The Loom Of Language

Bird*s-Eye View of Teutonic Grammar 271

same way The difference between the weak D and T types (repre-
sented by spilled and spelt in English) is more apparent than real In the
spoken language (see p 81), a D changes to T after the voiceless con-
sonants F, K, P, S3 and a T changes to D after the voiced consonants
V, G, B, Z, M In English -(E)D is usually, and in German -(E)TE is
always the terminal added to the stem of a weak verb in its past tense
The past participle of all transitive verbs goes with the present or

SIX TEUTONIC STRONG VERBS

(INFINITIVE—PAST TENSE SINGULAR—PAST PARTICIPLE)

ENGLISH
SWEDISH
DANISH
DUTCH
GERMAN

COME
came come
komrna korn kommit
komme kom kommet
kornen k^am gekoinen
kommen kam gekommen

FIND
found found
finna fann funrnt
finde fand fundet
vmden vond gevonden
flnden fandt gefunden

FLY
flew flown
flog flu git
flyve fioj fl0)et
vhegen vloog gevlogen
fliegen. flog geflogen

RIDE
rode ridden
rida red ndit
ride red redet
rijden reed gereden
reiten ritt gentten

SEE saw seen
se sag sett
se saa set
zien zag gezien
sehen sah gesehen

SING
sang sung
sjunga sjong S)ungit
synge sang sunget
zingen zong gezongen
singen sang gesungen

past of Teutonic forms of the verb have in combinations equivalent to
have given or had given The table on p 187 shows the conjugation of
have in the Teutonic dialects The use of other helper verbs (see
p. 152) displays a strong family likeness In fact, the same root-verbs
are used in Danish, Swedish^ and Dutch where the English verbs shall
or willy should or woidd9 are used alone or in front of have or had or any
other verb to express future time or condition
We have met with one common characteristic of the Teutonic lan-
guages in Chapter V where there is a table of the comparison of the