An examination of the verbal forms derived from Indo-European roots with the gradations ei/i and eu/u (and sometimes ai/i) and ending in stops will show many thematic present stems with the strong grade of the radical vowel and not a few others characterized by a nasal infix in the root. The nasal type is well represented in Latin and Lithuanian, and also in some of the Sanskrit verbs belonging to that class called by the Indian grammarians the sixth (e.g., muñcάti, limpάti). The seventh Skt. class is not with any certainty represented outside of the Aryan group, and its relation to the thematic type is disputed, but it is made principally from roots of the phonetic pattern described, and must receive due consideration. The Greek forms of the type λιμπάvω will be discussed later.

The words klaohizis (or klaohi) veinas (or venas) denθavan occur in two inscriptions, namely 371 and 436 b, in what seems to be an opening formula; while 474 opens with a partial version of the same, the reading of which is doubtful and will be considered later in some detail. Unfortunately, all three inscriptions in which this formula occurs have been lost or destroyed, so that it is attested only in transcription. But since these transcriptions are the work of different copyists, and since the three words of the formula have been preserved in several independent sources, it seems to me, as to others, that they may be regarded as trustworthy authorities. The authenticity of these inscriptions has often been impugned, but at the date at which the transcriptions were made, knowledge of Messapic was hardly sufficiently advanced for them to have been forged—they are far too convincing as Messapic.

The word aller has called forth a great variety of etymological explanations, none of which is completely satisfactory to the linguistic scholar. However, I make bold to offer a fresh contribution to the problem, in the hope that it will fulfill all three requirements of a good etymon, phonological, historical, and semantic.

The well-known hypothesis, that aller comes from the rapid giving of military commands, ambulemus, *amlemus, *allemus, offers serious phonological difficulties. Not only does ambulare give embler regularly in Old French, but, in addition, both ambulare and alare appear in the Reichenau Glosses. Furthermore, it is not necessary to seek a common etymon for the verb 'to go' in Romance, since the very confusion of forms existing in the conjugation of this verb in all the Romance tongues is enough warrant for positing a separate origin for the Northern French aller.

Ærnen intrans., wk. ‘to ride, go on horseback; go, pass’, etc. OE ærnan intrans. and trans. (See also irnen, eornen below.)

The verb is rare in OE, and its precise sense is hardly determinable from the two passages, from the OE Bede and Orosius respectively, cited in Bosworth-Toller. Madden, however, Glossarial Remarks 3.470, cites an illuminating passage from Alfred's Laws: gif hie fah mon geierne oþþe geærne ‘reach (a church) by running or by riding’ (see Alfred's English Laws, Cap. 5). This passage where the two verbs are contrasted, the latter being here transitive, is also quoted by Toller in the Supplement. With this cp. the quotations from Laamon in (ii) below. The verb, in the Pret. Pl., occurs also in the Battle of Maldon, where it is transcribed ærdon by Hearne. All editors except Thorpe, Müller, Grein, and Wülcker agree in reading ærndon.