The Bruce 39Book 11 · The past participle of strong verbs has ending yn or in, seldom
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Literature · Historical Fiction
The Bruce 39
Book 11 · The past participle of strong verbs has ending yn or in, seldom
BarbourEnglish
en. Clymen in X. 648, where the correct form, clummyn, is given in 606, is either really a surviving or intruded infinitive, or has been assimilated to it.
N.B.--VII. 524, C cum: E cummyn; X. 506, C won: E wonnyn.
8. The infinitive has dropped all trace of an ending. The e which sometimes appears is silent. It is formed by prefixing to or till, in certain cases with for in addition. For one case we have a reduced infinitive with at: a-do (X. 348).
ADVERBS.
1. him allane is a strengthened form of him ane (VI. 272, 320), and is the more frequent of the two; equivalent to German “allein” and analogous in construction to the pronoun with self. In Early Scots alane is attached to the dative, in later and modern Scots to the possessive, his ane, etc.: the fuller form, from a confusion with lone, is now his lane, etc.
2. The surviving phrase, the morn (XIV. 478) occurs once for the older to-morn. Mr. Gregory Smith says that the former “begins to appear in M. Sc.” (Middle Scots, 1450-1600), and MS. E indeed reads to-morn in the passage above.
3. Note the compounds with gat (a way), thusgat, swagat, etc.: in XIX. 253; C swagatis; E swagat: also howgatis, etc., preserving Genitive ending.
4. The forms on liff (XVIII. 154), on slepe (VII. 192), on stray (XIII. 195), etc., are peculiarly Northern forms for “alive,” “asleep,” etc. Cf. also on fer, on flot.
PREPOSITIONS.
1. Till = to, the former being a Northern fashion. C frequently extends to on-to, on-till, as in VI. 622, XVII. 29, etc.
2. Note the verbal preposition that I of tell, etc.
3. Be and by are common to both MSS., C more frequently the latter, probably a Southern influence. Strictly in Scots be alone denotes agency; by usually = beyond, as in by ordinar, etc.
CONJUNCTIONS.
1. The verb suppos is several times used as a conjunction.
2. the-quhethir = thohquhether = thohquether, “nevertheless,” unknown to the Southern dialects.
Specimens of Middle Scots, p. xxxviii.
Specimens of Early English, Morris and Skeat, vol. ii.
GLOSSARY
1. Familiar words slightly disguised by spelling are not included.
2. C = Cambridge MS. of The Bruce; E = Edinburgh MS.; H = Hart’s printed edition; S = Skeat’s edition for Scottish Text Society (S.T.S.); N.E.D. = New English Dictionary; A.S. = Anglo-Saxon; A.F. = Anglo-French; O.F. = Old French; O.N. = Old Norse; N.E. = Northern English; v. = verb; p.t. = past tense; p.p. = past participle; s. = substantive.
3. i and y are completely interchangeable. In such cases as ar, air, ayr (ere), consult under first or earlier form.
