II. 1. His friends have the bones of the seals and the bodies of the Danes. 2. Art thou the king’s son? 3. Has she her[3] gifts in her[3] hands? 4. Here are the fields of the natives. 5. Who had the bird? 6. I had it.[2] 7. The child had the worm in his[3] fingers. 8. The Mercians were here during (the) summer (#on# + dat.).
[Footnote 2: Pronouns agree in gender with the nouns for which they stand. #Hit#, however, sometimes stands for inanimate things of both masculine and feminine genders. See Wülfing (_l.c._) I, § 238.]
PRESENT INDICATIVE ENDINGS OF STRONG VERBS.
56. The unchanged stem of the present indicative may always be found by dropping -an of the infinitive: #feall-an#, _to fall_; #cēos-an#, _to choose_; #bīd-an#, _to abide_.
_Sing._ 1. -e _Plur._ 1. } 2. -est 2. } -að 3. -eð 3. }
58. The 2d and 3d singular endings were originally not -est and -eð, but -is and -ið; and the i of these older endings has left its traces upon almost every page of Early West Saxon literature. This i, though unaccented and soon displaced, exerted a powerful back influence upon the vowel of the preceding accented syllable. This influence, a form of regressive assimilation, is known as i-umlaut (pronounced _oóm-lowt_). The vowel i or j (= _y_), being itself a palatal, succeeded in palatalizing every guttural vowel that preceded it, and in imposing still more of the i-quality upon diphthongs that were already palatal.[1] The changes produced were these:
a became ę (æ): męnn (< *mann-iz), _men_. ā “ ǣ ǣnig (< *ān-ig), _any_. u “ y wyllen (< *wull-in), _woollen_. ū “ ȳ mȳs (< *mūs-iz), _mice_. o “ ę dęhter (< *dohtr-i), _to_ or _for the daughter_. ō “ ē fēt (< *fōt-iz), _feet_. ea “ ie wiexð (< *weax-ið), _he grows_ (weaxan = _to grow_). ēa “ īe hīewð (< *hēaw-ið), _he hews_ (hēawan = to _hew_). eo “ ie wiercan (< *weorc-jan), _to work_. ēo “ īe līehtan (< *lēoht-jan), _to light_.
[Footnote 1: The _palatal_ vowels and diphthongs were long or short æ, e, i, (ie), y, ea, eo; the _guttural_ vowels were long or short a, o, u.]
59. In the Northumbrian and Mercian dialects, as well as in the dialect of Late West Saxon, the 2d and 3d singular endings were usually joined to the present stem without modification either of the stem itself or of the personal endings. The complete absence of umlauted forms in the present indicative of Mn.E. is thus accounted for.