Chapter II · The History of the Grammar of English.

1. AN INFLECTED LANGUAGE.—When, in the fifth century, our English speech was brought over from the Continent, it was a highly inflected or Synthetic language; and it remained in this condition for several centuries. The coming of the Danes had the effect of beginning the dropping off of inflections. The coming of the Normans extended very much and hastened this process, which has gone on with considerable rapidity down to the present day. We may put the general fact in this way:

The English Language was a Synthetic Language down to about the year 1100; since that time, it has been becoming more and more of an Analytic Language.

2. THE GRAMMAR OF NOUNS.—In the very oldest English—or, as it is commonly called, Anglo-Saxon—nouns were declined in different ways, and had several declensions, just as German and Latin have. Each of these declensions had four cases. Nowadays we have only one declension and only one inflection for the cases of nouns. That one inflection is ’s for the possessive case. The following is an example of an old declension:

Declension of EAGE, the eye.

Sing.Plur.

Nom.Eage (eye).Eagan.

Pos.Eag-an (of).Eag-ena.

Dat.Eag-an (to).Eag-am.

Obj.Eage.Eagan.

Again, in this English, gender did not follow sex, but was poetic and fantastic. Tongue and week were feminine nouns, as they still are in modern German; star and sea, masculine; wife and child, neuter.—In old English there were a great many plural endings, as -as, -an, -u, -a, -o. After the Norman Conquest they were greatly reduced, -es or -s being now the ordinary ending, -en being exceptional.

3. THE GRAMMAR OF ADJECTIVES.—Adjectives had also cases. Adjectives had four cases, three genders, and two numbers. Now we say good for all cases, genders, and numbers. In the fourteenth century the only ending which adjectives possessed was e for the plural. Thus Chaucer (1340-1400) writes of the little birds:

4. GRAMMAR OF DEFINITE ARTICLE.—This article was declined like an adjective, in three different genders. Now it has no inflections at all. It has still, however, a clear and distinct memory of one case, which survives in such phrases as, ‘The more, the merrier.’ This sentence might be written, ‘þŷ more, þŷ merrier.’ That is to say, ‘By that more, by that merrier.’ The measure of the increase of the company is the measure of the increase of the merriment.

5. GRAMMAR OF THE PERSONAL PRONOUN.—The personal pronoun was also highly inflected in the oldest English; and the two personal pronouns of the first and second persons possessed this remarkable peculiarity, that it had three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. The dual form stood for We two and for You two; and, if we cared to trouble ourselves nowadays with a host of inflections, these would certainly be very convenient.

All this is now very much changed. The dual number is completely gone; the use of thou, except in religious compositions, has been given up, and the true possessive of it, which is his, has given place to the incorrect form its. The possessive its is very seldom found in Shakspeare, and there is only one instance of it in our present translation of the Bible: ‘That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap’ (Lev. xxv. 5). But another reading is, ‘of it own accord.’

6. GRAMMAR OF VERBS.—The verb possessed also, in the oldest times, before the language was at all influenced by Norman-French, a large number of inflections. At the present time a verb has only five inflections; but, if it belongs to the strong conjugation, it may have six. Let us look at the old verb niman, to take, which still survives in our adjective nimble, which means quick at taking.

The chief tenses of niman were inflected as follows:

Present Tense.

Sing.Plural.

1. nime.nimath.

2. nimest.nimath.

3. nimeth.nimath.

Past Tense.

Sing.Plural.

1. nám.námon.

2. náme.námon.

3. nám.námon.

Of all the inflections in the above, only two still remain, st in the second person singular, and th in the third person; and even these two inflections are nowadays hardly used at all.

7. FRAGMENTS OF NOUN INFLECTIONS.—Although our language, in the course of its history, has lost almost all of its inflections, there still remain, here and there, in our grammar, fragments of inflections which are often curiously disguised, and therefore difficult to recognise. Thus, at first sight, it is not easy to see that vixen is the feminine of fox. But vixen is simply the same as fixen, or fyxen, and it was one of the laws of Anglo-Saxon vowel-change that o became y. It was very usual to make the plural of nouns in en. Thus we said shoon, hosen, tren, been (for bees), toon (for toes), flon (for arrows), and fleen (for fleas). But, of all these and other similar plurals, we now possess only one—oxen. The plurals children and brethren are really double plurals. The oldest plurals were cildru, afterwards childer; and brether. It was then forgotten that these were real plurals, and an en was added.

8. FRAGMENTS OF ADJECTIVE INFLECTIONS.—We have the comparative rather (rightly pronounced in Ireland rayther); but we have no rathe or rathest. An old writer, speaking of a star, says: ‘It rose rather and rather (earlier).’ Nighest becomes next; because the g + s is equal to an x. So there was in our country an old proverb, ‘When bale is hext, bone is next’—that is, ‘When evil is highest, boon is nighest.’ Over is now only used as a preposition. But it is really the comparative degree of the old adjective ov, which is a form of up or off.

9. FRAGMENTS OF PRONOUN INFLECTIONS.—The t in it (which was formerly hit, as the neuter of he) is simply the sign of the neuter gender, and is the same t that is found in tha-t, wha-t (the neuter of who), etc. Hence the true possessive of it is his; and this is the form in use in Shakspeare and Bacon, and even down to the middle of the seventeenth century. Its, as we have already seen, is a blunder. They is not the true plural of he; but really of the old definite article thaet.

10. FRAGMENTS OF VERB INFLECTIONS.—The inflections of the verb are very strangely disguised; and, if learned men had not worked hard, and made diligent inquiry in many directions, we should never have known what they really are. Thus the m in am is the same m that is found in me; and the oldest form known of the verb am, in the oldest language, is asmi.—The t which we find in the second person of some verbs, such as art, wast, shalt, and wilt, is the same as the th in thou. This t is therefore the pronoun thou added to the verb.—The th in the old-fashioned third person singular writeth, hopeth, etc., is the same th that we find in the and that. Accordingly, we may say that burneth is = that (thing) burns.—The last d in did is not the same as the ed in walked. Did is not = doed. An older form of did is dude; and from this we see that the past tense was formed by doubling the present—by reduplication. Thus we see that it is the last d that represents the do.—The word worth in the well-known lines from the Lady of the Lake—

is not an adjective, but the remnant of an old verb. This verb is weorthan, to become; and worth is the imperative of it. When a verb has lost one of its parts, it goes to another verb, and borrows the use of one of its parts. Thus went, the past tense of go, is borrowed from wend.

11. FRAGMENTS OF INFLECTIONS IN ADVERBS.—Adverbs contain a great number of disguised inflections. In the present day, we make adverbs from adjectives by adding ly to them—as neat, neatly; warm, warmly. But, in old English, the adverb was made by employing the dative of the adjective. Thus, brightë was = in a bright manner; swiftë was = swiftly. Then ë very soon dropped off; and the word was left in its bare root—stripped of inflections. And so it has happened that we have many adverbs which are used in their simplest form, and are just the same as adjectives. We do not say, ‘He runs fastly,’ but ‘He runs fast;’ ‘He works hardly,’ but ‘He works hard.’—But the remnants of other cases are also found in adverbs. Thus needs, always, sideways, once (for onës), twice (for twiës), unawares, whence (for whennës) and others, are all old possessives.—Seldom is an old dative plural. Seld meant rare; and seldom means at rare times.—The in the phrase, ‘The older the better,’ is an ablative or instrumental case; and therefore means by that. Accordingly this sentence means: ‘By that older, by that better.’ The measure of the increase of age is the measure of the increase of the quality.

12. FRAGMENTS OF INFLECTIONS IN PREPOSITIONS.—Since is the possessive case of the old English word sithen. The following are the steps: Sithennës; sithens; sithence; since.—After is the comparative degree of the old preposition af (= of), which meant from. Over is another comparative form, from a root which appears in up.