Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/195

166 and sho; his they and their are sometimes seen, but have been often altered by the Southern transcriber into hi and hir. The Southern thilk (ille) is not found once in the whole poem. We now for the last time see the Old English Dual (this we must have brought from the Oxus) in the line 1882:

‘Gripeth eþer unker a god tre.’ Grip each of you two a good tree.

This was of old written incer. Strange tricks are played with the letter h. The letter d is dropped after liquids, for we find here shel, hel, bihel; and the Danes to this day have the same pronunciation. We may remark the Westward march, up from East Anglia, of the letter o, replacing the older a: swa has become so, and is made to rime with Domino; on the other hand, wa (dolor) still rimes with stra, our straw. But such words as ilc, swilk, mikel, hwilgate, prove that our modern corruptions of these words had not as yet made their way to the Humber; the Havelok shows us our Standard English, almost formed, but something is still wanting.

There are Northern forms, which could never have been used in the South in Edwardian days; such as sternes, intil, tinte, coupe, loupe, carle. The Plurals of Substantives end in es, not en; and to this there are hardly any exceptions.

The old seofoþa (septimus) now first becomes sevenþe, owing the intrusive n to Norse influence; many others of our Ordinals are formed in the same way.