Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/709

 The inflection of the Conjunctive agrees with that of the strong Preterite, e.g. Goth. nasidedjau.

The Infinitive is formed from the present stem with an ending -an (e.g. A.S. beran), and probably was originally a case-form of a verbal noun. In the western languages we find also the Dative of a stem -anja- used after a preposition; e.g. A.S. to cēosenne, O.H.G. zi nemanne.

The Present Participle has a stem -and- (I.-Eur. -ont-) identical with the ending of the 3 plur. Indic., as in the other I.-Eur. languages; but the Participles in actual use were declined as -an- or -ja- stems, e.g. G. bairanda, A.S. berende. The unextended stem survives only in substantives, e.g. A.S. wīgend, “warriors.” The stem of the Past Participle (Passive) is formed by the suffixes -to- and -no- (Teut. -đa-, -na-), as in the other I.-Eur. languages. The former occurs as a living formation only in connexion with the verbs whose Present stem ends in -ja-, -ō-, -ē- (in Gothic also -na-); e.g. Goth. nasips, salbo þs (: nasjan, salbon). The Past Participle in use with other classes of verbs has a stem -ena- or -ana-, the former in English and Scandinavian, the latter in Gothic and German; e.g. A.S. borenn, O.N. borinn, Goth. baurans, O.H.G. (gi)boran. Remains of old Participles in -to-, -no- formed otherwise than those in living use may be found in adjectives; e.g. A.S. (e)ald : alan (cf. Lat. altus), full : Lat. pleo (cf. Lith. pilnas).

The above sketch will suffice to show that in regard to morphology the Teutonic group of languages has many characteristic features which distinguish it from other languages of the same stock. On the other hand the morphological differences which exist among the Teutonic languages themselves are on the whole comparatively slight and due mainly to the operation of syncretism and other simplifying processes. In more recent times these processes have been carried still further, so that e.g. the Danish verb has lost all inflection of person and number, while distinction of gender has wholly disappeared in English. In the earlier stages of the Teutonic languages differences of phonology are more marked than those of morphology, and afford surer criteria for determining the relations of these languages to one another. It is customary among scholars to classify the whole group in three main divisions, an eastern or Gothic, a northern or Scandinavian, and a western which includes English, Frisian and German. We have noticed above that Gothic began at an early date to show marked divergences from the other languages. The Scandinavian languages also certainly underwent a considerable number of peculiar changes before the beginning of their literatures. But it is to be remembered that from the 6th century to the 9th the Scandinavian peoples were practically cut off from communication with other Teutonic nations by the Slavonic occupation of Mecklenburg and eastern Holstein. The earliest of the more striking sound-changes peculiar to Scandinavian, viz. the loss of initial j-, is not thought to have taken place before the 7th century, while the most characteristic features in its morphology, i.e. the development of the post-positive article and of the new medio-passive, belong in all probability to a later period. If we confine our attention to changes which probably took place before the middle of the 7th century it will be seen that the English and Frisian languages may fairly be described as lying about midway between Scandinavian and German, though they had already developed well-marked characteristics of their own. They are doubtless to be regarded as the representatives of the old language of the maritime districts, and it is probable that languages of this type were at one time spoken along the whole of the coast between the present frontiers of Belgium and Denmark. On the other hand the special characteristics of German in all probability developed in the interior and those of Scandinavian round the Baltic and the Cattegat. From the 8th century onwards the High German (southern) dialects of German differed greatly from those spoken further north owing to the operation of the changes generally known as the “second sound-shifting.” The northern dialects, however (Old Saxon and Low Frankish), were essentially German, though both were more or less affected by Frisian influence.

The Gothic and Scandinavian languages have one or two characteristics in common, the most important of which is the treatment of intervocalic j and w in a number of words. In the former case we find Goth. -ddj- and O.N. -ggi-,

whereas in German a diphthong developed; e.g. Goth. twaddje (Gen. of twai, “two”), O.N. tveggia: O.H.G. zweio. In the latter case both Goth. and Scand. had ggw (O.N. ggv), while a diphthong appears both in English and German, e.g. Goth. triggws (“true”), O.N. tryggr: A.S. getrīowe, getrīewe, O.H.G. gitriuwi. It may also be noted that Gothic and Scandinavian preserved the ending -t in the 2 sing. of the strong Preterite, while English and German had a different form with the stem of the plur. (see above). On the ground of these common characteristics some scholars hold that Gothic and Scandinavian are more closely related to one another than to the other Teutonic languages. But, whatever may have been the case originally—and the evidence is far from conclusive—it is clear that by the 4th or 5th century the Scandinavian languages had far more resemblance to English and German than to Gothic.

The languages of the Vandals, Gepidae and other eastern tribes seem to have been practically identical with Gothic. That of the Burgundians, so far as we can judge from the slight evidence at our disposal, had at least as much in common with southern German as with Gothic, which may be due to the fact that this tribe, though originally located in the basin of the Oder, had moved westwards by the 4th century. The early divergence of the eastern languages in general from those of the north and west is perhaps to be ascribed in part to the great extension southwards of the territories of the eastern tribes in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Yet it is not to be overlooked that all dialectical divergences within the Teutonic group seem to be of relatively recent origin, as compared, e.g., with the special characteristics of some of the Greek dialects. Indeed there is scarcely one of them of which we can say with certainty that it dates from before the beginning of our era.

 TEUTONIC ORDER, THE, or Teutonic Knights of St Mary’s Hospital at Jerusalem (Der deutsche Orden, Deutsche Ritter) was one of the three great military and religious orders which sprang from the (q.v.). Later in birth than the Templars and Hospitallers, the Teutonic Order traces its first beginnings from the third Crusade. Already, indeed, in 1143 we hear of a hospital of Germans at Jerusalem, which Celestine II. places under the control of the Hospitallers, with the stipulation that the prior and servants alone shall necessarily be of German birth. But it is amidst the privations and plague which attended the siege of Acre, during the third Crusade, that the first certain beginnings of the Order appear. In the winter of 1190–91 certain pious merchants from Bremen and Lübeck (towns with which the Order was still to be connected in the days of its later history) laid the foundations of a hospital in a