The Non-finite forms of the verb in OE and their further development.

The Non-finite forms of the verb in OE and their further development.

The verb system in OE was represented by two sets of forms: the finitive of the verb and the non-finitive forms of the verb. Those two types of forms differed more than they do today from the point of view of their respective grammatical categories, as the verbals at that historical period were not conjugated like the verb proper, but were declined like nouns or adjectives. Thus the infinitive could have two case-forms, which may conventionally be called the “Common” case and the “Dative” case.

The Non-finite forms are: the Infinitive and the two Participles.

1. The Infinitive. There are two infinitive forms: one of them is called the dative Infinitive(the Indo-European infinitive had been a declinable noun). This infinitive is preceded by to and has the ending –anne; it is used in independent syntactic positions, mainly as adverbial modifier of purpose, but also as subject and predicative. The infinitive with the ending –an functions, as a rule, in combination with preterite-present verbs and in other verbal collocations.

2. Participle I. Has the ending –ende and is declined as a weak adjective. It is used attributively (in pre- and post-position) and predicative.

3. Participle II. Has the ending –n or –ed, -od, accordin g to the type of verb (strong or weak). It is declined as adjective (according both to the strong and the weak pattern) and is used mainly as attribute and predicative.

 

A comparison of the verbals in OE and in Middle and New English shows that the number of verbals in OE was less than that in Middle English and New. At the end of the ME period a new verbal developed – the GERUND. In addition to the Infinitive and the Participle. The Gerund appeared as a result of a blend between the OE Present Participle ending in “-ende” and the OE Verbal noun ending in “-ing”. From the Verbal noun the Gerund acquired the form, but under the influence of the Participle it became more “verbal” in meaning. In the course of history the Infinitive (already at the end of the OE period) and the Participle (in Middle English) lost their declension. And at the end of the ME and in New English they acquired elements of conjugation – the grammatical categories of order and voice. The OE preposition to preceding the dative case of the infinitive loses its independent meaning and functions simply as a grammatical particle showing that the Verbal is an Infinitive.

 

1. Categories of the Verb in ME

ME is the period of the leveling of endings. For this reason, many earlier distinctions disappear; the productive types absorb the more archaic ones and those which are less productive.

The verb.

The strong verbs have leveled the vowel of the preterite singular and there is a tendency towards merging of the preterite singular and plural in the 4^th and 5^th classes; sometimes the vowel of preterite plural is analogical to that of participle II.

The productive weak type is formed by the merging of the 2^nd class and some verbs of the 1^st class; the endings are –ed, -de. The irregular verbs still form a group apart. The preterite-present verbs are grouped in the same way, as in OE except that schal, scholde may function as auxiliaries of the future tense and subjunctive forms respectively.

The Substantive Verb. The suppletive forms of the substantive verb show a slightly different distribution: the present subjunctive is represented only by be- forms.

 

Changes within the system of Strong and Weak verbs in ME

ME is the period of the leveling of endings. For this reason, many earlier distinctions disappear; the productive types absorb the more archaic ones and those which are less productive. New forms appear, e.g. analytical verb forms.

The verb.

The strong verbs have leveled the vowel of the preterite singular and there is a tendency towards merging of the preterite singular and plural in the 4^th and 5^th classes; sometimes the vowel of preterite plural is analogical to that of participle II.

The productive weak type is formed by the merging of the 2^nd class and some verbs of the 1^st class; the endings are –ed, -de. The irregular verbs still form a group apart. The preterite-present verbs are grouped in the same way, as in OE except that schal, scholde may function as auxiliaries of the future tense and subjunctive forms respectively.

The Substantive Verb. The suppletive forms of the substantive verb show a slightly different distribution: the present subjunctive is represented only by be- forms.

1. The Old English vowel System

The phonetics of the OE period was characterized by a system of dynamic stress. The fixed stress fell on the 1^st root syllable.

The vowels had the following characteristic features:

a)the quantity and the quality of the vowel depended upon its position in the word. Under stress any vowel could be found, but in unstressed position there were no diphthongs or long monophthongs, but only short vowels a, e, I, o, u.

b) the length of the stressed vowels was phonemic, which means that there could be two words differing only in the length of the vowel.

c)there was an exact parallelism of long and short vowels.

There were the following vowel phonemes in Old English:

Monophthongs: i, i:, y, y:, u, u:, e, e:, o, o:, ae, ae:, a, a:

Diphthongs: eo, eo:, ea, ea:

All the diphthongs were falling diphthongs with the first element stronger than the second, the second element being more open that the first.

OE vowel system classified according to the following principles:

1. According to the place of articulation or to the position of the bulk of the tongue: front, central, back.

2. According to the tongue-high: high, mid, low

3. According to the length: long and short. For every short vowel there was a long vowel.

The Old English vowel system formed on the basis of Common Germanic vowel system and also under the influence of different processes. OS monophthongs are, as a rule, a further development of some Common Germanic monophthongs.

For example

OE [ae] [i] [o]

From Common Germanic [a] [i] [u]

Some OE monophthongs developed from Common Germanic diphthongs

OE [a:]

From Common Germanic [ai]

OE diphthongs are a result of some further development of Common Germanic diphthongs, though in the course of history the quality of the diphthong may have undergone a change

OE ceosan ceas

From Common Germanic kiusan kaus

OE short diphthongs originated from monopgthongs

OE eald heorte

From Common Germanic ald herte

Tellan (to tell) sellan (to sell)

The sign of irregularity of the weak verbs in OE was vowel interchange, a feature not typical of this group of verbs. The cause of it was the original absence of the stem-forming suffix –i in Past Singular and past participle. Under the influence of –i only the form of the Infinitive could change during the process of palatal mutation. (talian – tellan) the other two remaining unchanged, and as a result the verb acquired vowel interchange.

Preterite-present

There was a group of some strong verbs which in the pre-written period lost some of their forms and preserved the others, changing their lexical and grammatical meaning. These verbs are called preterite-prsent, for in the written period they build their present tense forms from the original past ones. The new past tense forms of these verbs in OE are built with the help of dental suffixation. The majority of preterite-present verbs are defective verbs, which lost their connection with the other forms and were dropped. The group of OE preterite-present verbs includes, among others, the following:

1. azan -

2. cunnan

3. sculan

4. mazan

Suppletive verbs

Among such verbs we may mention the following:

beon – wesan (be)

zan – eode (go)

don – dyde (do)

 

The OE Consonant System

The OE consonant system consisted of some 14 consonant phonemes. The consonant system in OE manifested the following peculiarities.

1. The relatively small number of consonant phonemes.
2. The absence of affricated and fricative consonants which we now find in the language such as [t ], [d ], [ ], [ ].
3. Dependence of the quality of the phoneme upon its environment in the word

If the first two require no particular explanation, the last point calls for a special comment.

Among the 14 consonant phonemes that exited in OE there were at least 5 that gave us positional variants which stand rater wide apart.

1. The phonemes denoted by the letters f, p,, or s are voiced or voiceless depending upon their phonetic position. They are generally voiced in the so-called “intervocal position” that is between vowels and voiceless otherwise.

2. The phoneme denoted by the letter c also gave at least two variant – palatal [k] and velar [k]. In the majority of cases it was a velar consonant and palatal generally before the vowel i.

3. Similar remarks can be made about the phoneme denoted by the letter: we have the voiced velar plosive variant [g] of it at the beginning of the word before back vowels or consonants or in the middle of the word after n. The voiced velar fricative variant [ ] in the middle of the word between back vowels. The voice palatal fricative variant [j] before and after front vowels.

The system of consonant phonemes that we observe in OE involves certain peculiarities that are typical of the majority of Germanic dialects, which set them apart from the majority of the Indo-European languages.

 

Case

The four-case system that existed in OE gave way to a two-case system in Middle.

Gender

As a grammatical phenomenon gender disappeared already in Middle, the pronoun he and she referring only to animate notions and it – to inanimate.

Number

The three number system that existed in Early OE was substituted by a two number system already in Late OE.

 

For example

OE [ae] [i ] [o]

From Common Germanic [a] [i] [u]

Some OE monophthongs developed from Common Germanic diphthongs

OE [a:]

From Common Germanic [ai]

 

OE diphthongs are a result of some further development of Common Germanic diphthongs, though in the course of history the quality of the diphthong may have undergone a change

OE ceosan ceas

From Common Germanic kiusan kaus

OE short diphthongs originated from monopgthongs

OE eald heorte

From Common Germanic ald herte

Strong verbs

… are subdivided in 7 classes, each class with its own type of vowel-change. The 7^th class is the least regular one; it forms a number of small groups, and many verbs belonging to this class have weak forms besides the strong ones.

The stems given below are distributed in the following manner:

Grade I: Present Indicative and Subjunctive, Infinitive, Participle I

Grade II: 1^st and 3^rd persons sg. Preterite Indicative

Grade III (or zero) comprises two stems:

d) The stem of the indicative Preterite – 2^nd person sg, and pl.; Subjunctive Pretrite

e) The stem of Participle II.

In this way, the OE strong verbs have four stems, although there are only three grades.

Weak verbs

The weak verbs are subdivided in 3 groups, according to the stem-vowel joining the ending to the root. They are:

1) the 1^st class, formerly with –ja in the present and –i in the past. Its root-vowel is mutated; the dental suffix was joined to the root by -i which had disappeared after long syllables and was weakened to e after short syllables.

2) The 2^nd class has –ian in the Infinitive and o in the Preterite. The vowel is not mutated.

3) The 3^rd class includes very few verbs: the dental suffix is joined immediately to the root; in the Present there was –j, but the 2^nd and 3^rd persons sg. Show no trace of –j.

Preterite-Present verbs

The so-called preterite-present verbs are a small group of verbs (120 which have vowel-gradation in their present-tens from, corresponding to vowel-gradation in the preterite of strong verbs. Their preterite is formed on the weak patter. The infinitive has, as a rule, the 3^rd grade. These verbs have a marked modal meaning; most of them exist in MnE as modal verbs.

Verner’s Law. Rhotacism

Verne’s Law is formulated in the following way: voiceless fricatives f, p, h that appeared due to sound-shifting and s inherited from PIE became voiced in the inter-vocal position if the preceding syllable was unstressed, nut otherwise remained unchanged.

 

p t k

b d g

 

 

This change may have taken place in the 1^st century AD.

 

S-z-r

Verner’s Law plus a later change called Rhotacism takes care of another troublesome anomaly: the appearance of what ought to be unchanged IE. It took place in the West Germanic languages and ON.

 

Middle English New English

[ ]>[ ] hous house

[ ]>[ ] time time

When a long vowel was followed in a word by the consonant “” the given consonant did not prevent the Great Vowel Shift, but the resulting vowel is more open, than the resulting vowel in such cases when the long vowel undergoing the Shift was followed by a consonant other than “r”. For example:

[ ] but [ ]

[ ] but [ ]

[ ] but [ ]

[ ] but [ ]

[ ] but [ ]

As a result of the Great Vowel Shift new sound did not appear, but the already existing sounds appeared under new conditions. For instance:

The sound existed before the Shift the sound appeared after the Shift

[ ] wey make

[ ] hous moon

[ ] time see

the short monophthongs changed their quality in new English, the monophthong [a] becoming [ae] and the monophthong [u] becoming [ ]. For instance:

Middle English New English

[ ]>[ ] that that

[ ]>[ ] cut cut

 

However, these processes depended to a certain extent upon the preceding sound. When the sound [a] was preceded by [w] it changed into [o].

Middle English New English

[ ]>[ ] that that

[ ]>[ ] was cut

 

Germanic Vowel Shift

PIE (o) became PG (a) and thus ceased to be distinguished from the original PIE (a), in other words merged into (o).

The merging of long vowels proceeded in the opposite direction PIE (ā) became PG (ō)

In later PG and in separate Germanic languages the vowels displayed a tendency to positional assimilative changes: the pronunciation of a vowel was modified under the influence of the following or preceding consonant; sometimes a vowel was approximated more closely to the following vowels.

 

IE	PG
o	a
ā	ō

The resulting sounds were phonetically conditioned allophones that could eventually coincide with another phoneme or develop into a new phoneme. The earliest instance of assimilation is Germanic Fracture; it occurred in Late PG before its disintegration or a short time after.

Before the nasal (n) and before (i) or (j) in the next syllable

The short IE (e) › PG (e) ›Late PG (i), otherwise IE (e) › PG (e)

Before the nasal (n) and before (u) in the next syllable

The short IE (u) › PG (u), in the absent of these conditions the more open allophone (o) was used.

IE	PG
i, e	i – in a narrow position (before i,j or nasal + a consonant)
i, e	e – in a wide position
o, u	o –in a wide position
o, u	u in a narrow position

 

 

French Borrowings in ME.

It stands to reason that the Norman conquest and the subsequent history of the country left deep traces in the English language, mainly in the form of borrowings in words connected with such spheres of social and political activity where French-speaking Normans had occupied for a long time all places of importance.

For example:

Government and legislative

Government, noble, baron, prince, duke, court, justice, judge, crime, prison, etc.

Military life

Army, battle, peace, banner, victory, general, colonel, lieutenant, major …

Religion

Religion, sermon, prey, saint

City crafts

Painter, tailor, carpenter

Words of everyday life

Air, place, river, large, age, boil, branch, brush, catch, chain,

Relationship

Aunt, uncle, cousin

The place of the French borrowings within the English language was different:

1. A word may be borrowed from the French language to denote notions unknown to the English up to the time: government, parliament, general etc.

2. The English synonym is ousted by the French borrowing.

3. Both the words are preserved, but they area stylistically different.

4. Sometimes the English language borrowed many words with the same word-building affix. The meaning of the affix in this case became clear to the English-speaking people. It entered the system of word-building means of the English language, and they began to add it to English words thus forming word-hybrids. For instance, the suffix –ment entered the language within such words as ‘ government’, ‘parliament’ but later here appeared such English-French hybrids as fulfillment, amazement. The suffix –ance/-ence which was an element of such borrowed words as ‘innocence’, ‘ignorance’, ‘repentance’ now also forms word-hybrids such as hindrance.

5. One of the consequences of the borrowings from French was the appearance of ethymological doublets.

- from the Common Indo-European

- from the Common Germanic

- from Latin

6. Due to the great number of French borrowings there appeared in the English language such families of words, which though similar in their root meaning, are different in origin

7. There are calques on the French phrase.

 

Old Icelandic bera barn

Old High German stelan stal

Quantitative ablaut means the change in length of qualitative one and the same vowel: normal, lengthened and reduced. A classical exa,ple of the Indo European Ablaut is the declension of the Greek word ‘pater’

Pater pater patros

Ablaut in Germanic languages is a further development of Indo-European alterations. Here we often find cases with both the quantitative and qualitative ablaut. It should be also mentioned that in the zero stage before sonorants an extra-short vowel [u]

Quantitative

Goth giman - gums

Qualitative

OHG stelan - stal

Quantitative+ Qualitative

OE findan-fand – fundan

Ablaut as a kind of an internal flexion functioned in OGERMANIC languages both in form- and word-building, but it was the most extensive and systematic in the conjugation of strong verbs.

 

QUALITATIVE CHANGES

Changes of monophthongs

Three long monophthongs underwent changes in Middle English:

periods   sounds	Old English	Middle English	New English
a>o ae>e y>i	stan slaepan fyr	ston slepen fir	stone sleep fire

The rest of the monophthogs presenting their original quality, for example:

 

	Old English	Middle English
e [ ] u [ ] u i	tep top ut time	teeth tooth out time

 

Out of the seven principal OE short monophthongs: a, e, o, i, u, ae, y – two changed their quality in Middle English thus [ae] became [a] and [y] became [i], the rest of the monophthongs remaining unchanged, for example:

 

Old English	Middle English
aet wae first tellan hors singan putan	that was first tellen hors singen putten

 

Changes of diphthongs

All OE diphthongs were contracted (became monophthongs) as at the end of the OE period.

periods   sounds	Old English	Middle English
eo > e ea >e eo >e ea >a	deop bread seofon eald	deep bread seven ald

 

But instead of the former diphthongs that had undergone contraction at the end of the OE period there appeared in Middle English new diphthongs. The new diphthongs sprang into being due to the vocalization of the consonant [j] after the front vowels [e]or [ae] or due to the vocalization of the consonant [ ] or the semi-vowel [w] after the back vowels [o] and [a:].

Thus in Middle English there appeared four new diphthongs: [ai], [ei], [au], [ou].

QUANTITATIVE CHANGES

Besides qualitative changes mentioned above vowels under stress underwent certain changes in quantity.

Lengthening of vowels

Thefist lengthening of vowels took place as early as late OE (9 century). All vowels which occurred before the combinations of consonants such as mb, nd, ld became long.

	Old English	Middle English
[i]>[I:]   [u] > [u:]	Climban Findan Cild   hund	Climben Finden Cild   hound

The second lengthening of vowels took place in Middle English (12 – 13 century). The vowls [a], [o] and [e] were affected by the process. This change can be observed when the given vowels are found in an open syllable.

	Old English	Middle English
a> a e> e o> o	talu sprecan hopian	tale speken hopen

Shortening of vowels

All long vowels were shortened in Middle English if they arefound before two consonants (11 century)

 

Old English	Middle English
cepte wisdom	cepte wisdom

 

Through phonetic processes the lengthening ad the shortening of vowels mentioned above left traces in grammar and wordstock. Due to it vowel interchange developed in many cases between:

-different forms of the same word

different words formed from the same root

 

For instant:

Middle English	[i:] [e:] [i:]	[i] [e] [i]	child kepen wis

 

OE (VII (V) - XI) PERIOD

the period of full endings.

Early OE period (450/700 – Anglo-Saxon conquest): the local regional dialects,

Late OE (700/1066 – the Norman conquest)

 

KINGDOMS AND DIALECTS:

the Jutes (Kent and the Isle of Wight) – the main dialects - Kentish. Kingdom - Kent

The Saxons (the south of the Thames) – the main dialects - West Saxon, East Saxon. Kingdoms – Wessex, Essex, Sussex.

The Angles (north of the Thames) – the main dialects - Anglian, Mercian, Northumbrian. Kingdoms – Anglian, Mercian, Northumbrian

 

ME (XII - XV) PERIOD.

The period of leveled endings.

Early ME period (1066/1350): Britain under the Norman rule. The local dialects were used for oral communication, Scandinavian and French borrowings.

 

Late ME period (1350/1475/1485): the age of Chaucer, the war of the Roses 1455/1485. Restoration of English to the position of state and literary language of the consolidated English nationality. Ruining of the feudal society, the absolute monarchy, development of the capitalist relations. The London dialect.

 

 

Modern E (XV) PERIOD.

The period of lost endings

Early Modern E period ( 1476/1660): from the introduction of printing to the age of Shakespear. The London dialects basis of the growing national literary language. An impression of great freedom of grammatical constructions.

 

Normalization period. Age of Correctness (1660/1800): English spread far beyond the boundaries of the British Isles. The establishment of norms numerous dictionaries and grammar books. The period fixing the pronunciation, new verbal gram categories, syntax

 

Late or Modern English including the pre-sent English (1800) a national language – standard English.

 

Grammar

Nouns. The plurals of nouns generally end in – s or – es. Possessive forms end in – s or – es. There is no apostrophe; possessives are distinguished from plurals by context.

Verbs

The infinitive form ends in – n or – en: e.g. goon, slepen, singen.

In later texts, the – n may disappear.

The – n or – en ending can also indicate a plural form of the verb: e.g. they goon, they slepen, they

singen. In the past tense, the ending may be – n, - en, or – ed.

The – n or – en can also be a past participle (like Modern English eaten). In this case the word will

generally be preceded by a form of have or be, or else it will function as an adjective describing a

noun.

The past tense is generally indicated, as in modern English, with an ending containing – t, - d, or –

ed. Verbs of this type have similar past participle forms. The past tense and past participle may also be indicated by a change in the root vowel of the word, as in Modern English sing, sang, sung. Middle English possessed more verbs of this ‘irregular’ type than

Modern English expressions like ‘if he be’, ‘let him be’, or ‘may he be’, which suggest hypothetical or desirable situations, are indicated by the subjunctive form of the verb, which ends in – e, or – en in the plural. Examples: God yelde yow ‘may God reward you’, if God yelde yow ‘if God rewards you’.

 

 

37. The Structure of the Simple sentence in OE

38. Formation of New short vowels in Mod E

39. The Peculiarities of the Complex Sentence structure in OE and its Historical development.

40. Formation of New Long Vowels in Mod E.

 

 

UMLAUTS

This is a case of regressive assimilation, when the vowelc is changed under the influence of following vowel. We distinguished: I-umlaut (front mutation), and u-umlaut (back mutation).

I-umlaut

The name reflects the two main elements of the change, namely that when there was i, i, or j in the syllable following one that contained a back vowel, then the back vowel was fronted to the equivalent front vowel. Over time i, i, or j disappeared, or changed to e, but their original presence can be established by examining cognate words in other languages. The mutation of the back vowels led to the following results in OE:

aa> ae >e

a >ae

o> e

o >oe> e

u >y

u >y

ea> ie

ea >ie

eo> ie

eo >ie

One important effect of this mutation was the creation of {y} a new, rounded front vowel. Another was that it created differences within the paradigms of both verbs and nouns. For instance, in the nouns some paradigms had formed their plural with an i/j in the inflection ending, and this led to a variation in the stem vowel between the singular and the plural, which is still found in some words as foot/feet, man/men

 

Towards the end of the prehistoric period of OE a change, usually referred to as a BACK MUTATION, (7/8 centuries) occurred, whereby the short front vowels [ae, e, i] were diphthongzed when the back vowels [u, o, a] were present in the following syllable.

i>io

e>eo

ae>ea

This process differs from I-umlaut in three respects:

a) it affected almost exclusively short vowels

b) it affected only front vowels

c) its results are less uniform due to various leveling and further modification as well as to the fact that it was probably not carried out so completely everywhere as the case with I-umlaut.

 

 

42. The Great Vowel Shift

 

43. Common Germanic and classical Old English Phonemic System Compared

 

German: wagon, boy, girl

Indian: bungalow, indigo

Chinese: coolie, tea

Development of vowels in OE

The phonetics of the OE period was characterized by a system of dynamic stress. The fixed stress fell on the 1^st root syllable.

The vowels had the following characteristic features:

i) the quantity and the quality of the vowel depended upon its position in the word. Under stress any vowel could be found, but in unstressed position there were no diphthongs or long monophthongs, but only short vowels a, e, I, o, u.

j) the length of the stressed vowels was phonemic, which means that there could be two words differing only in the length of the vowel.

k) there was an exact parallelism of long and short vowels.

There were the following vowel phonemes in Old English:

Monophthongs: i, i:, y, y:, u, u:, e, e:, o, o:, ae, ae:, a, a:

Diphthongs: eo, eo:, ea, ea:

All the diphthongs were falling diphthongs with the first element stronger than the second, the second element being more open that the first.

OE vowel system classified according to the following principles:

4.According to the place of articulation or to the position of the bulk of the tongue: front, central, back.

5.According to the tongue-high: high, mid, low

6.According to the length: long and short. For every short vowel there was a long vowel.

The Old English vowel system formed on the basis of Common Germanic vowel system and also under the influence of different processes. OS monophthongs are, as a rule, a further development of some Common Germanic monophthongs.

For example

OE [ae] [i] [o]

From Common Germanic [a] [i] [u]

Some OE monophthongs developed from Common Germanic diphthongs

OE [a:]

From Common Germanic [ai]

 

OE diphthongs are a result of some further development of Common Germanic diphthongs, though in the course of history the quality of the diphthong may have undergone a change

OE ceosan ceas

From Common Germanic kiusan kaus

OE short diphthongs originated from monopgthongs

OE eald heorte

From Common Germanic ald herte

Number

The grammatical category of number was formed by the opposition of two category forms: singular and plural.

Case

In the course of the development the original paradigm had undergone great changes due to the fusion of the origin suffix and the origin gram ending into the element which from the point of view of OE is to e regarded as a gram ending. As a result of that fusion nouns that are known to have had different stem-suffixes originally in OE acquired materially different endings in the same case. The original stem suffixes were formed both by vowel and consonants. Thus there were two respective principal groups of declensions in OE: the vowels declension (strong – comprises four principal paradigms: a-stem, o-stem, u-stem i-stem) and the consonant declension (weak – it comprises nouns with the stem originally ending in – n, -r, -s and some other consonants). In rare cases the new forms is constructed by adding the ending directly to the root – so-called root-stem declension.

 

ME dialects.

Dialects of Middle English

Kentish

Southern

Northern

Kentish

Kentish was originally spoken over the whole southeastern part of England, including London and Essex, but during the ME period its area was steadily diminished by the encroachment of the East Midland dialect, especially after London became an East Midland-speaking city; in late ME the Kentish dialect was confined to Kent and Sussex. In the Early Modern period, after the London dialect had begun to replace the dialects of neighboring areas, Kentish died out, leaving no descendants.

Southern

The Southern dialect of ME was spoken in the area west of Sussex and south and southwest of the Thames. It was the direct descendant of the West Saxon dialect of OE, which was the colloquial basis for the Anglo-Saxon court dialect of OE. Southern ME is a conservative dialect, which shows little influence from other l-ges – most importantly, no Scandinavian influence. Descendants of Southern ME still survive in the working-class country dialects of the extreme southwest of England.

Northern

The inflectional systems of Northern ME nouns and verbs were already sharply reduced by 1300, and its syntax is also innovative. These developments were probably the result of Scandinavian influence. When the descendants of King Alfred the Great of Wessex reconquered those areas, the Scandinavian settlers, who spoke Old Norse, were obliged to learn Old English. But in some areas their settlements had so completely displaced the preexisting English settlements that they cannot have had sufficient contact with native speakers of OE to learn the l-ge well. They learned it badly, carrying over into their English various features of Norse, and also producing a simplified syntax that was neither good English nor good Norse.

Number

The grammatical category of number was formed by the opposition of two category forms: singular and plural.

Case

In the course of the development the original paradigm had undergone great changes due to the fusion of the origin suffix and the origin gram ending into the element which from the point of view of OE is to e regarded as a gram ending. As a result of that fusion nouns that are known to have had different stem-suffixes originally in OE acquired materially different endings in the same case. The original stem suffixes were formed both by vowel and consonants. Thus there were two respective principal groups of declensions in OE: the vowels declension (strong – comprises four principal paradigms: a-stem, o-stem, u-stem i-stem) and the consonant declension (weak – it comprises nouns with the stem originally ending in – n, -r, -s and some other consonants). In rare cases the new forms is constructed by adding the ending directly to the root – so-called root-stem declension.

 

 

58. Development of perfect forms in English

 

The pronoun in OE

There were the following classes of pronouns in OE: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative, relative and indefinite. The system of declension was not the same for all the classes. It has at least two subsystems that should be singled out: the declension of personal pronouns on the one hand and the declension of other pronouns. Although the grammatical categories of each subsystem were the same (gender, number, case, the number of the categorial forms composing those categories was different.)

The personal pronouns

Gender

3 genders could be distinguished in the prominal paradigm: masculine, feminine, neuter, but different forms for different gender were found only in the 3^rd person sing, the rest of the forms being indifferent to gender.

Number

The category of number differs from that of the noun as in the1st and 2^nd person we find 3 categories forms: sing, dual, plural.

Case

The category of case is built up by the opposition of four categorial forms: Niminative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative.

 

Other pronouns

All OE pronounbs with exception of personal pronouns were declined almost aloke. They expresse the grammatical categories of gender (3 forms), number (2 forms) and case, which was built up by 5 categorial forms: the Niminative, the Accusative, The Dative, the Genitive and the Instrumental, dufferent from the Dative only in the Sing.

 

60. Development of continious aspect in English

The adjective in OE

The paradigm of the adjective is similar to that of the noun and the pronoun. The grammatical category of case was built up by 5 forms: the Nominative, the Accusative, the Dative, the Genitive and the Instrumental.

There were 2 was of declining Adjectives – the Definite and the Indefinite declension. The adjective followed the Definite declension mainly if the noun if modified had another attribute – a demonstrative pronoun, and they were declined as Indefinite otherwise. The gram suffixed – forms of cases mainly coincided with those of nouns with the stem originally ending in a vowel or –n, yet in some cases we find pronominal suffixes.

Degrees of comparison

The Adjective in OE changed its forms not only to show the relation of the given adjective to other words in the sentence which was expressed by the gender; number and case of the adjective, but also to show the degree of the quality denoted by the adjective. The degrees of comparison were expressed, the same as all gram notions:

- by means of suffixation

- by mean of vowel gradation +suffixation

- by means of suppletive forms.

Both suffixation and the use of suppletive forms in the formation of the degrees of comparison are origin means that can be traced back to Common Germanic. But the used of vowel interchanged is a feature which is typical of the English language only and was acquired by the language in the prehistoric period of its development.

62. Development of future and passive in English

63. Nominal grammatical categories in OE and their historical development

64.

STRONG VERBS.

Classes of the strong verbs: In New English the original regularity that was observed in the group of strong verbs in OE and partly in Middle English is no longer felt due to the following:

3) splitting of original classes in to subclasses;

4) some strong verbs of one class entering another class;

5) passing of some strong verbs into the group of weak verbs and vice versa.

6) But some weak verbs acquired only some features of the strong verbs, like the OE weak verb sceawian – Modern English show, shoed, but shown

The strong verbs in OE had four forms. In Middle English they exhibited a marked tendency to have the same vowel in both the forms of the past tense, thus gradually reducing the number of the principal forms to three. In New English we have only three principal forms in verbs originally belonging to the group of strong verbs: write – wrote – written.

WEAK VERBS

Weak verbs were becoming more and more numerous, as they not only preserved in Middle English and New English almost all the verbs that were typical of the group in OE, but also added to their group the majority of borrowed verbs and about seventy verbs originally strong, and also such verbs as:

To call

To want Scan borrowings

To guess

 

To pierce

To punish French

To finish

 

To contribute

To create Latin

To distribute

Alike strong verbs many weak verbs became irregular in the course of history, especially weak verbs of the 1^st class. This irregularity was mainly conditioned by qualitative and quantitative changes that many weak verbs underwent in Middle English and New English. The OE weak verbs of the 1^st class became irregular due to the quantitative change - shortening of the vowel in the second and third forms in Middle English. This quantitative interchange was followed by qualitative in New English after the Great Vowel Shift.

Classes of the weak verbs.

In OE there were two principal classes of the weak verbs. Later some verbs did not become irregular lost the class difference and we have but one class of verbs going back mainly to the weak verbs of the second class.

Forms of the weak verbs

In OE there were 3 principal forms of the weak verbs. In Early New English, with the loss of the final –e in the second form the second and the third form became homonymous, thus we speak of three principal forms of such verbs as to love or to keep mainly on analogy with original strong verbs, and also because of the existing tradition as no Modern English regular verb, originally belonging to the weak conjugation, shows any trace of difference between the second and third forms. In New English due to different phonetic processes and changes on analogy the two principal groups of verbs that existed in OE, strong and weak, gave us two principal groups of Modern verbs: regular and irregular, neither of which is directly derived from either of the OE groups of strong and weak verbs.

Origin of modern irregular verbs

In OE most verbs were regular, although there were a number of irregular ones. In Middle English not only the few OE irregular verbs were preserved, but also new irregular verbs appeared. This was due to the disappearance of the division of verbs into strong and weak (most strong verbs losing their regular pattern of conjugation and thus becoming irregular). Another source of irregular verbs was the 1^st class of weak verbs the irregularity of which was due to several reasons.

We can show three groups of verbs originally belonging to the 1^st class of weak verbs, which later became irregular:

a) verbs with a long root vowel, the root ending in –t, or –d; (OE metan – mette – mett = New E meet – met - met)

b) verbs with a long root vowel, the root ending in a consonant other than –t or –d; (cepan – cepte – cept = keep – kept – kept)

c) verbs with a short root vowel, the root ending in –t, or – d (settan – sette – sett = set – set - set).

 

Even in the 2^nd class of weak verbs examples of irregularity can be found. OE macian – macode – macod = New Engl make – made - made

The middle syllable of the 2^nd and 3^rd forms was lost, making the verb irregular. Still another source of irregular verbs may be found in some loan words borrowed into the language in Middle English and New English. Although most borrowed verbs formed their forms in accordance with the weak verbs of the 2^nd class, some of them are irregular.

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF THE ENGLISH VERB

In OE the verb had four categories: person, number, tense and mood.

In Middle and New English there gradually developed three more grammatical categories – order, voice and aspect. These gram categories used a new gram means for the formation, namely, analytical. These analytical forms developed from free word combinations of the OE verbs habban, / beaon/wesan + an infinitive. The way of the formation of those analytical forms was the following:

In the free word combination habban, / beaon/wesan + an infinitive the 1^st element was gradually losing its lexical meaning, and the 2^nd – its gram one, thus tending to become notinally and gram inseparable, idiomatic.

The category of order aws the oldest, formed already in Middle English from the OE free combination habban, / beaon/wesan + participle.

The same idea of order is sometimes still expressed with the help of the combination to be + participle.

The category of aspect was formed on the basis of the free combination of ben + present participle

The gram categories of tense and mood which existed in OE acquired new categorical forms.

The OE present and past tense forms were supplemented with a special form for the future tense which appeared in Middle English out of the free combination of the OE modal verbs sculan and willan with the infinitive. This free combination of words was split into two groups: in the 1^st, remaining free, the modal meaning is preserved:

You shall do it – necessity

I will do it – volition

In the second the independent meaning is lost and the fixed word combination is perceived as the future tense form: I shall go there / You will go there.

The category of mood in OE was represented by three mood forms, one for each of the moods (indicative, subjunctive and imperative). The subjunctive in OE did not show whether the events were probably or contrary to fact, but it had two tense forms – past and present, which in the course of history developed into two subjunctive moods:

I be present – out of the OE present tense form of the subjunctive mood

I were present – our of the OE past tense form of the subjunctive mood.

The difference between these two subjunctive moods now is in the shade of probability, and not in the tense, the second one denoting events which are contrary to fact.

In addition to that at the end of Middle English two more subjunctive mood forms appeared making use of the analytical form building means:

 

PERSON

There were three persons in OE: 1, 2, 3.

But we have distinct person forms only in the Indicative mood, the Imperative and the Oblique mood forms reflecting no person differences and even the Indicative mood forms changing for person only in Singular, the plural forms being the same irrespective of person.

NUMBER

The grammatical category of number was built up by the opposition of two number forms – Singular and Plural

Ic write (singular)

We writa.. (plural)

TENSE

The grammatical category of tense was represented by two forms: Present and Past tenses. There was no Future tense, future events were expressed with the help of a present tense verb + an adverb denoting futurity or by a combination of a modal verb (generally sculan or willan + an Infinitive).

MOOD

There were three mood forms in OE: Indicative, Imperative and Oblique. The indicative Mood and the Imperative were used in cases similar to those in which they are used now. But the Oblique mood in OE differed greatly from the corresponding mood in New English. There was only one mood form in OE that was used both to express events that are thought of as unreal or as problematic – today there are two mood forms to denote those two different kinds of events, conventionally called the Subjunctive and the Conjunctive. The forms of the Oblique Mood were also sometimes used in contexts for which now the Indicative mood would be more suitable – to present events in the so-called “Indirect speech”.

 

67. Formation of new long vowels in Mod E

 

Strong verbs in OE

The strong verbs are verbs which use vowel-interchange as the principal means of expressing different grammatical categories. They differ from weak ones not only in the manner of the building of their forms but also in the number of these principal forms. The strong verbs have four principal forms, the weak ones – three principal forms. This vowel interchange or ablaut which was the principal grammatical means in the conjugation of the OE strong verbs as of two kinds: qualitative and quantitative.

The 1^st 5 classes are mainly based on the qualitative ablaut, the 6^th – on the quantitative ablaut, verbs of the 7^th class originally formed their principal forms by means of the so-called reduplication of the root syllable, but in the course of the development of the language that means was obliterated.

Classes of the strong verbs

In the 1^st class of the strong verbs the vowel of gradation was followed by the vowel – i, in the 2^nd – by the vowel u, in the 3d, 4^th, 5^th – by a sonorous consonant + another consonant, by one sonorous consonant or by a noise consonant. The root of the verbs of the 6^th class consisted of consonants, and the purely quantitative vowel interchanged of prehistoric times developed into a quantitative and qualitative one. The verbs of 7^th class show traces of the original reduplication (addition of an extra syllable including the initial consonant of the infinitive and having the vowels –e or eo in the past singular and plural)

 

69. Development of vowels in unstressed syllable in OE, ME, early New English

 

Weak verbs in OE

The Old English weak verbs are relatively younger than the strong verbs. They reflect a later stage in the development of Germanic languages.

They were an open class in OE, as new verbs that entered the language generally formed their forms on analogy with the weak verbs. Whereas the strong verbs used vowel-interchanged as a means of differentiation among principal verbs stems, the weak verbs used for that purpose suffixation, namely, suffixes –t, or –d. For example: cepan – cepte – cept

The weak verbs had a stem-forming suffix that followed the root and preceded the grammatical ending. Classes of the weak verbs.

In accordance with the character of the stem-suffix the weak verbs are subdivided into three classes. If the English strong verbs had four principal forms, the English weak verbs had three principal forms.

OE vocabulary

The vocabulary of OE was rather extensive. It is said to have contained about 50 000 words. These words were mainly native words. They could be divided into a number of strata. The oldest stratum was composed of words coming from the Common Indo-European parent tongue.

Many of these words were inherited by English together with some other Indo-European languages from the same common source, and we shall find related words in various Indo-European languages.

OE NE Latin russian

Modor mother mater мать

Niht night nox ночь

Another layer, relatively more recent, was words inherited by English and other Germanic languages from the same common Germanic source. You will find them in many languages, but only those belonging to the Germanic group.

The third stratum and that not very extensive, was made up of words that existed only in English, for instance, the word clypian to call, the root preserved in the now somewhat obsolete word yclept named

The vocabulary was changing all the time, old words becoming extinct and new words entering the language, enriching it.

As it known, there are two principal ways of enriching the vocabulary of a language: internal means – those that are inherent in the language itself, and external means, which result from contacts between people. The English-speaking people of the period mainly used internal means of enriching the vocabulary to adapr their language to the expression of more varied or new notions.

 

77. Simplification of Consonant cluster in Md E

78. The structure of the word in OE, its previous and subsequent stages

79. Historical development of Analytical forms of the verb in English.

The Non-finite forms of the verb in OE and their further development.

The verb system in OE was represented by two sets of forms: the finitive of the verb and the non-finitive forms of the verb. Those two types of forms differed more than they do today from the point of view of their respective grammatical categories, as the verbals at that historical period were not conjugated like the verb proper, but were declined like nouns or adjectives. Thus the infinitive could have two case-forms, which may conventionally be called the “Common” case and the “Dative” case.

The Non-finite forms are: the Infinitive and the two Participles.

1. The Infinitive. There are two infinitive forms: one of them is called the dative Infinitive(the Indo-European infinitive had been a declinable noun). This infinitive is preceded by to and has the ending –anne; it is used in independent syntactic positions, mainly as adverbial modifier of purpose, but also as subject and predicative. The infinitive with the ending –an functions, as a rule, in combination with preterite-present verbs and in other verbal collocations.

2. Participle I. Has the ending –ende and is declined as a weak adjective. It is used attributively (in pre- and post-position) and predicative.

3. Participle II. Has the ending –n or –ed, -od, accordin g to the type of verb (strong or weak). It is declined as adjective (according both to the strong and the weak pattern) and is used mainly as attribute and predicative.

 

A comparison of the verbals in OE and in Middle and New English shows that the number of verbals in OE was less than that in Middle English and New. At the end of the ME period a new verbal developed – the GERUND. In addition to the Infinitive and the Participle. The Gerund appeared as a result of a blend between the OE Present Participle ending in “-ende” and the OE Verbal noun ending in “-ing”. From the Verbal noun the Gerund acquired the form, but under the influence of the Participle it became more “verbal” in meaning. In the course of history the Infinitive (already at the end of the OE period) and the Participle (in Middle English) lost their declension. And at the end of the ME and in New English they acquired elements of conjugation – the grammatical categories of order and voice. The OE preposition to preceding the dative case of the infinitive loses its independent meaning and functions simply as a grammatical particle showing that the Verbal is an Infinitive.

 

1. Categories of the Verb in ME

ME is the period of the leveling of endings. For this reason, many earlier distinctions disappear; the productive types absorb the more archaic ones and those which are less productive.

The verb.

The strong verbs have leveled the vowel of the preterite singular and there is a tendency towards merging of the preterite singular and plural in the 4^th and 5^th classes; sometimes the vowel of preterite plural is analogical to that of participle II.

The productive weak type is formed by the merging of the 2^nd class and some verbs of the 1^st class; the endings are –ed, -de. The irregular verbs still form a group apart. The preterite-present verbs are grouped in the same way, as in OE except that schal, scholde may function as auxiliaries of the future tense and subjunctive forms respectively.

The Substantive Verb. The suppletive forms of the substantive verb show a slightly different distribution: the present subjunctive is represented only by be- forms.