shell out money, etc. A number of words will always be wanted to express what is peculiar to America in nature, society, and institutions. But apart from these, it is not probable that Americanisms will ever be multiplied to any great extent. For, besides the active and increasing intercourse with the other side of the Atlantic, the almost universal habit of reading, which finds exercise both in English and American authors, will have a powerful tendency to keep the language, even of the poorer classes, in substantial agreement with the common language of literature.

The following brief sketch of Anglo-Saxon inflexion is founded on Moritz Heyne's Kurze Laut- und Flexionslehre der altgermanischen Sprachstämme, Paderborn, 1862. The outlines of early English inflexion are founded on Eduard Fiedler's Wissenschaftliche Grammatik der englischen Sprache, Leipzig, 1861, with much help from Prof. F. J. Child's Observations on the Language of Chaucer (in Memoirs of the American Academy, New Series, Vol. VIII.).

ANGLO-SAXON INFLEXION.

$ 52. The Anglo-Saxon had seven long vowels, á, é, î, ô, û, œ, ý. The first five appear to have been sounded as in Eng. par, prey, caprice, prone, prune : a was probably sounded much like Eng. ai in fair. The sound of ý apparently like that of French u and German ü, was intermediate between û and í. To these correspond seven short vowels, a, e, i, o, u, ä, y,

which were less prolonged in utterance.

The short

i and y are often confounded in writing, as hyrde, shepherd, cining, king, but more correctly hirde, cyning. So, too, though less often, the short e and ä, as deg, day, äft, again, more correctly däg, eft.

$53. The combinations ea and eo are often used for original short vowels, ea for a, eo for i, as beald for bald, bold, seolfor for silfor, silver. When they have the character of genuine diphthongs, they are written eá, eó, which stand for primitive Teutonic au, iu, respectively.

§ 54. The two sounds of the English th are represented in Anglo-Saxon by distinct letters, p for the whispered sound in Eng. thin, breath, X for the vocal sound in Eng. this, breathe. By a general rulewhich some editors make invariable-p is used when the aspirate begins a word, & when it has any other position. In giving Anglo-Saxon words, we shall write th for þ and dh for ð.

§ 55. The Anglo-Saxon never uses y as a consonant; but, apparently, ge, and even g alone, were sometimes used to express that sound, as in geoc, yoke, git, you two. The letter h before a consonant, or at the end of a word, must have had a stronger sound than in English; and w in the same position must have approached somewhat toward the sound of English v.

§ 56. It is a general rule that a consonant can not be doubled either at the end of a word or before or after another consonant, as swam (for swamm), he swam, swimdh (for swimmdh), he swims, sende (for sendde), he sent, ehte (for ehtte), he persecuted.

SUBSTANTIVES.

VOWEL-DECLENSION.

$57. Masculines. Paradigms: fisc (stem fisca),

fish; hirde (stem hirdia), shepherd.

§ 58. Feminines. Paradigms: gifu (stem gifa),

gift; dad (stem dædi), deed.

$ 60. Words of more than one syllable which end in el, en, er, or, are often syncopated before a case-ending, as ealdor, masc., elder, gen. ealdres; tácen, neut., token, plur. tácnu: so, also, some others, as heáfod, neut., head, plur. heáfdu.

§ 61. Masculines and neuters of one syllable which have the vowel ä, take a instead of ä in the plural, as däg, masc., day, plur. dagas; fät, neut., vessel, plur. fatu.

§ 62. Masculines sometimes have ena or ana, instead

of a, in the gen. plur. A few masculines-as leóde, men, Dene, Danes-have e in the nom. acc. plur. The masculines fôt, foot, tôdh, tooth, man (gen. mannes), man, and the feminines (nom. and acc.) bốc, book, broc, breeches, gós, goose, cú, cow, lús, louse, mús, mouse, burh (gen. burge, also byrg, byrig), town, fort, turf, turf, make in the dat. sing. and nom. acc. plur. fèt, têdh, men, bêc, brêc, gés, cý, lýs, mýs, byrig, tyrf. Sunu, son, nom. acc. sing., makes suna in the gen. dat. sing. and nom. gen. acc. plur., sunum, dat. plur. Wudu, masc., wood, is declined in the same way, but also with gen. sing. wudes, nom. acc. plur. wudas. The dat. sing. in a is seen also in masc. winter, winter, sumer, summer, feld, field, ford, ford, and fem. hand, hand, duru, door.

§ 63. Neuters of one syllable which have a long vowel or end in two consonants, drop u in the nom. acc. plur., as leaf, leaf and leaves, pund, pound and pounds. In the same cases, the neuters äg, egg, cealf, calf, cild, child, lamb, lamb, make ägru, cealfru, cildru, lambru, with inserted r.

N-DECLENSION.

§ 64. Paradigms: masc. oxa (stem oxan), ox; fem. tunge (stem tungan), tongue; neut. eáge (stem

§ 65. Of consonant-stems ending in other letters than n, the language has only traces. Thus substantives in nd from present participles are declined like fisc; but some of them make the nom. acc. plur. like the nom. sing.; so helm-berend, helm-bearer and helm-bearers, but wealdend, ruler, wealdendas, rulers. Freónd, friend, and feónd, foe, make nom. acc. plur. freónd, feónd, or frýnd, find, or freóndas, feóndas.

§ 66. Fäder, father, is indeclinable in the sing. (gen. sing. rarely fäderes): in the plur. it is declined like fisc. Brôdhor, brother, nom. gen. acc. sing., makes dat. brêdher; plur. nom. acc. brôdhru or brôdhor, gen. brôdhra, dat. bródhrum; and in the same way are declined módor, mother, dôhtor, daughter, sweostor, (dat. sing. swyster), sister.

§ 67. The fem. niht, night, and wiht or wuht, creature, thing, make the acc. sing. and nom. acc. plur. like the nom. sing. Feminine abstracts in o or u—as yldo, old age-are indeclinable in the sing. : and so are fem. sæ, sea, œ, law, eá, water (gen. sometimes sœs, eás), nom. acc. plur. sœs, eás, dat. sœm, cám.

§ 69. The instrumental case is like the dative,

F