getheahtepe, counsellor.

thankung, thanking.

thancmetuncz, deliberation.

Secondary verb, from one of these secondary nouns : zetheahtian, to consult.

More recent noun, formed from the secondary verb: zetheahting, council-consultation.

Another secondary verb:

Ymbethencan, to think about any thing.

Adjective from a secondary verb :

zetheahtendlic, consulting.

Adverb from one of the adjectives:

thancpupthlice, gratefully.

CHAP. II.

On the Originality of the ANGLO-SAXON Language.

II.

IT is difficult to ascertain the originality of the Saxon CHA P. language; because, however rude the people who used it may have appeared to us, it is a fact that their language comes to us in a very cultivated shape.

ITs cultivation is not only proved by its copiousness by its numerous synonimes-by the declension of its nouns -the conjugation of its verbs- its abbreviated verbs, or conjunctions, adverbs, and prepositions, and its epithets or adjectives; but also by its great number of compound words applying to every shade of meaning.

By the Anglo-Saxon appearing to us in a state so advanced, it is very difficult to ascertain its originality. It is difficult, when we find words corresponding with those of other languages, to distinguish those which it originally had, like the terms of other tongues, and those which it had imported.

THE Conjugation of its substantive verb, however, proves that it is by no means in its state of original purity; for instead of this being one verb, with inflections of itself throughout its tenses, it is composed of the fragments of no fewer than five substantive verbs, the primitive terms of which appear in other languages. The fragments of these five words are huddled together in the Anglo-Saxon, and thus make up its usual conjugations.

To perceive this curious fact, it will be useful to recollect the same verb in the Greek and Latin.

IN the Greek, the verb is regularly deflected through almost all its tenses and persons. In the Latin it is otherwise. We begin these with sum, and pass directly to the inflections of another word more like the Greek ; but the inflections of sum are frequently intermixed.

Thus,

434

II.

CHAP Here we see at one glance two verbs deflecting; the one into sum, sumus, sunt; the other into es, est, estis. In the imperfect and future tenses eram and ero, we see one of the verbs continuing; but in the perfect, fui, a new deflecting verb suddenly appears to us :

fuï, fuisti, fuit, fuimus, fuistis, fuerunt.

In another of its tenses we have the curious exhibition of two of the former verbs being joined together to make a new inflection; as,

fuero,

fueris,

fuerit, &c.

This is literally a combination of fui and ero; which indeed its meaning implies, "I shall have been.”

THE Anglo-Saxon substantive verb is also composed out of several verbs. We can trace no fewer than five in its different inflections.

I am,

I was,

eom, eart,
wæs, wære,

ys, synd, synd,

synd.

wæron.

beo, byst,

wæs, wæron, wæron,

byth, beoth, beoth, beoth.

The infinitive is beon, or wesan, to be.

THESE are the common inflections of the above tenses;

but we sometimes find the following variations:

for I am, we sometimes have eom, am, om, beo, ar, sy; for thou art, we have occasionally eart, arth, bist, es, sy; for he is, we have ys, bith, sy;

and for the plural we have synd, syndon, synt, sien, beoth, and bithon.

IN these inflections we may distinctly see five verbs, whose conjugations are intermixed:

eom, es, ys,

ar, arth, and am, are,

sy, sy, sy, synd,

are of one family, and resemble the Greek

ειμι.

proceed from another

parent, and are not unlike the Latin eram. are from another, and recal to our minds the Latin sum and sunt.

wæs, wære, wæs, wæron,

beon, bist, bith, beoth,

seem referable to an- CHAP.

other branch, of which
the infinitive, wesan,
was retained in the
Anglo-Saxon.

belong to a distinct fa-
mily, whose infinitive
beon, was kept in use.

But it is curious to consider the source of the last verb, beo, and beon, which the Flemings and Germans retain in ik ben and ich bin, I am.

THE verb beo seems to have been derived from the Cimmerian or Celtic language, which was the earliest that appeared in Europe; because the Welsh, which has retained most of this tongue, has the infinitive, bod, and some of its reflections. The perfect tense is

bum, buost, bu, buam, buac, buant.

THE Anglo-Saxon article is also compounded of two words; as

II.

Se and that are obviously distinct words.

WHEN we consider these facts, and the many AngloSaxon nouns which can be traced into other languages, it cannot be affirmed that the Anglo-Saxon exhibits to us an original language. It is an ancient language, and has preserved much of the primitive form; but a large portion of it seems to have been made up from other ancient languages.

СНАР.
III.

THIS

CHAP. III.

On the Copiousness of the SAXON Language.

HIS language has been thought to be a very rude and and barren tongue, incapable of expressing any thing but the most simple and barbarous ideas. The truth, however, is, that it is a very copious language, and is capable of expressing any subject of human thought. In the technical terms of those arts and sciences which have been discovered, or much improved, since the Norman Conquest, it must of course be deficient. But books of history, belles lettres, and poetry, may be now written in it, with considerable precision and correctness, and even with much discrimination, and some elegance of expression.

THE Saxon abounds with synonimes. I will give a few instances of those which my memory can supply. To

express