Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/41

12 which are thus changed into adjectives. Vig-il and wac-ol (wakeful) are but different forms of one word. The Latin calvus, gilvus, and malva are our callow, yel&shy;low, and mallow; and the likeness was still more striking before we corrupted the old ending u into ow. Aiei and œvum are the Gothic âiv, the English aye and ever. Latin and English alike slipped the letter n into the middle of a verb before g, as frango or frag, and gang or gag. The Latin Future tense cannot be ex&shy;plained by Latin words; but, on turning to English, we at once see that doma-bo is nothing but our tame-be; that is, I be to tame, or I shall tame. So likewise with ara-bo, or I ear be. English sometimes shows itself more primitive than Latin; thus, our knot has never lost its first letter, while gnodus was shortened into nodus thousands of years ago.

But all the Teutonic tribes have traces left of their nearness of kin to the Slavonians and Lithuanians, who seem to have been the last of the Aryan stock from whom we Teutons separated. We have seen that, when living in Asia, we were unable to count up to a thousand. The Sanscrit for this numeral is sahasra, the Latin mille. The Slavonians made it tusantja, the Lithuanians tukstanti, and with this the whole Teutonic kindred closely agrees. Further, it seems strange at first sight that we have not framed those two of our numerals that follow ten in some such shape as ân-tŷne and twâ-tŷne, since we go on to þreô-tŷne, thirteen. The