ME. South S. Midl. N. Midl. North 1. sg. _-e_ _-e_ _-(e)_ _-(e)_ or _-(e)s_ 2. _-est_ _-est_ _-es(t)_ _-es_ 3. _-eþ_ _-eþ_ _-eþ_ or _-es_ _-es_ pl. _-eþ_ _-e(n)_ _-e(n)_ or _-es_ _-es_ or _-(e)_ (iv) #The Imperative Plural# might be expected to agree with the pres. ind. pl. In fact it has the ending _-eþ_ not merely in the South, but in most of the Midlands, e.g. I, VIII, Gower and Chaucer. Northern and NW. Midland (V, VI, XIV _b_, XVI) have commonly _-es_. But Chaucer, Gower, and most late ME. texts have, beside the full inflexion, an uninflected form, e.g. _vndo_ XVI 182. (v) #Past Tense.# (_a_) Strong: The historical distinctions of stem-vowel were often obscured in ME. by the rise of new analogical forms, the variety of which can best be judged from the detailed evidence presented in the _New English Dictionary_ under each verb. But, for the common verbs or classes, the South and S. Midlands preserved fairly well the OE. vowel distinction of past tense singular and plural; while North and N. Midlands usually preferred the form proper to the singular for both singular and plural, e.g. _þey bygan_ I 72; _þey ne blan_ I 73; _thai slang_ X 53, where OE. has sg. _gan_: _gunnon_; _blan_: _blunnon_; ON. _slǫng_: _slungu_. (_b_) Weak: In the South and Midlands the weak pa. t. 2nd sg. usually ends in _-est_ (N. Midland also _-es_): _hadest_ II 573; _cursedest_ I 130; _kyssedes_, _raȝteȝ_ V 283. In the North, and sometimes in N. Midland, it ends in _-(e)_: _þou hadde_ XVI 219. The full ending of the pa. t. pl. is fairly common in the South, S. Midlands, and NW. Midlands: _wenten_ II 185, _hedden_ III 42, _maden_ XII _b_ 196, _sayden_ VI 174. (vi) #Past Participle (Strong)#: OE. _(ge)drĭfen_. In the North and N. Midlands the ending _-en_ is usually preserved, but the prefix _y-_ is dropped. In the South the type is _y-driue_, with prefix and without final _n_. S. Midland fluctuates—for example, Gower rarely, Chaucer commonly, uses the prefix _y-_. (vii) #Weak Verbs with -i- suffix#: In OE. weak verbs of Class II formed the infinitive in _-ian_, e.g. _acsian_, _lufian_, and the _i_ appeared also in the pres. ind. and imper. pl. _acsiað_ and pres. p. _acsiende_. In ME. a certain number of French verbs with an _-i-_ suffix reinforced this class. In the South and W. Midlands the _-i-_ of the suffix is often preserved, e.g. _aski_ II 467, _louy_ V 27, and is sometimes extended to forms in which it has no historical justification, e.g. pp. _spuryed_ V 25. In the North and the E. Midlands the forms without _i_ are generalized. PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS CORRIGENDA To Sisam's _Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose_ p. xlv, l. 7: _for_ carat _read_ caret p. xlvii: _for_ Jessop _read_ Jessopp p. 21, l. 259: _for_ be _read_ he p. 28, l. 493: _for_ enn _read_ en p. 43, foot-note to l. 69: _omit_ 'for:'