Bosworth Toller's

Anglo-Saxon

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M

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Original m, generally speaking, is preserved in Anglo-Saxon, and is found corresponding to m in the Gothic and other cognate dialects, e.g. mé, manna, dóm; Goth. mik, manna, dóms. When, however, m is not initial, the correspondence is not always maintained; thus, A. S. fíf, but Goth. fimf; A. S. sófte, O. H. Ger. samfto. Also for earlier fn is found mn, as in emn along with efn, Goth. ibn; stemn and stefn, Goth. stibna. In some inflexions m is no longer found; so in the 1st pers. sing. pres. indic. eom is the only instance in which the old person-ending has maintained itself; though beón, dón, and gán offer occasional instances of its retention in the Northern Gospels; while the m which is found in the plural of the Gothic and O. H. Ger. conjugations has left no trace. In declensions n in the later times began to take the place of m in the dative, so ðan for ðam.The form of the Runic letter, whose name was man, was ᛗ , but from the similarity to the d-rune (dæg) ᛞ , the two seem to be sometimes confounded. In each case the symbol was sometimes employed, after the runes had been generally supplanted by the Latin letters, to express the word which was its name; thus in the Durham Ritual quis is glossed ǽnsig ᛞ , nemo, ne ǽnig ᛞ : the same symbol being also used to gloss dies. The form of the rune accompanying the Runic poem is ᛗ ,
  • Kmbl. plate 16, fig. 11,
and the verse attached to it the following
Man byþ on myrgþe Men will be cheerful, his mágan leóf dear to their friends, sceal ðeáh ánra gehwylc shall yet each one óðrum swícan depart from other, forðam dryhten wile for the Lord will dóme sínum by his doom ðæt earme flǽsc the 'vile body' eorþan betǽcan. commit to earth.  
  • Kmbl. 343, 11-18.
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  • M,