CHAPTER XIX.
ON THE PERSONS.
[§ 348]. 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-o. | Voc-amus. | Call. | Call. |
| 2. Voc-as. | Voc-atis. | Call-est. | Call. |
| 3. Voc-at. | Voc-ant. | [[44]]Call-eth. | 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 of voco marked in italics 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.
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:—
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 sókjam 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.
4. The respective powers of M in the first, of S in the second, and of T (or its allied sounds) in the third persons singular;
of MES in the first, of T (or its allied sounds) in the second, and of ND in the third persons plural. In this we have a regular expression of the persons by means of regular signs; and this the history of the personal terminations verifies.
[§ 349]. First person singular.—That the original sign of this person was M we learn from the following forms: dadâmi, Sanskrit; dadhâmi, Zend; δίδωμι, Greek; dumi, Lithuanic; damy, Slavonic=I give. The Latin language preserves it in sum and inquam, and in the first persons of tenses, like legam, legebam, legerem, legissem. The form im=I am occurs in Mœso-Gothic; and the words stom=I stand, lirnem=I shall learn, in Old High German. The word am is a fragmentary specimen of it in our own language.
Plural.—The original sign MES. Dadmas, Sanskrit; δίδομες, afterwards δίδομεν, Greek; damus, Latin=we give. The current form in Old High German.
These forms in M may or may not be derived from the pronoun of the first person; mâ, Sanskrit; me, Latin, English, &c.
Second person singular.—The original sign S. Dadasi, Sanskrit; δίδως, Greek; das, Latin; dasi, Slavonic. Preserved in the Gothic languages.
Plural.—The original sign T, or an allied sound. Dadyata, Sanskrit; daidhyâta, Zend; δίδοτε, Greek; datis, Latin; d[ou]kite, Lithuanic; dashdite, Slavonic=ye give. Current in the Gothic languages.
These forms in T and S may or may not be derived from the pronoun of the second person; tva, Sanskrit; σὺ, Greek; thou, English.
Third person singular.—-The original sign T. Dadati, Sanskrit; dadhâiti, Zend; δίδωτι, Old Greek; dat, Latin; d[ou]sti, Lithuanic; dasty, Slavonic=he gives. Preserved in the Gothic languages.
Plural.—The original sign NT. Dadenti, Zend; δίδοντι, afterwards διδοῦσι, Greek; dant, Latin=they give. In Mœso-Gothic and Old High German.
The preceding examples are from Grimm and Bopp. To them add the Welsh form carant=they love, and the Persian budend=they are.
The forms in T and NT may or may not be derived from the demonstrative pronoun ta, Saxon; τὸ, Greek; that, English, &c.
[§ 350]. The present state of the personal inflection in English, so different from that of the older languages, has been brought about by two processes.
I. Change of form.—a) The ejection of -es in -mes, as in sôkjam and köllum, compared with prennames; b) the ejection of -m, as in the first person singular, almost throughout; c) the change of -s into -r, as in the Norse kallar, compared with the Germanic sôkeis; d) the ejection of -d from -nd, as in loven (if this be the true explanation of that form) compared with prennant; e) the ejection of -nd, as in kalla; f) the addition of -t, as in lufast and lovest. In all these cases we have a change of form.
II. Confusion or extension.—In vulgarisms like I goes, I is, one person is used instead of another. In vulgarisms like I are, we goes, one number is used instead of another. In vulgarisms like I be tired, or if I am tired, one mood is used instead of another. In vulgarisms like I give for I gave, one tense is used for another. In all this there is confusion. There is also extension: since, in the phrase I is, the third person is used instead of the first; in other words, it is used with an extension of its natural meaning. It has the power of the third person + that of the first. In the course of time one person may entirely supplant, supersede, or replace another. The application of this is as follows:—
The only person of the plural number originally ending in ð is the second; as sókeiþ, prennat, kalliþ, lufiað; the original ending of the first person being -mes, or -m, as prennames, sôkjam, köllum. Now, in Anglo-Saxon, the first person ends in ð, as lufiað. Has -m, or -mes, changed to ð, or has the second person superseded the first? The latter alternative seems the likelier.
[§ 351]. The detail of the persons seems to be as follows:—
I call, first person singular.—The word call is not one person more than another. It is the simple verb, wholly uninflected. It is very probable that the first person was the
one where the characteristic termination was first lost. In the Modern Norse language it is replaced by the second: Jeg taler=I speak, Danish.
Thou callest, second person singular.—The final -t appears throughout the Anglo-Saxon, although wanting in Old Saxon. In Old High German it begins to appear in Otfrid, and is general in Notker. In Middle High German and New High German it is universal.—Deutsche Grammatik, i. 1041. 857.
He calleth, or he calls, third person singular.—The -s in calls is the -th in calleth, changed. The Norse form kallar either derives its -r from the -th by way of change, or else the form is that of the second person replacing the first.
Lufiað, Anglo-Saxon, first person plural.—The second person in the place of the first. The same in Old Saxon.
Lufiað, Anglo-Saxon, third person plural.—Possibly changed from -ND, as in sôkjand. More probably the second person.
Loven, Old English.—For all the persons of the plural. This form may be accounted for in three ways: 1. The -m of the Mœso-Gothic and High Old German became -n; as it is in the Middle and Modern German, where all traces of the original -m are lost. In this case the first person has replaced the other two. 2. The -nd may have become -n; in which case it is the third person that replaces the others. 3. The indicative form loven may have arisen out of a subjunctive one; since there was in Anglo-Saxon the form lufion, or lufian, subjunctive. In the Modern Norse languages the third person replaces the other two: Vi tale, I tale, de tale=we talk, ye talk, they talk.
[§ 352]. The person in -T.—Art, wast, wert, shalt, wilt. Here the second person singular ends, not in -st, but in -t. A reason for this (though not wholly satisfactory) we find 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. Skal. | Skulu. | Skulum. |
| 2. Skalt. | Skuluts. | Skuluþ. |
| 3. Skall. | Skuluts. | Skulun. |
| Icelandic. | |
| Singular. | Plural. |
| 1. Skall. | Skulum. |
| 2. Skalt. | Skuluð. |
| 3. Skal. | Skulu. |
[§ 353]. Thou spakest, thou brakest, thou sungest.[[45]]—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.
[§ 354]. 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.