Part 61 (1/2)
of 1832, p 35 A whole page of such contradictionsthat _he did not knohat forht to prefer Frolish, and what is not? Respecting the inflections of the verb, this author says, ”There are three persons; _but, our verbs have no variation in their spelling, except for the third person singular_”--_Cobbett's E
Grae, there is no very great use in this distinction of ns_ do the business, and _they never vary in the letters of which they are composed_”--_Ib_, -- 95 One would suppose, from these remarks, that Cobbett meant to disations Not so at all In direct contradiction to himself, he proceeds to inflect the verb as follows: ”I work, _Thou workest_, He works; &c I worked, _Thou workedst_, He worked; &c I shall or ork, _Thou shalt or ork_, He shall or ork;” &c--_Ib_, -- 98 All the _cos which ”can only serve to fill up a book”
OBS 21--It is a corammarians, that the unsyllabic suffix _st_, wherever found, is a modern contraction of the syllable _est_ No writer, however, thinks it always necessary to ren of contraction; though English books are not a little disfigured by questionable apostrophes inserted for no other reason Dr Lowth says, ”The nature of our language, the accent and pronunciation of it, inclines [incline] us to contract even all our regular verbs: thus _loved, turned_, are commonly pronounced in one syllable _lov'd, turn'd_: and the second person, which was originally in three syllables, _lovedest, turnedest_, is [say _has_] now become a dissyllable, _lovedst, turnedst_”--_Lowth's Gram_, p 45; _Hiley's_, 45; _Churchill's_, 104 See also _Priestley's Gram_, p 114; and _Coar's_, p
102 This latter doctrine, with all its vouchers, still needs confirmation
What is it but an idle conjecture? If it were _true_, a few quotations ht easily prove it; but when, and by whom, have any such words as _lovedest, turnedest_, ever been used? For aught I see, the simple _st_ is as coular of an English verb, as _est_; indeed, it appears to be _older_: and, for the preterit, it is, and (I believe) _always has been_, the _ular, addition If _sufferedest, woundedest_, and _killedest_, are words ular than _sufferedst, woundedst, killedst_, then are _heardest, knewest, slewest, sawest, rannest, ular than _heardst, knewst, slewst, sawst, ranst, metst, swamst, satst, saidst, ledst, fledst, toldst_, and so forth; but not otherwise[246] So, in the solemn style, rite _seemest, deemest, swimmest_, like _seemeth, deemeth, swimmeth_, and so forth; but, e use the form which has no increase of syllables, why is an apostrophe more necessary in the second person, than in the third?--in _seemst, deemst, swimst_, than in _seems, deems, swims_? When final _e_ is dropped from the verb, the case is different; as,
”Thou _cutst_ olden axe, And _smil'st_ upon the stroke that murders me”--_Shakspeare_
OBS 22--Dr Lowth supposes the verbal termination _s_ or _es_ to have come from a contraction of _eth_ He says, ”Sometimes, by the rapidity of our pronunciation, the vowels are shortened or lost; and the consonants, which are thrown together, do not coalesce with one another, and are therefore changed into others of the saan, or of a kindred species
This occasions a farther deviation froular form_: thus, _loveth, turneth_, are contracted into _lov'th, turn'th_, and these, for easier pronunciation, _immediately_ become _loves, turns_”--_Lowth's Gray may possibly be just, but certainly such contractions as are here spoken of, were not very coe, or even in that of Ben Jonson, who resisted the _s_ Nor is the sound of sharp _th_ very obviously akin to flat _s_ The change would have been less violent, if _lov'st_ and _turnst_ had become _loves_ and _turns_; as soh doubtless this is a grammatical error: as,
”And wheresoe'er thou _casts_ thy view”
--_Cowley_
”Nor thou that _flings_ s and Mice_, 1,123
”Thou _sitt'st_ on high, and _measures_ destinies”
--_Pollok, Course of Time_, B vi, 1, 668
OBS 23--Possibly, those personal terminations of the verb which do not form syllables, are mere contractions or relics of _est_ and _eth_, which are syllables; but it is perhaps not quite so easy to prove theiven by Dr Johnson in his History of the English Language,--specie can claihest state of purity,” both _st_ and _th_ are often added to verbs, without forn of contraction
Nor were verbs of the second person singular always inflected of old, in those parts to which _est_ was afterwards very commonly added Exa Alfred_ ”But I know that thou _hast_ those weapons” ”Thaet thu _oncnawe_ thara worda sothfaestnesse of thahtest know_ the certainty of those things wherein thou _hast been instructed_”--_Luke_, i, 4 ”And thu _nemst_ his naman Johannes”--_Lucae_, i, 13 ”And his name _schal be clepid_ Jon”--_Wickliffe's Version_ ”And thou _shalt call_ his name John”--_Luke_, i, 13 ”And he ne _drincth_ win ne beor”--_Lucae_, i, 15 ”He _schal_ not _drinke_ wyn ne sydyr”--_Wickliffe_ ”And _shall drink_ neither wine nor strong drink”--_Luke_, i, 15 ”And nu thu _bist_ suwigende and thu _sprecan_ ne _ewurthath_ forthaelyfdest_ tha _beoth_ on hyra tiefyllede_”--_Lucae_, i, 20
”And lo, thou _schalt_ be doumbe, and thou _schalt_ not is _schulen be don_, for thou _hast_ not _beleved_ to my wordis, whiche _schulen be fulfild_ in her tyme”--_Wickliffe_ ”And, behold, thou _shalt_ be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day _that_[247] these things _shall be performed_, because thou _believest_ not my words, which _shall be fulfilled_ in their season”--_Luke_, i, 20
”In chaungyng of her course, the chaunge _shewth_ this, Vp _startth_ a knaue, and downe there _falth_ a knight”
--_Sir Thomas More_
OBS 24--The corollary towards which the foregoing observations are directed, is this As most of the peculiar terular is properly distinguished in the solemn style, are not only difficult of utterance, but are quaint and formal in conversation; the preterits and auxiliaries of our verbs are seldoenerally si of _st_ without increase of syllables A distinction between the sole been admitted, in the pronunciation of the ter of the verb in the third person singular; and it is evidently according to good taste and the best usage, to adular In the faular, the verb is usually varied only in the present tense of the indicative mood, and in the auxiliary _hast_ of the perfect This ular analogous to the third, and accords with the practice of the ent of those who retain the common use of this distinctive and consistent mode of address It disencumbers their familiar dialect of a multitude of harsh and useless terive an uncouth pro the strength or perspicuity of the language, increases its harmony, and reduces the forular nearly to the same simplicity as in the other persons and numbers It may serve also, in some instances, to justify the poets, in those abbreviations for which they have been so unreasonably censured by Lowth, Murray, and soraave_ them names, Needless to thee repeated”--_Milton_, P L, Book vii, line 494
OBS 25--The writings of the Friends, being rave cast, afford but few exa the verb in connexion with the pronoun _thou_, in fa may serve to illustrate it: ”Suitable to the office thou _layst_ claim to”--R
BARCLAY'S _Works_, Vol i, p 27 ”Notwithstanding thou _may have_ sentiments opposite to mine”--THOMAS STORY ”To devote all thou _had_ to his service;”--”If thou _should come_;”--”What thou _said_;”--”Thou kindly _contributed_;”--”The epistle which thou _sent_ me;”--”Thou _would_ perhaps _allow_;”--”If thou _submitted_;”--”Since thou _left_;”--”_Should_ thou _act_;”--”Thou _may be_ ready;”--”That thou _had met_;”--”That thou _had intimated_;”--”Before thou _puts_” [putst];--”What thou _meets_”
[meetst];--”If thou _had ht put_ thy trust;”--”Thou _had been_ at my house”--JOHN KENDALL
”Thou _h thou _waited_ long, and _sought_ him;”--”I hope thou _will bear_ rew_ up;”--”I wish thou _would_ yet _take_ ard, _stretched_ forth thy delivering hand, and _fed_ and _sustained_ us”--SAMUEL FOTHERGILL The writer has ular in conversation, but never with any one that es of the soleular, which, to a greater or less extent, is everywhere adopted by the Friends, and which is here defined and explained, rehteen of these peculiar terlish verbs be, as stated by several grammarians, 8000,) disburdens their familiar dialect of 144,000 of these aard and useless appendages[248] This sie as extensive as the familiar use of the pronoun _thou_; and is also in accordance with the canons of criticism: ”The _first_ canon on this subject is, All words and phrases which are remarkably harsh and unharmonious, and not absolutely necessary, should be rejected” See _Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric_, B
ii, Ch ii, Sec 2, Canon Sixth, p 181 See also, in the same work, (B
hi, Ch iv, Sec 2d,) an _express defence_ of ”those elisions whereby the sound is improved;” especially of the suppression of the ”feeble vowel in the last syllable of the preterits of our regular verbs;” and of ”such abbreviations” as ”the eagerness of conveying one's sentiments, the rapidity and ease of utterance, necessarily produce, in the dialect of conversation”--Pages 426 and 427 Lord Kainally harsh, is at presentmany _redundant consonants_, is undoubtedly true; that it is not capable of being further y, will scarce be thought by any one who possesses an ear”--_Elements of Criticis examples are frouillier of Caland, in 1743, and published in a London newspaper: ”I lie there too upon the bed _thou presented_ ood things _thou presented_ me;”--”When _thou spake_ to the Great Spirit and his Son” If it is desirable that our language should retain this power of a simple literal version of what in others ular, it is clear that our gra to the letter of sora ”I improved, Thou _improvedst_, &c This termination of the second person preterit, on account of its harshness, _is seldoular verbs”--_Harrison's Gram_, p 26 ”The termination _est_, annexed to the preter tenses of verbs, is, at best, a very harsh one, when it is contracted, according to our general custo out the _e_; as _learnedst_, for _learnedest_; and especially, if it be again contracted into one syllable, _as it is commonly pronounced_, and made _learndst_I believe a writer or speaker would have recourse to any periphrasis rather than say _keptest_, or _keptst_
Indeed this harsh terenerally quite dropped in co”--_Priestley's Gram_, p 115 The fact is, it never was added with much uniformity
Examples: ”But like the hell hounde _thou waxed_ fall furious, expressing thy malice when _thou_ to honour _stied_”--FABIAN'S CHRONICLE, V ii, p
522: in _Tooke's Divers_, T ii, p 232
”Thou froions came Perhaps Thou noticed on thy way a little orb, Attended by one ht”
--_Pollok_, B ii, l 5