ON THE NUMBERS OF VERBS.

[§ 355]. The inflection of the present tense, not only in Anglo-Saxon, but in several other languages as well, has been given in the preceding chapter. As compared with the present plural forms, we love, ye love, they love, both the Anglo-Saxon we lufiað, ge lufiað, hi lufiað, and the Old English we loven, ye loven, they loven, have a peculiar termination for the plural number which the present language wants. In other words, the Anglo-Saxon and the Old English have a plural personal characteristic, whilst the Modern English has nothing to correspond with it.

The word personal is printed in italics. It does not follow, that, because there is no plural personal characteristic, there is also no plural characteristic.

There is no reason against the inflection of the word love running thus—I love, thou lovest, he loves; we lave, ye lave, they lave; in other words, there is no reason against the vowel of the root being changed with the number. In such a case there would be no personal inflection, though there would be a plural, or a numeral, inflection.

Now, in Anglo-Saxon, with a great number of verbs such a plural inflection not only actually takes place, but takes place most regularly. It takes place, however, in the past tense only. And this is the case in all the Gothic languages as well as in Anglo-Saxon. Amongst the rest, in—

Mœso-Gothic.

Skáin, I shone; skinum, we shone.
Smáit, I smote; smitum, we smote.
Káus, I chose; kusum, we chose.
Láug, I lied; lugum, we lied.
Gab, I gave; gêbum, we gave.
At, I ete; étum, we ete.
Stal, I stole; stêlum, we stole.
Qvam, I came; qvêmum, we came.

Anglo-Saxon.

Arn, I ran; urnon, we run.
Ongan, I began; ongunnon, we begun.
Span, I span; spunnon, we spun.
Sang, I sang; sungon, we sung.
Swang, I swang; swungon, we swung.
Dranc, I drank; druncon, we drunk.
Sanc, I sank; suncon, we sunk.
Sprang, I sprang; sprungon, we sprung.
Swam, I swam; swummon, we swum.
Rang, I rang; rungon, we rung.