(usque), a word never found in the South, replaces the Old English oð, which soon vanished altogether. The ending of the Infinitive had already been pared down from an into en and e; it now lost even this; for we find in the account of the year 1135, sculde cumm (should come), durste sei (durst say); this sculde was once sceolde,[1] Other corruptions of the Verb are seen in hi namm for hî nâmen; there is also he spac, he let, he mint; what is now the Scottish form gœde (ivit) is found for the first time instead of the old eôde. Lœde (duxit) now becomes lœd, our led. Nefan becomes neues; the Irish peasantry still keep this old form ‘nevvies,’ rejecting our French-born word ‘nephews.’ Cyse, niwe, treówð, ðúman, nearo, become in 1160 cœse (cheese), neuue (new), treuthe, þumbes, nareu (narrow). On sl’œp becomes an slep, not far from our asleep. We find both nan treuthe and na iustise, the old and the new form for nullus.
Prepositions are not often prefixed to the Verb, but are separated from it; we find such forms as candles to œten bi, he let him ut, he sculde cumm ut. Wile is used no longer exclusively as a noun, but like the Latin dum; an early instance of a conjunction being thus formed. Our modern qu is found instead of the Old English cw, as quarterne; c is giving way to k, for we find smoke and snake. Moreover, we see in the account of the year 1138 the first beginning of a new combination of letters, most common now in our speech; gh supplants g, as sloghen (they slew); we saw something similar in the Homilies.
- ↑ But the Infinitive in en lasted in the South down to the Reformation. Surrey writes, ‘I dare well sayen.’
