In Anglo-Saxon these words were more numerous than they are at present. The following list is taken from the Cambridge Philological Museum, ii. 386. _Intrans. Infinitive._ _Trans. Infinitive._ Yrnan, _to run_ Aernan, _to make to run_. Byrnan, _to burn_ Baernan, _to make to burn_. {293} Drincan, _to drink_ Drencan, _to drench_. Sincan, _to sink_ Sencan, _to make to sink_. Liegan, _to lie_ Lecgan, _to lay_. Sittan, _to sit_ Settan, _to set_. Dr['i]fan, _to drift_ Draefan, _to drive_. Feallan, _to fall_ Fyllan, _to fell_. Weallan, _to boil_ Wyllan, _to make to boil_. Fleogan, _to fly_ A-fligan, _to put to flight_. Beogan, _to bow_ B['i]gan, _to bend_. Faran, _to go_ Feran, _to convey_. Wacan, _to wake_ Weccan, _to awaken_. All these intransitives form their praeterite by a change of vowel, as _sink_, _sank_; all the transitives by the addition of _d_ or _t_, as _fell_, _fell'd_. III. Verbs derived from nouns by a change of accent; as _to surv['e]y_, from a _s['u]rvey_. For a fuller list see the Chapter on Derivation. Walker attributes the change of accent to the influence of the participial termination _-ing_. All words thus affected are of foreign origin. IV. Verbs formed from nouns by changing a final sharp consonant into its corresponding flat one; as, _The_ use _to_ use, _pronounced_ uze. _The_ breath _to_ breathe -- breadhe. _The_ cloth _to_ clothe -- clodhe. * * * * * {294} CHAPTER XIX. ON THE PERSONS. s. 348. Compared with the Latin, the Greek, the Moeso-Gothic, and almost all the ancient languages, there is, in English, in respect to the persons of the verbs, but a very slight amount of inflection. This may be seen by comparing the English word _call_ with the Latin _voco._ _Sing._ _Plur._ _Sing._ _Plur._ 1. Voc-_o_. Voc-_amus_. Call. Call. 2. Voc-as. Voc-_atis_. Call-est. Call. 3. Voc-at. Voc-_ant_. [44]Call-eth. Call. Here the Latins have different forms for each different person, whilst the English have forms for two only; and even of these one (_callest_) is becoming obsolete. With the forms of _voco_ marked in italics there is, in the current English, nothing correspondent. In the word _am_, as compared with _are_ and _art_, we find a sign of the first person singular. In the old forms _tellen_, _weren_, &c., we have a sign of the plural number. In the Modern English, the Old English, and the Anglo-Saxon, the peculiarities of our personal inflections are very great. This may be seen from the following tables of comparison:--