Chapter 116

THE VERB SUBSTANTIVE.

§ 336. The verb substantive is generally dealt with as an _irregular_ verb. This is inaccurate. The true notion is that the idea of _being_ or _existing_ is expressed by four different verbs, each of which is defective in some of its parts. The parts, however, that are wanting in one verb, are made up by the inflections of one of the others. There is, for example, no præterite of the verb _am_, and no present of the verb _was_. The absence, however, of the present form of _was_ is made up by the word _am_, and the absence of the præterite form of _am_ is made up by the word _was_.

§ 337. _Was_ is defective, except in the præterite tense, where it is found both in the indicative and conjunctive.

_Indicative._ | _Conjunctive._ _Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ 1. Was Were. | 1. Were Were. 2. Wast Were. | 2. Wert Were. 3. Was Were. | 3. Were Were.

In the older stages of the Gothic languages the word had both a full conjugation and a regular one. In Anglo-Saxon it had an infinitive, a participle present, and a participle past. In Moeso-Gothic it was inflected throughout with -s; as _visa_, _vas_, _vêsum_, _visans_. In that language it has the power of the Latin _maneo_ = _to remain_. The r first appears in the Old High German, _wisu_, _was_, _wârumés_, _wësaner_. In Norse the s _entirely_ disappears, and the word is inflected with r throughout; _vera_, _var_, _vorum_, &c.

§ 338. _Be_ is inflected in Anglo-Saxon throughout the present tense, both indicative and subjunctive. It is found also as an infinitive, _beón_; as a gerund, _to beonne_; and as a participle, _beonde_; in the present English its inflection is as follows:

_Present._ _Conjunctive._ | _Imperative._ _Sing._ _Plur._ | _Sing._ _Plur._ Be Be. | -- -- -- -- | Be Be Be Be | -- -- _Infin._ To be. _Pres. P._ Being. _Past. Part._ Been.

§ 339. The line in Milton beginning _If thou beest he_--(P. L. b. ii.), leads to the notion that the antiquated form _beest_ is not indicative, but conjunctive. Such, however, is not the case: _byst_ in Anglo-Saxon is indicative, the conjunctive form being _beó_. _And every thing that pretty bin_ (Cymbeline).--Here the word _bin_ is the conjunctive plural, in Anglo-Saxon _beón_; so that the words _every thing_ are to be considered equivalent to the plural form _all things_. The phrase in Latin would stand thus, _quotquot pulchra sint_; in Greek, thus, [Greek: ha an kala êi]. The _indicative_ plural is, in Anglo-Saxon, not _beón_, but _beóð_ and _beó_.

§ 340. In the "Deutsche Grammatik" it is stated that the Anglo-Saxon forms _beô_, _bist_, _bið_, _beoð_, or _beó_, have not a present but a _future_ sense; that whilst _am_ means _I am_, _beó_ means _I shall be_; and that in the older languages it is only where the form _am_ is not found that _be_ has the power of a present form. The same root occurs in the Slavonic and Lithuanic tongues with the same power; as, _esmi_ = _I am_; _búsu_ = _I shall be_, Lithuanic. _Esmu_ = _I am_; _buhshu_ = _I shall be_, Livonic.--_Jesm_ = _I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Slavonic.--_Gsem_ = _I am_; _budu_ = _I shall be_, Bohemian. This, however, proves, not that there is in Anglo-Saxon a future tense, but that the word _beó_ has a future sense. There is no fresh tense where there is no fresh form.

The following is a specimen of the future power of _beón_ in Anglo-Saxon:--_"Hi ne _beóð_ na cílde, soðlice, on domesdæge, ac _beóð_ swa micele menn swa swa hi migton beón gif hi full weoxon on gewunlicre ylde."_--Ælfric's Homilies. "They _will not be_ children, forsooth, on Domesday, but _will be_ as much (so muckle) men as they might be if they were full grown (waxen) in customary age."

§ 341. Now, if we consider the word _beón_ like the word _weorðan_ (see § 343) to mean not so much _to be_ as to _become_, we get an element of the idea of futurity. Things which are _becoming anything_ have yet something further to either do or suffer. Again, from the idea of futurity we get the idea of contingency, and this explains the subjunctive power of _be_. In English we often say _may_ for _shall_, and the same was done in Anglo-Saxon.

§ 342. _Am_.--Of this form it should be stated that the letter -m is no part of the original word. It is the sign of the first person, just as it is in _Greek_, and several other languages.

It should also be stated, that although the fact be obscured, and although the changes be insufficiently accounted for, the forms _am_, _art_, _are_, and _is_, are not, like _am_ and _was_, parts of different words, but forms of one and the same word; in other terms, that, although between _am_ and _be_ there is no etymological connexion, there is one between _am_ and _is_. This we collect from the comparison of the Indo-European languages.

1. 2. 3. Sanskrit _Asmi_ _Asi_ _Asti_. Zend _Ahmi_ _Asi_ _Ashti_. Greek [Greek: Eimi] [Greek: Eis] [Greek: Esti]. Latin _Sum_ _Es_ _Est_. Lithuanic _Esmi_ _Essi_ _Esti_. Old Slavonic _Yesmy_ _Yesi_ _Yesty_. Moeso-Gothic _Im_ _Is_ _Ist_. Old Saxon -- [63]_Is_ _Ist_. Anglo-Saxon _Eom_ _Eart_ _Is_. Icelandic _Em_ _Ert_ _Er_. English _Am_ _Art_ _Is_.

§ 343. _Worth_.--In the following lines of Scott, the word _worth_ = _is_, and is a fragment of the regular Anglo-Saxon verb _weorðan_ = _to be_, or _to become_; German _werden_.

Woe _worth_ the chase, woe _worth_ the day, That cost thy life, my gallant grey.--_Lady of the Lake._

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