Science of the English Language in the Light of Gothic . 167 
THE RELATION OF OLD ENGLISH ‘REOMIG’ TO 
GOTHIC ‘RIMIS.’ 
By G. H. BALG. 
The following discussion is the concluding part of my paper on “The 
Science of the English Language in the Light of Gothic,” read before the 
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, December 28th, 1888, 
A number of Germanic stems in -as : is, both concrete and abstract, have 
been given by Sievers, in his Old English Grammar, by Kluge, in a re¬ 
view of that grammar (‘ Anglia,’ vol. V, part 4), by ‘ Paul, in Paul and 
Braune’s Beitraege’ (vol. IV, p. 415; VI, p. 229), by Kluge, ‘ Nominale 
Stammbildungslehre ’ (§§ 84 and 145), and elsewhere. The above suffix an* 
swers to Gr. 05 : £ 5 , in neuter substantives like yeros, gen. yevov$ con¬ 
tracted from yevsoz, for a more ancient *y dyed 05 ; and to Lt. us:er, in 
genus, gen. generis, for Agenesis. The accent fell on the radical syllable, 
and, therefore, in Germanic the suffixal s changed into z which appears in 
Gothic as s when assuming the final position, but, by leveling, there occurs 
z for s, and $ for z. 
The Gothic word rimis, ‘ rest, quietness,’ shows s in all cases. Its original 
stem, rimiz-, answers to pre-Germanic remez-, from root rem seen in 
Gr. rj-pEju-o 5 , r r pEju-aio 5 , ‘quiet,’ f/-p£ji-ia ‘rest.’ According to the 
law that pre-Germanic unaccented e changed into i in Germanic, and pre- 
Germanic accented e became i in Germanic, when the following syllable 
contained i (Comp. Gr. 7 t 68 -£$, Germanic *fot-iz, primitive Old English 
fet-i, by i-umlaut of 6 and loss of -z; later fete, Middle English fet , 
Modern English feet), pre Germanic remez- first became remiz-, and then 
Wm? 2 (=rimis), our Gothic word in question. Furthermore, Germanic un¬ 
accented i after a short root syllable was first retained as i in Old English 
and afterward weakened to e. 
According to the above laws of development and decay, Germanic remiz 
(Goth, rimis) appeared in Old English as remi: rimi: rime. 
Now I claim that rime is found in Old English reomig, ‘ quiet,’ formed 
by means of the Germanic adjective suffix -ag-. The dark vowel of -ag 
changed the i of rime (the final vowel of which was dropped) into io, * rimag 
becoming riomag, later *riomeg (by weakening). But there is another 
Germanic sufh, -ig (=Goth. -eig~; -ag-- Gothic -ag-), which was likewise 
