[§ 284]. 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:—
| Present Tense, Indicative Mood. | |||
| Mœso-Gothic. | |||
| 1st person. | 2nd person. | 3rd person. | |
| Singular. | Sôkja | Sôkeis | Sôkeiþ—seek. |
| Plural. | Sôkjam | Sôkeiþ | Sokjand. |
| Old High German. | |||
| Singular. | Prennu | Prennîs | Prennit—burn. |
| Plural. | Prennames | Prennat | Prennant. |
| Icelandic. | |||
| Singular. | Kalla | Kallar | Kallar—call. |
| Plural. | Kôllum | Kalliþ | Kalla. |
| Old Saxon. | |||
| Singular. | Sôkju | Sôkîs | Sôkîd—seek. |
| Plural. | Sôkjad | Sôkjad | Sôkjad. |
| Anglo-Saxon. | |||
| Singular. | Lufige | Lufast | Lufað. |
| Plural. | Lufiað | Lufiað | Lufiað. |
| Old English. | |||
| Singular. | Love | Lovest | Loveth. |
| Plural. | Loven | Loven | Loven. |
| Modern English. | |||
| Singular. | Love | Lovest | Loveth (or Loves). |
| Plural. | Love | Love | Love. |
[§ 285]. 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 sôkjam 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.
[§ 286]. The person in -t.—The forms art, wast, wert, shalt, wilt, or ar-t, was-t, wer-t, shal-t, wil-t, are remarkable. Here the second person singular ends, not in -st, but in t. The reason for this is to be sought 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.