CHAPTER XXXVIII.

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE WEAK PRAETERITE.

s. 464. The remote origin of the weak praeterite in _-d_ or _-t_, has been considered by Grimm, in the Deutsche Grammatik. He maintains that it is the _d_ in _d-d_, the reduplicate praeterite of _do_. In all the Gothic languages the termination of the past tense is either _-da_, _-ta_, _-de_, _-dhi_, _-d_, _-t_, or _-ed_, for the singular, and _-don_, _-ton_, _-t[^u]m[^e]s_, or _-dhum_, for the plural; in other words, _d_, or an allied sound, appears once, if not oftener. In the plural praeterite of the Moeso-Gothic we have something more, _viz._ the termination _-d[^e]dum_; as _nas-id[^e]dum_, _nas-id[^e]duth_, _nas-id[^e]dum_, from _nas-ja_; _s[^o]k-id[^e]dum_, _s[^o]k-id[^e]duth_, _s[^o]k-id[^e]dum_ from _s[^o]k-ja_; _salb-[^o]d[^e]dum_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]duth_, _s[^a]lb-[^o]d[^e]dun_, from _salb[^o]_. Here there is a second d. The same takes place with the dual form _salb-[^o]d[^e]duts_; and with the subjunctive forms, _salb-[^o]d[^e]djan_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]duts_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]di_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]deits_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]deima_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]deith_, _salb-[^o]d[^e]deina_. The English phrase, _we did salve_, as compared with _salb-[^o]d[^e]dum_, is confirmatory of this.--Deutsche Grammatik, i. 1042.

s. 465. Some remarks of Dr. Trithen's on the Slavonic praeterite, in the Transactions of the Philological Society, induce me to identify the _d-_ in words like _moved_, &c., with the _-t_ of the passive participles of the Latin language; as found in mon-_it_-us, voc-_at_-us, rap-_t_-us, and probably in Greek forms like [Greek: tuph-th-eis].