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INTRODUCCION A LA DIACRONIA DEL INGLES
OLD ENGLISH/OE (Anglo-Saxon) - Pre Old-ENGLISH (450-700)
- Early Old English/ Classical old English (700-900)
- Late Old English (900-1100)
MIDDLE ENGLISH (ME) –Early Middle English (1100-1300) -Late Middle English (1300-1500)
MODERN ENGLISH (Mod.E) - Early Mod. E (1500-1650) renaissance -Late Mod. E. (1650-1800/1950)-›PRESENT DAY ENGLISH (PDE)
In the Late Middle English big changes happened. The division was based on the phonetic leveling of the final unstressed syllables.
What characterizes Germanic languages is that all the words precede the stress at the beginning of the word. In present day English (PDE) we have a lot of vocabulary what means that there is an increase of the language and this is possible because of the contact with other languages. English is importing many words from other languages.
In OE English was basically a Germanic language, which means that stress was at the beginning and nowadays that it changed. The final vowel became weaker and weaker, became the sound schwa / 0 4D 8/. This happened in the transition from OE to ME.
Many languages distinguish between: -Innovation: is the introduction of a new variant in a form which initially was considered a mistake. Innovation may catch on or they are some which disappear. -Diffusion: is the spread of a variant form, from an original point and two other places. Affects different localities big cities are the cradle of these changes. These changes go to smaller places. In general terms people living in the countryside have a more conservative language (vocabulary, pronunciation & syntactic terms). There are linguistic variations, the same word can be pronounced in different ways. RP (Received Pronunciation) is used in upper classes. The linguistic variation can be possible in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary. Ex. Have you not seen Michael? Haven’t you seen Michael? I’m knocked. (in Irish means cansado, and in English sucio) Film/ movie lift/elevator fall/autumn Bus & garage – can have different pronunciation
Variations have three main forces of change: 1). STRUCTURAL: this can affect any parts of English More bread / less bread More loaves / fewer loaves This happens because “more” has been used with mass and countable nouns since the beginning. 2). SOCIAL: depending in the group where you are you can speak in one way or in another. I couldn’t see anybody at the cinema. Standard English I couldn’t see nobody at the cinema. Non Standard English 3). FUNCTIONAL: are relevant to innovation, we could mention what one wants to express. Awfully Terribly
Really pretty Very Dead
New words/ phrases will be more constant: Sushi- is a word that today every people know, use in Japanese context. Twoc(k)- take without the owners concern, to steal. Use in the 1990s. Gate- a place where talk about political affairs (1972). May (might)-is in the point of disappearing. Is losing around by can or could to ask to have permission of something.
Synchrony- the study of language from a specific time. Ex. English Grammar. Diachronic- the study of the same language in which we study the development of language like when it started to the moment. It’s the focus of our study.
Never interpret an Old English text with our knowledge of English from nowadays. Ex. In OE “bestest, more nicer” was possible, it was a very good way of expressing something emphatically.
The importance of English is creasing because it’s PIDGIN and CREOLE variants. These Pidgin or Creole English is very different from the English we know; we couldn’t understand them without having studied before some basic things about this English. They use a very simplified version of English. A community has its drives and these drives have their own way of speaking English.
D. Crystal valued the number of people speaking English from Elizabeth I (1603) to Elisabeth II (1952) and said that there is a very big difference and millions of people started to speak English passing the years. English became a Lingua Franca: is a language chosen for an international communication. 375 million people speak English as its native language 370 million people speak English as its second language 750 million people study English
PIDGIN is a marginal language which arisen to fulfil restricted communicative needs, among people that have no common language, they are used in determined circumstances. They use a limited vocabulary and a simple grammar. It emerges as a marginal contact; when this marginal contact finishes this Pidgin English also disappear. The pidgin language contains a bit of English and a bit of the language speaking in that place. Ex. Korean bamboo English- result from a contact of Americans and Koreans. It comes to its end because it was no longer needed.
CREOLE arises when the pidgin became a mother tongue; it became much more complex because it is used as a first language. There is new vocabulary and grammar is also becoming more complex. Ex. Tok Pisim- Papua New Guinea French English top pisim Je vais I go mi go Tu vas you go yu go Il/elle va he/she/it does em go Nous allons we go yumi/mi pela go Vous allez you go yu pela go Ils/ells vont they go ol go
3). Having the indo European stress on the immediately preceding syllable. Grim’s ------›Verner’s low /t/-----›/Θ/-----›/ð/
In Proto-Germanic voiceless fricative became voiced when they were in a voiced environment and if the indo European stress was not on the preceding syllable. The problem is that once the low has operated there was a movement in the stress and this is what we call STRESS SHIFT, the stress moves to the first syllable but this happened after the voicing of the fricatives. /β/’-------------/’β/ /ð/’-------------/’ð/ / 0 26 3/’-------------/’ 0 26 3/ /s/’-----------/z/’--------/’z/
INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES
More than 200 years ago the idea which was given is that once there was a language spoken in many places in Europe and Asia, the name of this original language is Indo-European. Indo- European was the ancestor of most European languages and also of many Asian languages. Those languages that are still alive present some similarities; it’s a question of geographic situation. The Indo –European family of languages:
-INDIAN: the oldest literary text preserved in any Indo-European languages is found here, these texts are the Vaidest: the secret books from India. The oldest of them are taken from the 1500BC. The language that they present is the Veric Sanskrit. Iranian is located North-West of India and cover the great platen of Iran. Migratory movements have covered Indians to move further than Russia and china.
-ARMERIA: is found in the South of the Caucasus maintains and the Easter side of the Black sea.
-ALBANIAN is located in the North-West of Greek, on the Easter coast of the Adriatic Sea. They have borrowed so much from other languages that its native vocabulary is very poor.
-HELLENIC is the most important example of classical and modern Greek.
-ITALIC: has its centre in Italy. The most ancient example is Latin; it’s the ancestor of roman languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.
-BALTO-SLAVIC: covers a huge area to the east of Europe, they are usually classified together although there are some differences.
-CELTIC: occupied a very extensive part of Europe. At the beginning of the C. era Celtic language was spoken in Spain, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy. Was a language nothing to do with the present days languages. Today Celtic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France (Brittany). Forms of Celtic languages: - GOIDELIC or GAELIC CELTS: -Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. The first Celts to come to Britain some of them have been driven to Ireland by other invaders and from Ireland they may have been spread to Scotland- Isle of Man.
- CYMRIC or BRITANIC CELTS : -Welsh, Cornish and Breton. After occupying the territory now called England they were pushed by the Tendons in the 5 th^ century AC. They were divided to the west Wales, Cornwell and Brittany.
-GERMANIC: the earliest written forms of any Germanic language are the Proto-Germanic. Germanic has been subdivided into three according to geographical distribution:
a). North : is found in Scandinavia and Denmark. The earliest traces of North Germanic language are found in runic inscriptions dating on the 3rd^ century AC. In his earliest form for Scandinavian Germanic languages is called OLD NORSE (ON). From about the 11th^ century the Germanic language has subdivided into East North Germanic and West N.G. language. OLD NORSE
WEST N. G. EAST N.G.
Old Icelandic Old Norwegian Old Danish Old Swedish
Mod. Icelandic Mod. Danish Mod. Sweadish Mod. Norwegian Mod. Norwegain (Landsmaal-dialects) (Riksmaal- official language)
Old Icelandic was the most important. In Iceland they were settled the Norwegians. Iceland is the origin of the literature form of the Elder pr Poetic Edda. There also was Younger or Prose Edda. It related the local events, local heroes, adventures, types of life.
b). East : Gothic in Eastern Europe. The main document is the translation of part of the Bible, this translation was made by a Bishop and dates from the 4 th^ century AC. Nowadays nobody speaks it. Burgundian very few written documents were left from this language. Vaudalic very few written documents were left from this language.
c). West : is divided into two languages. The main difference is that the High West Germanic suffered a Second SOUND SHIFT while the Low WG hasn’t. WEST GERMAN
LOW W.G. HIGH W.G.
Old ENGLISH Old Frisian Old Saxon Old L. Franconian High German
Mod. Dutch Mod.ENGLISH Mod. Frisian Mod.Low.G Mod. Flemish (Holland)
GENERAL FEATURES OF ENGLISH The language that we use today is the result of the fusion of the language spoken by the Germanic tribes that come to England (Angles, Saxon, and Jutes). It is important how different were this varieties or which were more influential. The differences must have been slight. English being W.G.L. shares some characteristics with other German languages. English presents a shift of Consonants, like other W.G.L. English presents weak and strong declensions in adjectives. This is something that P.D.E. doesn’t have. Like other G.L. English has weak and strong conjugations in verbs. Today we call them regular and irregular verbs, but they don’t coincide.
Little later by the beginning of the 80s Governor Agricola extended the Norman border to the Solway and Tyne, the roman conquest was practically finished. Eventually this frontier give place to the roman stonewall= HADRIAN’S WALL, which was build in the year 123. 20 years later in 143 a second frontier even more to the north was build. It was established from the Forth Clydle, ANTONINE’S WALL=Scotland roman frontier. It wasn’t a very good wall; it didn’t resist much to the invasion of the Picts and Caledonians coming from the north. In 193 the legions leaved the frontier because there were some problems in other places and they went there. This invasion was proved by the Celts. Britain was a roman province for more than 400 years. In the year 410AD emperor Honorius told the Celts they are going to leave Britain. The roman wall Hadrian’s Wall was demolished in part and the roman province started to disappear. The effect of the roman conquest left roman remnants. Romans build 4 highways what would facility the communication between cities. Smaller roads connected military centres. Today we still preserve roman theatres, temples, mosaics.
Latin was used in Britain in small places; there was small elite of romaine citizen. In those days Britain was called Britannia. They thought Latin to privilege persons, Nobel Celts. In the armies we see the genesis of local varieties of Latin; this was used as a lingua-franca. Another language spoken in those days was Celtic, used by the native population. We suspect that Latin was taken as a High language while Celtic was used as Low language. In the main cities Latin should be preferred and in the countryside, especially in north and west Celtic was preferred. We suspect from this that Britain was a bilingual place. In the course of the 5th^ century these two languages give way to a different language the English.
Influence of Latin in English We distinguish several periods:
1 st^ period: THE CONTINENTAL PERIOD: It preceded the coming of the English; it took place before
the 5th^ century. It contains simple short words, specific terms. Many of them had to be related to main day activity. Cup ‹ L. cupa Pepper ‹ L. piper Dish ‹ L. discus plum ‹ L. pruna Wine ‹L. vinum kitchen ‹ L. coquina Cheese ‹ L. caseus mill ‹ L. Molina Cheap ‹ L. caupo wall ‹ L. uallum Monger ‹ L. mango stræt‹ street ‹ L. strata Mile ‹ L. millia
2 nd^ period: LATIN THROUGH CELTIC TRANSMISSION: The use of the Latin disappeared soon after
the roman’s left 410. When the first Germanic population came to invade Britain the Romans had already left (449).
Ceaster ‹ L. castra Manchester, Chester, Chichester, Leicester, Worcester, Gloucester, landcaster, Doncaster, exter ‹L. execester
Ca /k/ + /a/ /k/ + /ε a/› /t 0 28 3/
Port ‹ L. portus/-a Portsmouth Wic ‹ L. vicus Garrick, Warwick, Norwich, sandwich Munt ‹L. mont mountain
TEUTONIC or GERMANIC CONQUEST (449) This conquest lasted for more than one century and a half and it was made by groups of conquerors and settlers. They migrated from Europe (Denmark, Low Countries). They slowly occupied everything with the exception of the mountains in the west and north. We base our knowledge of this in two works: “The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles” (the oldest historical prose written in Germanic language) and “Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum” by Bede. According to these sources we know that the Angles, Saxons and Jutes took part in the invasion. This wasn’t the first attempt; they wanted to invade Britain before, in the 4 th^ century. The problem was the the Romans left and the Celts had to protect themselves and they discovered that they weren’t strong enough to fight the invasions. When Picts and Scots attempted the Celts had to go to find someone to help them to protect themselves, they wanted the Romans to help them, but they had problems also. So they had an agreement with the Jutes. And it said that if the Jutes help them to fight the Picts & Scots they were given the Isle of Thanet; so the Jutes helped them. Here the Jutes discovered that the oil was better in this Isle and they wanted to stay there. So they started to make a settlement by the force; they started their own invasion. The settlement made by the Jutes was different from the settlements made by the Romans. The Romans had come to rule the natives but not to disposes them. The Jutes took control of all their possessions so the results were very bad for the Celts. According to the Saxon chronicle a group of Saxons came around the year 477 they landed on the south coast and they established in Sussex, then they started to establish their selves farther in Wessex. By the middle of the following century ( 6th^ ) the Angles came and established their kind mint the east & north. We know that there was a Celtic leader Artorius who managed to be in peace with the invaders. But the end the Anglo-Saxons defeated the Celts and they occupied all the territories. In the next 150 years they established 7 main kingdoms. The new invaders called the Celts “wealas”. And this is the origin of the term welsh. To the Celts their invaders were all the same “Saxons-2. New terms Anglii and Anglia was referred to the invaders and the language they speak. In 601 the king of the Celts 1 D0 1thelbert was styled “Rex Anglorum”. The people started to be called “Angeliynn”. Angle language was generally known as the language of the invaders, the country was generally known as Englaland. The relationship between the Celts and the English was not very good, but more or less stable. The roman buildings, temples, houses were destroyed, because they weren’t attracted by the town life. These people lived in open air and loved open air activities. The first English words make reference to the activities these people had. Plough, field, ox, swine, earth, dog…. Various tribes combined by the influence of the powerful leader and they produced small kingdoms. These groups were not very permanent. Sometimes kingdoms separated went together and big kingdoms divided. For a certain time there were 7 main kingdoms; Anglo-Saxon Heptarch.
- Northumbria: angles
- Mercia: angles
- Essex: Saxons of the east
- Kent: Jutes
- Sussex: Saxons of the south
- Wessex: Saxons of the west.
- Middlessex Northumbria was the political and cultural leader in the 7 th^ century. In the 8th^ century the leadership passed over to Mercia.
-people from Denmark moved to France (Normandy).
Collectively the Scandinavians received the name “Vikings”. The term “Vikings” can came from a) “vik” a person who frequented the sea and islands b) “wic” coming from Latin “vicus”
The Viking raids started in 793. The monasteries of Jarrow and Lindisfarme where plundered in different times. By the middle of the 9th^ century almost half of the country was in the hands of the Vikings (Danish people from Denmark). They concentrated on the western side of England which they haven’t invaded yet. The Wessex was invaded after Alfred becoming king. Alfred had to escape from the Danish; he didn’t have any army to fight against the invaders. After 7 years of resistance Alfred went to Somerset. While he was there he raises an army with common people and they prepared their resistance. They fight in the Battle of Ethandum (Eddington) and the English won the battle. After the victory of the English they made the Treaty of Weclmore in 879 signed between Alfred and the leader of the Danes Guthrum. The trade salved Wessex. The conquerors had to leave the territory of Alfred but they didn’t have to leave England. This trade established peace between them. From London to Chester there was a line (WATCHING STREET) which divided the territory occupied by the English (southwest) and the Danish (northeast) were allowed to stay, this territory received the name “Dane law”. The Danes accepted Christianity. This would help to the fusion of English and Scandinavian.
Alfred ruled over the people who lived on the southwest of England, but he wasn’t king of the rest of the English people. He depended on men and on the money of the other English people who were under the Danes control. He had to find a political rule to claim that he was the king of the rest of the English people who lived under the Danes rules. Alfred used the English language as a sense of English nationality and he’s the king of the English speaking people no matter where they lived. This encouraged the use of English. Alfred used English for the education of the people. He even learnt Latin to arrange and participate in the translation of Historia Ecclesiastica and the same happened to other important texts.
Guthrum rejected Christianity. There were more Scandinavian invasions.
Under the kingdom of Edward the Elder (900-924) and Athelstan (924-940) Scandinavian invasions were defended. The Battle of Brunanburh (937) was one of the most brilliant victories.
By the middle of the 10 th^ century the east part of England was under the law of English but by the end of the
10 th^ century the battle of Maldon (991) took place. Three years later the Danish troops took control of England. This was a gradual settlement. In the year 1014 Sven and his son commute down the English king Ӕthelred “the unready” into exile. And this is the end of the Old English period.
CONSEQUENCES ON THE LANGUAGE
More than 1400 place names have Scandinavian origins (North-east). We have more than 600 containing: “ by ” (›farm, town) withby, rugby...
- place names: - thorp (farmstead) Scunthorpe, Linthorpe, Bishopsthorpe...
- _thwaite_ (clearing) Applethwaite, Scatterthwaite, Bassenthwaite..
100 names: toft (homestead) Nortoft, Lowestoft,
- beck (a brook) Troutbeck....
- fell (a hill) scafell...
- garth (a yard) Applegarth...
- gill (a ravine) Carrigill...
- keld (a spring) Dunkeld...
- son (son of) Johnson, Peterson (Scandinavian)
The way of living of the Scandinavians was very similar to the Anglo Saxons so it was easy to take words from the Scandinavians:
Noun verbs adjectives Leg die scant Window gape old Skin clip rotten Skull take weak Skill give tight Thrust thrive
Apart from this prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs have been transferred: They their them (Scandinavian forms, they replace the Anglo Saxon forms hie, hiera, him that disappeared).
The coming of the Normand’s introducing French forms means the disappearance of other words used upon this time.
Other words introduced from Scandinavian are: -“both” meaning same -“till” had two meaning today we use it for questions of time -“fro” means from -“to” & “fro” indicating place -“at” It also appeared infinitive forms: at do ›ado = to do Other forms: hence Are- pl. Indicative of to be Scandinavian: they aron --
Anglo English: hie syndon (disappeared) -- they are
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH
There are basically four differences based in: ͽPRONUNCIATION OE: bān › PDE: bone hūs ›house stān › stone rīht › right hālig › holy fyr › fire^ 0 30 4 y /ü/ ͽSPELLING: some graphemes fall in disuse: ‹ð› eth ‹æ› æsc (cat) ‹sc› / 0 28 3/ scip › ship ‹c› /k/ cū ›cow & ic /t 0 28 3/ › I ‹ 0 3F 8› Thorn (rune)
ͽVOCABULARY: the vocabulary was very limited, only 15% of the words are still active, there was a massive introduction of female words: etan ›to eat
Dagas inn āc wīn mæst, wæa “ash” god (God) ræd^ 0 30 4 gōd (good) ӡe sumor hēr tūn cyme (ü) bryd^ 0 30 4 ea and eo disappeared in the transition of the ME
The consonantal system has been very stable, so the pronunciation was almost always the same. In OE all the consonants had to be pronounced. Gnornian, cnawan (know) ‹h› [h] if it went at the beginning of the word hāl (whole), hnutu (nut), hweol (whell) If it appears at the middle of the word next to a front vowel [ç] riht, nihsta (next) [x] If the ‹h› appears next to a back vowel: brohte (brought); next to a diphthong: neah (near); next to A consonant: wealh
‹f› ‹s› ‹þ› could be pronounced as voiced or voiceless. Voiceless – in initial words /f/ full; /s/ sum; / 0 4E 9/ þeaw -middialy in a word- between a vowel and a voiceless consonant /f/ æfter; /s/ lāst; / 0 4E 9/ breþa -final position: /f/ hlāf; /s/ gōs; / 0 4E 9/ wīþ Voiced- when they went between two vowels /v/ healfon; /z/ risan; /ð/ cweðan
-between a vowel and a voiced consonant: /v/ hæfde; /z/ ræsde;^ 0 30 4 /ð/ cwiðdon
‹c› if it was next to a front vowel it had became affricate cild /t 0 28 3/ If it was next to a back vowel it became plosive cū /k/ ‹g› next to a consonant became a plosive glæd / g/ Next to affricate vowel gester /j/
‹sc› it had affricate sound / 0 28 3/ sceoten. There was an exception in the verb “ascian” /sk/ which is the first form of the verb “to ask”
‹cg› ME ‹dg› /d 0 4E 1/ OE hecg › ME hedge
Front vowels: /i:/; / 0 26 A/ ; /e/; /æ/ Back vowels: / 0 25 1:/; / 0 25 2/; / 0 25 9:/ ; /u:/ ; /υ/
STRESS PATTERNS
As English comes from German languages, the stress always falls on the first syllable. But when there is a prefix, this is never stressed. Wið’feohtan Compounds had the primary stress on the first syllable or the first element and the second fell on the first syllable of the second element. In the levelling process all final syllables became unstressed which also made final vowels became / 0 25 9/. ‘spell 0 2C Cboad- messenger
‘spræc 0 2C Chūs – senate house ‘mann 0 2C Ccynn – man kind ‘heah 0 2C Cburg – capital city ‘leorning 0 2C Ccniht – student
VOCABULARY OF OE
Approximately 85% of words that used to be in the OE had disappeared and only a 15% had been left. But this small percentage is the core of the English. They are basic elements of PDE. Their frequency of appearance is much higher than other words proceeded from Latin. We know that 60% of English vocabularies are Latin words. Obviously these 15 % words had changed their spelling, pronunciation and meaning. In OE as borrowing was slight, made an extensive use of compounds: the joining of two words to create a new word. bōchord (book hoard- library) There are a few long words that are borrowed from other languages like Celtic, Latin, Scandinavian, and French. English created new words by using: compounding and affixing.
A). COMPUNDING: joining together two elements, they could create nouns and adjectives: N+N=N sciprap A+N=N ‘wid 0 2C Csæ (wide sea)0 30 4 Adv+N=N ‘ær^ 0 30 4 0 2C Cdæ (early day, dawn) N+A=A ælmesgeorn A+A=A heahþungnen Adv+A=A forþgeorn A+N=A bliþemod Poets of that time created words to express synonyms, these words used to be compound not to repeat a word that appeared before and it had to fit the alliteration, and this is the principle of the kenning = are compounds which contained a metaphor, they were made with a literal proposes. These poems used to be oral. yþhengest (wave horse = ship)^ 0 30 4 bæþweg ( bath way = on the sea) flōdway ( flood way) swanrād ( swim road = sea)
B). AFFIXING b.a.) Prefixing - wiþ (against, away) wiþceosan, wiþcweðan, wiþstandan; ME withhold, withdraw -æg æghwa (anyone, everybody); ærhwær (everywhere) -ge- nouns (together) gefera -verbs (to indicate that the action has been finished) geascian ( to find out) -past participle forms: gehalgod ( hallowed) -on (negative sense) onbindan
b.b.) Suffixies -end (PDE –er) hælend (doctor)^ 0 30 4 -hād ( PDE –hood) cildhād (childhood) -ing (the son of) Ælfred- Æþelwulfing -en: ( past participle forms acting as adj.) -ig (PDE –y) : halig ( holy) -lic: heafuonic ( heavenly) -sum: hiersum (obedient)
The following words related to the family are taken from French: aunt, uncle, grandfather, grandmother, niece, nephew, cousin.
PARTS OF THE BODY OE Mod.E Lippe lips Hear hair Breost breast Eare ear Hand hand Nosu nose Finger finger Fōt foot Earm arm Scanca calf Cneo knee Heafod head Heorte heart
NUMBERS An 1 feower 4 seofon 7 ten 10 Twa 2 fif 5 eahta 8 Thri 3 siex 6 nigon 9 CLOTHES Socc - sock scoh - shoe Scyrte - shirt haett - hat
FOOD & DRINK Bread – bread cese – cheese Butere – butter mete - meat Milc - milk æg - egg Sealt – salt fisc – fish Hunig – honey beor – beer
GENDRE IN OE
Grammatical gender supposes that any noun masculine, feminine, neuter without any reference to the nature of the noun. Beorn (man) = male, masc., noun Fyxen = female, feminine, noun wīf = (wife) neuter. Today we have a natural gender. The three genders in OE don’t have a strict rule to distinguish them, generally speaking masculine refer to adult male animals and humans. Fæder if the noun was preceded by “se” we know that fader was masculine, demonstrative and noun. Se mearch - masculine, makes reference to adult male animal (horse)
In general feminine nouns refer to adult females or adult female animals.
seō moder – singular, feminine, nominative seō cū - singular, feminine, nominative (the cow)
Neutral nouns are referred to young living being both people and animals þæt cild (the child) þæt cycen (the chicken)
As far as number conserved, there were two numbers, singular and plural. To a very limited use there was a third category of number called the dual number. We simply find it in a very few forms in the personal pronouns. But after OE it totally disappeared.
THE NOUN IN THE OE
Nouns were inflected in those days and the inflection of the OE noun indicated distinction of number and case. The case system for OE was simpler than other Indo-European languages. Vocative: case doesn’t exist in OE; his function was performed by the Nominative case. Locative: case didn’t exist. Accusative: indicated the do of the action. Genitive: indicated possession. Dative: indicate the oi of the action. Only in very few occasions we find the traces of instrumental case. There was a vowel declination which was also called strong declination. And there was a consonant was called the weak declination. They were classified depending on the stem of the noun ended in vowel or consonant.
A-Stem
hund (dog) Singular masc. neuter
Nom. Hund deor Acc. Hund dero Gen. hundes deores Dat. Hunde deore Plural
Nom-Acc. Hundas deor Gen. hunda deora Dat. Hundum deorum
These nouns are called a-stem. Before OE there was the Germanic language and there’s a hypothesis that believes that German nominative singular and accusative singular form had an “a” like in: wulfaz, wulfan. This “a” disappeared in the OE. More than a half of the nouns were declined in this way. Genitive singular today is still used, it is called Saxon genitive: Mary’s dog. Neutral deor was uninflected in nominative and accusative plural Dero ›PDE deer
Z-stem
Singular plural Nom. Cild Nom.-Acc. cildru
Foot/feet, mouse/mice goose/ geese tooth/teeth
Ō-STEM
Lufu (love) feminine form in OE Nom. Lufu nom.-acc. Lufa Acc. Lufe Gen. lufe gen. lufa Dat. Lufe dat. Lufum
Lufu------› love final u became e because of the levelling process; and /υ/ became in the ME / 0 28 C/ this change took place because of the French influence.
ADJECTIVES IN THE OE
ͽDEMONSTRATIVES
nom. Se þæt sēo acc. Þone þæt þā masc. neut. Fem. gen. þæ pæs þære^ 0 30 4 dat. þæm^ 0 30 4 þæm0 30 4 þære0 30 4 ins. þy 0 30 4 þy 0 30 4 þære0 30 4
sē was masculine, singular, noun, translated as who, that þe man= the man sē---›þe----›the (def.art.no matter the gender) sēo---›þēo þæt---------›that (dem. accompanying any gender) All the forms with the exception of sē and sēo presented a þ and the other two exceptions with time left the “s” and changed to þ getting from sē-›þē and from sēo-›þēo, this change is called ANALOGY. The definite article today is invariable; it started to be invariable in the ME. There were other demonstrative patterns, although it weren’t very used: Þes þēos þis Changed to these X changed to this In plural we have no distinction: þōs Today “these” plural form comes from þes which was masc., sing, and nom.
ͽADJECTIVES
The adjectives in OE agreed the noun in gender, number and case. This also happens on the other Germanic languages. In OE we distinguish two types of declensions of adjectives: -the WEAK declension: was used when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative or a possessive form. This demonstrative or possessive made the following noun definite. The weak form many times has the N-STEM declensions. Singular Nom. Se dola cyning þæt dole bearn seo dole ides
Acc. Þone dolan cyning þæt dole bearn þā dolan idese Gen. þæs dolan cyninges þæs dolan bearnes þære dolan idese Dat. þæm dolan cyninge^ 0 30 4 þæm dolan bearne0 30 4 þære dolan idese0 30 4 Ins. þy dolan cyninge^ 0 30 4 þy dolan bearne0 30 4 þære dolan idese Plural Nom. Acc. Þa dolan cyningas, bearn, ideas Gen. þara dolra cyninga, bearna, ideas Dat. þæm dolum cyningum, bearnum, idesum^ 0 30 4
-the STONG declension: when it wasn’t preceded by a demonstrative or a possessive form. Singular Nom. Dol cyning dol bearn dolu ides Acc. Dolne cyning dol bearn dole idese Gen. doles cyninges doles bearnes dolre idese Dat. Dolum cyninge dolum bearne dolre idese Ins. Dole cyninge dole bearne dolre idese Plural Nom. Acc. Dole cyningas dolu bearn dola idesa Gen. dolra cyninga, bearna, idesa Dat. Dolum cyningum, bearnum, idesum
ͽTHE POSSESSIVE FORMS
They come from the genitive forms of the personal pronoun system.
Min-----mine Þin------your His-----his (masc. and neut. till the Mod E when its was created) Hire-----her Ure------our Eower----your Hira----their ---› Scandinavian (they, them)
ͽCOMPARATIVES
For the building of comparatives we add –er and for the superlative we add – (e) st. OE Comp. –ra › leof---› leofra ↓ ME –re › -er (METATHESIS: change in the order of the graphs and change in pronunciation) Sup. –ost -est ›ME -est -ast
Ex. Eold ieldra geong gingra lang lengra commutation Ieldest gingest longest
God betera yfel (evil) wiersa (worse) Best, bestest wyrst (worst)
Micel (much) mara (more) lytel (little)^ 0 30 4 læssa0 30 4
