with which the old Genitive was formed. Hence comes such a form as ‘he must needs go,’ which carries us back, far beyond the age of written English, to the Sanscrit adverb formed from the Genitive. Even in the earliest English, the Genitive of néd was néde, and nothing more. In later times we say, ‘of a truth, of course,’ &c., which are imitations of the old Adverbial Genitive.
We have not many inflections left in the English Verb. The old form in mi, once common to English, Sanscrit, and other dialects, has long dropped; our word am (in Sanscrit asmi) is now its only representative. It is thought that the old Present ran as shown in the following specimen:
Root nam, take; a word retained by us till A.D. 1500.[1]
| 1. | nama-mi | 1st Per. | ma, me. |
| 2. | nama-si | 2nd Per. | ta, thou. |
| 3. | nama-ti | 3rd Per. | ta, this, he. |
| 4. | nama-masi | 1st Per. | ma + ta, I + thou. |
| 5. | nama-tasi | 2nd Per. | ta + ta, thou + thou. |
| 6. | nama-nti | 3rd Per. | an + ta, he + he. |
The Perfect of this verb must have been na-nam-ma, in its second syllable lengthening the first vowel of the Present; in other words, forming what is called in English a Strong verb. Sîd-âmi in Sanscrit has sâ-sâd-a for its Perfect, words of which we have clipped forms in I sit and I sat. I hight (once hôehât), from hâtan, and I did (once dide), are the only English Perfects that have kept any trace of their reduplication, and the
- ↑ Hence comes ‘to numb.’
