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By R. C. Alexander, Esq., M.D. 205 
there in some of the manuscripts jit) in the Old Saxon. This 
however has not arisen from a mispronunciation of the word, or a 
disregard of an i, but from a confusion of two different demonstra- 
tive pronouns, which can only be explained by referring back to 
the oldest form of German extant, the Mzeso-Gothic of Ulphilas’s 
translation of the New Testament made in the 4th century. In 
this language we find he and it to be respectively is and ita, cor- 
responding to the Latin is and id, and declined 
M. Sing. N. M. Plural. N. 
N. is (Lat. is) he ita (L.id) N. eis (L. ii) ija (L. ea 
G. is (L. ejus) 1s G. ize (L. eorum) 
D. imma (L. ei) imma D. im (L. eis) im 
A. ina (L. eum) ita A. ins (L. eos) 
These same words with an initial / prefixed to them take on the 
sense of this, as in ‘himma-daga’ this day, in our Lord’s prayer, 
‘und hita’ wntil this time, Mark xii. 19., ‘fram himma’ from now 
John xiv. 7., ‘und hina dag’ wntil this day, Mat. xi. 23. The same 
power of an initial / prefixed to pronouns and pronominal adverbs, 
that of giving them the sense of vicinity in place or time, we see 
in the words here, hence, hither, and in the German her hither, heute 
this day, hewer this year, and in the Old German /i-naht to-night. 
We find it also in the Latin /ic this, which, short as it is, seems 
also to be compounded of similar elements, A, is, and ce. An initial 
th prefixed to these pronouns seems on the other hand to have given 
them the sense of distance, as in there, hence, thither. But in the 
course of time their proper meaning was neglected, and het and hit, 
which meant ¢his, and det in Danish which meant that, came to be 
used for simply it. How it is that since the Conquest we have 
gradually replaced the Anglo-Saxon Jit with the older and purer 
it, is uncertain, but as the so-called Anglo-Saxon was in fact merely 
the dialect of Wessex, it is likely that 7¢ had been all along retained 
in other parts of England, and eventually came into use, just as 
the more correct thresh, run, and grass replaced the Wessex thersh, 
yrn, and gers, words that are heard to this day in the West of 
Somersetshire, but in none of the continental forms of German. 
Horne Tooke’s ingenious conjecture that /it and it are contracted 
