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 Has -m, or -mes, changed to ð, or has the second person superseded the first?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