Re: why the -s in English verbs?

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:58:39 +0100, Trond Engen
<trondnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<news:47c7d800$0$14991$8404b019@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in
sci.lang:

John Atkinson skreiv:

[...]

As I said before, it's generally believed that the personal affixes
on verbs are grammaticalised pronouns, and that there is a cycle,

free pronoun > clitic > affix > loss of affix due to phonetic erosion
+ obligatory use of free pronouns again.

[...]

Some blurring of the cycle model: In Old Scandinavian,
albeit there was still some conjugation for person and
number around, it was customary to merger the personal
pronoun with the verb in writing: <ert þú> > <erþu>
("are+you") is the most prominsnt example, IIRC.

In my experience usually <ertu>. Other examples: <heyrðu>
from <heyr þú> 'listen!', <seldu> from <sel þú> 'hand
over!', <fórtu> from <fórt þú> 'you went'.

[...]

Brian
.