s becomes r in the preterite plurals and past participles of strong verbs, as in curon, ġe·coren from ċēosan, wǣron pl. of wæs (was), and in other formations, such as hryre (fall) from hrēosan.

þ becomes d under the same conditions, as in wurdon, ġe·worden from weorþan (become), cwæþ (quoth), pl. cwǣdon, cwide (speech) from cweþan (infin.).

r is often transposed, as in iernan (run) from original *rinnan (cp. the subst. ryne), berstan (burst) from *brestan, bærst (burst pret.) from bræst, hors (horse) from *hross.

The combinations cæ-, - become ċea-, ġea-, as in ċeaf (chaff) from *cæf, sċeal (shall) from *scæl, ġeaf (gave) = *gæf from ġiefan (cp. cwæþ from cweþan), ġeat (gate)—cp. fæt (vessel).

gǣ- often becomes ġēa-, as in ġēafon (they gave), with which compare cwǣdon (they said).

ge- becomes ġie, as in ġiefan, ġieldan (pay) from *gefan, *geldan—cp. cweþan, delfan. Not in the prefix ġe- and ġē (ye).

When g comes before a consonant in inflection, it often becomes h, as in hē līehþ (he lies) from lēogan (mentiri).

h after a consonant is dropt when a vowel follows, the preceding vowel being lengthened, thus Wealh (Welshman) has plural Wēalas.


INFLECTIONS.