Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/99

70 as bothe, the Gothic bayoths and the Sanscrit ubhau. Danish influence was making itself felt on the Thames. The form abec (aback, in Gothic ibukai) is seen, like the Midland o þe half; in þe is shortened into i ðe. Ealswa is cut down into alse and then into as, the most rapid of all our changes; thus we have formed two new words, also and as, out of one old word. Mîn and þîn are shortened into mi and ti.

We now find the first use of our New English Rela&shy;tive Pronoun. Hwâ and hwylc were never so employed of yore; the former answered to the Latin quis, not to qui; but our tongue was now subject to French influence. As yet, the Genitive and Dative alone of hwa, not the Nominative, are used to express the Relative. Teonðe and sefenti&#x0293;e are found instead of teoða and hundseofontig. Swylc, hwylc, and mycel now become swice, wice, and moche; farther changes are to come forty years later. Cildru turns into cyldren, for the South of England, un&shy;like the North, always loved the Plural in en, of which the Germans are so fond. Ége becomes a&#x0293;éie, not far from our modern awe; the g is softened into y or i, especially at the beginning of Past Participles. The new letter &#x0293; now appears to replace the old hard g; it lasted for nearly 350 years. Thanks to it, we wrote citeien, the old French word, as cite&#x0293;en in 1340, and in 1380 pronounced it citisen. Thus the Scottish Dalyell and Mackenyie have become Dalziel and Mackenzie. The former hê hafað gewesen is now seen as he hað íbí (he hath been), a wondrous change; hœfde becomes had,