The sun shines to-day brighter than it did yesterday, and to-morrow it will shine brightest.—Here also the sense is adverbial; from whence we get the fact, that adverbs take degrees of comparison.
Now let the root mag-, as in magnus, μέγας, and mikil (Norse), give the idea of greatness. In the Latin language we have from it two comparative forms: 1. the adjectival comparative major=greater; 2. the adverbial comparative magis=more (plus). The same takes place in Mœso-Gothic: maiza means greater, and is adjectival; mais means more, and is adverbial. The Anglo-Saxon forms are more instructive still; e.g., þäs þe mâ=all the more, þäs þe bet=all the better, have a comparative sense, but not a comparative form, the sign r being absent. Now, compared with major, and subject to the remarks that have gone before, the Latin magis is the older form. With mâ and bet, compared with more and better, this may or may not be the case. Mâ and bet may each be one of two forms; 1. a positive used in a comparative sense; 2. a true comparative, which has lost
its termination. The present section has been written not for the sake of exhausting the subject, but to show that in the comparative degree there were often two forms; of which one, the adverbial, was either more antiquated, or more imperfect than the other: a fact bearing upon some of the forthcoming trains of etymological reasoning.
[§ 314]. Change of vowel.—By reference to Rask's Grammar, § 128, it may be seen that in the Anglo-Saxon there were, for the comparative and superlative degrees, two forms; viz. -or and -re, and -ost and -este, respectively.
By reference to p. [159] of the present volume, it may be seen that the fulness or smallness of a vowel in a given syllable may work a change in the nature of the vowel in a syllable adjoining. In the Anglo-Saxon the following words exhibit a change of vowel.
| Positive. | Comparative. | Superlative. | |
| Lang, | Lengre, | Lengest. | Long. |
| Strang, | Strengre, | Strengest. | Strong. |
| Geong, | Gyngre, | Gyngest. | Young. |
| Sceort, | Scyrtre, | Scyrtest. | Short. |
| Heáh, | Hyrre, | Hyhst. | High. |
| Eald, | Yldre, | Yldest. | Old. |
Of this change, the word last quoted is a still-existing specimen, as old, elder and older, eldest and oldest. Between the two forms there is a difference in meaning, elder being used as a substantive, and having a plural form, elders.
[§ 315]. The previous section has stated that in Anglo-Saxon there were two forms for the comparative and superlative degrees, one in -re and -este, the other in -or and -ost, respectively. Now the first of these was the form taken by adjectives; as se scearpre sweord=the sharper sword, and se scearpeste sweord=the sharpest sword. The second, on the other hand, was the form taken by adverbs; as, se sweord scyrð scearpor=the sword cuts sharper, and se sweord scyrð scearpost=the sword cuts sharpest.
The adjectival form has, as seen above, a tendency to make the vowel of the preceding syllable small: old, elder.