n_ "to feed" became _foedian_. At first
there is no doubt the alternation between _o_ and _oe_ was not felt as
intrinsically significant. It could only have been an unconscious
mechanical adjustment such as may be observed in the speech of many
to-day who modify the "oo" sound of words like _you_ and _few_ in the
direction of German _ue_ without, however, actually departing far enough
from the "oo" vowel to prevent their acceptance of _who_ and _you_ as
satisfactory rhyming words. Later on the quality of the _oe_ vowel must
have departed widely enough from that of _o_ to enable _oe_ to rise in
consciousness[151] as a neatly distinct vowel. As soon as this happened,
the expression of plurality in _foeti_, _toethi_, and analogous words
became symbolic and fusional, not merely fusional.

[Footnote 151: Or in that unconscious sound patterning which is ever on
the point of becoming conscious. See page 57.]

[Transcriber's note: Footnote 151 refers to the paragraph beginning on
line 1797.]

2. In _musi_ "mice" the long _u_ was colored by the following _i_ to
long _ue_. This change also was regular; _lusi_ "lice" became _luesi_,
_kui_ "cows" became _kuei_ (later simplified to _kue_; still preserved as
_ki-_ in _kine_), _fulian_ "to make foul" became _fuelian_ (still
preserved as _-file_ in _defile_). The psychology of this phonetic law
is entirely analogous to that of 1.

3. The old drift toward reducing final syllables, a rhythmic consequence
of the strong Germanic stress on the first syllable, now manifested
itself. The final _-i_, originally an important functional element, had
long lost a great share of its value, transferred as that was to the
symbolic vowel change (_o_: _oe_). It had little power of resistance,
therefore, to the drift. It became dulled to a colorless _-e_; _foeti_
became _foete_.

4. The weak _-e_ finally disappeared. Probably the forms _foete_ and
_foet_ long coexisted as prosodic variants according to the rhythmic
requirements of the sentence, very much as _Fuesse_ and _Fuess'_ now
coexist in German.

5. The _oe_ of _foet_ became "unrounded" to long _e_ (our present _a_ of
_fade_). The alternation of _fot_: _foti_, transitionally _fot_: _foeti_,
_foete_, _foet_, now appears as _fot_: _fet_. Analogously, _toeth_ appears
as _teth_, _foedian_ as _fedian_, later _fedan_. The new long _e_-vowel
"fell together" with the older _e_-vowel already existent (e.g., _her_
"here," _he_ "he"). Henceforward the