The Grammar of English Grammars, Goold Brown [ebook reader for manga txt] 📗

Anglo-Saxons. The following table compares the simple personal forms:—

Eng. I, My or Me; We, Our or Us.
              Mine, Ours,
Sax. Ic, Min, Me or We, Ure or Us.
                        Mec; User,
Eng. Thou, Thy or Thee; Ye, Your You.
              Thine, or Yours,
Sax. Thu, Thin, The or Ge Eower, Eow or
                        Thec; Eowie.
Eng. He, His Him; They, Their or Them.
                                            Theirs,
Sax. He, His or Him or Hi or Hira or Heom or
              Hys, Hine; Hig, Heora, Hi.
Eng. She, Her or Her; They, Their or Them.
              Hers, Theirs,
Sax. Heo, Hire or Hi; Hi or Hira or Heom or
               Hyre, Hig, Heora, Hi.
Eng. It, Its, It; They, Their or Them.
                                            Theirs,
Sax. Hit, His or Hit; Hi or Hira or Heom or
              Hys, Hig, Heora, Hi.

Here, as in the personal pronouns of other languages, the plurals and oblique cases do not all appear to be regular derivatives from the nominative singular. Many of these pronouns, perhaps all, as well as a vast number of other words of frequent use in our language, and in that from which it chiefly comes, were very variously written by the Middle English, Old English, Semi-Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon authors. He who traces the history of our language, will meet with them under all the following forms, (or such as these would be with Saxon characters for the Saxon forms,) and perhaps in more:—

1. I, J, Y, y, i, ay, ic, che, ich, Ic;—MY, mi, min, MINE, myne, myn;—ME, mee, me, meh, mec, mech;—WE, wee, ve;—OUR or OURS, oure, ure, wer, urin, uren, urne, user, usse, usser, usses, ussum;—Us, ous, vs, uss, usic, usich, usig, usih, uz, huz.

2. THOU, thoue, thow, thowe, thu, tou, to, tu;—THY or THINE, thi, thyne, thyn, thin;—THEE, the, theh, thec;—YE, yee, yhe, ze, zee, ge, ghe;—YOUR or YOURS, youre, zour, hure, goure, yer, yower, yowyer, yorn, yourn, youre, eower;—You, youe, yow, gou, zou, ou, iu, iuh, eow, iow, geow, eowih, eowic, iowih.

3. HE, hee, hie, se;—His, hise, is, hys, ys, hyse, hus;—HIM, hine, hiene, hion, hen, hyne, hym, im;—THEY, thay, thei, the, tha, thai, thii, yai, hi, hie, heo, hig, hyg, hy;—THEIR or THEIRS, ther, theyr, theyrs, thair, thare, theora, hare, here, her, hir, hire, hira, hiora, hiera, heora, hyra;—THEM, thym, theym, thaym, thaim, thame, tham, em, hem, heom, hiom, eom, hom, him, hi, hig.

4. SHE, shee, sche, scho, sho, shoe, scæ, seo, heo, hio, hiu, hoo, hue;—HER, (possessive,) hur, hir, hire, hyr, hyre, hyra, hera;—HER, (objective,) hire, hyre, hur, hir, hi. The plural forms of this feminine pronoun are like those of the masculine He; but the "Well-Wishers to Knowledge," in their small Grammar, (erroneously, as I suppose,) make hira masculine only, and heora feminine only. See their Principles of Grammar, p. 38.

5. IT, yt, itt, hit, hyt, hytt. The possessive Its is a modern derivative; His or Hys was formerly used in lieu of it. The plural forms of this neuter pronoun, It, are like those of He and She. According to Horne Tooke, who declares hoet to have been one of its ancient forms, "this pronoun was merely the past participle of the verb HAITAN, hætan, nominare," to name, and literally signifies "the said;" (Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, p. 46; W. Allen's Gram., p. 57;) but Dr. Alexander Murray, exhibiting it in an other form, not adapted to this opinion, makes it the neuter of a declinable adjective, or pronoun, inflected from the masculine, thus: "He, heo hita, this"—Hist. of Lang., Vol. i, p. 315.

II. The relatives and interrogatives are derived from the same source, the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and have passed through similar changes, or varieties in orthography; but, the common relative pronoun of the Anglo-Saxons being like their article the,—or, with the three genders, se, seo, thæt,—and not like our who, which, and what, it is probable that the interrogative use of these words was the primitive one. They have been found in all the following forms:—

1. WHO, ho, hue, wha, hwa, hua, wua, qua, quha;—WHOSE, who's, whos, whois, whoise, wheas, quhois, quhais, quhase, hwæs;—WHOM, whome, quham, quhum, quhome, hwom, hwam, hwæm, hwæne, hwone.

2. WHICH, whiche, whyche, whilch, wych, quilch, quilk, quhilk, hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, whilk, huilic, hvilc. For the Anglo-Saxon forms, Dr. Bosworth's Dictionary gives "hwilc, hwylc, and hwelc;" but Professor Fowler's E. Grammar makes them "huilic and hvilc."—See p. 240. Whilk, or quhilk, is a Scottish form.

3. WHAT, hwat, hwet, quhat, hwæt. This pronoun, whether relative or interrogative, is regarded by Bosworth and others as a neuter derivative from the masculine or femine [sic—KTH] hwa, who. It may have been thence derived, but, in modern English, it is not always of the neuter gender. See the last note on page 312.

4. THAT, Anglo-Saxon Thæt. Tooke's notion of the derivation of this word is noticed above in the section on Articles. There is no certainty of its truth; and our lexicographers make no allusion to it. W. Allen reaffirms it. See his Gram., p. 54.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—In the Well-Wishers' Grammar, (p. 39,) as also in L. Murray's and some others, the pronoun Which is very strangely and erroneously represented as being always "of the neuter gender." (See what is said of this word in the Introduction, Chap. ix, ¶ 32.) Whereas it is the relative most generally applied to brute animals, and, in our common version of the Bible, its application to persons is peculiarly frequent. Fowler says, "In its origin it is a Compound."—E. Gram., p. 240. Taking its first Anglo-Saxon form to be "Huilic," he thinks it traceable to "hwa, who," or its ablative "hwi," and "lie, like."—Ib. If this is right, the neuter sense is not its primitive import, or any part of it.

OBS. 2.—From its various uses, the word That is called sometimes a pronoun, sometimes an adjective, and sometimes a conjunction; but, in respect to derivation, it is, doubtless, one and the same. As a relative pronoun, it is of either number, and has no plural form different from the singular; as, "Blessed is the man that heareth me."—Prov., viii, 34. "Blessed are they that mourn."—Matt., v, 4. As an adjective, it is said by Tooke to have been formerly "applied indifferently to plural nouns and to singular; as, 'Into that holy orders.'—Dr. Martin. 'At that dayes.'—Id. 'That euyll aungels the denilles.'—Sir Tho. More. 'This pleasure undoubtedly farre excelleth all that pleasures that in this life maie be obteined.'—Id."—Diversions of Purley, Vol. ii, pp. 47 and 48. The introduction of the plural form those, must have rendered this usage bad English.

SECTION V.—DERIVATION OF VERBS.

In English, Verbs are derived from nouns, from adjectives, or from verbs.

I. Verbs are derived from Nouns in the following different ways:—

1. By the adding of ize, ise, en, or ate: as, author, authorize; critic, criticise; length, lengthen; origin, originate. The termination ize is of Greek origin, and ise is most probably of French: the former is generally preferable in forming English derivatives; but both are sometimes to be used, and they should be applied according to Rule 13th for Spelling.

2. Some few verbs are derived from nouns by the changing of a sharp or hard consonant to a flat or soft one, or by the adding of a mute e, to soften a hard sound: as, advice, advise; price, prize; bath, bathe; cloth, clothe; breath, breathe; wreath, wreathe; sheath, sheathe; grass, graze.

II. Verbs are derived from Adjectives in the following different ways:—

1. By the adding of ize or en: as legal, legalize; immortal, immortalize; civil, civilize; human, humanize; familiar, familiarize; particular, particularize; deaf, deafen; stiff, stiffen; rough, roughen; deep, deepen; weak, weaken.

2. Many adjectives become verbs by being merely used and inflected as verbs: as, warm, to warm, he warms; dry, to dry, he dries; dull, to dull, he dulls; slack, to slack, he slacks; forward, to forward, he forwards.

III. Verbs are derived from Verbs in the following modes, or ways:—

1. By the prefixing of dis or un to reverse the meaning: as, please, displease; qualify, disqualify; organize, disorganize; fasten, unfasten; muzzle, unmuzzle; nerve, unnerve.

2. By the prefixing of a, be, for, fore, mis, over, out, under, up, or with: as, rise, arise; sprinkle, besprinkle; bid, forbid; see, foresee; take, mistake; look, overlook; run, outrun; go, undergo; hold, uphold; draw, withdraw.

SECTION VI.—DERIVATION OF PARTICIPLES.

All English Participles are derived from English verbs, in the manner explained in Chapter 7th, under the general head of Etymology; and when foreign participles are introduced into our language, they are not participles with us, but belong to some other class of words, or part of speech.

SECTION VII.—DERIVATION OF ADVERBS.

1. In English, many Adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of ly: which is an abbreviation for like, and which, though the addition of it to a noun forms an adjective, is the most distinctive as well as the most common termination of our adverbs: as, candid, candidly; sordid, sordidly; presumptuous, presumptuously. Most adverbs of manner are thus formed.

2. Many adverbs are compounds formed from two or more English words; as, herein, thereby, to-day, always, already, elsewhere, sometimes, wherewithal. The formation and the meaning of these are, in general, sufficiently obvious.

3. About seventy adverbs are formed by means of the prefix, or inseparable preposition, a; as, Abreast, abroach, abroad, across, afar, afield, ago, agog, aland, along, amiss, atilt.

4. Needs, as an adverb, is a contraction of need is; prithee, or pr'ythee, of I pray thee; alone, of all one; only, of one-like; anon, of the Saxon an on; i.e., in one [instant]; never, of ne ever; i.e., not ever. Prof. Gibbs, in Fowler's Grammar, makes needs "the Genitive case of the noun need."—P. 311.

5. Very is from the French veray, or vrai, true; and this, probably, from the Latin verus. Rather appears to be the regular comparative of the ancient rath, soon, quickly, willingly; which comes from the Anglo-Saxon "Rathe, or Hrathe, of one's own accord."—Bosworth. But the parent language had also "Hrathre, to a mind."—Id. That is, to one's mind, or, perhaps, more willingly.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—Many of our most common adverbs are of Anglo-Saxon derivation, being plainly traceable to certain very old forms, of the same import, which the etymologist regards but as the same words differently