Coincidence in the order of the classes is violated when a class which was (for instance) the third in one language becomes, in another language the fourth, &c. In Mœso-Gothic the class containing the words smeita, smáit, smitum, smitans, is the eighth. This is a natural place for it. In the class preceding it, the vowel is the same in both numbers. In the classes that follow it, the vowel is changed in the plural. The number of classes that in Mœso-Gothic change the vowel is five; viz., the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. Of these the eighth is the first. The classes where the change in question takes place form a natural subdivision, of which the eighth class stands at the head. Now in Anglo-Saxon the vowel is not changed so much as in the Mœso-Gothic. In words like choose, give, and steal, the vowel remains unaltered in the plural. In Mœso-Gothic, however, these words are, respectively, of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh classes. It is not till we get to the eleventh that the Anglo-Saxon plurals take a fresh vowel. As the presence or absence of a change of vowel naturally regulates the order of the classes, the eighth class in Mœso-Gothic becomes the eleventh in Anglo-Saxon. If it were not so, the classes where a change took place in the plural would be separated from each other.
The later the stage of the language, the less complete the coincidence in the classes.
Of the present arrangement, the twelfth class coincides most throughout the Gothic languages.
In the word climb, a reason was given for its having changed from the twelfth class to the eleventh class. This, in the present state of our knowledge, cannot always be done.
These statements are made lest the reader should expect to find between the English and the Anglo-Saxon classification anything more than a partial coincidence. A detailed exhibition of the English conjugations would form a work of
itself. Moreover, the present classes of the strong verbs must, to a great degree, be considered as provisional.
Observe, that it is the classes of the strong verbs that are provisional. With the great divisions into weak and strong, the case is far otherwise. The general assertions which will be made in p. [333], respecting the strong conjugation, show most cogently that the division is a natural one.
[§ 385]. Preliminary, however, to making them, the reader's attention is directed to the following list of verbs. In the present English they all form the præterite in -d or -t; in Anglo-Saxon, they all form it by a change of the vowel. In other words they are weak verbs that were once strong.
[§ 386]. The first of the general statements made concerning strong verbs, with a view of proving that the order is natural, shall be the one arising out of the preceding list of præterites.