Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/62

38 itself. Even Gothic preserves merely a trace of a passive inflection by simple derivation from the stem as bairada, bairanda (from bairan, to bear) φέρεται, φέρονται. But the favourite mode is our modern one of circumlocution, with participles and auxiliaries, or by a peculiar formation from a passive participle in—na, our—en in brok-en. Thus, from mikils, Sc. muckle, mikilnan, to be enlarged, from hauhs = high hauhnan, to be exalted. Slight traces of this still survive in learn and own. The former is from an original lais-nan, to be lered or taught. German shows this distinction of act. and pass. senses well in lehr-en (active, to teach), where h is not radical, and lern-en, to be taught, to learn. Own, again, is an original agnan (A.S. ag-nian), to be possessed, from (Go.) aigan, to have, owe. These forms are, however, not true passives, being simply the participle with the adjectival ending—na or en, treated as a verb, very much as we still do, e.g. "Fallen, thy throne, O Israel!" or = Fallen's thy throne, O Israel. In all these cases the participle is merely an adjective used predicatively. I am loved is not a form like amor, but really I am (one) loved.

The ultimate elements in grammar are two-fold, verbal and pronominal. In a now-forgotten book, the "Diversions of Purley," Horne Tooke showed a century ago that nouns, which bulk so largely in grammar, are merely epithets formed from verbal roots. It is said that our man, the thinker, is the only case of a Teut. root used directly as a noun. The pronominal elements are the abbreviations of speech, in themselves non-significant marks of identity. Their inflexion, as pronouns, is peculiar. We have lost many of the Gothic forms, but preserve a few, e.g. the old dative in -m as him, them, whom (found also in seldom, whilom), and the neuter of demonstratives in -t as it that, what. The masc. accus. sing. in -na one hears in Sc. thone, not a mistake for you. Thus Peter, in his denial, said, “Ni kanna thana mannan" = I kenna thone man. The full form of I, Go. ik, has quite gone. In "King Lear," the disguised Edgar, using the Somersetshire dialect, says, “Keep out, che vor' ye," Go. ik warja thuk = I warn you. When the two disciples are told to find the colt in the village over against, Wulfila uses the dual of the pronoun, for Go. had a dual here as well as in the