Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/78

 evil or disparaging meaning; as, spodsk, 'mocking;' fjendsk, 'inimical;' lumsk, 'cunning.'

Many of the terminations of adverbs and prepositions in use in Dano-Norwegian point to an earlier phase of the language, when the Old Northern inflections were not yet eradicated. Thus, where adverbs have not been derived immediately from adjectives, they would often seem to be simply an adaptation of an inflected noun; as, hjem, and hjemme, 'at home;' bort, borte, 'away.' Here, as in such words as ud, ude; ned, nede, etc., the terminal e implies rest, (heimi, Old Northern dative sing., 'home'): Fruen er hjemme, 'the lady is at home.' The word without this terminal e, and derived from the accusative form of the Old Northern heim (modern Dano-Norwegian hjem), is used where motion is implied: Fruen går hjem, 'the lady is going home;' han löber ud, 'he runs out;' han kommer ned, 'she is coming down.' Such survivals are numerous in the modern Scandinavian tongues, and in many instances show the grammatical affinity between Old Northern and Latin.