Page:Language and the Study of Language.djvu/52

30 English language contained no such word as its. His had been, in the old Anglo-Saxon and ever since, the common possessive of he and it (A.-S., hit); it belonged to the latter no less than to the former. But almost all the possessive cases in the language were formed by adding s to the nominative, and his wore the aspect of being so formed from he, and of having nothing to do with it. Why not, then, form a new possessive in like manner for it itself? Th1s was a question which very probably suggested itself to a great many minds about the same time, and the word its may have sprung up in a hundred places at once, and propagated itself, under the ban of the purists of the day, who frowned upon it, pronounced it "as bad as she's, for her, would be," and carefully avoided its use; until at last its popularity and evident desirableness caused it to be universally adopted and recognized as proper. And, at the present time, few of us read our Bibles so curiously as to have discovered that they contain no such word as its, from Genesis to Revelation.

The Anglo-Saxon employed ye (ge) as subject of a verb, and you (eow) as object, and the early English was careful to make the same distinction. Nor is it yet entirely lost; but the use of ye now belongs to a solemn style only, and you has been set up as subject not less than object. There was a time when you are for ye are, and yet more for thou art, would have been as offensive to the ear of a correct English speaker as is now the thee is of the Quaker.

Not a few of the irregular verbs which our language formerly contained have been in later usage assimilated to the more numerous class, and conjugated regularly. Take as examples help, of which the ancient participle holpen, instead of helped, is found still in our Bibles; and work, which has gained a modern preterit and participle, worked, although the older form, wrought, is also retained in use, with a somewhat altered and specialized signification.

Here are changes of various kind and value, though all tracing their origin to the same tendencies. Words change their shape without losing their identity; old forms, old