r_ the praeterite of _svara_. The true view, however, is that in
Moeso-Gothic, as in Latin, there are two past tenses, each having a certain
latitude of meaning, and each, in certain words, replacing the other.

The reduplicate form, in other words, the perfect tense, is current in none
of the Gothic languages except the Moeso-Gothic. A trace of it is said to
be found in the Anglo-Saxon of the seventh century in the word _heht_,
which is considered to be _h[^e]-ht_, the Moeso-Gothic _h['a]ih['a]it_,
_vocavi_. _Did_ from _do_ is also considered to be a reduplicate form.

s. 298. In the English language the tense corresponding with the Greek
aorist and the Latin forms like _vixi_, is formed after two modes; 1, as in
_fell_, _sang_, and _took_, from _fall_, _sing_, and _take_, by changing
the vowel of the present: 2, as in _moved_ and _wept_, from _move_ and
_weep_, by the addition of -d or -t; the -d or -t not being found in the
original word, but being a fresh element added to it. In forms, on the
contrary, like _sang_ and _fell_, no addition being made, no new element
appears. The vowel, indeed, is changed, but nothing is added. Verbs, then,
of the first sort, may be said to form their praeterites out of themselves;
whilst verbs of the second sort require something from without. To speak in
a metaphor, words like _sang_ and _fell_ are comparatively independent. Be
this as it may, the German grammarians call the tenses formed by a change
of vowel the _strong_ tenses, the _strong_ verbs, the _strong_ conjugation,
or the _strong_ order; and those formed by the addition of d or t, the
_weak_ tenses, the _weak_ verbs, the _weak_ conjugation, or the _weak_
order. _Bound_, _spoke_, _gave_, _lay_, &c., are _strong_; _moved_,
_favoured_, _instructed_, &c., are _weak_.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE STRONG TENSES.

s. 299. The strong praeterites are formed from the present by changing the
vowel, as _sing_, _sang_; _speak_, _spoke_.

In Anglo-Saxon, several praeterites change, in their plural, the vowel of
their singular; as

Ic sang, _I sang_. | We sungon, _we sung_.
Thu sunge, _thou sungest_. | Ge sungon, _ye sung_.
He sang, _he sang_. | Hi sungon, _they sung_.

The bearing of this fact upon the praeterites has already been indicated.
In a great number of words we have a double form, as _ran_ and _run_,
_sang_ and _sung_, _drank_ and _drunk_, &c. One of the