Further remarks upon the presence of the Reflective Pronoun sik in Icelandic, and its absence in Saxon, will appear in the sequel.
THE NUMERALS.
| Saxon. | Icelandic. | |
| 1. | Án | Eitt, einn, ein. |
| 2. | Twá | Tvö, tveir. |
| 3. | Þreó | Þrju, þrir. |
| 4. | Feower | Fjögur, fjórir. |
| 5. | Fíf | Fimm. |
| 6. | Six | Sex. |
| 7. | Seofon | Sjö. |
| 8. | Eahta | Átta. |
| 9. | Nigon | Niu. |
| 10. | Tyn | Tiu. |
Of the Icelandic verbs the infinitives end in -a; as kalla, to call; elska, to love; whereas the Saxon termination is -an; as lufian, to love; wyrcan, to work.
[§ 88]. The persons are as follows:—
| Saxon. | Icelandic. | ||
| Pres. | Sing. | 1. Bærne | Brenni. |
| 2. Bærnst | Brennir. | ||
| 3. Bærnð | Brennir. | ||
| Plur. | 1. Bærnað | Brennum. | |
| 2. Bærnað | Brennið. | ||
| 3. Bærnað | Brenna. |
[§ 89]. The characteristic, however, of the Icelandic (indeed, of all the Scandinavian languages) is the possession of a passive form, or a passive voice, ending in -st:—Ek, þu, hann brennist=I, thou, he is burnt; Ver brennumst=We are burnt; þér brennizt=ye are burnt; þeir brennast=they are burnt. Past tense, Ek, þu, hann brendist; ver brendumst, þér brenduzt, þeir brendust. Imperat.: brenstu=be thou burnt. Infinit.: brennast=to be burnt.
In the modern Danish and Swedish, the passive is still preserved, but without the final t. In the older stages of Icelandic, on the other hand, the termination was not -st but -sc; which -sc grew out of the reflective pronoun sik. With these phenomena the Scandinavian languages give us the evolution and development of a passive voice; wherein we have the following series of changes:—1st. the reflective pronoun coalesces with the verb, whilst the sense changes from that of a reflective to that of a middle verb; 2nd. the c changes to t, whilst the middle sense passes into a passive one; 3rd. t is dropped from the end of the word, and the expression that was once reflective then becomes strictly passive.
Now the Saxons have no passive voice at all. That they should have one originating like that of the Scandinavians was impossible. Having no reflective pronoun, they had nothing to evolve it from.