MdE Declension of Adjectives

 

Means of form-building	Positive	Comparative	Superlative	NE
Suffixation	Soft We:rig	Softra We:rigra	Softost We:rigost	Soft Weary
Suff. + vowel interchange	Glaed Long eald	Glaedra Lengra Ieldra (ealdra)	Gladost Lengest Ealdost, ealdest	Glad Long Old
Suppletion	Go:d Ly:tel micel	Bettra Lae:ssa Ma:ra	Bet(e)st Lae:st Mae:st	Good Little much

	sg	pl
Strong Weak	Blind blinde	Blinde blinde

 

 

Means of form-building	Positive	Comparative	Superlative	ME
Synthetic forms	long   old far	- er lenger (longer) older/elder farther/further	- est lengest (longest) oldest/eldest farthest/furthest
Analytical forms   Double comparatives, double superlatives		More +adj. Better+ adj. More swete Better worthy   More fressher Worser This was the most unkindest cut of all. (Shakespeare)

 

 

The Pronoun

OE pronoun:

There are several types of pronouns in OE: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, definite, indefinite, negative and relative.

Personal: besides singular and plural there also dual pronoun s for the 1^st and 2 persons. They had 3 persons, 3 numbers (in the 1^st and 2^nd person) and 3 genders in the 3d person. The pronouns of the 1^st and 2^nd person had suppletive forms: Ic, min, me, me, mic; thu, thin, the, the, thec; When used with the pronoun ‘self’ personal pronouns denoted reflexive meanings.

Possessive: they are derived from the genitive case of the personal pronouns of all persons and numbers: min, thin, uncer, incer, ure, his, hire, hiera, etc.

Demonstrative: 2 pronouns ‘se’ (that) þes (this). They were declined like adjectives according to a five-case system (+ Instrumental Case). The meaning of the pronoun ‘se’ is often weakened, so that it approaches the status of an article: se mann (the man), seo sae (the sea).

ME pronoun:

During that period the following changes occurred:

- dual number pronouns disappeared; genitive case forms no longer existed; the dative and accusative merged into one objective case; the 3d person plural pronouns hi is superseded by the Scandinavian ‘ they ’; initial ‘h’ in ‘ hit ’ often lost; occasionally the pronoun ‘ye’ is used in addressing one person.

Nom. I, ich thou he she hit/it we ye hi/they

Obj. Me the him/ hir/her hit/it us you hem/them

Possessive pronouns: 1 person (min, mi), 2 person Thin, thi) 3d person (his, hir/her, his) Plural (our, your, hire/their). The forms ‘min, thin’ are used before a vowel or ‘h’: min elbowe, myn herte. The forms my, thy are found before a word with the initial consonant (except ‘h’) thy child

Demonstrative:

There are 2 demonstrative pronouns: sē (that) and þes (this)

Singular	Plural
masculine	feminine	neuter
N. sē G. þæs D. þæm Acc. þone Instr. Þy, þon	Sēo þære þære þa	Þat þa Þæs þara, þæra þæm þæm Þat þa Þy, þon

The traditional view was that the definite article appears in OE, while the indefinite article appears in ME. But the point is that the notion of definite article can only be applied on condition that there exists in the language at the same time another article, the indefinite one. And the two notions ‘definite’ and ‘indefinite’ have a reasonable sense only as members of an opposition based on the category of definiteness/indefiniteness. Since there obviously was no indefinite article in OE, the article emerging from the pronoun sē could not in exact terminology be called definite. Therefore, it is possible to say that in OE there appeared an article, and the opposition of OE was that between article and no article (zero article).

OE forms of demonstrative pronoun (or definite article) se, seo were changed into the, theo. In Early ME forms like the, theo, that functioned both as demonstrative pronoun and as article. Since the 14^th century the form ‘that’ was only preserved as a demonstrative pronoun form.

MnE pronoun:

The Middle English forms of personal pronouns underwent little change. The tendency to use ‘ ye ’ in addressing one person arose in ME already. In Shakespeare’s works both ‘ thou ’ and ‘ ye ’ are found, with stylistic differentiation between them. Eventually ‘ thou ’ completely vanished from ordinary literary language and was only preserved in elevated poetic and religious style, and also among Quakers. In the 16^th century distinction between nominative ‘ ye ’ and objective ‘ you’ began to disappear and in the 17^th century ‘ye’ finally became archaic. The neuter possessive his was superseded by ‘its’ in the 17^th century. The feminine possessive became ‘her’. Reflexive pronouns developed from the correspondent ME forms. Demonstrative pronouns acquired the following forms: this- these, that –those. Interrogative: who, whose, what, which. And other pronouns like compounds somebody, something, etc.’

Personal Pronouns

1^st person
Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nom Gen Dat Acc	Ic Mi:n Me: Mec, me:	Wit Uncer Unc uncit	Wē ūre, ūser ūsic
2^nd person
Nom Gen Dat Acc	Þū Þi:n Þe: Þe:c, Þe:	ʒit Incer Inc Incit, inc	ʒe: ēower ēow ēowic, ēow
3d person Singular Plural
Case	M	F	N	All genders
Nom Gen Dat Acc	He: His Him hine	He:o, hi:o Hire, hiere Hire, hiere Hi:e, hi:, hy:	Hit His Him hit	Hi:e,hi:,hy:,he:o Hira,heora,hiera, hyra Him, heom Hīe,hī, hēo

 

ME:

Person	Singular	Plural
	ME	Early NE	ME	Early NE
1^st person Nom. Obj	Ich/I me	I me	We us	We us
2^nd person Nom Obj.	Thou/thow thee	Thou/ye Thee/you	Ye you	You/ye you
3d person Nom Obj.	M F N He he/she hit/it Him hir(e) him/it her	He she it Him her it	Hie/they Hem/them	They them

 

Numerals

Cardinal: from 1 to 3 were declined. From 4 to 19 are usually invariable, if used as attributes to a noun, but are declined if used without a substantive. Numerals denoting tens have their genitive in – es or in –a, -ra, their dative in – um. 1 – än, 2 – twegen, tu, twa; 3 – thrie 4 – feower, 5 – fif, 6 – six, 7– seofon, 8– eahta, 9– nigon, 10 – tien. From 13 to 19 – the suffix – tiene; from 20 to 90 – the suffix – tig, and so on. Compound numerals: 22 – twa and twentig, 48 – eahta and feowertig.

Ordinal: were declined as weak adjectives (with the exception of ‘other’ second.)

In ME a few phonetic changes took place, in ordinal numerlas ‘other’ was superseded by the French’ second’.