Old English Grammar Flashcards
What do nouns inflect according to in Old English?
grammatical gender (f, m, n), case inflection (nom, acc, gen, dat, [inst]), number (sg / pl)
What are Strong & Weak nouns?
Strong and weak are overused metalinguistic terms in the study of OE. There needn’t be any agreement between strong and weak nouns, verbs and adjectives. In fact the term only refers to differing patterns of inflection.
Ending for STRONG masc/neuter singular nouns (e.g staan, scip) in Nominative or Accusative
zero
ending for STRONG masc/neuter singular nouns in the genitive
-es
ending for STRONG masc/neuter singular nouns in the dative
-e
ending for STRONG feminine singular nouns in the nominative
-u
ending for STRONG feminine singular nouns (e.g giefu - gift) in the accusative, genitive & dative
-e
ending for STRONG masculine plural nouns in the nominative and accusative
-as
ending for STRONG neuter plural nouns in the nominative and accusative
-u
ending for STRONG feminine plural nouns in the nominative or accusative
-a/-e
ending for all STRONG plural nouns in the genitive
-a
ending for all STRONG plural nouns in the dative
-um
ending for WEAK masculine singular nouns (e.g nama -name) in the nominative
-a
ending for WEAK masculine singular nouns (e.g nama -name) in the accusative, genitive and dative.
-an
ending for WEAK neuter singular nouns (e.g eaage - eye) in the nominative and accusative cases
-e
ending for WEAK neuter singular nouns (e.g eaage - eye) in the genitive and dative cases
-an
ending for WEAK feminine singular nouns (e.g tunge - snare) in the nominative case
-e
ending for WEAK feminine singular nouns (e.g tunge - snare) in the accusative, dative & genitive case
-an
ending for all WEAK plural nouns in the nominative and accusative case
-an
ending for all WEAK plural nouns in the genitive
-ena
ending for all WEAK plural nouns in the dative
-um
What is syncretism?
The loss of inflectional distinctiveness, which Jeremy Smith (2012) identifies as an ongoing process in the germanic languages. For example, Gothic had a nominative/accusative distinction in Strong nouns not present in Old English.
Where do the noun inflections in OE come from?
Jeremy Smith (2012) says that these endings are based on the thematic (word-final) vowels of words in PIE, and new words are incorporated by analogy. Strong masculine come from a, ja, wa, i, strong feminine from o, jo, wo, i. Strong neuters have same thematic vowels as masculine but there are no u-stems neuters. (obviously u-stems have the thematic vowel u). The -an declension, often described as the weak noun, had a consonantal theme in Proto-Germanic, -n-. This thematic element derived from ProtoIndo-European themes in *-en-, with the vowel subject to Ablaut variation, yielding *-on-, lengthened grades *-ēn- and *-ōn-, and the reduced or ‘zero’ grade *-n-. One example of reduced or zero grade survives in OE, namely oxna ‘oxen’ (genitive plural).
How does umlaut affect OE?
A stressed vowel with /i/ or /j/ in the next syllable underwent i-mutation (umlaut):
◦short front vowels raise a level (æ > e, e > i)
◦all back vowels become front (a > æ, o (> oe) > e, u > y)
◦diphthongs shift (ea > ie, eo > ie)
The triggering environment was then lost, leaving umlaut as a
morphological rather than phonological process in OE
(hence OE fēt ‘feet’ < PG *fo:tiz)
We don’t reconstruct this sound change for Proto-Germanic
because it is not found in Gothic (East Germanic)
Umlaut plurals
mann:menn ‘man’ tōþ:tēþ ‘tooth’ bōc:bēc ‘book’ gōs:gēs ‘goose’ lūs:lȳs ‘louse’ mūs:mȳs ‘mouse’ frēond:frīend ‘friend’ fēond:fīend ‘enemy’
Irregular plurals in OE (Jeremy Smith 2012)
A few nouns have irregular paradigms, through the operation of analogy or as relicts of Proto-Germanic paradigms otherwise extinct by OE times. One set of neuters decline like the general neuter declension in the singular, but add an intrusive -r- in the plural, e.g. lamb ‘lamb’, lambru (nominative/accusative plural), lambra (genitive plural), lambrum (dative plural). Other neuters with similar paradigms include cealf ‘calf’, æ¯g ‘egg’, while cild ‘child’ can be declined like word, in the general neuter
declension, throughout but also appears with -r- forms, e.g. cildru (nominative/accusative plural). Another small group of nouns display relics of the Proto-Indo-European t-declension, e.g. mōnaþ ‘month’. Some don’t inflect at all in the plural, most notably relationship nouns: mother, daughter, brother, father.
u-stem declension
singular nominative and accusative
-u
u-stem declension
singular genitive and dative
-a
u-stem declension
plural nominative, accusative, genitive
-a
u-stem declension
plural dative
-um
What do OE pronouns inflect according to?
person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), case inflection (nom, acc, gen, dat, [inst]), number (sg, du, pl).
first person OE pronouns
singular: ic, mee, miin, mee
dual: wit, unc, uncer, unc
plural: wee, uus, uure, uus
second person OE pronouns
singular: thuu, thee, thiin, thee
dual: git, inc, incer, inc
plural: gee, eeow, eeower, eeow
third person OE pronouns
masculine singular: hee, hine, his, him
neut sg: hit, hit, his, him
fem sg: heeo, hii(e), hire/heora, hire/heora
plural: hii(e)/heeo, hii(e)/heeo, hira/heora, him/heom.
OE sing masc nom demonstrative
se
OE sing masc acc demonstrative
.thone
OE sing masc/neuter gen demonstrative
.th.aes
OE sing masc/neuter dat demonstrative
.thaam
OE sing neuter nom/acc demonstrative
.th.aet
OE sing fem nominative demonstrative
seeo
OE sing fem accusative demonstrative
.th.aa
OE sing fem gen/dat demonstrative
.th.aere
OE plural nom/acc demonstrative
.thaa
OE plural genitive demonstrative
.thaare
OE plural dative demonstrative
.thaam
What do OE adjectives inflect according to?
Inflect according to grammatical gender (m, n, f), number (sg, pl), case (nom, acc, gen, dat, inst).
Weak Adjectives:
singular masculine nominative
-a
Weak Adjectives:
singular masculine acc/gen/dat
-an
Weak Adjectives:
singular neuter nom/acc
-e
Weak Adjectives:
singular neuter gen/dat
-an
Weak Adjectives:
singular fem nominative
-e
Weak Adjectives:
singular fem acc/gen/dat
-an
Weak Adjectives:
plural nom/acc
-an
Weak Adjectives:
plural genitive
-ra/-ena
Weak Adjectives:
plural dative
-um
Strong Adjectives:
singular nominative
zero (or possible -u for feminine)
Strong Adjectives:
singular masculine accusative
-ne
Strong Adjectives:
singular neuter accusative
zero
Strong Adjectives:
singular feminine accusative
-e
Strong Adjectives:
singular masc/neut genitive
-es
Strong Adjectives:
singular masc/neut dative
-um
Strong Adjectives:
singular fem gen/dative
-re
Strong Adjectives:
singular instrumental
-e
Strong Adjectives:
plural masc nom/acc
-e
Strong Adjectives:
plural neuter nom/acc
-u
Strong Adjectives:
plural fem nom/acc
-a/-e
Strong Adjectives:
plural genitive
-ra
Strong Adjectives:
plural dative/instrumental
-um
What are verbs inflected according to?
Verbs are marked for:
- tense (past/present)
- mood (indicative/imperative/subjunctive)
- person/number agreement (singular/plural - first/second/third)
What is ablaut, where does it come from?
ablaut is vowel alternation for inflection which affects Strong verbs in OE. It comes from PIE, where vowel alternation was partially conditioned by where the accent was.
Why are there 7 classes of strong verbs?
sound changes meant that there are now 7 different ablaut patterns.
What are the sound changes altering ablaut patterns?
For class 3a, prenasal raising led to e>i & o>u. For class 3b, breaking For classes 4 & 5, palatal diphthongisation and .ae backing.
Where are remnants of Grimms and Verner’s law seen in the verbal system.
The infinitive and past singular have first syllable stress so consonants voiceless, whereas the past plural and past participle have second syllable stress so voiced consonants.
What do weak verbs have instead of ablaut?
Dental suffix
New verbs entering Old English are generally…
Weak, however there are occasional new strong verbs by analogy with existing strong verbs e.g french loan strive > strove by analogy to dive, thrive etc
What is analogy?
An analogy can be the linguistic process that reduces word forms perceived as irregular by remaking them in the shape of more common forms that are governed by rules. For example, the English verb help once had the preterite holp and the past participle holpen. These obsolete forms have been discarded and replaced by helped by the power of analogy (or by widened application of the productive Verb-ed rule.) This is called leveling. However, irregular forms can sometimes be created by analogy; one example is the American English past tense form of dive: dove, formed on analogy with words such as drive: drove.
General Syntax of Old English
Old English is thought to be underlyingly SOV, with movement to V2 position in main clauses.
How do particle verbs interact with this system?
particle can be stranded if main verb is moved to maintain V2.
Syntactic structure of genitives
genitive applies to every item in phrase (which is to be genitive) and the phrase can precede or follow the head noun. Genitives can also be divided such that part of the compound phrase is before the noun and part after.
What cases do experiencer-source verbs take?
Experiencer-source verbs have a number of possible
patterns:
◦experiencer-NOM source-GEN
◦experiencer-DAT source-NOM
◦experiencer-DAT source-GEN
Ofhreowan (pity, repent) could take any of the above three patterns.
How do modals behave in OE?
Like other verbs, combining for example
is mood distinguished
yes the subjunctive is morphologically distinct
How is aspect conveyed
there is a progressive construction using to be + present participle but it is rare.
perfect is constructed with habban (for transitive verbs) or wesan (for intransitive) + past participle
How is the OE passive formed
The OE passive is formed either from ‘be’ + past participle (as in PDE), or using
‘become’ (weor?an) + past participle
