Department of Letters. 



STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR. 



BY J. B. FEULING, Ph. D., 



Professor of Modern Languages and Comparative Philology, in the University of 



Wisconsin. 



1. — SOME WEAK VERBS 11^ THE GERMANIC DIALECTS. 



A few weak verbs in the 1st class in ia (j) present some peculi- 

 arities due to euphonic changes, on account of which most gram- 

 marians class them with the "irregular" verbs, or place them with 

 the modal auxiliaries (praeterito-praesentia) in the mixed conjuga- 

 tion, because "they unite in themselves something of the features 

 of the strong and iveak verbs." See Earle, Philology of the Eng- 

 lish Tongue, p. 246. Dr. F. A. March classifies correctly those of 

 the Anglo-Saxon dialect in his A. S. Grammar (209), though follow- 

 ing tradition he mentions them again among the so-called irregular 

 verbs, (216). They are also correctly classified by Dr. S. H. Carpen- 

 ter, in his " Introduction to the Study of the Anglo-Saxon Lan- 

 guage." In the " Transactions of the American Philological Asso- 

 ciation, 1872, (Article IX, ' Some irregular verbs in Anglo-Saxon") 

 Dr. March has given an explanation of these verbs. A comparison 

 with the other dialects shows not only the correctness of Dr. 

 March's views, but also the fact that there is nothing anomalous 

 in the conjugation of these verbs. All dialects have in common 

 the syncope of the derivative j (?", e) in the preterite, and the letter- 

 changes incident to this syncope are in harmony with the euphonic 

 laws of the respective dialects. 



In Gothic these verbs are: hriggan for hraggjan, to bring; hrlXh- 

 jan, to use, want; hugjan^ to buy; katipatjan for kafUpatjan;. 



