ON THE NUMBERS OF VERBS.
§ 289. As compared with the present plural forms, _we love_, _ye love_,
_they love_, the Anglo-Saxons had the truly plural forms, _we lufiað_, _ge
lufiað_, _hi lufiað_. The Old English also had a true plural inflection _we
loven_, _ye loven_, _they loven_. The present English wants both the form
in -en, and the form in -að. In other words, the Anglo-Saxon and the Old
English have a plural _personal_ characteristic, whilst the Modern English
has nothing to correspond with it.
§ 290. In the forms _luf-iað_, and _lov-en_, the change from singular to
plural is made by adding a syllable; but there is no reason against the
inflection running thus--_I love_, _thou lovest_, _he loves_; _we lave_,
_ye lave_, _they lave_; in other words, there is no reason against the
_vowel_ of the root being changed, just as is the case with the form
_speak, spoke_; _fall, fell_.
Now, in Anglo-Saxon, with a great number of verbs such a plural inflection
not only actually takes place, but takes place most regularly. It takes
place, however, in the past tense only. And this is the case in all the
Gothic languages as well as in Anglo-Saxon. Amongst the rest, in--
_Moeso-Gothic._
Skáin, _I shone_; skinum, _we shone_.
Smáit, _I smote_; smitum, _we smote_.
Káus, _I chose_; kusum, _we chose_.
Láug, _I lied_; lugum, _we lied_.
Gab, _I gave_; gêbum, _we gave_.
At, _I ete_; étum, _we ete_.
Stal, _I stole_; stélum, _we stole_.
Qvam, _I came_; qyêmum, _we came_.
_Anglo-Saxon._
Arn, _I ran_; urnon, _we run_.
Ongan, _I began_; ongunnon, _we begun_.
Span, _I span_; spunnon, _we spun_.
Sang, _I sang_; sungon, _we sung_.
Swang, _I swang_; swangon, _we swung_.
Dranc, _I drank_; druncon, _we drunk_.
Sanc, _I sank_; suncon, _we sunk_.
Sprang, _I sprang_; sprungon, _we sprung_.
Swam, _I swam_; swummon, _we swum_.
Rang, _I rang_; rungon, _we rung_.
From these examples the reader has himself drawn his inference; viz. that
words like
_Began_, _begun_.
_Ran_, _run_.
_Span_, _spun_.
_Sang_, _sung_.
_Swang_, _swung_.
_Sprang_, _sprung_.
_Sank_, _sunk_.
_Swam_, _swum_.
_Rang_, _rung_.
_Bat_, _bit_.
_Smote_, _smit_.
_Drank_, _drunk_, &c.,
generally called double forms of the past tense, were originally _different
numbers of the same tense_, the forms in a, as _swam_, being singular, and
the forms in u, as _swum_, plural.
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