1. That the older forms in -ing are substantival in origin, and=the Anglo-Saxon -ung.
2. That the latter ones are participial, and have been formed on a false analogy.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE PAST PARTICIPLE.
[§ 404]. The participle in -en.—In the Anglo-Saxon this participle was declined like the adjectives. Like the adjectives, it is, in the present English, undeclined.
In Anglo-Saxon it always ended in -en, as sungen, funden, bunden. In English this -en is often wanting, as found, bound; the word bounden being antiquated. Words where the -en is wanting may be viewed in two lights; 1, they may be looked upon as participles that have lost their termination; 2, they may be considered as præterites with a participial sense.
[§ 405]. Drank, drunk, drunken.—With all words wherein the vowel of the plural differs from that of the singular, the participle takes the plural form. To say I have drunk, is to use an ambiguous expression; since drunk may be either a participle minus its termination, or a præterite with a participial sense. To say I have drank, is to use a præterite for a participle. To say I have drunken, is to use an unexceptionable form.
In all words with a double form, as spake and spoke, brake and broke, clave and clove, the participle follows the form in o, as spoken, broken, cloven. Spaken, braken, claven, are impossible forms. There are degrees in laxity of language, and to say the spear is broke is better than to say the spear is brake.