ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 73 



classical form of the Latin Imperfect Subjunctive, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that it did not exist in the folk-speech. 

 The explanation of its absence from the modern language 

 on the ground of its resemblance to the Pluperfect and Future 

 Perfect Indicative and Perfect Subjunctive is shown to be 

 unsatisfactory by the persistence of other forms of the verb, 

 more closely resembling one another, and by the fact that 

 in many verbs the similarity in these tenses did not exist. 



The classical form of the Pluperfect Subjunctive is em- 

 ployed in all the Romance languages except Wallachian 

 with the meaning of the Imperfect Subjunctive, and the ex- 

 ception in the case of Wallachian can be accounted for by 

 the peculiar corrupting influences with the Roman speech 

 encountered in the Northeast, and the absence of any texts 

 of an earlier date than the end of the fifteenth century. We 

 can therefore conclude with certainty that the literary form 

 of the Pluperfect Subjunctive was used in the popular speech 

 in the sense of the Imperfect Subjunctive. This usage is 

 also found in the earliest Low Latin texts, side by side with 

 the classical form of the Imperfect tense. 



In all the Romance languages except Wallachian the Plu- 

 perfect Subjunctive is expressed by the Perfect Participle 

 Passive combined with the Pluperfect) Subjunctive of habere 

 or esse. This form, therefore, must have existed, at least in 

 the germ, in the ancient folk-speech. Corroborative evi- 

 dence that such was the case is furnished by the examples 

 of a similar combination with tenses of habere in the clas- 

 sical Latin. The compound form of the Pluperfect Subjunc- 

 tive expresses the idea of antecedence in a very emphatic 

 and exaggerated manner, and was probably used when it 

 was desired to lay special stress upon this idea. 



When it was not desired to give emphasis to the Pluper- 

 fect idea the simple tense was probably employed as in the 

 literary language. Numerous examples of this kind are 

 found in the earlier monuments of the Romance languages. 



The testimony of the Romance languages concerning the 



