Old English grammar

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Old English

The grammar of Old English is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more highly inflected, similar to Latin. As an old Germanic language, Old English's morphological system is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections theorized to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including characteristically Germanic constructions such as umlaut.

Among living languages, Old English morphology most closely resembles that of modern Icelandic, which is among the most conservative of the Germanic languages; to a lesser extent, the Old English inflectional system is similar to that of modern High German.

Nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners were fully inflected with five grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), two grammatical numbers (singular and plural) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). First and second person personal pronouns also had dual forms for referring to groups of two people, in addition to the usual singular and plural forms.[1] The instrumental case was somewhat rare and occurred only in the masculine and neuter singular; it could typically be replaced by the dative. Adjectives, pronouns and (sometimes) participles agreed with their antecedent nouns in case, number and gender. Finite verbs agreed with their subject in person and number.

Nouns came in numerous declensions (with deep parallels in Latin, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit). Verbs came in nine main conjugations (seven strong and two weak), each with numerous subtypes, as well as a few additional smaller conjugations and a handful of irregular verbs. The main difference from other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, is that verbs can be conjugated in only two tenses (vs. the six "tenses" – really tense/aspect combinations – of Latin), and have no synthetic passive voice (although it did still exist in Gothic).

Note that gender in nouns was grammatical, as opposed to the natural gender that prevails in modern English. That is, the grammatical gender of a given noun did not necessarily correspond its natural gender, even for nouns referring to people. For example, sēo sunne (the Sun) was feminine, se mōna (the Moon) was masculine, and þæt wīf "the woman/wife" was neuter. (Compare modern German die Sonne, der Mond, das Weib.) Pronominal usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender, when it conflicted.

Contents

Morphology

Verbs

Verbs in Old English are divided into strong or weak verbs. Strong verbs indicate tense by a change in the quality of a vowel, while weak verbs indicate tense by the addition of an ending.

Strong verbs

Further information: Germanic strong verb

Strong verbs use the Germanic form of conjugation known as ablaut. In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English, for example sing, sang, sung is a strong verb, as are swim, swam, swum and choose, chose, chosen. The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes. Learning these is often a challenge for students of the language, though English speakers may see connections between the old verb classes and their modern forms.

The classes had the following distinguishing features to their infinitive stems:

  1. ī + 1 consonant.
  2. ēo or ū + 1 consonant.
  3. Originally e + 2 consonants. By the time of written Old English, many had changed. If we use C to represent any consonant, verbs in this class usually had short e + lC; short eo + rC; short i + nC/mC; or (g̣ +) short ie + lC.
  4. e + 1 consonant (usually l or r, plus the verb brecan 'to break').
  5. e + 1 consonant (usually a stop or a fricative).
  6. a + 1 consonant.
  7. Other than the above. Always a heavy root syllable (either a long vowel or short + 2 consonants), almost always a non-umlauted vowel – e.g. ō, ā, ēa, a (+ nC), ea (+ lC/rC), occ. ǣ (the latter with past in ē instead of normal ēo). Infinitive distinguishable from class 1 weak verbs by non-umlauted root vowel; from class 2 weak verbs by lack of suffix -ian. First and second preterite have identical stems, usually in ēo (occ. ē), and the infinitive and the past participle also have the same stem.
Stem Changes in Strong Verbs
Class Root Weight Infinitive First Preterite Second Preterite Past Participle
I heavy ī ā i i
II heavy ēo or ū ēa u o
III heavy see table below
IV light e(+r/l) æ ǣ o
V light e(+other) æ ǣ e
VI light a ō ō a
VII heavy ō, ā, ēa, a(+nC), ea(+rC/lC), occ. ǣ ē or ēo same as infinitive

The first preterite stem is used in the preterite, for the first and third persons singular. The second preterite stem is used for second person singular, and all persons in the plural (as well as the preterite subjunctive). Strong verbs also exhibit i-mutation of the stem in the second and third persons singular in the present tense.

The third class went through so many sound changes that it was barely recognisable as a single class. The first was a process called 'breaking'. Before <h>, and <r> + another consonant, <æ> turned into <ea>, and <e> to <eo>. Also, before <l> + another consonant, the same happened to <æ>, but <e> remained unchanged (except before combination <lh>).

The second sound-change to affect it was the influence of palatal sounds <g>, <c>, and <sc>. These turned anteceding <e> and <æ> to <ie> and <ea>, respectively.

The third sound change turned <e> to <i>, <æ> to <a>, and <o> to <u> before nasals.

Altogether, this split the third class into five sub-classes:

  1. e + two consonants (apart from clusters beginning with l).
  2. eo + r or h + another consonant.
  3. e + l + another consonant.
  4. g, c, or sc + ie + two consonants.
  5. i + nasal + another consonant.
Stem Changes in Class III
Sub-class Infinitive First Preterite Second Preterite Past Participle
a e æ u o
b eo ea u o
c e ea u o
d ie ea u o
e i a u u

Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences being in the stem vowel. Thus stelan 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation paradigm.

Conjugation Pronoun 'steal'
Infinitives stelan
tō stelanne
Present Indicative
ic stele
þū stilst
hē/hit/hēo stilð
wē/gē/hīe stelaþ
Past Indicative ic stæl
þū stǣle
hē/hit/hēo stæl
wē/gē/hīe stǣlon
Present Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo stele
wē/gē/hīe stelen
Past Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo stǣle
wē/gē/hīe stǣlen
Imperative Singular stel
Plural stelaþ
Present Participle stelende
Past Participle (ge)stolen

Weak verbs

Further information: Germanic weak verb

Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are love, loved or look, looked.

Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today, most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak ending to the foreign bases.

The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1,200 years. Some verbs that were originally strong (for example help, holp, holpen) have become weak by analogy; most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns (for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally, conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb through the process of analogy, such as sneak (originally only a noun), where snuck is an analogical formation rather than a survival from Old English).

There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained below.

Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in certain forms. With verbs in <r> this appears as <ri> or <rg>, where <i> and <g> are pronounced [j]. Geminated <f> appears as <bb>, and that of <g> appears as <cg>. Class one verbs may receive an epenthetic vowel before endings beginning in a consonant.

Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have <i> or <ig>, which is a separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which appears as <a> or <o>.

In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Swebban 'to put to sleep' is a class one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel. Hǣlan 'to heal' is a class-one verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian 'to journey' is a class-two verb.

Conjugation Pronoun 'put to sleep' 'heal' 'journey'
Infinitives swebban hǣlan sīðian
tō swebbanne tō hǣlanne tō sīðianne
Present Indicative
ic swebbe hǣle sīðie
þū swefest hǣlst sīðast
hē/hit/hēo swefeþ hǣlþ sīðað
wē/gē/hīe swebbaþ hǣlaþ sīðiað
Past Indicative ic swefede hǣlde sīðode
þū swefedest hǣldest sīðodest
hē/hit/hēo swefede hǣle sīðode
wē/gē/hīe swefedon hǣlon sīðodon
Present Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo swebbe hǣle sīðie
wē/gē/hīe swebben hǣlen sīðien
Past Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo swefede hǣlde sīðode
wē/gē/hīe swefeden hǣlden sīðoden
Imperative Singular swefe hǣl sīða
Plural swebbaþ hǣlaþ sīðiað
Present Participle swefende hǣlende sīðiende
Past Participle swefed hǣled sīðod

During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four verbs belonged to this group: habban 'have', libban 'live', secgan 'say', and hycgan 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some commonalities.

Conjugation Pronoun 'have' 'live' 'say' 'think'
Infinitive habban libban, lifgan secgan hycgan
Present Indicative
ic hæbbe libbe, lifge secge hycge
þū hæfst, hafast lifast, leofast segst, sagast hygst, hogast
hē/hit/hēo hæfð, hafað lifað, leofað segð, sagað hyg(e)d, hogað
wē/gē/hīe habbaþ libbað secgaþ hycgað
Past Indicative (all persons) hæfde lifde, leofode sægde hog(o)de, hygde
Present Subjunctive (all persons) hæbbe libbe, lifge secge hycge
Past Subjunctive (all persons) hæfde lifde, leofode sægde hog(o)de, hygde
Imperative Singular hafa leofa sæge, saga hyge, hoga
Plural habbaþ libbaþ, lifgaþ secgaþ hycgaþ
Present Participle hæbbende libbende, lifgende secgende hycgende
Past Participle gehæfd gelifd gesægd gehogod

Preterite-present verbs

The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which have a present tense in the form of a strong preterite and a past tense like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive from the subjunctive or optative use of preterite forms to refer to present or future time. For example, witan, "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to have seen" (cf. OE wise "manner, mode, appearance"; Latin videre "to see" from the same root). The present singular is formed from the original singular preterite stem and the present plural from the original plural preterite stem. As a result of this history, the first-person singular and third-person singular are the same in the present.

Few preterite present appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in all forms.

Note that the Old English meanings of many of the verbs are significantly different than that of the modern descendants; in fact, the verbs "can, may, must" appear to have chain shifted in meaning.

Conjugation Pronoun 'know, know how to' 'be able to, can' 'be obliged to, must' 'know' 'own' 'avail' 'dare' 'remember' 'need' 'be allowed to, may' 'grant, allow, wish' 'have use of, enjoy'
Modern Descendant 'can' 'may' 'shall' 'wit (obsolescent)' 'owe' 'dow (archaic)' 'dare' -- -- 'mote (archaic), must’ -- --
Infinitives cunnan magan sculan witan āgan dugan *durran munan þurfan *mōtan unnan *ge-/ *benugan
Present Indicative
ic cann mæg sceal wāt āh deah dearr man þearf mōt ann geneah
þū canst meaht scealt wāst āhst dearst manst þearft mōst
hē/hit/hēo cann mæg sceal wāt āh deah dearr man þearf mōt ann geneah
wē/gē/hīe cunnon magon sculon witon āgon dugon durron munon þurfon mōton unnon genugan
Past Indicative
ic cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste āhte dohte dorst munde þorfte mōste uðe benohte
þū cūðest meahtest sceoldest wissest, wistest āhte dohte dorst munde þorfte mōste uðe benohte
hē/hit/hēo cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste āhte dohte dorst munde þorfte mōste ūðe benohte
wē/gē/hīe cūðon meahton sceoldon wisson, wiston uþon
Present Subjunctive
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo cunne mæge scyle, scule wite āge dyge, duge dyrre, durre myne, mune þyrfe, þurfe mōte unne
wē/gē/hīe cunnen mægen sculen witaþ
Past Subjunctive
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste
wē/gē/hīe cūðen meahten sceolden

[Forms above with asterisk (*) unattested.]

Anomalous verbs

Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are anomalous, the verbs "want" (modern "will"), "do", "go" and "be". These four have their own conjugation schemes which differ significantly from all the other classes of verb. This is not especially unusual: "want", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences in which they are used. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important items of vocabulary than with rarely-used ones.

Dōn 'to do' and gān 'to go' are conjugated alike; willan 'to want' is similar outside of the present tense.

Conjugation Pronoun 'do' 'go' 'will'
Infinitive – dōn gān willan
Present Indicative
ic dō gā wille
þū dēst gǣst wilt
hē/hit/hēo dēð gǣð wile
wē/gē/hīe dōð gāð willað
Past Indicative
ic/hē/hit/hēo dyde ēode wolde
þū dydest ēodest woldest
wē/gē/hīe dydon ēodon woldon
Present Subjunctive (all persons) dō gā wille
Past Subjunctive (all persons) dyde ēode wolde
Present Participle dōnde – willende
Past Participle gedōn gegān –

The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:

Conjugation Pronoun sindon bēon wesan
Infinitive – sindon bēon wesan
Present Indicative
ic eom bēo wese
þū eart bist wesst
hē/hit/hēo is bið wes(t)
wē/gē/hīe sind(on) bēoð wesað
Past Indicative
ic – – wæs
þū – – wǣre
hē/hit/hēo – – wæs
wē/gē/hīe – – wǣron
Present Subjunctive
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo sīe bēo wese
wē/gē/hīe sīen bēon wesen
Past Subjunctive
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo – – wǣre
wē/gē/hīe – – wǣren
Imperative
(singular) – bēo wes
(plural) – bēoð wesað
Present Participle – bēonde wesende
Past Participle – gebēon –

The present forms of wesan are almost never used. Therefore, wesan is used as the past, imperative, and present participle versions of sindon, and does not have a separate meaning. The bēon forms are usually used in reference to future actions. Only the present forms of bēon contrast with the present forms of sindon/wesan in that bēon tends to be used to refer to eternal or permanent truths, while sindon/wesan is used more commonly to refer to temporary or subjective facts. This semantic distinction was lost as Old English developed into modern English, so that the modern verb 'to be' is a single verb which takes its present indicative forms from sindon, its past indicative forms from wesan, its present subjunctive forms from bēon, its past subjunctive forms from wesan, and its imperative and participle forms from bēon.

Nouns

Old English is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, adjectives and determiners must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. As in several other ancient Germanic languages, there are five major cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive and instrumental.

The small body of evidence we have for Runic texts suggests that there may also have a been a separate locative case in early or Northumbrian forms of the language (e.g., ᚩᚾ ᚱᚩᛞᛁ on rodi "on the Cross").[2]

In addition to inflection for case, nouns take different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, hring 'one ring') or plural (for example, hringas 'many rings'). Also, some nouns pluralize by way of Umlaut, and some undergo no pluralizing change in certain cases.

Nouns are also categorised by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. In general, masculine and neuter words share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural of some declension types distinguishes between genders, e.g., a-stem masculine nominative plural stanas "stones" vs. neuter nominative plural scipu "ships" and word "words"; or i-stem masculine nominative plural sige(as) "victories" vs. neuter nominative plural sifu "sieves" and hilt "hilts".

Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.

Old English language grammars often follow the common NOM-ACC-GEN-DAT-INST order used for the Germanic languages.

Strong nouns

Here are the strong declensional endings and examples for each gender:

The Strong Noun Declension
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative – -as – -u/– -u/– -a
Accusative – -as – -u/– -e -a, -e
Genitive -es -a -es -a -e -a
Dative -e -um -e -um -e -um

For the '-u/–' forms above, the '-u' is used with a root consisting of a single short syllable or ending in a long syllable followed by a short syllable, while roots ending in a long syllable or two short syllables are not inflected. (A long syllable contains a long vowel or is followed by two consonants. Note also that there are some exceptions; for example, feminine nouns ending in -þu such as strengþu 'strength'.)

Example of the Strong Noun Declension for each Gender
Case Masculine
engel 'angel'		 Neuter
scip 'ship'		 Feminine
sorg 'sorrow'
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative engel englas scip scipu sorg sorga
Accusative engel englas scip scipu sorge sorga/sorge
Genitive engles engla scipes scipa sorge sorga
Dative engle englum scipe scipum sorge sorgum

Note the syncope of the second e in engel when an ending follows. This syncope of the vowel in the second syllable occurs with two-syllable strong nouns, which have a long vowel in the first syllable and a second syllable consisting of a short vowel and single consonant (for example, engel, wuldor 'glory', and hēafod 'head'). However, this syncope is not always present, so forms such as engelas may be seen.

Weak nouns

Here are the weak declensional endings and examples for each gender:

The Weak Noun Declension
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative -a -an -e -an -e -an
Accusative -an -an -e -an -an -an
Genitive -an -ena -an -ena -an -ena
Dative -an -um -an -um -an -um
Example of the Weak Noun Declension for each Gender
Case Masculine
nama 'name'		 Neuter
ēage 'eye'		 Feminine
tunge 'tongue'
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative nama naman ēage ēagan tunge tungan
Accusative naman naman ēage ēagan tungan tungan
Genitive naman namena ēagan ēagena tungan tungena
Dative naman namum ēagan ēagum tungan tungum

Irregular strong nouns

In addition, masculine and neuter nouns whose main vowel is short 'æ' and end with a single consonant change the vowel to 'a' in the plural (a result of the phonological phenomenon known as Anglo-Frisian brightening):

Dæg 'day' m.
Case Singular Plural
Nominative dæg dagas
Accusative dæg dagas
Genitive dæges daga
Dative dæge dagum

Some masculine and neuter nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings. Note that neuter nouns in -e always have -u in the plural, even with a long vowel:

Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -e
Case Masculine
ende 'end'		 Neuter
stȳle 'steel'
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative ende endas stȳle stȳlu
Accusative ende endas stȳle stȳlu
Genitive endes enda stȳles stȳla
Dative ende endum stȳle stȳlum

Nouns ending in -h lose this when an ending is added, and lengthen the vowel in compensation (this can result in compression of the ending as well):

Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -h
Case Masculine
mearh 'horse'		 Neuter
feorh 'life'		 Masculine
scōh 'shoe'
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative mearh mēaras feorh feorh scōh scōs
Accusative mearh mēaras feorh feorh scōh scōs
Genitive mēares mēara fēores fēora scōs scōna
Dative mēare mēarum fēore fēorum scō scōm

Nouns whose stem ends in -w change this to -u or drop it in the nominative singular. (Note that this '-u/–' distinction depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.)

Example of the Strong Noun Declensions ending in -w
Case Neuter
smeoru 'grease'		 Feminine
sinu 'sinew'		 Feminine
lǣs 'pasture'
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative smeoru smeoru sinu sinwa lǣs lǣswa
Accusative smeoru smeoru sinwe sinwa, -e lǣswe lǣswa, -e
Genitive smeorwes smeorwa sinwe sinwa lǣswe lǣswa
Dative smeorwe smeorwum sinwe sinwum lǣswe lǣswum

A few nouns follow the -u declension, with an entirely different set of endings. The following examples are both masculine, although feminines also exist, with the same endings (for example duru 'door' and hand 'hand'). Note that the '-u/–' distinction in the singular depends on syllable weight, as for strong nouns, above.

Example of the -u Declension
Case Masculine
sunu 'son'		 Masculine
feld 'field'
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative sunu suna feld felda
Accusative sunu suna feld felda
Genitive suna suna felda felda
Dative suna sunum felda feldum

Mutating strong nouns

There are also some nouns of the consonant declension, which show i-umlaut in some forms.

Example of the Strong Noun Declensions with i-shift
Case Masculine
fōt 'foot'		 Feminine
hnutu 'nut'		 Feminine
bōc 'book'
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative fōt fēt hnutu hnyte bōc bēc
Accusative fōt fēt hnutu hnyte bōc bēc
Genitive fōtes fōta hnyte, hnute hnuta bēc, bōce bōca
Dative fēt, fōte fōtum hnyte, hnute hnutum bēc, bōc bōcum

Other such nouns include (with singular and plural nominative forms given):

Masculine: tōþ, tēþ 'tooth'; mann, menn 'man'; frēond, frīend 'friend'; fēond, fīend 'enemy' (cf. 'fiend')

Feminine: studu, styde 'post' (cf. 'stud'); hnitu, hnite 'nit'; āc, ǣc 'oak'; gāt, gǣt 'goat'; brōc, brēc 'leg covering' (cf. 'breeches'); gōs, gēs 'goose'; burg, byrg 'city' (cf. 'borough', '-bury' and German cities in -burg); dung, dyng 'prison' (cf. 'dungeon' by way of French and Frankish); turf, tyrf 'turf'; grūt, grȳt 'meal' (cf. 'grout'); lūs, lȳs 'louse'; mūs, mȳs 'mouse'; neaht, niht 'night' Feminine with loss of -h in some forms: furh, fyrh 'furrow' or 'fir'; sulh, sylh 'plough'; þrūh, þrȳh 'trough'; wlōh, wlēh 'fringe'. Feminine with compression of endings: cū, cȳ 'cow' (cf. dialectal plural 'kine')

Neuter: In addition, scrūd 'clothing, garment' has the umlauted dative-singular form scrȳd.

Nouns of relationship

Nouns of Relationship
Case Masculine
fæder 'father'		 Masculine
brōðor 'brother'		 Feminine
mōdor 'mother'		 Feminine
sweostor 'sister'		 Feminine
dohtor 'daughter'
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative fæder fæd(e)ras brōðor (ge)brōðor mōdor mōdra/mōdru sweostor (ge)sweostor, -tru, -tra dohtor dohtor
Accusative fæder fæd(e)ras brōðor (ge)brōðor mōdor mōdra/mōdru sweostor (ge)sweostor, -tru, -tra dohtor dohtor
Genitive fæder fæd(e)ra brōðor (ge)brōðra mōdor mōdra sweostor (ge)sweostra dohtor dohtra
Dative fæder fæderum brēðer (ge)brōðrum mēder mōdrum sweostor (ge)sweostrum dehter dohtrum

Neuter nouns with -r- in the plural

Lamb 'lamb' n.
Case Singular Plural
Nominative lamb lambru
Accusative lamb lambru
Genitive lambes lambra
Dative lambe lambrum

Other such nouns: ǣg, ǣgru 'egg' (ancestor of the archaic/dialectical form 'ey', plural 'eyren'; the form 'egg' is a borrowing from Old Norse); bread, breadru 'crumb'; cealf, cealfru 'calf'; cild 'child' has either the normal plural cild or cildru (cf. 'children', with -en from the weak nouns); hǣmed, hǣmedru 'cohabitation'; speld, speldru 'torch'.

Adjectives

Adjectives in Old English are declined using the same categories as nouns: five cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and two numbers (singular, plural). In addition, they can be declined either strong or weak. The weak forms are used in the presence of a definite or possessive determiner, while the strong ones are used in other situations. The weak forms are identical to those for nouns, while the strong forms use a combination of noun and pronoun endings:

The Strong Adjective Declension
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative – -e – -u/– -u/– -e, -a
Accusative -ne -e – -u/– -e -e, -a
Genitive -es -ra -es -ra -re -ra
Dative -um -um -um -um -re -um
Instrumental -e -um -e -um -re -um

For the '-u/–' forms above, the distinction is the same as for strong nouns.

Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: gōd 'good'
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative gōd gōde gōd gōd gōd gōde, -a
Accusative gōdne gōde gōd gōd gōde gōde, -a
Genitive gōdes gōdra gōdes gōdra gōdre gōdra
Dative gōdum gōdum gōdum gōdum gōdre gōdum
Instrumental gōde gōdum gōde gōdum gōdre gōdum
Example of the Weak Adjective Declension: gōd 'good'
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative gōda gōdan gōde gōdan gōde gōdan
Accusative gōdan gōdan gōde gōdan gōdan gōdan
Genitive gōdan gōdena gōdan gōdena gōdan gōdena
Dative gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum
Instrumental gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum

Note that the same variants described above for nouns also exist for adjectives. The following example shows both the æ/a variation and the -u forms in the feminine singular and neuter plural:

Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: glæd 'glad'
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative glæd glade glæd gladu gladu glade
Accusative glædne glade glæd gladu glade glade
Genitive glades glædra glades glædra glædre glædra
Dative gladum gladum gladum gladum glædre gladum
Instrumental glade gladum glade gladum glædre gladum

The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h:

Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: hēah 'high'
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative hēah hēa hēah hēa hēa hēa
Accusative hēane hēa hēah hēa hēa hēa
Genitive hēas hēara hēas hēara hēare hēara
Dative hēam hēam hēam hēam hēare hēam
Instrumental hēa hēam hēa hēam hēare hēam

The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -w:

Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: gearu 'ready'
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative gearu gearwe gearu gearu gearu gearwe
Accusative gearone gearwe gearu gearu gearwe gearwe
Genitive gearwes gearora gearwes gearora gearore gearora
Dative gearwum gearwum gearwum gearwum gearore gearwum
Instrumental gearwe gearwum gearwe gearwum gearore gearwum

Determiners

Old English had two main determiners: se, which could function as both 'the' or 'that', and þes for 'this'.

the/that
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural
Nominative se þæt sēo þā
Accusative þone þæt þā þā
Genitive þæs þæs þǣre þāra, þǣra
Dative þǣm þǣm þǣre þǣm, þām
Instrumental þȳ, þon þȳ, þon – –

Modern English 'that' descends from the neuter nominative/accusative form,[3] and 'the' from the masculine nominative form, with 's' replaced analogously by the 'th' of the other forms.[4] The feminine nominative form was probably the source of Modern English 'she.'[5]

this
Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural
Nominative þes þis þēos þās
Accusative þisne þis þās þās
Genitive þisses þisses þisse, þisre þisra
Dative þissum þissum þisse, þisre þissum
Instrumental þȳs þȳs – –

Pronouns

Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but remained in use throughout the period.

First Person
Case Singular Plural Dual
Nominative ic, īc wē wit
Accusative mec, mē ūsic, ūs uncit, unc
Genitive mīn ūre uncer
Dative mē ūs unc
Second Person
Case Singular Plural Dual
Nominative þū gē git
Accusative þēc, þē ēowic, ēow incit, inc
Genitive þīn ēower incer
Dative þē ēow inc
Third Person
Case Singular Plural
Masc. Neut. Fem.
Nominative hē hit hēo hiē m., hēo f.
Accusative hine hit hīe hiē m., hīo f.
Genitive his his hire hiera m., heora f.
Dative him him hire him

Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ēower became "your", ūre became "our", mīn became "mine".

Prepositions

Prepositions (like Modern English words by, for, and with) often follow the word which they govern, in which case they are called postpositions. Also, so that the object of a preposition was marked in the dative case, a preposition may conceivably be located anywhere in the sentence, even appended to the verb. e.g. "Scyld Scefing sceathena threatum meodo setla of teoh" means "Scyld took mead settles of (from) enemy threats." The infinitive is not declined.

The following is a list of prepositions in the Old English language. Many of them, particularly those marked "etc.", are found in other variant spellings. Prepositions may govern the accusative, genitive, dative or instrumental cases - the question of which is beyond the scope of this article.

Prepositions
Old English Definition Notes
æfter after; along, through, during; according to, by means of; about. Ancestor of modern after Related to Dutch achter = behind, after
ǣr before Related to modern German eher and Dutch eer, ancestor of modern ere
æt at, to, before, next, with, in, for, against; unto, as far as. Ancestor of modern at
and against, before, on.
andlang along Ancestor of modern along
bæftan after, behind; without.
be, bī by, near to, to, at, in, on, upon, about, with; of, from, about, touching, concerning; for, because of, after, by, through, according to; beside, out of. Related to modern German bei, ancestor of modern by
befōran before. Ancestor of modern before
begeondan beyond. Ancestor of modern beyond
behindan behind. Ancestor of modern behind
beinnan in, within.
beneoðan beneath. Ancestor of modern beneath
betweonum, betweox, etc. betwixt, between, among, amid, in the midst. Ancestors of modern between and betwixt respectively
bīrihte near.
būfan above. Ancestor of modern above through compound form onbúfan
būtan out of, against; without, except.
eāc with, in addition to, besides. Related to modern German auch
for for, on account of, because of, with, by; according to; instead of. Ancestor of modern for
fōr, fōre before.
fram from; concerning, about, of. Ancestor of modern from
gemang among Ancestor of modern among
geond through, throughout, over, as far as, among, in, after, beyond. Ancestor of modern yonder through comparative form geondra
in in, on; into, to. Ancestor of modern in
innan in, into, within, from within.
intō into Ancestor of modern into
mid with, against Ancestor of modern amid through related form onmiddan
neāh near Ancestor of modern nigh
nefne except
of of, from, out of, off. Ancestor of modern of and off
ofer above, over; upon, on; throughout; beyond, more than Ancestor of modern over
on on; in, at; Ancestor of modern on
onbūtan about Ancestor of modern about
ongeagn, etc. opposite, against; towards; in reply to. Ancestor of modern again
onuppan upon, on.
oþ to, unto, up to, as far as.
samod with, at.
tō to, at. Ancestor of modern to
tōeācan in addition to, besides.
tōforan before.
tōgeagnes towards, against.
tōmiddes in the midst of, amidst.
tōweard toward. Ancestor of modern toward
þurh through Related to modern German durch, ancestor of modern through
ufenan above, besides.
under under. Ancestor of modern under
underneoþan underneath. Ancestor of modern underneath
uppan upon, on. Not the ancestor of modern upon, which came from "up on".
ūtan without, outside of Related to modern German außen, außer and Swedish utan
wið towards, to; with, against; opposite to; by, near. Ancestor of modern with
wiðæftan behind.
wiðer against. Related to modern German wider
wiðinnan within. Ancestor of modern within
wiðforan before.
wiðoutan without, outside of. Ancestor of modern without
ymb about, by. Related to German um and Latin ambi
ymbūtan about, around; concerning.

Syntax

Old English syntax was similar in many ways to that of modern English. However, there were some important differences. Some were simply consequences of the greater level of nominal and verbal inflection – e.g., word order was generally freer. But there are also differences in the default word order, and in the construction of negation, questions, relative clauses and subordinate clauses.

In addition:

Word order

There was some flexibility in word order of Old English, since the heavily inflected nature of nouns, adjectives and verbs often indicated the relationships among clause arguments. Scrambling of constituents was common, and even sometimes scrambling within a constituent occurred, as in Beowulf line 708 wrāþum on andan:

wrāþum on andan
hostile.DAT.SG on/with malice.DAT.SG
"with hostile malice"

Something similar occurs in line 713 in sele þām hēan "in the high hall" (lit. "in hall the high").

Extraposition of constituents out of larger constituents is common even in prose, as in the well-known tale of Cynewulf and Cyneheard, which begins

Hēr Cynewulf benam Sigebryht his rīces ond Westseaxna wiotan for unryhtum dǣdum, būton Hamtūnscīre; ...
(word-for-word) "Here Cynewulf deprived Sigebryht of his kingdom and West Saxons' counselors for unright deeds, except Hampshire"
(translated) "Here Cynewulf and the West Saxon counselors deprived Sigebryht of his kingdom, other than Hampshire, for unjust actions"

Note how the words ond Westseaxna wiotan "and the West Saxon counselors" (lit. "and (the) counselors of (the) West Saxons") have been extraposed from (moved out of) the compound subject they belong in, in a way that would be totally impossible in modern English. Case marking helps somewhat: wiotan "counselors" can be nominative or accusative but definitely not genitive, which is the case of rīces "kingdom" and the case governed by benam "deprived"; hence, Cynewulf can't possibly have deprived Sigebryht of the West Saxon counselors, as the order suggests.

Main clauses in Old English tend to have a verb-second (V2) order, where the verb is the second constituent in a sentence, regardless of what comes first. There are echoes of this in modern English, e.g. "Hardly did he arrive when ...", "Never can it be said that ...", "Over went the boat", "Ever onward marched the weary soldiers ...", "Then came a loud sound from the sky above". In Old English, however, it was much more extensive, much as in modern German. Note that if the subject appears first, this yields an SVO order; but it can also yield orders such as OVS, CVSO, etc.

In subordinate clauses, however, the word order is completely different, with verb-final constructions the norm – again as in modern German. Furthermore, in poetry, all these rules were frequently broken. In Beowulf, for example, main clauses frequently have verb-initial or verb-final order, and subordinate clauses often have verb-second order. (However, in clauses introduced by þā, which can mean either "when" or "then" and where word order is crucial for telling the difference, the normal word order is nearly always followed.)

Those linguists who work within the Chomskyan transformational grammar paradigm often believe that it is more accurate to describe Old English (and other Germanic languages with the same word-order patterns, e.g. modern German) as having underlying subject-object-verb (SOV) ordering. According to this theory, all sentences are initially generated using this order, but then in main clauses the verb is moved back to the V2 position (technically, the verb undergoes V-to-T raising). This is said to explain the fact that Old English allows inversion of subject and verb as a general strategy for forming questions, while modern English only uses this strategy with auxiliary verbs and main-verb "to be" (and occasionally main-verb "to have", especially in British English), requiring do-support in other cases.

Questions

Because of its similarity with Old Norse, it is believed that most of the time the word order of Old English changed when asking a question, from SVO to VSO; i.e. swapping the verb and the subject. While many purport that Old English had free word order, this is not quite true and there were conventions for the positioning of subject, object and verb in the clause.

"I am..." becomes "Am I..."
"Ic eom..." becomes "Eom ic..."

Relative, subordinate clauses

Old English did not use forms equivalent to "who, when, where" in relative clauses (as in "The man who I saw") or subordinate clauses ("When I got home, I went to sleep").

Instead, relative clauses used one of the following:

  1. An invariable complementizer þe
  2. The demonstrative pronoun se, sēo, þat
  3. The combination of the two, as in se þe

Preposition-fronting ("The man with whom I spoke") did not normally occur.

Subordinate clauses tended to use correlative conjunctions, e.g.

Þā ic hām ēode, þā slēp ic.
(word-for-word) "Then I home went, then slept I."
(translated) "When I went home, I slept."

The word order usually distinguished the subordinate clause (with verb-final order) from the main clause (with verb-second word order).

The equivalents of "who, when, where" were used only as interrogative pronouns and indefinite pronouns, as in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.

Besides þā ... þā ..., other correlative conjunctions occurred, often in pairs of identical words, e.g.:

Phonology

Main article: Old English phonology

The phonology of Old English is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved purely as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of Old English, and the written language apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Peter S. Baker (2003). "Pronouns". The Electronic Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell. http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/resources/IOE/inflpron.html. 
  2. ^ Page, An Introduction to English Runes, Boydell 1999, p. 230
  3. ^ "That". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=that. Retrieved 28 June 2010. 
  4. ^ "The". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=the. Retrieved 28 June 2010. 
  5. ^ "She". Online Etymology Dictionary. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=she. Retrieved 28 June 2010. 

References

Further reading