The Present Participle has a stem -and- (I.-E. -ont-) identical with the ending of the 3 plur. Indic., as in the other I.-E. lan guages; but the Participles in actual use were declined as -an- or -ja- stems. The unextended stem survives only in substantives. The stem of the Past Participle (Passive) is formed by the suf fixes -to- and -no-, as in the other I.-E. languages. The former oc curs as a living formation only in connection with the verbs whose Present stem ends in -ja-, -5-, The Past Participle in use with other classes of verbs has a stem -ena- or -ana-, the former in English and Scandinavian, the latter in Gothic and German. Re mains of old Participles in -to-, -no- formed otherwise than those in living use may be found in adjectives.
Thus the Teutonic group of languages has many characteristic features which distinguish it from other languages of the same stock, while the morphological differences among the Teutonic languages themselves are comparatively slight and due mainly to the operation of syncretism and other simplifying processes, which have been carried still further, so that the Danish verb has lost all inflection of person and number, while distinction of gender has wholly disappeared in English. In the earlier stages of the Teutonic languages differences of phonology are more marked than those of morphology, and afford surer criteria for determin ing the relations of these languages to one another. Gothic began
at an early date to show marked divergences from the other lan guages. The Scandinavian languages also certainly underwent a considerable number of peculiar changes before the beginning of their literatures. From the 6th century to the gth the Scandina vian peoples were practically cut off from communication with other Teutonic nations by the Slavonic occupation of Mecklen burg and eastern Holstein. By the middle of the 7th century the English and Frisian languages were about midway between Scan dinavian and German, though they had already developed well marked characteristics of their own. They doubtless represent the old language of the maritime districts, at one time spoken along the whole of the coast between the present frontiers of Belgium and Denmark. The special characteristics of German in all prob ability developed in the interior and those of Scandinavian round the Baltic and the Cattegat. From the 8th century onwards the High German (southern) dialects of German differed greatly from those spoken further north owing to the operation of the changes generally known as the "second sound-shifting." The northern dialects, however (Old Saxon and Low Frankish), were essentially German, though both were affected by Frisian influence.