THE VERB SUBSTANTIVE.
§ 336. The verb substantive is generally dealt with as an _irregular_ verb.
This is inaccurate. The true notion is that the idea of _being_ or
_existing_ is expressed by four different verbs, each of which is defective
in some of its parts. The parts, however, that are wanting in one verb, are
made up by the inflections of one of the others. There is, for example, no
præterite of the verb _am_, and no present of the verb _was_. The absence,
however, of the present form of _was_ is made up by the word _am_, and the
absence of the præterite form of _am_ is made up by the word _was_.
§ 337. _Was_ is defective, except in the præterite tense, where it is found
both in the indicative and conjunctive.
_Indicative._ | _Conjunctive._
_Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._
1. Was Were. | 1. Were Were.
2. Wast Were. | 2. Wert Were.
3. Was Were. | 3. Were Were.
In the older stages of the Gothic languages the word had both a full
conjugation and a regular one. In Anglo-Saxon it had an infinitive, a
participle present, and a participle past. In Moeso-Gothic it was inflected
throughout with -s; as _visa_, _vas_, _vêsum_, _visans_. In that language
it has the power of the Latin _maneo_ = _to remain_. The r first appears in
the Old High German, _wisu_, _was_, _wârumés_, _wësaner_. In Norse the s
_entirely_ disappears, and the word is inflected with r throughout; _vera_,
_var_, _vorum_, &c.
§ 338. _Be_ is inflected in Anglo-Saxon throughout the present tense, both
indicative and subjunctive. It is found also as an infinitive, _beón_; as a
gerund, _to beonne_; and as a participle, _beonde_; in the present English
its inflection is as follows:
_Present._
_Conjunctive._ | _Imperative._
_Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._
Be Be. | -- --
-- -- | Be Be
Be Be | -- --
_Infin._ To be. _Pres. P._ Being. _Past. Part._ Been.
§ 339. The line in Milton beginning _If thou beest he_--(P. L. b. ii.),
leads to the notion that the antiquated form _beest_ is not indicative, but
conjunctive. Such, however, is not the case: _byst_ in Anglo-Saxon is
indicative, the conjunctive form being _beó_. _And every thing that pretty
bin_ (Cymbeline).--Here the word _bin_ is the conjunctive plural, in
Anglo-Saxon _beón_; so that the words _every thing_ are to be considered
equivalent to the plural form _all things_. The phrase in Latin would stand
thus, _quotquot pulchra sint_; in Greek, thus, [Greek: ha an kala êi]. The
_indicative_ plural is, in Anglo-Saxon, not _beón_, but _beóð_ and _beó_.
§ 340. In the "Deutsche Grammatik" it is stated that the Anglo-Saxon forms
_beô_, _bist_, _bið_, _beoð_, or _beó_, have not a present but a _future_
sense; that whilst _am_ means _I am_, _beó_ means _I shall be_; and that in
the older languages it is only where the form _am_ is not found that _be_
has the power of a present form. The same root occurs in the Slavonic and
Lithuanic tongues with the same power; as, _esmi_ = _I am_; _búsu_ = _I
shall be_, Lithuanic. _Esmu_ = _I am_; _buhshu_ = _I shall be_,
Livonic.--_Jesm_ = _I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Slavonic.--_Gsem_ = _I
am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Bohemian. This, however, proves, not that there
is in Anglo-Saxon a future tense, but that the word _beó_ has a future
sense. There is no fresh tense where there is no fresh form.
The following is a specimen of the future power of _beón_ in
Anglo-Saxon:--_"Hi ne _beóð_ na cílde, soðlice, on domesdæge, ac _beóð_ swa
micele menn swa swa hi migton beón gif hi full weoxon on gewunlicre
ylde."_--Ælfric's Homilies. "They _will not be_ children, forsooth, on
Domesday, but _will be_ as much (so muckle) men as they might be if they
were full grown (waxen) in customary age."
§ 341. Now, if we consider the word _beón_ like the word _weorðan_ (see §
343) to mean not so much _to be_ as to _become_, we get an element of the
idea of futurity. Things which are _becoming anything_ have yet something
further to either do or suffer. Again, from the idea of futurity we get the
idea of contingency, and this explains the subjunctive power of _be_. In
English we often say _may_ for _shall_, and the same was done in
Anglo-Saxon.
§ 342. _Am_.--Of this form it should be stated that the letter -m is no
part of the original word. It is the sign of the first person, just as it
is in _Greek_, and several other languages.
It should also be stated, that although the fact be obscured, and although
the changes be insufficiently accounted for, the forms _am_, _art_, _are_,
and _is_, are not, like _am_ and _was_, parts of different words, but forms
of one and the same word; in other terms, that, although between _am_ and
_be_ there is no etymological connexion, there is one between _am_ and
_is_. This we collect from the comparison of the Indo-European languages.
1. 2. 3.
Sanskrit _Asmi_ _Asi_ _Asti_.
Zend _Ahmi_ _Asi_ _Ashti_.
Greek [Greek: Eimi] [Greek: Eis] [Greek: Esti].
Latin _Sum_ _Es_ _Est_.
Lithuanic _Esmi_ _Essi_ _Esti_.
Old Slavonic _Yesmy_ _Yesi_ _Yesty_.
Moeso-Gothic _Im_ _Is_ _Ist_.
Old Saxon -- [63]_Is_ _Ist_.
Anglo-Saxon _Eom_ _Eart_ _Is_.
Icelandic _Em_ _Ert_ _Er_.
English _Am_ _Art_ _Is_.
§ 343. _Worth_.--In the following lines of Scott, the word _worth_ = _is_,
and is a fragment of the regular Anglo-Saxon verb _weorðan_ = _to be_, or
_to become_; German _werden_.
Woe _worth_ the chase, woe _worth_ the day,
That cost thy life, my gallant grey.--_Lady of the Lake._
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