Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/534

 502 ANGLO-SAXONS (LANGUAGE AND LITKBATURE) Old Forms. Koman. Names. "K a. A a ah homo, A. S. guma, man. These changes were complete in the 3d century, and here the Anglo- Saxon has remained, while the High German Jfj se ^E 88 a has shifted in the same way a second time, B b B b bay changing ic, I, to ich; thu, thou, to du; dew, EC c cay deer, to thier, and the like; so that Anglo- D 8 D d day Saxon stands in the same relation to German DA? TvTT 11 11 that Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin do to Anglo- ft DH dh edh Saxon. A marked fact in this speech is the 6 e E e ay sensitiveness of the vowels to the influence of F F F f ef other letters. A stem a may appear as OB, ea, e, or o, according to the vowel or consonant E 5 0" g gay ' after it ; and so with other letters. In cases pp h H h hah where i follows the stem, man changes to men ; I i I i ee so fot to fet, feet ; gos to ges, geese ; mu to LI LI el m$8, mice, and the like. Such changes are called umlaut. Breaking is produced by a con- 00 m Mm em sonant, as when c or g changes a to ea : Lat. N n N n en castrum to ceaster ; or I or r changes a preced- O o O o o ing * to eo : meolc, milk. There are inflection "P " Tfc T* -Tfc TXA1T endings for five cases, three numbers, and r P p P a y R__ three genders; but the instrumental case is P R r er rare, and the dual number is found only in pro- 8 r S s es nouns. The substantive has four declensions T 7> T t tjiv distinguished by the endings of the genitive sin- gular es, e, a, an. The three first come from F P J> TH th thorn old vowel stems, the last from a consonant stem. U u U u oo FIRST DECLENSION. P p (W vvi SINGULAR. An. Sax. Enylih. German. Latin. 1 AY) ( W ) f wen Nominative, wulf, wolf, wolf, anger. " / v. " / i Genitive, wulfes, wolf's, wolfes, anserls. X x X x ex Dative, wulfe, to or for a wolfe, auseri. Y y Y y ypsilon wolf, Accusative, wiilf, wolf, wolf, anserem. lii.striiiiK-iii.il, w u Hi"-, by or with a (ablative) ansere. æ as a in ^Z<w?; $ as a in dare; e as in let; & or f, wolf, as in Ay ; i as in dim ; as ee in rf7 ; o as in wholly ; 6 as in Ao/y ; u as in/wW ; J as oo in PLITKAL. Nominative, wnlfAs, wolves, wolfe, anseres. Genitive, wulfa, of wolves, wolfe, anserum. ./ooJ; y nearly like u in wtme or the French u; Dative, wulfuui, to or for wulfun, anseribus. $ the same sound prolonged. The consonants Accusative, wulfas, wolves, wolfe, anseres. were pronounced as in English, except that c Instrumental, wulfum, by or with (ablative) auseribus. was always like k, g as in give, and both letters wolves, were distinctly sounded in initial hi, hr, hw, FOURTH DECLENSION. wl, icr, en. The changes to the modern Eng- SINGULAR. An. Sax. English. German. lish sounds have most of them occurred since Nominative, oxa, ox, ochse. the time of Chaucer, many since Shakespeare. Genitive, oxan, of on ox, ochsen. Dative, oxan, to or for an ox, ochsen. There are many words common to Anglo- Accusative, oxan, ox, ochsen. Saxon, Gothic, and Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit. PLURAL. When we compare the spelling of such words, we find that the Anglo-Saxon retains the origi- Norn, and Ace. oxan, oxen, ochson. Genitive, oxena, of oxen, ochsen. Dative, oxum, to or for oxen, ochsen. nal vowels better than the Gothic. It has the old d, {, while the Gothic has changed to dor S; The common English endings of the possessive and the old i, while the Gothic has ei. In its and plural are from the first declension. The consonant system it agrees wifli the Gothic, -en of oxen is from the fourth. Neuters have and is midway between the old forms of the no plural sign, and so some English words from Greek, or Latin, and High German. Each surd them do not yet always use it: sheep, deer, mute of the Greek or Latin is in Anglo-Saxon swine, folk, hair, head, hundred, year, and the changed into its cognate aspirate : f to th, Latin like. The old feminines were declined some- tu, A. S. th4, thou ; p to ph=f, Lat. ped-es, what like the Latin first, with a genitive in -e, A. S. fet, feet; c to ch=h, Lat. cannab-is, A. and we find a few examples of it in Chaucer. S. hcncp, hemp. Each sonant mute changes Gender is determined by the endings of words ; into its cognate surd : d to t, Lat. dent-es, A. it agrees generally with the German : wif-man, S. teth, teeth; b to p, Lat. cannai-is, A. 8. woman, is regularly masculine because it ends henep, hemp; g to e, Lat. e^-o, A. S. ie, I. in man; wif wife, is neuter; sunne, sun, is Each aspirate mute changed to sonant : th to feminine; mona, moon, is masculine. Each d, Gr. ther, A. S. dear, deer; ph=fto b, Lat. adjective may be declined in two ways accord- f rater, A. S. brother, brother; ch=h to g, Lat. ing as it is definite or indefinite, as in German.
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