The Old and Middle English.
39
fear. The second Person ends in s, not st; as neosas, thou visitest. It is, therefore, less corrupt than King Alfred's form. The Lowland Scotch to this day say, thou knows. The prefix ge in Past Participles is often dropped, as bledsad, blessed, instead of gebletsod. Old Anglian was nearer than any other Low German speech to Danish, and ge is not found in the Danish Participle. We also remark the Norse earun for sumus, estis, sunt; this in Southern speech is nearly always syndon.[1] I give a few words from this Psalter, to show that our modern English in many things follows the Northern rather than the Southern form.[2]
| Southern English. | Northern English. | Modern. |
| Bën | Boen | Boon (prayer) |
| Béc | Boec | Books |
| Célan | Coelan | Cool |
| Déman | Doeman | Doom[3] |
| Hréðe | Roeð[4] | Rough |
| Leoht | Leht | Light |
| Fram | From | From |
| Wæron | Werun | Were |
| Nawiht | Nowihte | Nought[3] |
| Feldas | Feldes | Fields |
| Twa | Tu | Two |
- ↑ We find, however, aran in Kentish charters (Kemble, i. 234), and the form ic biddo in the oldest charters of Kent and Worcestershire.
- ↑ See an extract from the Psalter in my Appendix.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 We still have both the Northern and Southern forms of thisword.
- ↑ Here the old h at the beginning of a word is cast out; a processoften repeated.
