Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/129

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100
The Sources of Standard English.


II. p. 153, alle þa þatt waterr swalh.

In Vol. I. p. 85, we see our common form theirs for the first time.

‘Till eʓʓþerr þeʓʓress herrte.’ Forms like ours and yours were to come later. This Norse form took long to reach the South.

The old œlc (quisque), as in the South, was now taking an after it; hence comes the Lowland Scotch form ilka, as in I. p. 15.

And off illc an off alle þa
Comm an god flocc off prestess (each one of all those).

We find also swillc an, such a one.

Orrmin is the first English writer to put what before a substantive without regard to gender, as ‘what man?’ ‘what woman?’ The old hwilc was losing its former meaning in England.

In Vol. I. p. 42, there is a new form, ‘þu cwennkesst i þi sellf modiʓnesse.’ This of old would have been þe silf; self now began to be thought a noun, something like person.

Nan (nemo) takes a Plural sense, much as if a barbarous Latin word like nemines were to be formed. At Vol. II. page 92 we see, ‘i nane depe sinness.’

A is used as an Interjection, much like our ah.

Alls iff (in Latin, quasi) replaces the Old English swilc; we find also alls itt wœre, as it were. Our withal is now seen.

The Old aweg is now aweʓʓ (away).

The Old á (semper) is now aʓʓ.

The curious word bidene (in Dutch, by that) is found