Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/45

16 their Aryan kin, compounded for themselves a new Perfect of the verb, known as the Weak form. The older Strong Perfect is formed by changing the vowel of the Present, as I sit, I sat, common to English and Sanscrit. But the new Perfect of the Teutons is formed by adding di-de (in Sanscrit, da-dhâu) to the stem. Thus, sealf-ie, I salve, becomes in the Perfect, sealfo-de, the de being contracted from dide. When we say, I loved, it is like saying, I love did. This comes out much plainer in our Gothic sister.

Another peculiarity of the Teutons was the use of the dark Runes, still found engraven on stone, both in our island and on the mainland: these were in later times proscribed by Christianity as the handmaids of witch&shy;craft.

The Celts were roughly driven out of their old abodes, on the banks of the Upper Danube and elsewhere, by the intruding Teutons. The former were far the more civilised of the two races: they have left in their word hall an abiding trace of their settlement in Bavaria, and of their management of salt works. The simple word leather is thought by good judges to have been borrowed from the Celts by their Eastern neighbours.

Others suffered besides the Celts. A hundred years before Christ's birth, the Teutons forced their way into Italy, but were overthrown by her rugged champion Marius. Rather later, they matched themselves against