Part 4 — CHAPTER XIX.
Reading edition
ON THE PERSONS.
§ 283. Compared with the Latin, the Greek, the Mœso-Gothic, and almost all the ancient languages, there is, in English, in respect to the persons of the verbs, but a very slight amount of inflection. This may be seen by comparing the English word call with the Latin voco.
Sing.Plur.Sing.Plur.
1.Voc-oVoc-amus.CallCall.
2.Voc-asVoc-atis.Call-estCall.
3.Voc-atVoc-ant.Call-eth[52]Call.
Here the Latins have different forms for each different person, whilst the English have forms for two only; and even of these one (callest) is becoming obsolete. With the forms voc-o, voc-amus, voc-atis, voc-ant, there is, in the current English, nothing correspondent.
In the word am, as compared with are and art, we find a sign of the first person singular.
In the old forms tellen, weren, &c., we have a sign of the plural number.
§ 284. In the Modern English, the Old English, and the Anglo-Saxon, the peculiarities of our personal inflections are very great. This may be seen from the following tables of comparison:—
Present Tense, Indicative Mood.
Mœso-Gothic.
1st person.2nd person.3rd person.
Singular.SôkjaSôkeisSôkeiþ—seek.
Plural.SôkjamSôkeiþSokjand.
Old High German.
Singular.PrennuPrennîsPrennit—burn.
Plural.PrennamesPrennatPrennant.
Icelandic.
Singular.KallaKallarKallar—call.
Plural.KôllumKalliþKalla.
Old Saxon.
Singular.SôkjuSôkîsSôkîd—seek.
Plural.SôkjadSôkjadSôkjad.
Anglo-Saxon.
Singular.LufigeLufastLufað.
Plural.LufiaðLufiaðLufiað.
Old English.
Singular.LoveLovestLoveth.
Plural.LovenLovenLoven.
Modern English.
Singular.LoveLovestLoveth (or Loves).
Plural.LoveLoveLove.
§ 285. Herein remark; 1. the Anglo-Saxon addition of t in the second person singular; 2. the identity in form of the three persons of the plural number; 3. the change of -að into -en in the Old English plural; 4. the total absence of plural forms in the Modern English; 5. the change of the th into s, in loveth and loves. These are points bearing especially upon the history of the English persons. The following points indicate a more general question:
1. The full form prennames in the newer Old High German, as compared with sôkjam in the old Mœso-Gothic.
2. The appearance of the r in Icelandic.
3. The difference between the Old Saxon and the Anglo-Saxon in the second person singular; the final t being absent in Old Saxon.
§ 286. The person in -t.—The forms art, wast, wert, shalt, wilt, or ar-t, was-t, wer-t, shal-t, wil-t, are remarkable. Here the second person singular ends, not in -st, but in t. The reason for this is to be sought in the Mœso-Gothic and the Icelandic.
In those languages the form of the person changes with the tense, and the second singular of the præterite tense of one conjugation is, not -s, but -t; as Mœso-Gothic, svôr = I swore, svôrt = thou swarest, gráip = I griped, gráipt = thou gripedst; Icelandic, brannt = thou burnest, gaft = thou gavest. In the same languages ten verbs are conjugated like præterites. Of these, in each language, skal is one.
Mœso-Gothic.
Singular.Dual. Plural.
1.SkalSkuluSkulum.
2.SkaltSkulutsSkuluþ.
3.SkallSkulutsSkulun.
Icelandic.
Singular.Plural.
1.SkallSkulum.
2.SkaltSkuluð.
3.SkalSkulu.
In these forms there is a slight though natural anomaly. They belong to the class of verbs which form their præterite by changing the vowel of the present; as sing, sang, &c. Now, all words of this sort in Anglo-Saxon formed their second singular præterite, not in -st, but in -e; as þú funde = thou foundest, þú sunge = thou sungest. The English termination is derived from the present. Observe that this applies only to the præterites formed by changing the vowel. Thou loved'st is Anglo-Saxon as well as English, viz., þú lufodest.
§ 288. In the northern dialects of the Anglo-Saxon the -ð of plurals like lufiað = we love becomes -s. In the Scottish this change was still more prevalent:
The Scottes come that to this day Havys and Scotland haldyn ay.—Wintoun, 11, 9, 73.
James I. of England ends nearly all his plurals in -s.