s bearing especially
upon the history of the English persons. The following points indicate a
more general question:

1. The full form _prennames_ in the newer Old High German, as compared with
_s[^o]kjam_ in the _old_ Moeso-Gothic.

2. The appearance of the r in Icelandic.

3. The difference between the Old Saxon and the Anglo-Saxon in the second
person singular; the final t being absent in Old Saxon.

s. 286. _The person in -t._--The forms _art_, _wast_, _wert_, _shalt_,
_wilt_, or _ar-t_, _was-t_, _wer-t_, _shal-t_, _wil-t_, are remarkable.
Here the second person singular ends, not in -st, but in t. The reason for
this is to be sought in the Moeso-Gothic and the Icelandic.

In those languages the form of the person changes with the tense, and the
second singular of the praeterite tense of one conjugation is, not -s, but
-t; as Moeso-Gothic, _sv[^o]r_ = _I swore_, _sv[^o]rt_ = _thou swarest_,
_gr['a]ip_ = _I griped_, _gr['a]ipt_ = _thou gripedst_; Icelandic, _brannt_
= _thou burnest_, _gaft_ = _thou gavest_. In the same languages ten verbs
are conjugated like praeterites. Of these, in each language, _skal_ is one.

_Moeso-Gothic._

_Singular._ _Dual._ _Plural._

1. Skal Skulu Skulum.
2. Skalt Skuluts Skuluth.
3. Skall Skuluts Skulun.

_Icelandic._

_Singular._ _Plural._

1. Skall Skulum.
2. Skalt Skuludh.
3. Skal Skulu.

s. 287. _Thou spakest_, _thou brakest_, _thou sungest_.[53]--

In these forms there is a slight though natural anomaly. They belong to the
class of verbs which form their praeterite by changing the vowel of the
present; as _sing_, _sang_, &c. Now, all words of this sort in Anglo-Saxon
formed their second singular praeterite, not in -st, but in -e; as _th['u]
funde_ = _thou foundest_, _th['u] sunge_ = _thou sungest_. The English
termination is derived from the present. Observe that this applies only to
the praeterites formed by changing the vowel. _Thou loved'st_ is
Anglo-Saxon as well as English, viz., _th['u] lufodest_.

s. 288. In the northern dialects of the Anglo-Saxon the -dh of plurals like
_lufiadh_ = _we love_ becomes -s. In the Scottish this change was still
more prevalent:

The Scottes come that to this day
_Havys_ and Scotland haldyn ay.--Wintoun, 11, 9, 73.

James I. of England ends nearly all his plurals in -s.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XX.

ON THE NUMB