Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/393

383 On English PrcBterites. 383 (Otho. C. xiii) though often supplying us with valuable glosses upon the former, was evidently copied from it by a person to whom many of the expressions had become unin- telligible, and who therefore whenever he came to a difficult passage, omitted it altogether. In all the MSS. above- mentioned the inflections and genders of the nouns, are still preserved, though by no means correctly in all cases. The usual variations which a language undergoes when about to lose its terminations &c. are observable ; for example a dull e takes place of most vowels in the inflections, the m of the dat. pi. is changed into n, and the vowels which had become modified (Germ, iim-laut) by the operation of i, recover their original form ; in addition to these changes, we have the feminine inflection gradually perishing away, or replaced by the masculine ; neuter plurals taking the masculine inflection ; and above all weak nouns (which once made all their oblique cases in.-an) transferred to the strong masculine form ; (gen. -es. dat. -e.) The distinction between adjectives definitely and indefinitely used (once marked by a difference in the declension) is often neglected ; and many verbs which once were strong have past over into the weak form. But the greatest apparent change is naturally in the vowels, and the signs by which they are represented. Taking a period, (the twelfth century), when the variations seem to have somewhat settled, those with which we are concerned, appear briefly thus- Got. a. OE. a. ae. ea. e, AS. a, a. ea. e. i. ai. i. e. eo. i. e. eo. u. au, u, o. y. i. u. o. y, au. ea. e. y. ei. ae. ea. y. lu. eo. e. y, eo. y. e. a. e. ae. ae. ai. a. ae. o. ai. ei. a. o, ae. e. o. e. o. • A A C ei. 1. y. 1. A A A / -tr u. u, ou. y, u. y. Using these vowels, one or other of which is found for its corresponding one, in the above named twelve conjugations, and first in the reduplicative, we have such forms as follow ; Vol. II. No. 5. 3 C