 Spit Spitian Hight Hdtan 
 
 Split is probably derived from the Danish, as well as 
 Put ; Cast, Cut, Hit, are derived from northern dialects ; 
 Cost and Quit, the latter also regular, coi^ie from the 
 French ; Hurt is of foreign origin ; Burst is from the 
 strong verb Bersian, while Slit is derived from Slitan, 
 strong and Slsetan, weak; Knit (Cnyttan) is also regular. 
 
 Some verbs ending in -d with a short vowel, remain 
 also unchanged : 
 
 Shed Sceddan Shred Screddian 
 
 Spread Sprabdan 
 
 The following weak verbs forming their past by a 
 change of root vowel are derived from the 4th A.-S. 
 weak Conjugation : 
 
 Tell Tellan 
 
 Buy 
 
 Bycgan 
 
 Sell Syllan 
 
 Seek 
 
 Secan 
 
 Bring Bringan 
 
 Beseech 
 
 Bisecan 
 
 Think \encan 
 
 Work 
 
 Wyrcan 
 
 he last is also regular. 
 
 
 
 The following verbs belong to those verbs of the 3d 
 Conjugation, whose stem ends in double ^, or in c alone 
 with a preceding long vowel ; and which in the past take 
 -hte and frequently also in the pst. prt. -hi. 
 
 Catch, which is probably derived from northern dia- 
 lects; Reach, {Rabcan) is also regular; Teach is from 
 T'dbcan, 
 
56 APPENDIX. 
 
 Some verbs drop the last consonant of the stem before 
 the 'd of the pst. tense and participle : 
 
 Make Macian Have Habban 
 
 Clothe, from ClMian^ is also regular. 
 
 The irregularity of the following verbs is more of an 
 orthographical nature: Pay and Stay from the French; 
 Lay (Lecgati) and Say i^Secgan)* 
 
 * Loth's Ags,-Engl. Gr. pp. 182-189 ; 191-196. Matzner's Engl. Gr. 
 I. 329-344 ; 346-366. See also Morris's EngL Accid. ; Earle's I'Ail. 0/ 
 the Engl. Tongue; Koch's Engl. Cnetc. 
 
WORKS CONSULTED. 
 
 Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. 
 
 Bosworth's Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, WyclifFe, and Tyndale Gos- 
 pels. 
 
 Brock's Morte Arthure. 
 
 Brockhaus' Conversations-Lexikon (German). 
 
 Corson's Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English. 
 
 Corson's Legende of Goode Women. 
 
 Corson's Jottings on the Text of Hamlet. ' 
 
 Earle's Philology of the English Tongue. 
 
 Fowler's English Grammar, 
 
 FritSrikson's Islandsk Laesebog (Danish). 
 
 Furnivall's Arthur. 
 
 Furnivall's Holy Grail. 
 
 Furnivall's Wright's Chaste Wife. 
 
 Grein's A.-S. Pentateuch, etc. 
 
 Hadley's Introduction to Webster's Dictionary. 
 
 Holmboe's Det Norske Sprogs Vaesentligste Ordforraad (Da- 
 nish). 
 
 Holmboe's Det Oldnorske Verbum (Danish). 
 
 Hume's Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue 
 (Wheatley's Ed.). 
 
 Koch's Englische Grammatik (German). 
 
 Lauder's Office and Dewtie of Kingis (Hall's Ed.). 
 
 Loth's Angelsachsisch-Englische Grammatik (German). 
 
 Madden's Laj^amon. 
 
 March's Compar. Gram, of the Anglo-Saxon Language. 
 
 Matzner's Englische Grammatik (German). 
 
 Max MUller's Lectures. 
 
 Morris's Arenbite of Inwyt. 
 
 Morris's English Accidence. 
 
 Morton's Ancren Riwle. 
 
 Ollendorff's Hollandische Grammatik (German). 
 
 Ollendorff's Schwedische Grammatik (German). 
 
 Ollendorff's DSnische Grammatik (German). 
 
 Panton's and Donaldson's Gest Hystoriale. 
 
 Skeat's Lancelot of the Laik. 
 
 Thorpe's Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. 
 
 Thorpe's Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. 
 
 Tyrwhitt's Chaucer. 
 
 White's Ormulum. 
 
 Whitney's Study of Language. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 BERKELEY 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 
 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing 
 to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in 
 demand may be renewed if application is made before 
 expiration of loan period. 
 
 OCT 4 1921 
 
 i 
 
 NOV 5 
 
 
 i»«v 19 >«t«, 
 
 
 ^6 Itfj 
 
 ' 
 
 v''r,'=;/wB 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 f SlMgy^ffJJ 
 
 1 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 i: 
 
 i 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 

 >\T\' 
 
 - Wc0^ 
 
 "^ «5> ^ /--IT, 
 
 ■■■''*'■