Old English

Bright's Old English grammar & reader

Third edition

second corrected printing

F.G. Casidy

Richard N. Ringler

Library of Congress Catalog Card number: 76-179921 ISBN0_03_084713_3 printed in the united states of america 1234567890 038 0987

ⅶ ⅷ ⅸ ⅹ

Note to the second Printing

In this reprinting a substantial number of errors have been corrected and a few changes have been made in the explanatory notes to the texts. We wish to thank colleagues who took the trouble to notify us of errors or to disagree with our opinions. We hope that they will apprise us of any further errors remaining in this printing

Through inadvertance on our part, the Preface omits to mention two debts of gratitude: to our editrix Priscilla Van Haverbeke of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, without whose energetic attentions this book would be much less satisfactory; and to Lindsay Holichek, who helped us in the time-consuming task of proofreading the Glossary.

F. G. C.
R.N.R.

Madison, Wisconsin
January 1974

Abbreviations

acc.	accusative	A.D.	Anno Domini	adj(s).	adjective(s).	ad loc.	ad locum, i.e. to the place (cited).	adv.	adverb; adverbial	Ang.	Anglian
Anm.	Anmerkung, i.e. note	A-SE	Sir Frank Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford 1971).	ASPR	The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records: a collective Edition, ed. George Philip Krapp and Elliot Van Kirk Dobbie, 6 vol. (New York 1931-53).	B	Dorothy Bethuru, ed., The Homilies of Wulfstan (Oxford 1975)	Brit.	British.	BT	Bosworth-Toller, i.e. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth. .., ed. and enlarged by T. Northcote Toller....(Oxford 1898)
BTS	Bosworth-Toller Supplement, i.e. T. Northcote Toller, Supplement to An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Based on the Manuscript Collections of the Late Joseph Bosworth. (Oxford 1921)	c	circa, i.e. about, approximately	Campbell	A. Campbell, Old English Grammar , reprinted....from corrected sheets of the first [1959] edition (Oxford 1962).	cf.	confer, i.e. compare.	cogn.	cognate with.	col.	column.
comp.	comparative.	CVC	Cleasby-Vigfusson-Craigie, i.e. An Icelandic-English Dictionary, initiated by Richard Cleasby, subsequently, revised, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson, M.A., 2nd ed. with a Supplement by Sir William A. Craigie....(Oxford 1957).	d.	died.	del.	delete.	dat.	dative.	d.o.	direct object.
ed.	edited by.	ed. cit.	editione citata, i.e. in the edition cited.	eds.	editors	EEMSF	Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile.	EETS	Early English Text Society.	e.g.	exempli gratia, i.e. for example.
EGmc	East Germanic.	EGS	English and Germanic Studies.	EHD	English Historical Documents, Ⅰ: c540 - 1042 , ed. Dorothy Whitelock (London 1955).	Ericson	Eston Everett Ericson, The Use of Swa in Old English, Hesperia Ⅻ (Göttingen 1932).	esp.	especially.	etc.	et cetera.
EWS	Early West Saxon.	f.	and [the page or line] following.	Farr	James Marion Farr, Intensives and Reflexives in Anglo-Saxon and Early Middle English (Baltimore 1905).	fem.	feminine.	ff.	and [the pages or lines] following.	fol(s).	folio(s).
gen.	genitive.	Ger.	German.	GK	Grein-Köhler, i.e. C.W.M. Grein, Sprachschatz der Angelsächischen Dichter..., neu herausgegeben von J.J. Köhler (Heidelberg 1912).	Gmc.	Germanic.	Gr.	Greek.	IE	Indo-European.
i.e.	id est, that is, to wit.	Íf	Íslenzk fornrit.	ind.	indirect	indef.	indefinite.	indic.	indicative.	inf.	infinitive.
inst.	instrumental.	IPA	International Phonetic Association.	JEGP	Journal of English and Germanic Philology.	K	Kentish.	Ker	N.R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon(Oxford 1957).	l.	line.
Lat.	Latin.	lit.	literally.	ll.	lines.	LWS	Late West Saxon.	MÆ	Medium Ævum	masc.	masculine.
ME	Middle English	MLN	Modern Language Notes.	MLR	Modern Language Review.	MnDan	Modern Danish.	MnE	Modern English.	MnGer	Modern German.
MnNor	Modern Norwegian.	Mossé	Fernand Mossé, Manuel dee l'Anglais du Moyen Âge, I (Vieil-Anglais), Paris 1950.	MS	Medieval Studies	MS(S)	manuscript(s).	MW	Magoun-Walker, i.e. F.P. Magoun, Jr. and J.A. Walker, An Old-English Anthology: Translations of Old-English Prose and Verse (Dubuque 1950).	n.	note.
neut.	neuter.	NGmc	North Germanic.	NM	Neuphilologische Mitteilungen.	nom.	nominative.	OE	Old English.	OF	Old Frisian.
OHG	Old High German.	ON	Old Norse.	op.cit.	opere citato, i.e. in the work cited.	OS	Old Saxon	p.	page.	PBA	Proceedings of the British Academy.
pl.	plural.	PL	Patrologia Latina.	Plumber¹	Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. Charles Plummer, 2 vols. (Oxford 1892-9); reprinted 1952 with additional material by Dorothy Whitelock.	Plumber²	Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica. ed. Carolus Plumer. 2 vols. (Oxford 1896).	PMLA	Publications of the Modern Language Association.	Pope¹	John Collins Pope, The Rhythm of Beowulf, revised edition (New Haven 1966).
Pope²	Seven Old English Poems, ed. John C. Pope (Indianapolis 1966).	Pope³	Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, ed. John C. Pope, EETS, 259-60(1967-8).	pp.	pages.	PrehOE	Prehistoric OE	pret.	preterit.	PrGmc	Primitive Germanic.
pron.	pronoun.	PrON	Primitive Old Norse.	q.v.	quode vide, i.e. which see.	QW	Quirk-Wrenn, i.e. Randolph Quirk and C.L. Wrenn, An Old English Grammar, 2nd ed. (London 1958).	r	recto, i.e. on the front (of an MS leaf).	refl.	reflexive.
rel.	relative.	RES	Review of Engish Studies.	SB	Sievers-Brunner, i.e. Karl Brunner, Altenglische Grammatik nach der Angelsächsischen Grammatik von Eduard Sievers, 3rd ed. (Tübingen 1965).	sc.	scilicet, i.e. to wit (used before a word that is to be supplied or understood).	sg.	singular.	Sisam	Kenneth Sisam, Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford 1953).
Skt	Sanskrit.	SN	Studia Neophilologica.	SP	Studies in Philology.	Sprockel	C. Sprockel,The Language of the Parker Chronicle, I (The Hague 1965).	SS.	Saints.	St.	Saint.
subj.	subjunctive.	s.v.	sub verbo, i.e. under the word (in question).	Sweet¹⁴	Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, 14th ed., rev. C.T. Onions (Oxford 1959).	Sweet¹⁵	Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse, 15th ed., rev. Dorothy Whitelock (Oxford 1967).	US	Unites States.	v	verso, i.e. on the back (of an MS leaf).
Voges	F. Voges, "Der Reflexive Dativ im Englischen," Anglia, VI (1883), 317-374.	W	Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, ed. Dorothy Whitelock, (London 1963).	WGmc	West Germanic.	WS	West Saxon.	Wrenn	C.L. Wrenn, A Study of Old English Literature(London 1967).	Wülfing	J. Ernst Wülfing, Die Syntax in den Werken Alfreds des Grossen, 2 vols. (Bonn 1894-1901).
ZfdA	Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum.

xi xii xiii xiv ⅺ ⅻ ⅹⅲ ⅹⅳ

Gramar

Chapter 1

The Place of Old English

1.1. Scholars of the English language divide it for historical treatment into three stages:

Though These dates are set up partly for convenience, they nevertheless reflect a linguistic reality: by each of the boundary times, 1100 and 1500, the accumulation of gradual changes has become so considerable that in each case the language is clearly seen to have entered a new phase.

1.2. In its earliest phase one cannot even properly speak of the language as "English"; it was a collection of dialects brought over to Britain from the continent by Germanic invaders (the familiar Angles, Saxons, and Jutes²). These dialects were members of the Germanic (Gmc) branch of Indo-European (IE), the "family" to which most present European languages belong. The history of Old English cannot be fully understood unless its Gmc and IE connections are recognized. The accompanying Diagram 1 shows how the chief members of the IE family are related to one another:

"Satem languages"³: Indo-Iranian; Armenian; (Thracian); Albanian; Balto-Slavic
"Centum languages"³: Tocharian; Anatolian; Hellenic; Italic; Celtic; (Illyrian); Germanic

1.3 Since the Gmc branch is at the center of our present interest, it needs to be seen in fuller detail than the others (Diagram 2):

East Germanic (EGmc): Gothic
North Germanic (NGmc): Old Norse (ON); Icelandic; Norwegian; Danish; Swedish
West Germanic (WGmc): Old High German (OHG); Old English (OE); Old Frisian (OF); Old Low German

Language Relationships

1.4. A word in any language which can be shown to have descended from the same source as one in another language is said to be cognate⁴ with it. For Example, the English word bear, carry, is descended from OE beran, which is cognate within the Gmc branch with OS and OHG beran, ON bera, and Gothic bairan, all having the same meaning. Scholars have hypothesized a common Primitive Germanic (PrGmc) source for or base *ber-⁵ from which all of these could have developed regularly. These Gmc forms are in turn cognate with forms from other IE branches: Latin ƒer- (Italic branch), Greek φερ- (Hellenic branch), Sanskrit bhar- (Indo-Iranian branch). And in turn an IE base *bher- is hypothesized from which all the historically attested forms in the various branches could have developed regularly.

1.5. Generally speaking, the farther apart two languages are in time and/or space, the less alike their cognate forms will look. The preceding diagrams suggest a much nearer relationship between OE and ON than between either of these languages and Latin, and a comparison of cognate forms in the three languages bears out this conclusion:

Lat. pecus, ON ƒé, OE ƒeoh (MnE fee)
Lat. quod, ON hvat, OE hwæt, (MnE what)

It is not often that a series of cognates from distantly related languages shows consistently similar forms, but consider the case of the humble mouse: OE mūs, Old Irish mús, Lat. mūs, Gr. μυς, Skt. mūš, all going back to an IE base *mūs-.

1.6. What we know of these complex interrelationships is the product of Comparative Indo-European Philology, a study which has occupied many of the greatest language scholars since the late eighteenth century. The plentiful remains preserved in OE were of considerable value in working out the details of the Gmc branch, hence also the larger scheme of IE. Old English, then, should be seen in its historical context, not only as the earliest phase of the present English language, but also as a member of the Gmc branch, and in relation to the other IE languages. (No systematic account of IE or of Gmc will be given in this book, however.)

1.7. Because of the paucity of documents surviving in the other OE dialects, all introductory study of the language is based on West Saxon (WS), the language of King Ælfred the Great (reigned 871-899) and of the writers who followed him until the Norman Conquest.⁶ Hence the texts in this book are WS, as is also the outline of grammar. Even a cursory inspection of the texts will show, however, that the usage and spelling of Ælfred's time differed considerably from those of the time of Ælfric (c955-c1012), about a century later. It is therefore necessary to distinguish between Early West Saxon (EWS), which is presented in the grammar and exemplified in texts 1, 2, 7, and 8, and Late West Saxon (LWS), which is exemplified in texts 11, 12, 13, and 14.

1.8. Though many changes have come into the language as OE has developed through ME to MnE, there has always been a high degree of continuity. The impression of strangeness which one receives at the first sight of an OE text is therefore somewhat misleading. It results largely from the presence of three unfamiliar symbols (þ, ð, and æ) and a number of unfamiliar clusters of otherwise familiar symbols (hw-, -cg, -sc, etc.). Most of these represent sounds still present in MnE though now spelled differently. For example, OE pæð is the familiar MnE path and sounded the same in OE as it does for most speakers today. As soon as these OE spellings become familiar the text will no longer have the look of a foreign language. One will begin to discover, in fact, that a great many OE words or word bases can be recognized by their MnE descendants.

Vocabulary

1.9. Vocabulary-counts of present day English have shown that, of the 1000 words most frequently used, about 83 percent are of OE origin. The proportion decreases rapidly in the less frequent thousands but remains throughout at about 30 percent despite the large number of non-English words that have been borrowed down through the centuries.⁷

1.10. Similar word-counts of the OE poetic vocabulary⁸ test this continuity in the other direction: of the 1000 most frequently used words, fully 55 percent have survived into recognizable form into MnE, and of the 100 most frequent, 76 percent have survived.

1.11. Analyzing only this last group, the one hundred or so most frequently used words in OE poetry, we find the following:

NOUNS	:	Surviving into MnE with little or no change in form or meaning (about 40 percent)	god, mann, heoƒon, eorðe, weorold, līƒ, luƒu, word, weorc, dæg, hand, cynn, riht, þanc, engel,	God man heaven earth world life love word work day hand kin right thank angel
		With greater change in form or meaning (about 30 percent)	cyning, mōd, (mood), ƒolc, (folk), mynd, (mind), dōm, (doom), ƒēond, (fiend), ƒæsten, (fastness), gāst, (ghost), sōþ, (sooth), burg, (borough),	king courage people memory judgement enemy fortification spirit truth walled town
		With no Standard English descendant (about 30 percent)	dryhten, hyge, rīce, þēod, wuldor, æðeling, scop, līc, ƒeorh, wer	lord, mind, thought dominion (cogn. Ger. Reich) people, nation glory nobleman, prince poet, singer body, corpse life man (cogn. Lat. vir)
PRONOUNS	:	Surviving with little change (about 80 percent)	ic, þū, hē, hit, þæt, hwā, hwæt, þis, selƒ, hwelc	I thou he it that who what this self, same which
		Essentially different forms (about 20 percent)	hēo, sē,sēo þēs, þēos	she the this
VERBS	:	Surviving with little change of the base form or of meaning (about 35 percent)	sittan, sēcan, healdan, beran, gieƒan, cuman, sēon, bēon, wæs, dōn, dyde,	sit seek hold bear give come see be, was do, did
		Surviving with considerable change (about 46 percent)	wieldan, (wield), habban, hæƒde, mæg, meahte, willan, wolde, sculan, sceolde, mōtan, mōste, āgan, secgan, ƒaran, (fare), cunnan, cūðe, (can, couth), cweðan, cwæð, (quoth), scieppan, (shape),	control have, had may, might will, would shall, should be able, must own say journey, travel know say, said create
		Not surviving in Mn Standard English (about 18 percent)	hātan, hātte, (ME hight), weorðan, (ME worth), beorgan, witan, (wit), munan,	be called become protect know remember
ADJECTIVES	:	Surviving with little change (about 57 percent)	gōd, wīd, ƒæst, hālig, rīce, ān, nān, hēah, hīerra, hīehst, micel, māra, mǣst,	good wide fast holy rich one, none high, -er, -est much, more, most
		Surviving with considerable change (about 14 percent)	swelc, lēoƒ, (lieve),	such beloved
		Not surviving in Mn Standard English (about 29 percent)	ēce, swīð, æðele, eƒt,	eternal strong noble (cogn. Ger. edel) later
ADVERBS	:	Surviving with little change (about 53 percent)	tō, eall swā, þǣr, þanne, nū, ǣr, wīde,	too all so, as there then now ere, before widely
		Surviving with considerable change (about 27 percent)	ēac, (eke), swelce, (so-like), ā, nā, gelīc,	also likewise aye; never, not at all like
		Not surviving in MnE	ne, þā, swīðe,	not, neither then, when very, extremely
PREPOSITIONS	:	Surviving with little change (about 82 percent)	in, on, tō, ƒor, oƒer under æƒter, æt, þurh,	in, on in, on to, toward for over under after at through
		Surviving with changed meaning (about 9 percent)	wið, (with),	against, opposite
		Not surviving in MnE	mid,	with, accompanying (cogn. Ger. mit)
CONJUNCTIONS	:	Surviving with little change (about 75 percent)	and, ond, giƒ, þēah,	and if though
		Not surviving	ac,	but

1.12. In sum, it should be evident that there is a considerable degree of continuity in the core of the English vocabulary between OE times and the present. The enormous increase in the number of words has been due to addition rather than to wholesale replacement. In any present-day use of English the ancient native element is virtually inescapable and stays normally at the center. Almost all our MnE function-words (prepositions, conjunctions, articles) are from OE, as also the pronouns, numerals, and auxiliary verbs. Thus even if a writer today were to avoid the native nouns, verbs, adectives, and adverbs, using borrowed ones instead, the structural framework of most sentences would remain Anglo-Saxon. The first sentence of this paragraph (a random example which was not written to be used as such) would look like this if only the native words were retained and the others deleted:

In _____, it should be _____ that there is a _____ of _____ in the _____ of the English _____ between OE times and the _____.

More than 77 percent of the words in this sentence are native. The others are from Latin, directly or through French.

FOOTNOTES

¹"Anglo-Saxon" is properly used of the people, their history, their literature, and frequently of their language. "Old English" specifically refers to the language, or to the literature written in it.

²So named by the Venerable Bede. Precisely who the "Jutes" were is not known; they can hardly have been from present Jutland. Scholarly opinion now inclines to identify them with the Frisians.

³IE languages have been broadly divided into centum [kɛntum] and satem [satɛm] (the Latin and the Avestan words for "one hundred"), indicating that a k sound found in languages of the first group was palatalized to an s or similar sound in languages of the second. This does not however reflect any basic split within the IE family. (For items in parentheses the evidence is not conclusive.)

⁴Lat co-gnatus "of common origin," sprung from the same stock. To be properly called cognate, two words must share a common ancestor. If one is the source of the other the relationship is different. For example, MnE garage is a loanword (borrowing) from MnFrench.

⁵Hypothetical or reconstructed forms are regularly preceded by an asterisk (*) to distinguish them from historically recorded or attested forms.

⁶West-Saxon was spoken in southwestern England (south of the Thames and west of Kent), Other dialects were Kentish (in Kent and adjoining parts of Sussex and Surry) and the Anglian dialects, which included Northumbrian (northward from the Humber to Scotland) and Mercian (between the Thames and the Humber - the large midland area). King Ælfred's capital was at Winchester (the "Casterbridge" of Thomas Hardy's novels).

⁷A. H. Roberts, A Statistical Analysis of American English, The Hague (Mouton) 1965, p. 37.

⁸J. F. Madden and F. P. Magoun, Jr., A Grouped Frequency Word-List of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Dept. Of English, Harvard University, 1960.

Chapter 2

Speech Sounds

2.1. In order to understand how OE was pronounced and how certain OE sounds changed before, during, and after the OE period, it is necessary to know the basic principles of phonetics, the science of speech sounds. How the sounds of speech are produced, what kinds there are, how they affect each other, how and why they change - these are the questions that need to be answered. The following brief account will touch only on features relevant to OE.

Speech Production

2.2. The sounds of speech are produced by air expelled from the lungs and modified variously by organs in the throat, the mouth passage, and the nose passage. The air leaves the lungs through the trachea or windpipe but produces no sounds before entering the larynx ("Adam's apple," the cartilaginous "box" at the top of the trachea). In the larynx the air meets two membranes (vocal cords, bands, or folds) which are attached along its inner sides from front to back. When stretched, these membranes draw together, closing the air passage or leaving only a slit between; when relaxed, they leave a wide opening. (This passage between the vocal cords is called the glottis.) The air coming from the lungs, when impeded by the vocal cords, causes them to vibrate, producing the sound called voice. But when the cords are relaxed and the glottis is open, the air is unimpeded and produces no vibration, hence no sound. All speech sounds are either voiced to some degree or voiceless. In the latter, the sound we hear is produced somewhere above the vocal cords (in the throat, mouth, or nasal passage).

Consonants and Vowels

2.3. When the air from the lungs enters the mouth passage (oral cavity) it may produce sounds of two main types: if it is shut off at some point and then suddenly released, an explosive or stop sound is produced - for example, [k]. However, if it encounters such a narrow aperture that, in forcing its way through, the friction becomes audible a spirant (or fricative) sound is produced - for example, [s]. Sounds made in either of these ways, or by impeding the breath in other ways, are consonants. Consonants accompanied by vocal cord vibration are voiced; others are voiceless.

2.4. When air from the lungs, after producing vibration in the larynx, encounters no stoppage or constriction in the throat or mouth but passes freely through, vowels are produced. The difference in the quality of vowels (for example the audible difference between [o] and [u]) is due to modifications made in the shape of the oral cavity, tongue position, and action of the lips as the breath passes through. (Pronounce the vowels of toe and too, noting the differences in each of these three factors.) Vowels, as their name implies, are voiced.

Classifying Consonants

2.5. Consonants are classified by three factors taken together:

presence or absence of voice
the organ or organs chiefly involved in producing them,
their type - stop, spirant, etc.

Organs involved in producing the consonants, in addition to the larynx, are:

Usually the tongue articulates with one or more of these organs, either pressing against it or coming close enough to form a narrow aperture with it. The areas of the tongue which do this are the tip, the blade(behind the tip), and the back.

2.6. In addition to stops and spirants, already described, the class of consonants includes:

2.7. The accopanying Diagra 3 shows the consonants of OE and MnE. The sounds of these consonants are given in the symbols of the International Phonetic Association (IPA).¹ A MnE keyword, with its relevant part printed in boldface type, is also supplied to indicate the value of the IPA symbol. The consonants are arranged from left to right on the diagram according to their relative position of articulation from the front to the back of the mouth. Most of the sounds indicated occur in both OE and MnE; however, EWS did not have [g] and [ȝ] and MnE does not have [ɣ] and [x].

Diagram 3

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Inter-dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatall Velar
Voiced Stop	[b] bine			[d] dine		[g] grind
Vcless Stop	[p] pine			[t] tine		[k] kind
Voiced Spir		[v] vine	[ð] thy	[z] zing	[ȝ] azure	[ɣ] N Ger magen
Vcless Spir		[f] fine	[θ] thigh	[s] sing	[ʃ] ashes	[x] Ger machen
Voiced Affr				[ʤ] gin
Vcless Affr				[ʧ] chin
Nasal	[m] mine			[n] nine		[ŋ] long
Sonorant				[l] line
Sonorant				[r] rye
Glide					[j] yet	[w] wine

_____________________________________________________________________________

2.8. Any of the consonants may be designated or identified by naming its three characterizing features as they appear on the diagram. Thus, [p] is a voiceless bilabial stop; [n] is a (voiced) alveolar nasal, and so on. (When a feature is the same for a whole class of sounds it need not be mentioned - e.g., voice for nasals, sonorants, and glides.)

Exercise 1. Following the examples given for [p] and [n], write descriptions for the other consonants of Diagram 3.

FOOTNOTES

¹Enclosing a symbol in square brackets indicates that it is being used phonetically, i.e., consistently and exclusively to represent a given sound. The phonetic alphabet of the IPA is premised on this one-to-one correspondence. Thus, in a phonetic transcription using the IPA alphabet, the symbol [f] will be used to represent the final consonant of all four words laugh, luff, lymph, aloof, where our English spelling has four separate ways of representing the same sound.

Chapter 3

Speech Sounds. Vowels

3.1. In the OE manuscripts (MSS), long vowels and diphthongs are sometimes marked with and acute accent (´); edited modern texts, the present one included, usually indicate etymologically long vowels with a macron (¯), leaving the short unmarked. Thus gōd, good, but God, God; wītan, to keep, but witan, to know; and so on. Scholars know which to mark or leave unmarked after comparisons made with cognate forms in other Gmc languages and from observing how these vowels later developed in ME and MnE. Another valuable source of evidence is OE poetry, where vowel length is often indicated by the meter (see pp. 274-288).

Classifying Vowels

3.2. Vowels may differ from one another in quantity (i.e. length), quality or both. They are classified as regards quality chiefly by three factors taken together: the degree of openness of the oral cavity, the position of the tongue, and the shape of the lips. In fuller detail:

The cavity may be slightly open, half open, or wide open: the vowels produced are accordingly high, mid, or low (compare MnE beat, bait, bat).
The tongue may be pushed forward, left at the center, or humped backward within the mouth: vowels are accordingly front, central, or back (compare MnE beat, but, boot).
The lips may be more or less pouted or they may be left inactive: vowels are accordingly round or unround (compare MnE boot, beat).

the accompanying diagram 4 shows the vowels of OE.

Diagram 4

________	____Front_______	Central__________	Back ________
	[i:] beat		[u:] boot
High	[y:] Ger kühn
	[ɪ] bit		[υ] put
	[y] Ger küss
	_________________________________________________
	[e:] bait		[o:] boat
Mid		[ə] but
	[ɛ] bet		[ɔ] Brit pot
	_________________________________________________
	[æ:] S-SW US buy		[α:] baah
Low
	[æ] bat	[a] Scot man	[α] US pot

__________________________________________________________

Note that within each of the two pairs [æ:] and [æ] and [y:] and [y] the difference is quantitative, whereas within the other pairs there is a qualitative difference as well.

3.3. Any of these vowels may be designated (described) by its three characterizing features and by whether it is long or short. (In IPA the diacritic [:] following a symbol indicates that it is long.) For example, [α:] is a low back unround long vowel; [y] is a high front round short vowel.

Exercise 1 Following the examples given for [α:] and [y], write designations for the other vowels of Diagram 4.

3.4. A diphthong (Gr di-, two + phthongos, sound) is made by starting in the position of one vowel and moving smoothly and rapidly to the position of another, the shift taking place within a single syllable. MnE has diphthongs in such words as bout [α + υ], bite [α + ɪ], boy [ɔ + ɪ]; the vowels in such a word as chaos do not form a diphthong, however. (The OE diphthongs are described in 4.15.)

Sound Change

3.5. To know the elements of phonetics makes it possible to understand all the regular sound-changes of OE, such as diphthongization, assimilation, palatalization, and others described in later chapters. The sounds of every language are constantly subject to change for several reasons. Though any normal human being can hear and produce a very large number of different sound-features, no language utilizes more than a fraction of those possible. The feature through which one sound is distinct from others similar to it will be accompanied by non-distinctive features which native speakers and hearers learn to ignore or to discount. For example, we recognize nasality as distinctive in the consonant phoneme¹ /n/ because on its presence or absence depends the difference of meaning between pie and pine, or between sea and scene. But if nasality is added to vowels, as it is in some individuals' speech, it does not affect the meaning of what is said; we ignore it and notice only those features necessary to the distinctiveness of the linguistic signal (For example, [mæ̃n] said nasally means the same as [mæn] without nasality). Over the course of time, with many speakings and hearings, a formerly non-distinctive feature may become more prominent, or one that was sporadic or contingent may become more established. The former interrelation of sounds has been altered: there has been a sound-change.

3.6. Such changes are usually the result of the influence which sounds exert upon one another within the sequences of which words are built. It is well known that the [æ] in at is shorter than the [æ] in add - why? Because the vibration of the vocal cords in the first word must stop for voiceless t, whereas in the second vibrations of [æ] do not stop but continue into d, which is a voiced sound. The greater length of the [æ] in add is due simply to its envioronent. (As far as meaning is concerned, this difference of length is quite non-significant.)

3.7. Speech is a continuum. As sounds are spoken, they normally flow into each other with small adjustments that make articulation easier. By itself, [p] (a voiceless bilabial stop) would require an explosion to be heard, yet in context it is not always exploded. In the compound word hop-pole we do not have two explosions: the p of hop makes the bilabial closure and holds it for a moment; then the p of pole makes the explosion. Thus, in fact, two p's have been reduced to one lengthened [p:] which requires less complex articulation.

3.8. One of the the commonest sound-changes is assimilation, in which one sound or sound-feature becomes more like or similar to another near it. The past tense of have in OE is hæƒde (ƒ representing the sound [v]). By ME this has changed to hadde, the [v] becoming [d] by assimilation to the following [d].² (As with hop-pole the double letter represents length, not two explosions.) During most of the ME period hadde remains disyllabic, but by early MnE it has become had and is now even further reduced to 'd in such condensed forms as he'd promised, they'd arrived. Such progressive simplification occurs gradually enough to not destroy the function of the linguistic signal. Many features of OE show the effects of assimilation; one special type, umlaut or mutation, has left interesting traces in MnE. (See Ch 11.)

3.9. Very important sound-changes result also from the feature calles stress, which is simply the differential physical force exerted in producing syllables. This feature typifies the Gmc branch of IE; it has been in operation throughout the history of English and continues in force today. Every English word of two or more syllables places considerably more stress on one syllable than on the other or others. At least three distinctive degrees of stress exist in OE: primary, secondary, and weak. In the word gūð-cyning, war-king, they are found rspectively in the first, second, and third syllables: ˊ ˋ ˣ.

3.10. Strong stress tends to preserve sounds: weak stress lays them open to change. A striking example of stress working in cooperation with other phonetic factors to simplify the linguistic signal is furnished by the history of our MnE word lord. It goes back to Prehistoric OE *hlāƒ-ward, loaf-guardian, i.e. the master of a household in his capacity as distributor of food. As seperate monosyllables, hlāƒ and ward (in WS weard) normally took primary stress. Joined together as a compound word, the second element had to have less stress than the first, thus ˊˋ. With a further reduction of stress to ˊˣ, further change ensued: between the voiced sounds represented by ā and w, the sound represented by ƒ became voiced: phonetically, [f] to [v]. This is a type of assimilation. Further, the rounded semivowel represented by w was simplified altogether out of existence but left a ghostly reminder of itself in the rounding of the second vowel from a to o. Thus by the time of our historical OE records, *hlāƒ-ward had become *hlāƒord, and its etymology was doubtless obscure to most OE speakers. In ME we find the word as loverd: now the voiceless hl- of OE³ has been voiced (perhaps through assimilation to the following vowel) as [l]; the unstressed vowel has lost rounding, hence o is now spelled e, which probably represents [ə].⁴ Finally, internal v, occuring in an unstable position between vowels, disappears; the vowel of the primary-stressed syllable is preserved, the vowel of the weak-stressed syllable is lost, and a monosyllable is the result: lord. Through a similar if less sweeping series of changes, PrehOE *hlāƒ-dige, bread-kneader, became MnE lady.

3.11. One of the most sweeping effects of the stress-differential in changing a language may be observed toward the end of the OE period. Strong stress remains on the base syllable of words; prefixes and suffixes accordingly become weaker by contrast and tend to be at first reduced, then entirely lost. Inflectional syllables, coming at the ends of words, are especially subject to this erosion; indeed, it is their widespread disappearance more than anything else which marks the boundary between OE and ME.

3.12. Sound changes are not of equal importance. Those which affect an entire category of sounds, or which even produce a realignment in the structure or system of the language, are obviously the more profound. Others may affect only a few words or may operate for a limited time then be overcome by countervailing forces. The final outcome of any sound-change is also greatly subject to such nonlinguistic factors as the prestige of one dialect over others (hence its spread at their expense) or serious dislocations in society because of war, plague, economic collapse, foreign influence. The language reflects the society: traditionalism fosters linguistic conservatism; social change fosters change in the language. Since it is probably true that English society has undergone more cultural change than any other in Western Europe, it is not surprising that the English language should have been less conservative than any other. Old English, richly varying in its dialects and everywhere reflecting the many changes and influenes it underwent during the six hundred years in which it was the vernacular language of England, may be seen as a microcosm of the whole English language - though ephasis will be placed, in this Grammar, on the relatively circumscribed and stable stage of EWS.

FOOTNOTES

¹A phoneme is a minimal unit of distinctive sound-feature which contrasts structurally with all other phonemes in the same language or form of speech. Differences in meaning are signaled by this distinctiveness of the phoneme. Phonemic symbols are regularly put between virgules: /n/, etc. See further Appendix II.

²In fuller detail: [v] was already voiced, like [d]; its assimilation consisted in its partial spirant closure becoming full stop closure and its position of articulation moving from labio-dental to dental.

³See further below, Ch 4, footnote 11.

⁴The change of OE ā > ME o in the first syllable reflects the isolative change (i.e., one occuring without reference to an immediate phonetic envioronment) by which every OE ā became ME o (phonetically [α:] > [ɔ:]) - compare OE bāt, ME bote (MnE boat). Most of the changes hitherto exemplified in the development of *hlāƒ-ward have been combinative changes (i.e. those conditioned by an immediate phonetic environment).

Chapter 4

OE Spelling and Pronunciation

4.1. The growth of literacy and literary culture among the Anglo-Saxons was a consequence of their conversion to Christianity. The Latin alphabet, introduced by missionaries, displaced the Germanic ƒuþark (runic alphabet), which in any event had only been used for brief inscriptions of a magical, monumental, or practical nature and never for the transcription of extended texts. It was in the scriptoria of the early monasteries that writing was done on a large scale for the first time in Anglo-Saxon England. The monks were concerned first and foremost with the creation and transmission of Latin texts, which they had been taught to write by Irish monks. When they started writing their own vernacular language they naturally maintained the same correspondence between sound and symbol to which they were accustomed in writing Latin. As a consequence, OE spelling before Ælfred's reign, and to some extent after it, approached a phonetic rendering of the actual speech of various districts and periods.¹ It is thanks to this situation, where regional or individual variations in pronunciation are directly reflected in writing, that scholars have been able to establish the dialect characteristics and the historical development of OE sounds.

4.2. A number of sounds existed in OE, however, for which the Roman alphabet did not provide since they were not present in the pronunciation of Latin. The missing letters were supplied in a number of ways. From the runic alphabet þ ("thorn") was borrowed and used to represent both interdental spirants: voiced [ð] as in thy and voiceless [θ] as in thigh. Another letter was late invented for the same sounds by "crossing" a d: ð ("eth"). These two letters, þ and ð, are virtual alternatives in OE writing.²

4.3. The other character borrowed from the runic alphabet is Ƿƿ ("wen" or "wynn"), used for the sound [w]. Most modern texts (including this one) substitute w for it to avoid confusion with p, which it closely resembles.

4.4. The Latin diphthong ae, written as a ligature, æ, is used for the simple vowel articulated somewhere between [a] and [ɛ], as in MnE bat. The runic name for this symbol is "ash", OE æsc.

4.5. Every letter written was intended to be pronounced - there were no "silent" letters.³ Doubling of a letter indicates prolongation in its pronunciation.⁴

Consonants

⁵ ⁶

4.6. OE b, d, l, m, p, t, w, and x ([ks]) are pronounced as in MnE. Examples: bedd, bed; dol, dull, stupid; lamb, lamb; meolc, milk; pinn, pin; tacan, take; waru, ware; fyxe, vixen.

4.7. It is thought (with some differences of scholarly opinion) that r was trilled, rather than simply retroflex as in MnE. Examples: rāp, rope; byrig, city; fær, journey.

4.8. Three consonant symbols, f, s, and þ/ð, have dual values: they represent voiced sounds when they occur singly (not doubled) between voiced sounds (except when the first is a part of a prefix: e.g., the f in gefoh remains [f]). Everywhere else they represent voiceless sounds.

*Examples:*
Letter		Sound	Words
f	voiced	[v]	ofer, over; efne, even; hærvest, autumn
ƒ	voiceless	[f]	feld, field; æfter, after; hōf, hoof; Offa, Offa.
s	voiced	[z]	wīse, wise; hæslen, of hazel.
s	voiceless	[s]	saet, sat; hūs, house; ēast, east; acsian, to ask; cyssan, to kiss.
ð	voiced	[ð]⁵	ōþer, other; hoðma, darkness; weorðan, to become.
þ	voiceless	[θ]	þis, this; bæð, bath; oðþe, or.

4.9. Two letters, g and c, have dual values according to their environment: the original sounds were velar [ɣ,k], but in PrehOE those occurring with front vowels (dental to palatal region) were fronted; those occurring with back vowels (velar region) remained back. (These alternants, like the preceding, exemplify assimilation: this time the position of articulation changed to agree with that of environing sounds.)

Letter	Sound		Words
g	velar	[ɣ]	gān, to go; lagu, law; slōg, struck.
g	palatalized	[j]	gīet, yet; fæger, fair; dæg, day.
c	velar	[k]	caru, care; tacan, to take; hōc, hook.
c	palatalized	[ʧ]	ceaf, chaff; ēce, eternal; dīc, ditch.

Specifically, g is fronted to [j] when it comes:

before long or short i, e, (̆̆ī̆, ē̆)⁷ and the diphthongs which begin with them: gif, if; gēar, year;
between front vowels (̆̆ī, ē̆, ǣ̆): siges, of victory; leger, couch, lair;
at the end of a syllable, following a front vowel: hīeg, hay; lægdon, (they) laid;
when it had been followed in PrehOE by i or j:⁸ cīegan, to name, call; byrg, of (the) town.

Otherwise g remains velar⁹ (except in the combination cg -- see 4.12.).

before ī, ē, and the diphthongs beginning with ī, ē: ciele, chill; cīdan, to chide¹⁰
between ī and a front vowel: rīces, of the kingdom;
at the end of a syllable following ̆̆ī: pic, pitch;
when it had been followed in PrehOE by ̆̆ī or j:⁸tǣcan, show, teach.

In all other situations, c(or k when that is used) or remains a back sound -- i.e., is pronounced [k]

4.10. the letter n also has two values: it represents ordinary [n] except before c (or k) and g, in which cases it is pronounced [ŋ]. In such combinations the nasal and the following consonant are both pronounced: [ŋk, ŋɣ].

4.11. The letter h has two values: in initial position it is like MnE [h], a light voiceless spirant or simple aspirate; internally and finally, however, it has much stronger spirancy: [x]. This latter value is preserved today in Scots night, night; loch, lake (and may be heard in German ich I; buch, book), but it does not survive in MnE.¹¹

4.12. The cluster sc, originally pronounced [sk], became changed in WS when c was palatalized. It may be pronounced [ʃ].¹² Similarly, the cluster cg (representing palatalized gg) is pronounced [ʤ] as in MnE bridge (<OE brycg).

Vowels

4.13. The short vowels of OE, written i, e, æ, u, o, a, were probably pronounced much the same as the corresponding sounds today: [ɪ, ɛ, æ, υ, ɔ, ɑ] in bit, bet, bat, put, Brit. pot,¹³ Scots or Ger. man.¹⁴. The long vowels should be lengthened in pronunciation:¹⁵ [i:, e:, æ:, u:, o:, ɑ:] as in beet, bait, buy,¹⁶ boot, boat, baah.¹⁷ OE ȳ, y were lost in ME; they are like ī, i but said with the lips closely rounded (cf. Ger.) kühn, keen; küss, kiss).

4.14. The following is a practice list for pronouncing OE vowels:

Letter	Sound	Words
ȳ	[y:]	ȳð, wave; brȳce, useful; þȳ, by that
y	[y]	yrre, anger; byre, youth; ymbe, about
ī	[i:]	īs, ice; bītan, to bite; hī, they
i	[ɪ]	ic, I; biten, bitten; hit, it
ē	[e:]	ēðel, native land; þēs, this; mē, me
e	[ɛ]	eft, again; tellan, to count; here, army
ǣ	[æ:]	ǣr, before; mǣre, famous; sǣ, sea
æ	[æ]	æt, at; hæft, captive; sæd, heavy, sad
ū	[u:]	ūt, out; fūl, foul; þū, thou
u	[υ]	uppe, up; hund, dog; caru, care
ō	[o:]	ōfer; shore; hrōf, roof; tō, to
o	[ɔ]	of, of; from, from; ealo, ale
ā	[ɑ:]	āð, oath; hāma, cricket; wā, woe
a	[a]	ac, but; camp, battle; cuma, visitor.

Diphthongs

4.15. OE diphthongs include some sound combinations which do not survive in standard MnE. Like the vowels, they were paired, long and short. (Note the presence of [Ə], which was not an independent phoneme in OE.)

¹⁸

Letter	Sound	Words
ēa	[æ:ə]	ēage, eye; gēar, year; fēa, few
ea	[æə]	eald, old; fealu, fallow, yellow
ēo/īo	[e:ɔ, i:ɔ]	ēoh, yew tree; nēod, desire; bēo, be
eo/io	[ɛɔ, ɪɔ]	eom, am; seolc, silk; teoru, tar
īe	[i:ə]	īeðe, easy; hīene, frail; hīe, she
ie	[ɪə]	hiera, their; ieldo, old age

4.16. OE words are accented or stressed according to two rules:

Simple words, and words with inflectional or derivational suffixes, are stressed on the first syllable. Especially in poetry, some of these suffixes may receive a secondary stress.
Compound words include substantive compounds and verbal compounds. Substantive compounds (except those beginning with ge-, be-, and for-, which are weak-stressed) take primary stress on the first component and secondary stress on the second.

Examples:góld-smìð, mónn-cỳnn, swīð́-mṓd, sélf-wìlles, ónd-swàru, bī́-gòng, fóre-wèard, mís-dǣ̀d tṓ-wèard, ýmb-hwỳrft; but note: ge-bód, be-góng, for-wýrd.

Verbal compounds are stressed on the base or root syllable, hence the prefix is weak-stressed

Examples: a-rī́san, be-hā́tan, for-lǣ́tan, ge-bíddan, mis-fáran, ofer-cúman, tō-wéorpan, wið-stóndan, ymb-síttan.

FOOTNOTES

¹In the ninth century, however, largely through Ælfred's influence, OE spelling tended to become more consistent, and after his time - even more after Ælfric's - the language had a more or less standard spelling. Toward the end of the OE period, nevertheless, irregularities in spelling show that pronunciation is changing

²During the ME period ð disappeared; þ continued into the sixteenth century.

³Silent letters merely testify to the fact that pronunciation changes more quickly than spelling. Even after sounds have ceased to be pronounced, traditional spelling may continue to use the letters which formerly represented them.

⁴In MnE consonants are long only in compound words such as headdress, cattail, sheeppen. Other doubled letters are pronounced short, like single letters.

⁵Note that though the letter ð is written in manuscripts for both voiced and voiceless sounds, as a phonetic symbol it is used only for the voiced sound.

⁶In becoming palatalized, k probably passed through the sequence [k > kj > tj > ʧ].

⁷Exception when e was the result of i-umlaut (see Ch 11), the preceding g was not palatalized.

⁸The i or j which caused umlaut (and before which g or c was fronted) was changed or disappeared before the time of historic OE. (See Ch 11.)

⁹Spirant [ɣ] tended to close to become the stop [g].

¹⁰Before front vowels resulting from i-umlaut, however, c remained unpalatalized [k]. Examples: cemban < *kabjan, to comb; cyning < *kuning, king. See footnote 7 above.

¹¹Initally in the clusters hl-, hn-, hr-, hw-, the consonants that follow h are devoiced by assimilation to it: [hl̥- hn̥- hr̥- hw̥-].
Similarly, the other clusters fn-, fl-, fr-, þr-, were probably pronounced [fn̥- fl̥- fr̥- θr̥-].

¹²In becoming palatalized, sk probably passed through the sequence [sk > skj > sxj > sj > ʃ ].

¹³As said in British "Received Pronunciation" (RP): a short, rounded, mid-back vowel.

¹⁴A short, unrounded, low-central vowel.

¹⁵The "long" vowels of OE have commonly become diphthongs today, especially [e:, o:], which usually are [eɪ, oυ] as in day and low; but also [i:, u:], which are often [ĳ, uw] as in me, you (though several other variants are in use).

¹⁶The OE sound [æ:] or [ɛ:] survives only locally, not in Standard English. See diagram 4 (Chap 3).

¹⁷In MnE dialects, especially those where postvocalic r is lost: in English "RP", eastern New England, and the south Atlantic coast.

¹⁸ In EWS manuscripts the etymological distinctions between ē̆o and ī̆o were not preserved: in effect, they were written alternatively: ēo or īo and eo or io, though ē̆o forms appear more frequently than ī̆o forms. the sound [ɔ] probably varied with [ə] allophonetically in ē̆o/ī̆o.

Chapter 5

Phonological Changes

5.1. In learning OE it is necessary to take careful note of the sound-changes which occurred in it and which give it its characteristic differences from other Low Germanic languages. These sound-changes also underlie, of course, the sounds which developed in ME and MnE. They will be outlined in chronological order in this and following chapters, beginning here with the three earliest. The vowel changes dealt with concern only those in syllables having primary or secondary, not weak stress.

Gemination

5.2. A type of consonant lengthening, traditionally called gemination, occurred in the WGmc stage (see Diagram 2), hence it affected not only OE but all the other WGmc dialects as well.

Rule: A single consonant (except r), when preceded in Gmc¹ by a short vowel and followed by j, was lengthened in WGmc²

Examples: Thus Gmc *cunja- became WGmc *cunnja- (and ultimately OE cynn).³ Similarly, Gmc *saljan ˃ WGmc *salljan (˃ OE sellan).⁴ But r was not lengthened, hence Gmc *harja- remained unchanged in WGmc (and ultimately became here in OE). Gmc f and g were regularly geminated in WGmc; the forms descended from them are written in OE as bb and cg respectively.⁵

Exercise 1. Write out the WGmc forms which would have resulted from gemination of the following Gmc forms: *cwaljan, *sōcjan, *hafjan, *lagjan, *farjan, *dōmjan, *satjan, *sandjan. (Note that it did not change all these forms.)

The Change of a to o

5.3. This change occurred in Prehistoric OE (PrehOE) but not in all dialects. Rule: Before a nasal, the vowel [a] became [ɔ], a being respelled as o in most instances in EWS. (By the time of LWS, however, the a spellings had become predominant, even where the [ɔ] pronunciation survived. ⁶)

Examples: EWS ond, lomb, monig, long--(MnE and, lamb, many, long) LWS and, lamb, manig, lang.

Note: When on (˂PrehOE*an) occurs before a voiceless spirant (h, f, þ, s). the nasal disappears and, in compensation, the vowel is lengthened to ō. Under the same conditions in and un become ī and ū. Thus EWS sōft (˂ *sonft ˂ *sanft), soft; ōðor (˂ *onðor ˂ * anðar ), other; gōs (˂ *gons ˂ *gans), goose; fīf (˂ *finf five; ðūhte (˂ *ðunhte thought. Compare Mn German sanft, ander, gans, fünf, dünkte, where cognate n was not lost.

The change of a to æ

5.4. Rule: in PrehOE, a (except when followed by a nasal as above) was generally fronted and raised to (or nearly to) the position of æ unless the phonetic environment was such as to counteract this fronting tendency.

Examples: 1. In monosyllables, dæg, day, bæc, back, sæd, sad, heavy; 2. In polysyllables when PrehOE e or i (front vowels) come in the syllable following the base: dæges, day's, togædere, together. But a is unchanged when followed by w or by a, o, or u (back sounds) in the next syllable: clawe, of a claw, dagas, days, nacod, naked, racu, explanation. (The a in past participles such as slagen is not exceptional but results from the fact that --en ˂ earlier --an. Thus there was a back environment counteracting the fronting tendency.)

Note: One effect of this sound-change was to make the base irregular in paradigms, as in the examples just given: NomSg dæg, GenSg dæges, but NomPl dagas; similarly, NomSg sacu, DatSg sæcce, etc. (Further changes undergone by this æ are detailed in Ch. 8.)

Exercise 2. Write out the EWS forms which result from the change of a ˃ æ in the following PrehOE forms: *acer, *sadol, *craftig, *water, *aðele, *lawerbēam.

FOOTNOTES

¹"Gmc" refers to the stage of development after PrGmc changes have taken place but before the branching into NGmc, EGmc, and WGmc.

²Later, when the dialects came to be written, lengthening was indicated by doubling the consonant‐hence the term "gemination", from Lat geminatio, a doubling.

³In PrehOE the j changed the quality of some of the vowels preceding it, and ultimately it disappeared. (See Ch. 11, i‐umlaut).

⁴Compare, in other WGmc dialects, OFris sella, OS sellian, OHG sellen‐but EGmc (i.e. Gothic) saljan, NGmc (i.e. ON)selja, both ungeminated.

⁵Gmc f represents a voiced bilabial spirant [ƀ]; g represents [ɣ]. Examples: Gmc *lifjan by gemination > WGmc *libbjan (> OE libban); Gmc *bugjan > WGmc *buggjan (> OE bycgan).

⁶Phonetically, this change means that, under influence of the nasal, the low vowel [a] was raised and rounded in the WS area, though not in Kent or East Anglia. The change in the sound must have been distinct enough so that the EWS spelling was changed to reflect it. The growing importance of the London area may be responsible for the LWS return to the a spelling. The [ɔ] sound has survived till today in the W Midland dialect area: see Harold Orton, Survey oƒ English Dialects.

Chapter 6

Personal Pronouns

6.1. The personal pronoun in OE like that of MnE, has singular and plural forms. It also preserves the IE dual forms. The dual is especially effective for showing close association between two people -- as two men fighting side by side, or or husband and wife, or lovers. (See, for example, Selection 22/21a - 3a.) The dual forms, however, disappeared early in the ME period.

6.2. Like MnE, OE has forms for the three persons, with masculine, feminine, and neuter genders in the third person. As against the three case forms of MnE, however, OE has four, since it distinguishes dative from accusative. (In ME these fell together under the dative form to produce the MnE "object case".)

First Person	Sg	Dual	Pl
Nom	ic, I	wit, we two	wē, we
Gen	mīn	uncer	ūser, ūre¹
Dat	mē	unc	ūs
Acc	mec, mē	uncit, unc	ūsic, ūs
Second Person	thou	you two	you
Nom	ðū	git	gē
Gen	ðin	incer	ēower
Dat	ðē	inc	ēow
Acc	ðec, ðē	incit, inc	ēowic, ēow
Third Person	Masc.	Neut.	Fem.	All Genders
Nom	hē, he	hit, it	hēo, hīe, she	hēo, hīe, they
Gen	his	his	hire	hira
Dat	him	him	hire	him, heom
Acc	hine	hit	hēo, hīe	hēo, hīe

6.3. The Genitive forms of the first and second persons, all numbers, are also used as strong adjectives. (See Chap. 10.8.)

Reflexive Use

6.4. OE has no special reflexive pronoun forms; the personal pronoun forms are used to perform this grammatical function. For example: Ic sceal mec hȳdan. Standard MnE requires a form with -self in such situations, but the simple form is still found in archaic and folk speech: I'll hide me.

Exercise 1. Read the following sentences aloud. Translate them (no use of the glossary should be necessary). Identify person, number, case, and gender of each personal pronoun.

Hē is his brōðor.
Þǣr wæs hire bōc.
Ic þancie hum.
Wē sungon monige songas.
Fīf menn sōhton uncit.
Hīe wǣron blīðe.
Gief hit mē.
Hit is hire horn.
Hēo ne lufiað ēowic.
"Ælfred" is ðīn nama.

Interrogative Pronouns

6.5. Though the interrogative has no distinctive feminine, it has five different case forms: N, G, D, A and I (Instruental²).

	Masc.	Neut
Sg N	hwā, who	hwæt, what
G	hwæs	hwæs
D	hwǣm, hwām	hwǣm,hwām
A	hwone	hwæt
I	hwī, hwon	hwī, hwon

Exercise 2. Read the following sentences aloud. Translate them. Identify the number and case of the interrogative pronouns.

Hwæs is ðæt cild?
Hwā cumað hēr?
Hwæt sægde hē?
Hwī singeð ðes monn?
Hwæðer wæs þīn brōðor?

FOOTNOTES

¹These and other multiple forms are alternates, sometimes one, sometimes the other being found in the MSS.

²The Instrumental case, used to show means by which or thing with which something is done, is translated with the prepositions with or by. Examples: Ic hine cwealde ðȳ spere, I killed him with the spear. Hwī stearf hē? Why (by what cause) did he die?

Chapter 7

Anomalous Verbs

7.1. Several common OE verbs sre so irregular ("anomalous") that they stand apart. These verbs are: 1. bēon (wesan), to be ; 2. willan, to will, to wish; 3. dōn, to do, to cause; 4. gān, to go.

7.2. The verb to be is a composite of parts supplied from three seperate stems: bēon, is, and wesan.

_____Present _______________ Preterit (Past)
INDICATIVE
Sing.	1	ic		eom	bēo	wæs
	2	þū		eart	bist	wǣre
	3	hē hit hēo	}	is	bið	wæs
Plur.	1 2 3	wē gē hīe	}	sind, sint, sindon	bēoð	wǣron
SUBJUNCTIVE
Sing.	1 - 3	_	_	sīe, sī, sēo	bēo	wǣre
Plur.	1 - 3	_	_	sīen, sīn	bēon	wǣren
IMPERATIVE
Sing.	2	_	_	bēo,	wes
Plur.	2	_	_	bēoð,	wesað
			INFINITIVE				INFLECTED INFINITIVE¹
_	_	_	bēon,	wesan	tō bēonne
PARTICIPLE
_	_	_	bēonde,	wesende

7.3. OE verbs lack an inflected Future tense; they use the Present tense forms to express future time as well as present. (This is still true of the MnE present tense.) The verb to be is unique in OE in having alternate forms, bēon and wesan. Forms of bēon are generally limited to the future, those of wesan to the present. (See for example the sentence in Selection 9, the Blickling Homily, p. 201, 11. 98-99.)

Negative Forms

7.4. Negative forms are produced by contraction when the negative particle ne, prefixed to the form, becomes combined with it. The n- becomes the initial cononant of the contracted form (displacing initial w if there is one) and the stressed vowel is preserved. Thus ne + eom ˃ neom; ne + wæs ˃ næs. Similarly formed are nis, nǣre, nǣron.

Exercise 1. Read the following sentences aloud. Translate them. Identify the person, number, tense, and mood of the finite forms; identify also the infinitive and participle forms.

Bēoð gē stille.
Hīe ne sindon englas.
Wes ðū beald!
Wē nǣron on Engla londe.
Sōna biþ hēo mid ēow.
Hwǣr wǣre ðū?
Þæt wæs mīn wīf.
Wīs is hālig tō bēonne.
Neom ic ðīn brōðor?
Ic wille þæt gē sīen hēr.

7.5. Willan

_____Present _______________ Preterit
INDICATIVE
Sing.	1	_	wille,	wile	wolde
_	2		wilt	_	woldest
_	3		wille,	wile	wolde
Plur.	1 - 3	_	willað	_	woldon
SUBJUNCTIVE
Sing.	1 - 3	_	wille,	wile	wolde
Plur.	1 - 3	_	willen	_	wolden
IMPERATIVE
Plur.	2	_	nyllað,	nellað	(only in the negative)
INFINITIVE
_	_	_	willan
PARTICIPLE
_	_	_	willende

7.6. dōn

_____Present _______________ Preterit
INDICATIVE
Sing.	1	_	dō	_	dyde
	2	_	dēst	_	dydest
	3	_	dēð	_	dyde
Plur.	1 - 3	_	dōð	_	dydon
SUBJUNCTIVE
Sing.	1-3	_	dō	_	dyde
Plur.	1-3	_	dōn	_	dyden
IMPERATIVE
Sing.	2	_	dō
Plur.	2	_	dōð
INFINITIVE
_	_	_	dōn	(Inflected)	tō dōnne
PARTICIPLE
_	_	_	dōnde	_	dōn

7.7. gān

_____Present _______________ Preterit
INDICATIVE
Sing.	1	_	gā,	_	ēode
	2	_	gǣst	_	ēodest
	3	_	gǣð	_	ēode
Plur.	1 - 3	_	gǣð	_	ēodon
SUBJUNCTIVE
Sing.	1-3	_	gā	_	ēode
Plur.	1-3	_	gān	_	ēoden
IMPERATIVE
Sing.	2	_	gā
Plur.	2	_	gāð
INFINITIVE
_	_	_	gān	(Inflected)	tō gānne
PARTICIPLE
_	_	_	gānde	_	gān

underline

Exercise 2. Read the following sentences aloud. Translate them. Identify the person, number, tense, and mood of the finite forms. Identify also the infinitive and participle forms.

Dōð þæt weorc.
Wilt ðū mē helpan?
Hē gæð hwǣrswā [wherever] hēo bēo.
Hīe woldon hēr cuman.
Ic dyde þæt hīe eoden.

FOOTNOTE

¹The "inflected Infinitive" is, specifically, its Dative case. (Some grammars call this the "OE Gerund" though the term does not properly apply.) It is regularly preceded by the preposition tō, forming with it a phrase often best translated into MnE by the Infinitive. It is frequently used to express purpose.

Chapter 8

Phonological Changes (contin.)

Breaking: Short Vowels

8.1. Rule: In PrehOE the vowels æ (which had developed ˂ a -̶ see 5.4 above), e and i, when they occur before r + consonant, l + consonant, or h, are "broken" into short diphthongs, becoming respectively ea, eo, io.¹
Examples:

æ ˃ ea ̶ *hærd ˃ heard, hard; *hælf ˃ healf, half; *fællen ˃ feallan, to fall; *æhta ˃ eahta, eight.
e ˃ eo ̶̶ *werðan ˃ weorðan, become; *herte ˃ heorte, heart. Before l this breaking occurs only if the following consonant is c ([k]) or h: *melcan ˃ meolcan, to milk; *selh ˃ seolh, seal; but helpan, to help, swelgan, to swallow, sweltan, to die, remain unbroken. Before h breaking is regular: *fehtan ˃ feohtan, to fight, etc.
i ˃ io ̶̶̶ *Piht ˃ *Pioht (later Peoht), Pict; *hirdi- ˃ *hiordi-,² herdsman; *tihhian ˃ tiohhian, to arrange.

Breaking: Long Vowels

8.2. Rule: Long vowels break before h. (Examples with i are the most numerous.)
Exmples: *līht ˃ līoht (frequently lēoht, light; *betwīh ˃ betwīoh (frequently betwēoh), betwixt; *nǣh ˃ nēah, nigh.

Exercise 1. Write out the EWS forms which would result from the breaking (when possible) of the following PrehOE forms: *bergan, *belgan, *tīhð, *wærþ, *rehhe, *hæll, *welc, *weltan, *cwern.

Diphthongization after initial Palatal g, c, sc,

8.3. Rule: When the palatals g, c, and sc occur initially in a stressed morpheme, certain vowels following them are diphthongized: æ ˃ ea, ǣ ˃ ēa, and e ˃ ie.³
Exmples: æ ˃ ea ̶ gæf ˃ geaf, gave; *cæf ˃ ceaf, chaff; Lat. castra ˃ *cæster ˃ ceaster, town; *scæl ˃ sceal, shall.
ǣ ˃ ēa ̶ *gǣfon ˃ gēafon, gave; Lat. cāseus ˃ *cǣsi ˃ *cēasi ˃ cīese (by i-Umlaut, see Chap. 11), cheese; *scǣp ˃ scēap, sheep.
e ˃ ie ̶ *gefan ˃ giefan, give; *getan ˃ gietan, get; *sceran ˃ scieran, to shear.

Exercise 2. Write out the EWS forms which would result from the diphthongization after initial palatals of the following PrehOEforms: *scær, *sceld, *gæt, *scǣron, *gestran, *gǣton, *scæft, *geman, *cæp, *cælf.

Final Double Consonants

8.4. Double consonants at the end of a word are usually simplified.
Exmples: monn, mon, man; menn, men, men; eall, eal, all; cynn, cyn, kin; bedd, bed, bed; sibb, sib, peace.
But cg, though it historocally represents a doubled consonant (see 4.12, 5.2 above), had changed phonetically ([ɣɣ ˃ dʒ]) and was not simplified.

FOOTNOTES

¹In broad phonetic terms: [æ ˃ ǽə, ɛ ˃ ́ɛə, ı ˃ íə]. In each case an unstressed glide-vowel has crept in as the tongue moved from a front vowel position to that of a consonant somewhat farther back - in the first eamples, [r, l, x].

²Later > hierde. See Chap. 11.

³Phonetically: [æ > æə, æ: > æ:ə, ɛ > ɪə]. Here the diphthong is due to movement of the tongue from palatal position, which is high, to that of the mid and low front vowels. This produces a glide-sound after æ and ǣ, making them phonetically [ǽə] and [ǽ;ə], spelled ea and ēa But the glide-sound developed before e, and later the stress was moved back and placed on it; thus: [ɛ > ɪ́ɛ > íɛ > íə], spelled ie.

Chapter 9

Demonstrative Pronouns

9.1. The Demonstative Pronouns of OE are sē, that, and its forms, and þēs, this, and its forms. The first is by far the more important since it serves also as the Definite Article. In demonstrative use these pronouns are stressed, hence the two forms þæt and þis come down to MnE virtually unchanged (though other case forms are lost). In definite article use, however, being but weakly stressed, sē and its forms were worn down phonetically in ME to produce MnE the, now used without distinction of number, gender, or case.

9.2. The OE paradigm formally distinguishes 2 numbers, 3 genders, and 5 cases:

_____ Masc. _____ Neut. _____ Fem.
S.N.	sē			ðæt			sēo
G.	ðæs			ðæs			ðǣra
D.	ðǣm,	ðām		ðǣm,	ðām		ðǣra
A.	ðonne			ðæt			ðā
I.	ðȳ,	ðē,	ðon		ðȳ,	ðē,	ðon
	ALL GENDERS
P.N.A.				ðā
G.				ðāra,	ðǣra
D.I.				ðǣm,	ðām

9.3. The second demonstrative, þēs, with an equally elaborate paradigm, was similarly reduced in ME. The resultant MnE forms are this and these.

Masc. _____ Neut. _____ Fem. _____
S.N.	ðēs			ðis		ðēos
G.	ðis(s)es			ðis(s)es		ðisse,	ðeosse
D.	ðis(s)um,		ðis(s)um		ðisse,	ðeosse
A.	ðisne			ðis		ðās
I.	ðȳs,	ðīs			ðȳs,	ðīs
	ALL GENDERS
P.N.A.				ðās
G.				ðissa,	ðeossa
D.I.				ðis(s)um,	ðeos(s)um

Exercise. Read the following sentences aloud. Translate them. Identify the number, gender, and case of each demonstrative (or definite article):

Þes monn is mīn fæder.
Ic rīde tō þǣre healle.
þis līf is sceort.
Ealle þā stānas sind hēr.
Lufiað gē þās cildru?
Hē blissiað þӯs songe.
Hīe cwealdon þone fēond þӯ spere.
Hēo is sēo mōdor þisses lӯtlinges.
Ðæs hūses weallas sindon gōde.
Se hūsbond þǣre cwēne is se cyning.

The Relative Pronoun.

9.4. OE has no paradigm of inflected relative pronouns. This function is expressed in three ways: (1) most frequently, by use of the relative particle þe, which serves for all cases and numbers; (2) often by forms of the demonstrative sē (or sometimes a personal pronoun) + the particle þe; (3) sometimes by use of sē and its forms alone.

Example:	Hē ceas þone monn	þe þone þe þone	ic lufie,	He chose the man whom I love.

Translation: A Dialog

Lārēow:¹ Gōdne dæg, leorneras.²
Leorneras: Gōdne dæg, lārēow.
Lār.: Tōdæg sculon wē specan Weastseaxna þēode.³ Bēoð gē gearwe?⁴
Leorn.: Gēa, lēof,⁵ wē sindon gearwe.
Lār.: Ðū, leorningcniht,⁶ and þū, leorningmægden⁷ ̶ secgað⁸ mē nū ̶ hwæt is Westseaxna þēod?
L-mægden: Ðæt is sēo þēod ūserra ealdfædera.⁹
Lār.: Ðæt is sōð.¹⁰ Ūre ealdfæderas spǣcon Westseaxna þēode þūsend gēara ǣr ðissum.¹¹
L-cniht: Ðūsend gēara ǣr þissum! Ðæt is fela¹² gēara. Lēof, sæg mē, for ic nylle dol¹³ bēon
Lār.: Hwæt wilt þū cnāwan?¹⁴
L-cniht: Ūre ealdfæderas sindon dēade þūsend gēara?
Lār.: Gēa, þæt is sōþ. Heora līc¹⁵ sindon dēade.
L-cniht: Hīe ne specað nū þonne is heora þēod dēad ealswā¹⁶ swā hīe. Hwæt is ūs nīed¹⁷ Westseaxna ðēode tō leornienne?

VOCABULARY

lārēow, teacher
leorneras, students
þēod, language
gearwe, ready, (Shaks. yare)
lēof, (dear) sir
leorningcniht, young man student
leorningmægden, young woman student
secgað, say, tell

ealdfæderas, ancestors'
sōþ, true
ǣr ðissum, ago (lit. before this)
fela, many
dol, foolish
cnāwan, to know
līc, body, corpse; also plural
ealswā, also
nīed, necessity

part 2

Chapter 10

Adjectives; Analogy; Possessive Pronouns

10.1. In common with the Gmc languages generally, OE has a twofold classification of adjectives: the Strong or Indefinite declension (in this chapter), and the Weak or Definite declension (in Chap 12). The Strong declension is used except when conditions calling for use of the Weak declension are present (see 12.1, 2).

10.2. Adjectives (and nouns) are classified by their stem vowels. This system of classification rests on the forms they had during the Gmc stage, when they were composed of base + stem + inflectional suffix: Those which had the same stem vowel are now classified together. Because it is convenient for comparative grammar this system is used even when (as frequently happens in OE) this distinctive stem has been lost through phonological change. Thus Gmc *stainaz, stone, composed of stain + a + z is classified as an "a-stem"; and so also is its descendant OE stān, even though in this word both stem and inflectional suffix have been lost.

Strong Declension of Adjectives

MASC. NEUT. FEM.
S. N.	good	til	til		til u,	-o
G.		~ es	~ es		~re
D.		~ um	~ um		~re
A.		~ ne	~		~ e
I.		~ e	~ e		~ re

P.N.A.		~ e	~ u,	-o		~ a
G.		~ ra	~ ra		~ ra
D.I.		~ um	~ um		~ um

S. N.	good	gōd	gōd		gōd
G.		~ es	~ es		~ re
D.		~ um	~ um		~ re
A.		~ ne	~		~ e
I.		~ e	~ e		~ re

P.N.A.		~ e	~		~ a,	-e
G.		~ ra	~ ra		~ ra
D.I.		~ um	~ um		~ um

Note 1: Some variations of form within the paradigm were the following: Bases having PrehOE a were of course subject to the change of a ˃ æ (5.4); hence such a paradigm contains æ forms, e.g. hræd, hrædes, hræde etc., as well as a forms, e.g. hrada, hradu, etc.

Note 2: In bases ending in -h [x], the h changes according to its phonetic environment. Thus it may disappear: hēah, high, fem.hēa, masc. gen. hēas. It may be assimilated to the following consonant: fem. gen. hēahre, hēarre, higher. It may be voiced ˃ g [ɣ]: wōh, wrong, gen. wōges. Or it may be vocalized, replaced by w rūh, rough, gen. rūwes.

10.3.

MASC. NEUT. FEM.
S. N.	green	grēne		grēne		grēnu,	-o
G.		~ es		~ es		~ re
D.		~ um		~ um		~ re
A.		~ ne		~ e		~ e
I.		~ e		~ e		~ re

P.N.A.		~ e		~ u, -o		~ a, -e
G.		~ ra		~ ra		~ ra
D.I.		~ um		~ um		~ um

S. N.	ready	gearu,	-o	gearu,	-o	gearu,	-o
G.		~ wes		~ wes		~ (o)re
D.		~ wum		~ wum		~ (o)re
A.		~ one		~ u, -o		~ we
I.		~ we		~ we		~ (o)re

P.N.A.		~ we		~ u, -we		~ wa, -e
G.		~ (o)ra		~ (o)ra		~ (o)ra
D.I.		~ wum		~ wum		~ wum

Note 3: The wa-stems often exibit a parasitic vowel before w: gear(o)wes, gear(e)wes, gear(u)we, etc. Phonetically these spellings no doubt represent the same sound: a weak, centralized vowel, [ə] or the like, induced by the transition from [r] to [w].

Effects of Analogy

10.4. In any language, the more frequent structural patterns or those having a larger number of members constantly exert pressure upon the less frequent to conform by analogy, and thus to reduce irregularity. Examples are numerous. From ME to MnE, the regular pattern for forming the plural of nouns is gradually substituted for irregular ones: ME goot, geet MnE goat, goats. (Children generally say ƒoot, ƒoots following this pattern until they learn the correct, though less common, pattern ƒoot, ƒeet.)

10.5. The most conspicuous example of this kind of analogical force in English is the slow changeover of strong (irregular) verbs to weak (regular) verbs which began in the OE period and is still in progress. Burn, chew, glide, grip, help, lock, reek, seethe, shove, sigh, slip, smoke, suck, yawn are only a few of the verbs, strong in OE, which are now weak. Thus the OE principal parts helpan, healp, hulpon, holpen have yielded to MnE help, helped, helped. (The U.S. dialectical holp, sometimes spelled "hope": He holp|hope me when I was sick, is a relic of the older strong verb form.) Though phonological change frequently introduces inconsistencies into paradigms (see Note 1 above on the forms of hræd), analogy tends to level them out again, making the base the same for all members of the paradigm. Similarly with dæg-, dagas, etc. (see 5.4. Note) the dag- forms disappeared, the dæg- forms survived, though now spelled with a (MnE day, days).

10.6. Another phonological change ( see Appendix I, Verner's Law) split some verb bases in another way, as ƒrēosan(freeze), ƒrēas, ƒruron, ƒroren, with s in the first two, r in the other principal parts. But later, by analogy, the r forms were changed to s [z], restoring consistency: MnE ƒreeze, ƒroze, ƒrozen.

10.7. As regards OE adjective classes (our immediate concern), analogy was responsible for reducing their number to three, when there had been five distinct classes in Gmc: the Gmc i-stems became ja-stems in OE, and the Gmc u-stems became either ā- or ja-stems.

Possessive Pronouns

10.8. The Possessive Pronouns, when used adjectivally, are declined like gōd (except ūre, which is declined like grēne): mīn, mine; ðīn, thine; sīn, his, hers, its; ūre, ours; ēower, yours; uncer, of us two; incer, of you two.

Translation: A Dialog (concluded)

Lār.: Ēalā¹, geong mann, sege mē nū: ðæt ðæt is nīwe,² is hit eall gōd?
L-cniht: Nā, hlāford, nis hit eall gōd.
Lār.: And sōð is swā same:³ ðæt ðæt is eald, nis hit eall yfel.⁴
L-cniht: Ðēahhwæþere⁵ ne magon wē hīeran ūre ealdfæderas.
Lār.: Leorningmægden, hwæt sægst þū þærtō?
L-mægden: Ic sege þæt ðēah þe⁶ wē ne mægen hīeran ūssera ealdfædera stefna,⁷ þēahhwæðere magon wē rǣden heora word, þā þe ðā bōceras⁸ gewriten habbað.
Lār.: Gēa sōðlīce, leorneras ealle. On ūssera ealdfædera dagum lifdon mihtige cyningas, bealde rincas.⁹ Hīe begēaton¹⁰ ðis land and hit gesetton.¹¹ Fela gēara ðǣræfter wǣron hīe gefulwode¹² and gehwurfon¹³ Crīstnan. Ðā wunnon¹⁴ hīe wið ðā hǣðnan.¹⁵ Manige bōceras brōhton wīsdōm in on land. Swēte songas sungon þā scopas¹⁶ on healle. Nū sindon wē hīera ierfan.¹⁷ Gif wē nyllað dolu bēon, uton¹⁸ leornian ðā Westseaxna ðēode.

VOCABULARY

ēalā, lo! look here!
nīwe, new
swā same, likewise
yfel, evil, bad
ðēahhwæðere, nevertheless
þēah þe, although
stefna, voices
bōceras, writers
rincas, warriors

begēaton, took, won
gesetton, settled
gefulwode, baptized
gehwurfon, turned
wunnon, fought
hǣðnan, heathens
scopas, poets, singers
ierfan, heirs, inheritors
uton, let us

part 1

Chapter 11

Phonological Changes(contin.)

i-Umlaut

11.1. The most regular and widespread form of assimilation to occur in OE is that called i-umlaut¹ (or i-mutation). It affects most of the stressed radical or base vowels, and, as the name implies, the change is due to a high-front vowel or semivowel [i:, i, j] in the following syllable, which, by anticipation, draws the base vowel upward and/or forward toward the high-front position. (It occurred during PrehOE but after Breaking.)

11.2. Rule: A stressed base vowel is moved toward high-front position (palatalized) by , i, or j occurring in the following syllable. Thus:

a	(or o) before nasal	˃	e
æ	(˂PrehOE a)	˃	e
ū		˃	ȳ
u		˃	y
ō		˃	ē
o		˃	e
ā	(˂Gmc ai)	˃	ǣ
ēa ēo īo	}	˃	īe, later ī (in LWS often sp. ȳ
ea eo io	}	˃	ie, later i (in LWS often sp. y)

Diagram 5

High-Front

i, ī, or j

Note 1: The vowels ī, i, being already high-front, are not affected by i-umlaut. The change of e ˃ i had already occurred in PrimGmc; its effects may be seen in the early stage of all Gmc languages.

Note 2: The ī, i, once they have caused umlaut, are later for the most part either changed to e, or lost (see examples following); the j retained only after r, is there spelled i. After a long syllable, final i was lost. (A syllable is long if it contains a long vowel or diphthong ̶ one marked with a macron: ¯, or if it contains a short vowel or diphthong followed by more than one consonant. All other syllables are short. See further p. 276, n. 23.)

Examples:

æ	˃ e	:	*hærjan	˃	herian, to raid;	*mæti	˃	mete, meat
a/o	˃ e	:	*monni	˃	menn, dat.sg. to a man;	*wandian	˃	wendan, to turn
ā	˃ ǣ	:	*dāli	˃	dǣl, share;	*hāljan	˃	hǣlan, to heal
ō	˃ ē	:	*dōmian	˃	dēman, to deem;	*tōði	˃	tēð, teeth
o	˃ e	:	*morgin	˃	mergen, morrow;	*dohtri	˃	dehter, to a daughter
ū	˃ ȳ	:	*cūðian	˃	cȳðan, to inform;	*mūsi	˃	mȳs, mice.
u	˃ y	:	*cuning	˃	cyning, king;	*buggjan	˃	bycgan, to buy
ea, īo, etc.	˃ īe, ie	:	*ealdira	˃	ieldra;	*frīondi	˃	frīend.

Exercise. Write out the EWS forms which would result from i-umlaut of the following PrehOE forms (including the changes mentioned in Note 2).

*flāsci

*slægi

*huldi

*līohtjan

*sandjan

_ _

*hæti

*brūdi

*hwearfjan

*sættjan

*wurmi

_ _

*lārjan

*bandjan

*bōci

*frammjan

*hæfig

u-o-a-Umlaut

11.3. Rule: The stressed base vowels æ, e, i, if followed by a single consonant, are diphthongized by (back vowels) coming in the following syllable. (This process operated uniformly in the Mercian and Kentish dialects, irregularly in WS.)

Examples:

*æfora	˃	eafora,	heir;	*ælu	˃	ealu,	ale
*werold	˃	weorold,	world;	*gelu	˃	geolu,	yellow
*wita	˃	wiota,	wise man;	*clipode	˃	cliopode	(˃ cleopode),	cried out.
But:	WS	hafoc	̶	Merc.	heafoc,	hawk
	WS	medu	̶	Kent.	meodu,	mead
	WS	sinu	̶	Kent.	sionu,	sinew

Note 3: Phonetically, this change exactly parallels Breaking (8.1): the same vowels change into the same diphthongs. This time, however, the back sound which led to the intrusion of the glide was a vowel.

Translation: Luke VIII, 4-8

Sōþlīce þā micel menigu cōm and of þām ceastrum tō him efeston. Hē sǣde heom ān bīspell.
Sum mann his sǣd sēow. Ðā hē þæt sēow, sum fēoll wið þone weg and wearð fortreden. And heofenes fuglas hit frǣton.
And sum fēoll ofer þone stān and hit forscranc for þām þe hit wǣtan næfde.
And sum fēoll on þā þornas and þā þornas hit forþrysmodon.
And sum fēoll on gōde eorðan and worhte hundfealde wæstm.
Ðā clipode hē and cwæð, "Gehīere sē ðe ēaran hæbbe."

VOCABULARY

bīspell, parable
ceaster, city
clipian, to call, speak
ēare, ear
efestan, to hasten
fēoll, PastT of feallan, to fall
forscrincan, to shrink up
fortreadan, to tread down
for þām (þe), because
forþrysmian, to choke
fugol, bird
fretan, to devour
gehīeran, to hear,listen

hæbbe, Subjunc. of habban, to have
hundfeald, hundredfold
menigu, multitude
micel, great, large
of, from
sēow, PastT of sāwan, to sow
þā, then, when
wæstm, increase, harvest
wǣta, moisture
wearð, pastT of weorðan, to become
wið, against, beside
worhte, PastT of wyrcan, to work, make, produce

FOOTNOTE

¹German Umlaut = a sound which goes around (from one position of articulation to another).

Chapter 12

Weak Adjectives; Participles; Comparison

Weak Declension of Adjectives

12.1. The "weak" adjectives are so called because they have fewer distinctive inflectional endings than the Strong adjectives. The strong and weak types fell together in ME; in MnE, adjectives have lost all inflection except that for comparison.

12.2. The Weak declension is used in four situations especially:

When the adjective is preceded by a demonstrative (sometimes a possessive) pronoun;
In direct address;
Often in poetry where prose would normally use the strong forms;
In the comparative degree and often in the superlative.

The Weak declension is also used for ordinal numbers except ǣrest, fyrmest, fyrst, first, which are declined both strong and weak; and ōðer, second which is declined strong only.

12.3.

Masc. _____ Neut. _____ Fem.
S.N.		good	gōda	gōde		gōde
G.	_		~ an	~ an		~ an
D.I.	_		~ an	~ an		~ an
A.	_		~ an	~ e		~ an
_	ALL GENDERS
P.N.A.				gōdan
G.	_			~ ena,	-ra
D.I.				~ um

Note 1: The GenPl sometimes occurs in -ana, -an (conforming to the other cases); or in -na, and -a (conforming to noun endings). In later texts the case inflection -an sometimes appears as -on; and -um often becomes -un; -on.

Note 2: Adjectives ending in -h are contracted, with loss of the h: hēah, high: hēa, hēan, etc.; ðweorh, athwart: ðwēora, -e etc.; woh, wrong: wōna, etc. (See 10.2 Note 2, hēah, etc.)

12.4. The Demonstrative ilca, the same, is generally declined like a Weak adjective. Self (seolf, sylf), self, may be declined like either a Strong or a Weak adjective.

Declension of Participles

12.5. Participles may be inflected like either the Strong or the Weak adjective. The Presesnt Participle, when strong, is declined like a ja- (jō-) stem (grēne, 10.3.). The Past Participles are declined like a- (ō-) stems (til, gōd, 10.2.).

Comparison of Adjectives

12.6. Rule: The majority of OE adjectives form the comparative with -ra (˂ *-ora) and the superlative with -ost.

Examples:

cold,	ceald	cealdra	cealdost
poor,	earm	earmra	earmost
hard,	heard	heardra	heardost
loud,	hlūd	hlūdra	hlūdost

12.7. A limited number of OE adjectives, however, form the comparative with -ra (˂ *-ira) and the superlative with -est (˂ *-ist); in these the i causes umlaut of the base vowel.

Examples:

old,	eald	iealdra		iealdest
easy,	ēaðe	īeðra		īeðest
young,	geong	giengra		giengest
great,	grēat	grīetra		grīetest
high,	hēah	hīehra	(hīerra)	hīeh(e)st
long,	long	lengra		lengest
short,	sceort	sciertra		sciertest

Note 3: The ending -ost (which is often represented by -ust, -ast) is occasionally transferred to umlauted forms; and -est is often found with the unumlauted forms, especially when these are inflected: heardesta, rīcestan, etc. (In other words, both umlauted and unumlauted forms exerted analogical attraction on each other.)

12.8. Some few comparatives and superlatives have no positive degree form but are based on corresponding adverbs or prepositions.

Examples:

near,	nēah	nēarra	nīehst
earlier,	ǣr	ǣrra	ǣrest
before,	fore	furðra	fyr(e)st

12.9. A trace of superlatives in -m survives in forma, the first, and hindema, the hindmost. But to this -m the regular ending -est has been added; the result is a (double) superlative ending -mest. These adjectives, also, are usually based upon adverbs or prepositions and usually have the comparative in -erra.

Examples:

late,	sīð	sīðra	sīðemest, sīðest
late,	læt	lætra	latemest, lætest
within,	inne	inn(er)ra	innemest
without,	ūte	ūt(er)ra, ȳttra	ȳtemest, ūtemest
above,	ufan	uferra, yfer(r)a	yfemest, ufemest
below,	niðan	niðerra	niðemest
after,	æfter	æfterra	æftemest
northward,	norð	norðra, nyrðra	norðmest

Note 4: The MnE forms utmost, foremost, northmost, etc. have changed e ˃ o under the influence of the word most, which is also used for periphrastic comparison.

12.10. In the following list compensation is irregular: the base of the comparative and superlative forms differs from that of the positive. (In other words, the paradigm is composed by suppletion.)

Examples:

good,	gōd	bet(e)ra, bettra	bet(e)st
evil,	yfel	wiersa	wierrest, wierst
great,	micel	māra, mǣra	mǣst
little,	lȳtel (lȳt)	lǣssa	lǣs(e)st

Note 5: With gōd is to be associated (in meaning) the adverb sēl, better, comparative adj. sēlla, sēlra, superlative adj. sēlost, sēlest; and the adverb and substantive mā (mǣ), more, belongs to māra.

Translation: Luke IX, 12-13

Ðā gewāt se dæg forð. And hīe twelfe him genēahlǣhton and sǣdon him, "Lǣt þās menigu þæt hīe faren on þās castelu and on þās tūnas þe hēr ābūtan sind, and him mete finden, for þām þe wē sind hēr on wēstere stōwe."
Ðā cwæð hē tō him, "Sellaþ gē him etan." Ðā cwǣdon hīe, "We nabbaþ būtan fīf hlāfas and twēgen fiscas, būton wē gān and ūs mete bycgen and eallum þissum werode." Ðǣr wǣron nēah fīf þūsenda wera.

VOCABULARY

ābūtan, about
būton, except, only; unless
bycgan, to buy
castel, town
cwǣdon, Past T of cweðan, to say
faran, to go, to travel
fisc, fish
genēahlǣcan, to approach
gewāt, Past T of gewītan, to depart, to go
hlāf, loaf of bread

lǣtan, to permit, to cause to
mete, food
nēah, nigh, near(ly)
stōw, place
sellan, to sell, to give
tūn, village
twēgen, two
wer, man
werod, multitude
wēste, uninhabited, waste

Chapter 13

Nouns: the a-Declension

13.1. The a-declension (including also ja- and wa -stems) comprises masculine and neuter (no feminine) nouns with both monosyllabic and disyllabic bases. The greater number of masculine and neuter nouns in OE belong to this declension.

13.2. Masculine a-stems, monosyllabic:

S.N.A.

stone

stān

day

dæg

horse

mearh

bird

fugol

~ es

mēaras

fugles

D.I.

~ e

P.N.A.

~ as

dagas

~ as

~ a

D.I.

~ um

Note 1: Of the examples above, stān represents the norm; dæg¹ illustrates the change of a ˃ æ (See 5.4.); mearh illustrates the loss of h (See 16.4.); the base of fugol is monosyllabic fugl-, and the o of the Nom. is epenthetic -- i.e., it comes in to facilitate pronunciation.²

13.3. Masculine a-stems,disyllabic:

S.N.A.	_	property	ēðel	tub	fǣtels	heaven	heofon
G.	_		ēðles		~ es		~ es
D.I.	_		~ e		~ e		~ e
P.N.A.	_		~ as		~ as		~ as
G.	_		~ a		~ a		~ a
D.I.	_		~ um		~ um		~ um

Note 2: Of these examples, ēðel illustrates syncope³ of e in the oblique cases; the e of fǣtels is not syncopated, however, because the syllable it is in is long; o is sometimes syncopated in heofon and similar words, usually not.

13.4. Neuter a-stems, monosyllabic:

S.N.A.

ship

scip

word

vessel

fæt

cattle

feoh

star

tungol

~ es

fēos

tungles

D.I.

~ e

fēo

~ e

P.N.A.

~ u

fatu

tungol

~ a

tungla

D.I.

~ um

Note 3: Of these examples, scip and word represent the norm, differing from one another only in the P.N.A., where the -u is retained after a short syllable (scip) but disappears after a long syllable (word). For stem changes compare fæt with dæg, feoh with mearh, and tungol with fugol (Note 1 above).

13.5. Neuter a-stems, disyllabic:

S.N.A.	_	head	hēafod	baptism	fulwiht	troop, multitude	werod
G.	_		hēafdes		~ es		~ es
D.I.	_		~ e		~ e		~ e
P.N.A.	_		~ u		fulwiht		werod
G.	_		~ a		~ a		~ a
D.I.	_		~ um		~ um		~ um

Note 4: For stem changes compare hēafod with ēðel, and fulwiht with fǣtels (Note 2 above)

13.6. The ja- and wa- stems follow the patterns above, respectively as Masc. or Neut., monosyllabic or disyllabic.

Examples:

Masc,	monosyllabic,	ja-stems:	hierde,	shepherd;	here,	army
	disyllabic,	ˊ :	ǣfen,	evening;	fiscere,	fisher
	monosyllabic,	wa-stems:	þēow,	servant
	disyllabic,	ˊ :	bearu,	grove
Neut,	monosyllabic,	ja-stems:	wīte,	punishment,	cynn,	kin
	disyllabic,	ˊ :	wēsten,	waste, desert;	fæsten,	fortress
	monosyllabic,	wa-stems:	cnēo,	knee
	disyllabic	ˊ :	searu,	device

Exercise: For each of the PrehOE S.N. forms listed in the first column, supply the EWS form called for in the second column. (See also Ch. 16.4)

1.	*farh, pig (Masc)	S.D.
2.	*hwal, whale (Masc)	S.A.
3.	*selh (˂ PrGmc *selhaz), seal (Masc)	P.N.
4.	*coss, kiss (Masc)	P.D.
5.	*pleh, danger (Neut)	S.D.

Note that not only inflectional endings but some stem changes are involved.

Translation: Luke IX, 14-17

Ðā cwæð hē tō his leorningcnihtum, "Dōþ þæt hīe sitten þurh gebēorscipas fīftegum." And hīe swā dydon and hīe ealle sǣton.
Ðā nam hē þā fīf hlāfas and þā twēgen fiscas, and on þone heofon beseah, and blētsode hīe, and bræc, and dǣlde his leorningcnihtum þæt hīe āsetton hīe beforan þām menigum.
Ðā ǣton hīe ealle and wurdon gefyllode. And man nam þā gebrotu þe þǣr belifon twelf cӯpan fulle.

VOCABULARY

ǣton, PastT of etan, to eat
āsetton, PastT of āsettan, to set, place
belīfan, to remain over
beseah, PastT of besēon, to look
blētsian, to bless
bræc, PastT of brecan, to break
cӯpa, basket

dǣlan, to divide
fīftig, (a set of) fifty
gebēorscipe, feast, seated group
gebrot, scrap
leorningcniht, disciple
sǣton, PastT of sittan, to sit (down)
sitten, Subjunc. of sittan, to sit (down).

FOOTNOTES

¹Mǣg, kinsman, usually P.N.A. māgas, exhibits a similar variation in a long base vowel (ǣ/ā). In a noun like geat, gate, P.N.A. gatu, there is a further change: [a > æ > ea], the last due to the initial palatal g (See 8.3).

²Epenthetic vowels develop before l, r, m, and n. Examples: nægel, nail (cf ON nagl); æcer, field (ON akr); māþum, treasure (Goth maiþms); hræfen, raven (ON hrafn). Note that the epenthetic vowel harmonizes with (i.e., is a front or back vowel according to) the vowel of the base syllable. (Such vowels are found in MnE dialect pronunciations such as [ɛləm] for elm, [hɛnərı] for Henry, [fılm] for filəm, etc.)

³Syncope is the loss of a vowel with weakest stress. It occurs at all stages of the language (cf MnE int'restng; Brit jewellery, US jewelry, both [ʼdʒuwılrı]; Brit. speciality, without syncope, US specialty with i syncopated) but it is not wholly uniform in its operation at any time.

Chapter 14

Nouns: the o-Declension

14.1. All nouns of the ō-Declension (which includes the jō- and wō-stems) are feminine

ō-Stems

Monosyllabic, short: giefu, gift; long: lār, lore, learning.
Disyllabic, short: firen, sin; long: frōfor, consolation; costung, temptation.

S.N.

giefu,

-o

lār

firen

frōfor

costung

~ e

frōfre

~ a,

-e

G.D.I.

~ e

~ a,

-e

P.N.A.

~ a,

-e

~ a,

-e

~ a,

-e

~ a,

-e

~ a,

-e

~ a,

-ena

~ a,

-ena

~ a

D.I.

~ um

Note 1: As before, the S.N. inflectional ending -u is retained only in words with short radical syllable (like giefu). The P.G. inflection -ena is taken over from the n-Declension (See below 14.7), probably because it is more distinctive than -a. As before, the middle vowel is syncopated after a long radical syllable (frōfre). Nouns in -ung (costung) commonly have the inflectional ending -a in the Sing. oblique cases.

14.2. jō-Stems
Long: wylf, she-wolf; byrðen, burden; hālignes, holiness.
Note 2: These are declined like firen, above. In byrðen, n may be doubled in oblique cases; in hālignes and similar words, s is regularly doubled in oblique cases: byrðenne, hālignessum, etc.

14.3. wō-Stems
Short: beadu, battle.
Long: stōw, place; mǣd, mead, meadow.

S.N.	_	beadu		stōw		mǣd
A.	_	beadwe		~ e		~ (w)e,	(mǣd)
G.D.I.	_	~ e		~ e		~ (w)e
P.N.A.	_	~ a	-e	~ a,	-e	~ (w)a,	-e
G.	_	~ a		~ a		~ (w)a
D.I.	_	~ um		~ um		~ (w)um

Note 3: An epenthetic vowel u, o, or e (probably [ə]) may be developed before w: bead(u)we, bead(o)we, near(o)we, geat(e)we, etc.

The i-Declension

14.4. The i-declension includes nouns of all genders, but it has been much affected analogically by the a-declension, whose inflectional endings it has adopted.

14.5. Masculine and Neuter i-Stems
Masculine: hryre, fall; frēondscipe, friendship; plural only, Dene, the Danes, Engle, the Angles.
Neuter: sife, sieve.

S.N.

hryre

frēondscipe

sife

~ es

G.D.I.

~ e

P.N.A.

~ as

Dene

Engle

~ u

~ a

~ (ige)a

~ a

D.I.

~ um

Note 4: The original i of the stem has produced umlaut of the radical vowel; when the radical syllable is short, this i ˃ e in the Sing. N.A., e.g. in WGmc *hruri ˃ EWS hryre. Except in proper nouns (Dene, Engle, etc.) the historical Masc. Plur. N.A. ending -e has been almost wholly displaced by -as of the a-declension.

14.6. Feminine i-Stems
Long: dǣd, deed; scyld, guilt.

S.N.

dǣd

scyld

~ (e)

G.D.I.

~ e

P.N.A.

~ e

~ e,

(-a)

~ a

D.I.

~ um

Note 5: the endings Sing. A. -e, Plur. N.A. -a are often brought over from the ō-declension.

The Weak Declension (n-Declension)

14.7. Masculine: noma, name; gefēa, joy.
Neuter: ēage, eye.
Feminine: tunge, tongue.

S.N.

noma

ēage

tunge

gefēa

~ an

~ e

~ an

G.D.I.

~ an

P.N.A.

~ an

~ ena

~ ana

D.I.

~ um

~ a(u)m

Note 6: The ending of Plur. G. -ena (which may also occur as -ana, -ona, -una) is sometimes reduced to -na, or even to -a (in conformity with other declensions); -an often becomes -on. Gefēa exemplifies a small class of stems ending in a vowel which absorbed the vowels of the nflectional endings. Other words of this class are: frēa, lord; ðrēa, threat; flā, arrow. Beside ēage, the only other full Neuter n-stem is ēare, ear.

Translation: Luke VI, 39-42

Ðā sægde hē heom sum bigspell: Segst þū, mæg se blinda þone blindan lædan? Hū ne feallaþ hīe bēgen on þone pytt?
Nis se leorningcniht ofer þone lārēow. Ælc bið fulfremed gif hē is swilce his lārēow.
Hwī gesihst þū þā egle on þīnes brōðor ēagan and ne gesihst þone bēam on þīnum ēagan? And hū meaht þū secgan þīnum brēðer, "Brōðor, lǣt þæt ic ātēo þā egle of þīnum ēage," and þū seolf ne gesiehst þone bēam on þīnum āgenum ēagan? Ēalā līcettere! Tēoh ǣrest þone bēam of þīnum ēage, and þonne þū gesihst þæt þū ātēo þā egle of þīnes brōðor ēage.

VOCABULARY

ǣlc, each
ǣrest, first
āgen, own
ātēon, to draw out
bēam, beam
bēgen, both
blinda, blind man
brēðer, Sing.D. of brōðor
brōðor, Sing.N.G. brother
ēalā, int., alas
egl, mote

fullfremman, to fulfill
hū, how
lǣdan, to lead
lǣtan, to let, permit
līcettere, hypocrite
mæg, PresT ofmagan, to be able
meaht, PresT ofmagan
pytt, pit
secgst, PresT of secgan, to say
swilce, like
tēoh, imperitive of tēon, to pull

Chapter 15

Nouns: Minor Declensions

15.1. The "minor" noun declensions, those which have fewer members, are in general much affected by analogical attraction of "major" declensions having more members. The former tend to adopt some of the inflectional endings of the latter, or even to "go over" completely to them, taking on the entire paradigm of inflections. Sometimes this even involves a shift of gender.

The u-Declension

15.2. Masculine: sunu, son. Feminine: hond, hand.

S.N.A.	_	_	sunu,	-a	hond
G.	_	_	~ a		~ a
D.I.	_	_	~ a,	-u	~ a
P.N.A.	_	_	~ a,	-u	~ a
G.	_	_	~ a		~ a
D.I.	_	_	~ um		~ um

This declension has been reduced to comparatively few members. The commonest are: Masc. wudu, wood; sidu, custom; medu, mead; feld, field; ford, ford; winter, winter; sumor, summer; weald, forest. Fem. duru, door. Neut. fela, much.

Feminine Abstract Nouns

15.3. Examples: wlencu, pride; strengðu, strength.

S.N.

wlencu,

-o

strengðu

-o

A.G.D.I.

~ e;

-u,

-o

~ e;

-u,

-o

P.N.A.

~ (e)a;

-u,

-o

~ e,

-a:

-u

-o

~ (e)a

~ a

D.I.

~ um

Note 1: The -u of the S.N. has been obtained from the o-declension and extended to other cases so as to produce often an uninflected singular. There is always more or less conformity to the o-declension, especially by nouns in *-iðu.

The r-Declension

15.4. Nouns of relationship: fæder, mōdor, brōðor, dohtor. With these belong the collective plurals gebroðor, brethren, and gesweostor, sisters.

	MASCULINE						___	___	FEMININE
S.N.A.			fæder		brōðor				mōdor			sweostor,	-er
G.	_		~ ,	-(e)res _	~				~			~
D.I.		_	~		brēðer				mēder		__	~
P.N.A.			fæd(e)ras		brōðor	-ru			mōdru	-a		sweostor,	-ru,	-ra
G.			~ a,		~ ra				~ a			~ ra
D.I.			~ um		~ um				~ um			~ rum

Note 2: The datives mēder and brēðer, and sometimes dehter (from dohtor) are examples of i-umlaut: mēder ˂ *mōdri; brēðer ˂ *brōðri; dehter ˂ *dohtri. (These forms are sometimes transferred from D. to G. case.)

The nd-Declension

15.5. Examples: frēond, friend (loving one); hettend, enemy (hating one).

S.N.A.	_	_	frēond			hettend
G.	_	_	~ es			~ es
D.I.	_	_	~ frīend,	frēonde		~ e
P.N.A.	_	_	~ frīend,	frēond,	frēondas	~ , -as, -e
G.	_	_	frēonda			~ ra
D.I.	_	_	~ um			~ um

This declension comprises Masculine nouns of agency derived from present participles. Like frēond is declined fēond, foe; like hettend are declined āgend, owner; dēmend, judge; ēhtend, persecutor; fultum(i)end, helper; Hǣlend, Savior; wealdend, ruler; wīgend, warrior; etc.

Note 3: Some inflectional endings of this class show analogical conformity to other classes: S.G. -es, D. -e, P.N. -as follow the a-declension; P.N. -e, G. -ra are derived from the regular strong adjective declension of present participles.

The er-Declension

15.6. Neuter: lomb, lamb; cealf, calf; ǣg, egg.

S.N.A.	_	lomb		cealf	ǣg
G.	_	~ es		~ es	~ es
D.I.	_	~ e		~ e	~ e
P.N.A.	_	lombru	(lomb)	cealfru	ǣgru
G.	_	~ ra	(lomba)	~ ra	~ ra
D.I.	_	~ rum	(lombum)	~ rum	~ um

Note 4: The plurals in r just given in the paradigms, to which may be added the occasional P. cildru, children, conserve notable traces of the primitive stem-formation. These may also be recognized in dōgor, day; sigor, victory; hrȳðer, cattle; which, however, have gone over to the a-declension, often with a change of gender.

The Radical Consonant Declension¹

15.7. Masculine: monn, man; fōt, foot; tōð, tooth. Feminine: bōc, book; burg, borough, fortified town.

S.N.A.

monn

fōt

tōð

bōc

burg

~ es

bēc,

bōce

byr(i)g

D.I.

menn

fēt

tēð

P.N.A.

monna

fōta

tōða

bōca

burga

D.I.

~ um

Note 5: Some occasional analogical forms are: S.A. monnan; P.N.A. fōtas, tōðas. Other nouns of this declension are: Neut. scrūd, garment, shroud; Fem. brōc, breeches; gāt, goat; gōs, goose; lūs, louse; mūs, mouse; cū, cow. Most of these come down into MnE as the "Umlaut Plurals."

Translation: The Creation

Ealle gesceafta, heofonas and englas, sunnan and mōnan, steorran and eorðan, ealle nȳtenu and fugolas, sǣ and ealle fiscas, and ealle gesceafta God gesceōp and geworhte on six dagum; and on ðām seofoðan dæge hē geendode his weorc, and geswāc þā and gehālgode ðone seofoðan dæg, for þām þe hē on ðām dæge his weorc geendode. And hē behēold ðā ealle his weorc þe hē geworhte, and hī wǣron ealle swīð gōde.
Ealle ðing hē geworhte būton ǣlcum antimbre. Hē cwæð, "Geweorðe lēoht"; and ðǣrrihte wæs lēoht geworden. Hē cwæð eft, "Geweorðe heofon"; and ðǣrrihte wæs heofon geworht, swā swā hē mid his wīsdōme and mid his willan hit gedihte.
Hē cwæð eft, and hēt ðā eorðan þæt hēo sceolde forðlǣdan cwicu nȳtenu; and hē ðā gesceōp of ðǣre eorðan eall nȳtencynn, and dēorcynn, ealle ðā þe on fēower fōtum gāð ; ealswā eft of wætere hē gesceōp fiscas and fuglas, and sealde ðām fiscum sund, and ðām fuglum fliht; ac hē ne sealde nānum ntene ne nānum fisce nāne sāwle; ac heora blōd is heora līf, and swā hraðe swā hī bēoð dēade, swā bēoð hī mid ealle geendode.

VOCABULARY

ǣlc, any
antimber, building material, matter
cwicu, live, quick
ealswā, also
forðlǣdan, to bring forth
gedihtan, to dispose, arrange
gehālgian, to hallow, bless
gesceaft, created thing
gesceop, PastT of gescīeppan, to create

geswāc, PastT of geswīcan, to cease.
geweorðan, to come about
hraðe, quickly
nȳten, animal
sāwol, soul
sund, power of swimmng
swā, so, as
swīðe, very
ðǣrrihte, immediately

FOOTNOTES

¹This name indicates that the inflection, in this class of nouns, is added directly to the consonant of the root or base, rather than to a stem.

Chapter 16

Later Sound Changes

16.1. The sounds spelled g and h underwent considerable change according to their phonetic environments. As we have already seen (Ch. 4), by the time of EWS each represents two different sounds: In a back-vowel environment, g retains its original velar quality [ɣ]; in a front-vowel environment, it is palatalized to [j]. Similarly, in velar environments h remains as a voiceless spirant [x] (corresponding to voiced [ɣ]), but in initial position in words it is weakened to [h].
Other changes undergone by g and h in the WS period and later are the following:

Loss of Medial ℊ

16.2. Palatal ɡ followed by d or n often disappears and, in compensation, the vowel which preceded it is lengthened.

Examples:	bregdan, brēdan, to brandish;	PastT, S brægd, brǣd
	secgan, to say, PastT S sægde, sǣde;	PastPple gesægd, gesǣd
	frignan, frīnan, to inquire
	mægden, mǣden, maiden
	ðegn, ðēn, servant.

Note 1: By analogy to such forms velar g occasionally disappears even after back vowels. Examples brugdon, brūdon; brogden, brōde.

Devoicing of ℊ

16.3. Final (and occasionally medial) g, especially after a long back vowel, or l, or r, frequently became h [ɣ ˃ x].

Examples:	bēag, bēah, ring		burg, burh, borough
	flōg, flōh, flayed;		dolg, dolh, wound.

Loss of Medial ℋ

16.4. Medial h (but not hh) preceded by r or l and followed by an inflectional vowel disappears, and, in compensation, the stem-vowel is lengthened.

Examples: mearh, G mēares, horse; seolh G sēoles, seal.

Loss of Intervocalic ℌ

16.5. Intervocalic h disappears, and the vowel which followed it is absorbed into the vowel or diphthong which preceded it, by compariston lengthening it (if it was not long already). The resulting forms are said to be contracted, and verbs in which this process occurs are called Contract Verbs (see 19.3.).

Examples:	feoh, G fēos(˂*feohes), property;	hēah, G hēas, (˂*hēahes), high;
	slēan, (˂*sleahan ˂*slahan) to strike;
	fōn, (˂*fōhan ˂*fonhan) to seize.

Note 2: h disappears similarly sometimes before inflectional syllables beginning with n or r, before the comparative ending in r, and in compounds: hēah, MascA hēane; FemD hēare; Comp (hīerra); hēalic, high.

influence of ᴡ

16.6. The diphthongs eo, io (produced by Breaking or by u-o-a-Umlaut of e, i) are sometimes labialized¹ by a preceding w and become u or o.

Examples:	weorðan, (˂*werðan), to become,	appears also as wurðan
	weorðian, wurðian,	to honor
	weorold, worold woruld,	world
	wita, wiota, weota, wuta,	wise man
	sweord, swurd,	sword

Exercise.: Write the EWS forms which would result if the changes described above were to occur to the following:

Loss of medial g:	wægn	˃ , wagon;	ðegnian	˃ , to serve.
Devoicing of g:	earg	˃ , cowardly;	sorg	˃ , sorrow.
Loss of medial h:	feorh	˃ SingG , life;	pohha	˃ , bag.
Loss of Intervocalic h:	eoh	˃ SingG , horse;	pleohlic	˃ , perilous.

Translation: Jonah

God spraec tō ānum wītegan, sē was Jōnas gehāten, "Far tō ðǣre byrig Niniuen, and boda ðǣre ðā word þe ic þē secge." Ðā wearð se wītega āfyrht, and wolde forflēon Godes gesihðe, ac hē ne mihte. Fērde þā tō sǣ, and stāh on scip. Ðā ðā þā scipmen cōmon ūt on sǣ, þā sende him God tō micelne wind and hrēohnisse, swā þæt hīe wǣron orwēne heora līfes. Hīe þā wurpon heora wara oferbord, and se wītega læg and slēp. Hīe wurpon þā tān betweox him, ond bǣdon þæt God sceolde gesweotolian hwanon him þæt ungelimp becōme. Ðā cōm ðæs wītegan tā upp. Hīe āxodon hine, hwæt hē wǣre, oððe hū hē to go, faran wolde. Hē cwæð, þæt hē wǣre Godes ðēow, sē ðe gesceōp sǣ and land, and þæt hē flēon wolde of Godes gesihðe. Hīe cwǣdon: what, "Hū dō wē ymbe ðē?" Hē andwyrde: "Weorpað mē oferboard; ðonne geswīcð þēos gedreccednis." Hīe ðā swā dydon, and sēo hrēohnis wearð gestilled, and hīe offrodon Gode heora lāc, and tugon forð.

Concluded in next chapter

VOCABULARY

āfyrht, afraid
boda, Imp of bodian, to proclaim
far, Imp of faran, to travel
forflēon, to flee from
gedreccednis, distress
gesihðe, sight, vision
gesweotolian, to reveal
geswīcan, to cease
hrēohnis, rough weather
hū, what, how
hwanon, whence
lāc, sacrifice

Niniuen, Niniveh
offrian, to offer
orwēne, despairing
spræc, PastT of sprecan, speak
stāh, PastT of stīgan, to mount
tā, tān, twig, lot
tugon, PastT of tēon, draw, move
ðā, then, when
ungelimp, misfortune
waru, ware(s), cargo
weorpan, to cast, throw
ymbe, about, concerning

FOOTNOTES

¹Rounded. In this case the lip-rounding of [w] induces a closer rounding in the following vowel or diphthong.

Chapter 17

Verb Classes

17.1. OE verbs fall into two large classes and two smaller ones:

Strong verbs fom their Principal Parts by varying the base vowel or diphthong (by Ablut or Gradation -- see Chs. 19 --22).
Weak verbs form the Past Tense and Past Participle by addition of a morpheme containing /d/ or /t/.
Anomalous verbs (see Ch. 7).
Preterit-Present verbs (see Ch. 23).

17.2. The Principal Parts of any verb are those basic forms upon which the entire conjugation may be constructed. They are not the same for all verbs; differences will be noted as each class is introduced.

The Principal Parts of a Weak Verb are:

The Infinitive: from this all Present Tense forms may be derived.
The Past Tense Singular: from this all Past Tense forms may be derived.
The Past Participle: this is used with auxiliaries to form phrasal verb constructions.¹

Classification of Weak Verbs

17.3. Weak Verbs are of three classes: (I) the ja-class, (II) the ō-class, (III) the ai-class.

Most Weak verbs are derivative -- that is, they are formed from nouns, adjectives, or other verbs. For example:

From nouns:	dōm	, judgement,	+	-jan	˃ *	dōmian	˃	dēman	, to judge
	tāc(e)n	, token,	+	-ōjan	˃ *	tācnōjan	˃	tācnian	, to betoken
From adjs.:	cūð	, known,	+	-jan	˃ *	cūðian	˃	cȳðan	, to make known
	hāl	, whole,	+	-jan	˃ *	hālian	˃	hǣlan	, to heal
From verbs:	*sat	(Past Sing. of sittan, to sit)	+	-jan	˃ *	sattian ˃ *sættian	˃	settan	, to set
	dranc	(Past Sing. of drincan, to drink)	+	-jan	˃ *	drancian	˃	drencan	, to drench.

Conjugation of Class I Weak Verbs

17.4. Examples: fremman, to perform; herian, to praise; dēman, to judge.

			PRESENT	Indicative
Sing.	1.	fremme			herie		dēme
	2.	fremest			herest		dēme(e)st
	3.	fremeð			hereð		dēme(e)ð
Plur.	1-3.	fremmað			heriað		dēmað
			Subjunctive
Sing.	1-3.	fremme			herie		dēme
Plur.	1-3.	fremmen			herien		dēmen
			Imperative
Sing.	2.	freme			here		dēm
Plur.	2.	fremmað			heriað		dēmað
infinitive		fremman			herian		dēman
Infl. Infin.		tō fremmanne			tō herianne		tō dēmanne
Pres. Ppl.		fremmende			heriende		dēmende
			PRETERIT	Indicative
Sing.	1.	fremede			herede		dēmde
	2.	~ est			~ est		~ est
	3.	~ e			~ e		~ e
Plur.	1-3.	~ on			~ on		~ on
			Subjunctive			___
Sing.	1-3.	fremede			herede		dēmde
Plur.	1-3.	~ en			~ en		~ en
Past Ppl.		fremed			hered		dēmed

Exercise. Review the sound changes of Chaps. 5.2. (Gemination); 11.1, 2 (i-Umlaut); 13.3, Note 2, and Footnote 3 (Syncope). Then answer the following questions:

Why do some forms of fremman have -mm- while others have -m-?
Why does not the same variation hold for herian and dēman?
Why does the parenthetic -e- in dēm(e)st soetimes disappear?
Of these three verbs only herian has -i- in the Present forms. Whence comes this -i- and why is it lacking in the other two verbs?

Verbs Without the Middle Vowel

17.5. Certain verbs form the Preterit and Past Participle without the middle vowel e(˂i). These verbs therefore have two special features: 1) the absence of i-Umlaut in the Preterit and Past Participle; 2) the change (which took place in Gmc) of original c before d, or g before d, ˃ ht.

Examples: cweccan, to shake, ˂ *cwæcjan, Pret. cweahte ˂ *cwæhte. sēcan, to seek, ˂ *sōcian, Pret. sōhte. ðyncan, to seem, Pret. ðūhte ˂ *ðunhte.

Some verbs of this group are:
	sellan	, give, sell	sealde	seald
	rǣcan	, reach	rǣhte	rǣht
	ðencan	, think	ðōhte	ðōht
	bycgan	, buy	bohte	boht

Translation: Jonah(concluded)

God þā gegearcode ānne hwæl, and hē forswealh þone wītegan, and ābær hine tō ðām lande þe hē tō sceolde, and hine ðǣr ūt āspāw. Ðā cōm eft Godes word tō ðām wītegan, and cwæð: "Ārīs nū, and gā tō ðǣre micelan byrig Niniuen, and boda swā swā ic ðē ǣr sǣde." Hē fērde, and bodode, þæt him wæs Godes grama onsīgende, gif hī tō Gode būgan noldon. Ðā ārās se cyning of his cynesetle, and āwearp his dēorwyrðe rēaf, and dide hǣran tō his līce, and ascan uppan his hēafod, and bēad ðæt ǣlc man swā dōn sceolde; and ǣgðer ge men ge þā sūcendan cild and ēac ðā nȳtenu ne onbyrigdon nānes ðinges binnan ðrim dagum. Ðā ðurh þā gecyrrednisse, þæt hī yfeles geswicon, and ðurh þæt strange fæsten, him gemiltsode God, and nolde hī fordōn, swā swā hē ǣr þā twā burhwara Sodomam and Gomorram, for heora leahtrum, mid heofonlicum fȳre forbærnde.

VOCABULARY

āberan, to bear, carry
asce, ash, dust
āspīwan, to spew up
binnan (be + innan), within
būgan, to bow
burhwaru, city
cynesetl, throne
dōn...tō, to put on
fæsten, fasting
gecyrrednis, conversion
gegearcian, to prepare

gemiltsian, to have mercy upon
geswīcan, to cease from
grama, wrath
hǣre, hair shirt, sackcloth
hwæl, whale, great fish
leahtor, sin, vice
onbyr(i)gan, to taste
onsīgan, to come upon
rēaf, garment
sūcan, to suck, suckle

FOOTNOTES

¹In MnE, Principal Parts 2) and 3) have fallen together into one, always the same: OE dēman, dēmde, dēmed; MnE deem, deemed.

Chapter 18

Weak Verbs Classes Ⅱ, Ⅲ

Weak Verbs, Class Ⅱ

18.1. The verbs of Class Ⅱ, as noted above, are ō-stems. To this ō was added the infinitive ending -jan, producing *ōjan, which by i-Umlaut ˃ *ējan, then by contraction ˃ -īan, and finally ˃ -ian.

___			PRESENT	Indicative
Sing.	1.	1			2			3
	2.	4			5			6
	3.	7			8			9
Plur.	1-3	10			11			12
___			Subjunctive				___	___


___			Imperative				___	___





___			PRETERIT	Indicative		___




___			Subjunctive				___

Most weak verbs of Class Ⅱ are conjugated like bodian. Only a few are conjugated like smēag(e)an: fēog(e)an, to hate, frēog(e)an, to love, scōg(e)an, to shoe, twēog(e)an, to doubt, ðrēag(e)an, to rebuke.

Weak Verbs, Class Ⅲ

18.2. Verbs of Class Ⅲ, as noted above, are ai-stems. Only a few examples survive, and even these are defective. Their tendency in PrehOE was to "go over" to the pattern of Class Ⅱ verbs.

Conjugation
___			PRESENT	Indicative
Sing.	1.	1			2			3
	2.	4			5			6
	3.	7			8			9
Plur.	1-3	10			11			12
___			Subjunctive				___	___


___			Imperative				___	___





___			PRETERIT	Indicative		___




___			Subjunctive				___

Translation St. Cuthbert

A.D. 687. On þone ilcan dæg [March 20] biþ Sancte Cūðberhtes gelēornes þæs hālgan biscopes; sē wæs on þisse Brytene on þære mægðe ðe is nemned Transhumbrensium, þæt is Norðanhymbra ðēod. Þone wer oft englas sōhton, and him tō brōhton heofonlīce gereorde; and hē hæfde þā mihte þæt hē

VOCABULARY

abbudissa, abbess
ætstandan, to stand beside
blētsian, to bless
clǣne, pure
gebed, prayer
gefēlan, to feel, perceive
gelēornes, departure, death
gereord, food, plur. feast
ilca, same
lēoran, to depart from, leave
mǣgð, people, country
mæsseprēost, masspriest
miht, power

mynster, monastery
onbergan, to drink
ondettan, to confess, avow
profost, provost, prior
sēlre, better
þegn, servent
þēod, people
þyrstan, to thirst
tīd, occasion
undernræst, morning rest
untrumnes, sickness
wundor, wonder, miracle

POINTS OF SYNTAX

Chapter 19

Strong Verbs, Classes 1 and 2

19.1.

Class 1

19.2.

Contract Verbs

19.3.

Class 2

19.4.

Translation: Doomsday

VOCABULARY

ācennan, to bring forth
ādrūgan, to dry up
andweard, present
ārǣran, to raise up
asce, ash(es)
āspringan, to fail
āswergan, to curse
befealdan, to fold up
biddan, to beseech
ēastdǣl, east side
egesa, awe, fear
egesful, fearful
flēon, to flee
flīeman, to put to flight
for, because of
forbærnan, to burn up
forswelgan, to swallow up
gāst, spirit
gelimpan, to happen
gesceaft, creature

geþencan, to consider
gewītan, to pass away
gewrixl, exchange
hȳdan, to hide
mægen, to host
middangeard, the earth
munt, mountain
nēalǣcan, to draw near
onhrēran, to arouse
onsīen, countenance
ontӯnnes, opening
onwendan, to overturn
openung, manifestation
rōd, cross
tōberstan, to burst open
tungol, star
undern, morning (9am-12)
westdǣl, west side
wyrd, event
wyscan, to wish

POINTS OF SYNTAX

Does eal (line 5) modify tungla or lēoht?

What is the subject of āspringeð(line 5)?

What use is made of sēo (line 6)? (contrast its use in line 5.)

What tense is biþ (lines 7, 7, 9)?

What are the case and gender of þisse worlde (line 12)?

What is the case of mēder (line 15)?

Chapter 20

Strong Verbs, Classes 3 and 4

Class 3

20.1. The PrGmc series of ablaut

Note 1:

Note 2:

Note 3:

Note 4:

20.2. Exercise 1.

Class 4

20.3.

Note 5:

Translation:The Description of Britain

VOCABULARY

ā, always
ābiddan, request
ætgædere, together
be sūðan, south of
be westannorþan, northwest of
būend, inhabitant
cynecynn, royal family
eardian, to dwell
earm, arm
fultumian, to assist
gārsecg, ocean
gecuron, Pret Subjunc of gecēosan, choose
gefēran, to conquer
gegangan, to overcome
gelǣran, teach
gelimpan, to occur
gerād, Plur., conditions
geþēod, language

gewītan, to depart, go out
healf, side
heretoga, leader
hwæðere, however
līefan, to permit
līðe, mild
norþēastlang, extending to the northeast
oferfyrre, excessive distance
rǣd, advice
ryne, course
setl, seat, setting
Thīla, Thule (Iceland)
westhealf, westerly direction
wīfhealf, female side
wiþstandan, to resist
wunian, to dwell
ymbfōn, to surround
ȳtemest, outermost

POINTS OF SYNTAX

To what noun does him (line 2) refer?

Judging by the form of the noun būend (1.9), from what verb form is it derived?

What mood is mōsten (1. 12), and why?

What mood is wiþstent (1. 16), and why?

Chapter 21

Strong Verbs, Classes 5, 6, and 7

Class 5

21.1. The PrGmc

Examples:

(a)	metan, measure	mæt	mǣton	meten
	lesan, collect	læs	lǣson	lesen
	spreccan, speak	spræc	sprǣcon	sprecen

Note 1:

(b)	giefan, give	geaf	gēafon	giefen
	gietan, get	geat	gēaton	gieten
	spreccan, speak	spræc	sprǣcon	sprecen

Note 2:

Class 6

VOCABULARY

ætbregdan, to deliver
æþelboren, noble
æþellīce, nobly, excellently
āwendan, to translate
andwlita, countenance
beclic, literary
biggeng, worship
cēapcniht, young slave
cēapman, merchant
drohtnung, conduct
ēawfæst, pious
fīfta fæder, great-great-great-grandfather
foroft, very often
gebīgan, to convert
gefeaxod, haired

gereccan, to relate
gesǣliglīce, happily
getȳd, educated
hālig, holy
līchama, body
mǣgþ, family, kindred
pāpa, pope
sǣl, occasion
sand, mission
scēawian, to look at, examine
sweotollīce, clearly
þēon, to thrive, flourish
þing, goods
wita, counsellor

FOOTNOTE

¹See pp. 105-107 for an account of the Venerable Bede and his work.

Chapter 22

Conjugation of Strong Verbs

VOCABULARY

ālǣdan, to bring
befrinan, to inquire
Dēre, from Deira, Deiran
fram graman, Lat. dē irā, from wrath
gamenian, to play
geandwyrdan, to answer
gecȳgan, to summon
gedafenian, to be fitting
gefēra, companion
generian, to deliver, save
hīw, hue, color
lof, praise

mennisc, people
mildheortnes, mercy, pity
scīr, shire, district
Scieppend, Creator
siccetung, sigh
sweart, black
þe, or (line 4)
ðēod, nation
underþēodan, to subject
wālāwā, wellaway! alas!
wlite, beauty
wlitig, beautiful

POINTS OF SYNTAX

Note the frequent variations of word order in the passage. Inversion of subject and verb is normal after introductory adverbs, e.g. Ðā sǣde him mon (line 2). See 26.28., Word Order.

What type of constructions (Voice) are Him wæs geandwyrd (line 7) and wæs geandswarod (line 14)? (This text, translated from Latin, reflects Latin syntax.) Other examples of this type of construction are found throughout the selection.

Note the Mood of wǣre(line 10).

iIs lofe (line 16) a noun or a verb?

FOOTNOTES

¹The formation of -est is interesting. Historically this was -es(˂*is); it is sometimes found in EWS texts. However, the pronoun ðū frequently followed it and became added to it, producing *-esðū; this in turn was reduced to EWS -esð, an occaional form, and further to -est, the regular form.

²The long diphthong is due to contraction: sēo ˂ *seohe. It was this short eo which was umlauted to ie in the 2 and 3 Sing. forms.

Chapter 23

Preterit-Present Verbs

VOCABULARY

abbudessa, abbess
ætīewan, to show, reveal
belle, bell
blysa, radiance
bōsm, bosom
cyneþrym, royal glory
fǣmne, woman
gewītennes, passing away
glitenian, to glitter
Godes þēowa, nun
hāligryft, veil
hōfon, Pret Pl of hebban, to raise
hrægl, garment

lǣdan, to conduct, take
mynster, monastery, nunnery
nīgslīcod, newly smoothed
onginnan, to begin
on lyft, aloft, in the sky
sigle, necklace
stingan, to thrust
Strēoneshealh, Whitby
swēg, sound
tungol, star, the sun
timbrend, builder
þēowen, handmaiden
ylce, same

Chapter 24

Adverbs; Indefinite Pronouns

Adverbs of Place

VOCABULARY

ætflēon, to escape
æthrīnan, to touch
ampelle, flask, vial
andwealcan, to twist
ārǣcan, to reach
beswīcan, to deceive
bewrītan, to mark around
delfan, to dig
ealswā, like
elpendbǣnen, of ivory
forflēon, to escape
fremful, profitable
gemet, manner
gesihð, appearance
geweald, power, control
gewrīðan, to bind, tie

glæsen, of glass
hraðe, quickly
īsern, iron
lēoht-fæt, lamp
mægen, power, strength
mǣre, noble
onbūtan, around, about
ongīetan, to recognize
swā þæt, so that, provided that
swēora, neck
toforan, in front of
þȳlǣs, lest
ūpābregdan, to pull up
ūpātēon, to pul up
wōs, juice
wurp, Imperative of weorpan
wyrt, plant

Chapter 25

Numerals

Cardinal Ordinal

Chapter 26

Syntax

FOOTNOTES

¹Paul Bacquet, La Structure de la Phrase Verbale à ľ Epoque Alfrédienne, Pub.

Appendix I

Grimm's Law and Verner's Law

The "laws" of language, like those in any other scientific field, are statements of observed regularity in the way the language behaves. If the law has been stated on the basis of adequate observation and understanding of the data, it should be valid for features similar to the ones already observed. When these do not behave as expected, we conclude that the law is inadequately stated; it must then be revised to take care of the irregularities as well as possible.

Grimm's Law

Examples:

Verner's Law

FOOTNOTE

¹Grimm made the first full attempt to articulate it, though Rasmus Rask had seen the basis of it earlier. It has been considerably revised by later scholars.

Strong,	intrans.	sit;	Weak,	trans.	(causative)	set,	cause to sit
~	~	lie;	~	~	~	lay,	cause to lie.

Bright's Old Eŋlish Grammar and Reader

Note to the second Printing

Abbreviations

Gramar

Chapter 1

The Place of Old English

Language Relationships

Vocabulary

NOUNS

PRONOUNS

VERBS

ADJECTIVES

ADVERBS

PREPOSITIONS

CONJUNCTIONS

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 2

Speech Sounds

Speech Production

Consonants and Vowels

Classifying Consonants

Diagram 3

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 3

Speech Sounds. Vowels

Classifying Vowels

Diagram 4

Sound Change

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 4

OE Spelling and Pronunciation

Consonants

Vowels

Diphthongs

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 5

Phonological Changes

Gemination

The Change of a to o

The change of a to æ

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 6

Personal Pronouns

Reflexive Use

Interrogative Pronouns

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 7

Anomalous Verbs

Negative Forms

FOOTNOTE

Chapter 8

Phonological Changes (contin.)

Breaking: Short Vowels

Breaking: Long Vowels

Diphthongization after initial Palatal g, c, sc,

Final Double Consonants

FOOTNOTES

Chapter 9

Demonstrative Pronouns

The Relative Pronoun.

Translation: A Dialog

VOCABULARY

Chapter 10

Adjectives; Analogy; Possessive Pronouns

Strong Declension of Adjectives

Effects of Analogy

Possessive Pronouns

Translation: A Dialog (concluded)

VOCABULARY

Chapter 11

Phonological Changes(contin.)

i-Umlaut

Diagram 5

u-o-a-Umlaut

Translation: Luke VIII, 4-8

VOCABULARY

FOOTNOTE

Chapter 12

Weak Adjectives; Participles; Comparison

Weak Declension of Adjectives

The Radical Consonant Declension¹