Page:Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Slavonic languages (Bopp 1885).pdf/94

72 CHARACTERS AND SOUNDS. s is the surd. It is remarkable, in a grammatical point of view, that a concluding s before the enclitic particles ei and th, and before the passive addition a, passes into ; hence, for instance, thizei "cujus," from this "hujus," thanzei "quos," from thans "hos," vileizuh "visne" from vileis "vis," haitaza "vocaris," from haitis "vocas," or rather from its earlier form [G. Ed. p. 78.] haitas. The root slép, "to sleep," forms, by a reduplication, in the preterite, saizlép, "I or he slept. Other examples are, izvis, "vobis," "vos," razn "house," talzyan, "to teach," marzyan, "to provoke," fairzna, "heel." The High German loves the softening of $ into r, especially between two vowels (see §. 22.); but this change has not established itself as a pervading law, and does not extend over all parts of the Grammar. For instance, in Old High German, the finals of several roots has changed itself into r before the preterite terminations which commence with a vowel; on the other hand, it has remained unaltered in the uninflected first and third pers. sing. indicative, and also before the vowels of the present. For example, from the root lus, comes liusu, "I lose," lds, "I or he lost," lurumés "we lost." While in these cases the termination takes s under its protection, yet the s of the nominative singular, where it has not been altogether dropped, is everywhere softened down to r; and, on the other hand, the concluding s of the genitive has, down to our time, remained unaltered, and thus an organic difference has arisen between two cases originally distinguished by a similar suffix. For instance,

The Germanic tongues exhibit, in respect of consonants, a remarkable law of displacement, which has been first recognised and developed with great ability by Grimm. According to this law, the Gothic, and the other dialects