The sixth (A. S.) seems to have gone entirely over in the fourth-græte, grét, grêton, græten = weep:

§ 415. There is clearly a considerable amount of agreement between the three languages (or, more correctly, between the Mosó-Gothic and the two forms of the English) in respect to the regularity with which the vowels of any one of them either absolutely reappear in the other two, or (failing to do this) are replaced after a systematic and regular fashion. On the other hand, there is a certain amount of difference. The MosoGothic variations lie within narrower limits than the AngloSaxon, the Anglo-Saxon within narrower limits than the Old English.

The later the stage of a given language, the less complete is the coincidence of its classes. This is what the tables before us indicate, and what all further investigation confirms.

In what does this coincidence consist?

For a full and perfect coincidence three things are necessary-1. the coincidence of form; 2. the coincidence of distribution; 3. the coincidence of order.

1. Coincidence of form.-Compared with the Moso-Gothic rinna, rann, runnum, runnans, the Old High-German inflection coincides most rigidly; e. g. rinnu, ran, runnumés, runnanér. The vowel is the same in the two languages, and it is similarly changed in each. It is very evident that this might be otherwise. The Moso-Gothic i might have become e, or the u might have become o. In this case, the formula for the two languages would not have been the same. Instead of i, a, u, u serving for the Old High-German as well as the MœsoGothic, the formula would have been, for the Moso-Gothic, i, a, u, u, and for the Old High-German e, a, u, u, or i, a, o, o. The forms in this latter case would have been equivalent, but not the same.

2. Coincidence of distribution.-A certain number of words in the Moso-Gothic form their præterites by changing i into a; in other words, a certain number of verbs in Moso-Gothic are inflected like rinna and rann. The same is the case with the Old High-German. Now if these words are the same in the two languages, the Moso-Gothic and the Old High-Ger

man (as far as the agreement extends) coincide in the distribution of their verbs; that is, the same words are arranged in the same class, or (changing the phrase) are distributed alike.

3. Coincidence of order.-The conjugation to which the Moso-Gothic words rinna and rann belong is the twelfth. The same is the case in Old High-German. It might, however, have been the case that in Old High-German the class corresponding with the twelfth in Moso-Gothic was the first, second, third, or any other.

Now a coincidence of form, a coincidence of distribution, and a coincidence of order, in all the classes of all the Gothic languages, is more than can be expected. If such were the case, the tenses would be identical throughout.

Coincidence of form is infringed upon by the simple tendency of sounds to change. Hilpa in Mœso-Gothic is helpe in Anglo-Saxon: hulpans in Moso-Gothic is holpanér in Old High-German, and holpen in Anglo-Saxon. A change, however, of this sort is insufficient to affect the arrangement. Helpan, in Anglo-Saxon, is placed in the same class with spinnan; and all that can be said is, that the Moso-Gothic i is, in Anglo-Saxon, represented not by i exclusively, but sometimes by i and sometimes by ě.

Coincidence of distribution is of great etymological import

ance.

A word may in one stage of a language take the form of one conjugation, and in another that of another. The word climban is, in Anglo-Saxon, placed in the same conjugation with drincan, &c. For this there was a reason; viz. the fact of the i being short. For the i being short there was a reason also. The b preceded the vowel a, and consequently was sounded. This was the case whether the word was divided clim-ban or climb-an. An, however, was no part of the original word, but only the sign of the infinitive mood. As such it became ejected. The letter b then came at the end of the word; but as the combination mb, followed by nothing, was unstable, b was soon lost in pronunciation. Now b being lost, the vowel which was once short became lengthened, or rather it became the sound of the diphthong ei; so that the word was no longer called climb, but clime. Now the words that follow the analogy of spin, span, &c. (and consequently consti

tute the twelfth class), do so, not because the vowel is i, but because it is a short i; and when the i is sounded like a diphthong, the præterite is formed differently. The Anglo-Saxon præterite of climban was sounded clomm, and rhymed to from; the English præterite (when strong) of climb is sounded clōmbe, rhyming to roam. The word climb, which was once classed with spin and sing, is now to be classed with arise and smite; in other words, it is distributed differently.

Coincidence in the order of the classes is violated when a class which was (for instance) the third in one language becomes, in another language, the fourth, &c. In Moso-Gothic the class containing the words smeita, smáit, smitum, smitans, is the eighth. This is a natural place for it. In the class preceding it, the vowel is the same in both numbers. In the classes that follow it, the vowel is changed in the plural. The number of classes that in Moso-Gothic change the vowel is five; viz. the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth. Of these the eighth is the first. The classes where the change in question takes place form a natural subdivision, of which the eighth class stands at the head. Now in Anglo-Saxon the vowel is not changed so much as in the Moso-Gothic. In words like choose, give, and steal, the vowel remains unaltered in the plural. In Moso-Gothic, however, these words are, respectively, of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh classes. It is not till we get to the eleventh that the Anglo-Saxon plurals take a fresh vowel. As the presence or absence of a change of vowel naturally regulates the order of the classes, the eighth class in Moso-Gothic becomes the eleventh in Anglo-Saxon. If it were not so, the classes where a change took place in the plural would be separated from each other.

§ 416. The later the stage of the language, the more numerous are the complexities of the Strong Conjugation. And there are other complications (in the present English, at least) besides.

Sometimes we have to allow for the difference between the spelling and the speaking.

Sometimes a provincial mode of sounding the vowel will give us an agreement with the older forms that the literary language disguises. Thus when

as they actually are by many speakers, they come in the same class with

and form their præterite by means of a similar change, i. e. by changing the sound of the ee in feet (spelt ea) into that of the a in fate.

Again, tread is usually pronounced tredd, but many provincial speakers say treed, and so said the Anglo-Saxons, whose form was ic trede I tread. Their præterite was træd.

The following divisions give us the classification of the strong verbs of the English language of the nineteenth century.

First Class.

Contains the two words fall and fell, hold and held, where the sound of o is changed into that of ě. Here must be noticed the natural tendency of a to become o; since the forms in Anglo-Saxon are, Ic fealle, I fall; Ic feoll, I fell; Ic healde, I hold; Ic heold, I held.

Second Class.

Here the præterite ends in -ew.

Words of this class are

distinguished from those of the third class by the different

form of the present tense.

Present.

Draw

Slay

Fly

Præterite.

Drew.

Slew.

Flew.

In these words the w has grown out of a 'g, as may be seen from the Anglo-Saxon forms. The word see (saw) belongs to this class; since, in Anglo-Saxon, we find the forms geseáh and gesegen, and in the Swedish the præterite form is sug.

Third Class.

Here an o before w, in the present, becomes e before w in the præterite; as—.

Contains the single word let, where a short e in the present remains unchanged in the præterite. In the Anglo-Saxon the present form was Ic late, the præterite Ic lét.

Fifth Class.

Contains the single word beat, where a long e remains unchanged. In Anglo-Saxon the forms were Ic beate, Ic beot.

Sixth Class.

Present come, præterite came, participle come.

Saxon, cume, com, cumen.

Seventh Class.

In Anglo

In this class we have the sounds of the ee, in feet, and of the a in fate (spelt ea or a), changed into o or oo.

words in this class have a second form in a.

Several