CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library PE 135.W97 3 1924 027 323 074 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027323074 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Old English Lay of Beowulf. Edited with Critical and Philological Notes and Alphabetical Glossary hy A. J. Wyatt, M.A., late Scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge; M.A. Lond. Crown 8vo. 8s. 6d. An Elementary Old English Reader. [In preparation. An Old English Anthology. [In prepa/ration. AN ELEMENTARY OLD ENGLISH GKAMMAE (EARLY WEST SAXON). aonSon : C. J. CLAY and SONS, CAMBEIDGE UNIVEESITY PEESS WAEEHOUSE, AVE MARIA LANE. (SISBgoto: 263, AEGTLE STKEET. Eeqjjis: P. A. BEOCKHAtrS. &tio fflorft: THE MACMILLAN CO. 36om6as: GEORGE BELL AND SONS. AN BLBMBNTAEY OLD ENGLISH GEAMMAE (EARLY WEST SAXON) BY A. J. WYATT, M.A. (CANTAB. ET LONDIN.), LATE SCHOLAK OP CHEIST S OOLLEOE, CAMBRIDGE, EXTERNAL EXAMINEB IN ENGLISH TO VICTOEIA UNIVERSITY. CAMBRIDGE: AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1897 [All Rights reserved.] Cambttlge : PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVEESITY PEESS. PEEFACE. Old English Grammar has hitherto been taught in three ways, which may be called respectively the Germanic, the Gothic, and the independent methods. Sievers assumes that the student possesses a certain knowledge of Germanic, and makes it the basis of his classifications; Cosijn believes that the ready way to the Old English tongue is to learn Gothic first — a theory not difficult to reduce ad absurdum. Sweet considers such methods as these " positively injurious " ; he prefers to give the learner a thousand and one isolated facts, and carefully to withhold every clue by which they may be grouped, classified and remembered. The method followed in this work is more or less novel, being a compromise between Sievers and Sweet, an attempt to hit the happy mean ; for, while the basis of arrangement has been the practical con- venience of the learner in studying the actually existing phenomena of the language, no pains have been spared in order that he may have nothing to unlearn in the further pursuit of the subject. Some empirical rules are given, but they are of a quiet, harmless sort; Germanic has been taken as a guide throughout, although it is not needlessly obtruded. A few difficulties have necessarily been deferred to a later stage. It would have given a specious air of completeness to the book to have added a section dealing with Old English VI PREFACE. syntax ; but I am strongly of opinion that for the present such aid is best given in notes on selected texts. For the rest, it is unnecessary to enlarge on the methods of exposition here devised or adopted, or to make the reviewer's task easy by calliag attention to the principal innovations. The ultimate appeal as to the arrangement, the methods, the necessity, and the utility of the work will be to the experience of readers and students ; and their counsel and co-operation are cordially asked, for its correction and improvement. My obligations to Sweet are a part of our national debt to him as a pioneer in English philology. My indebtedness to Sievers is obvious and well-nigh inestimable. I have made abundant use of Cosijn's Aliwestsdchsische Grammatih, an in- comparable storehouse of examples. My warmest thanks are hereby tendered to Prof. Napier, whose timely advice and assistance have often encouraged me in the studies of which this book is the outcome; to a lady, whose name I am not permitted to mention, for reading the proof-sheets with equal acumen and care ; to Mr B. J. Hayes, M. A., of St John's College, for giving me the benefit of his great experience in all that is meant by " seeing through the press " ; and to the officials of the University Press, who have spared neither trouble nor expense in meeting my wishes, for example in banishing (I hope for ever) the italic digraph w, indistinguish- able from CB, and having the elegant character x specially cast for this book. A. J. W. Cambbidge, March, 1897. CONTENTS. PAGE Parahigms 1 PABT I. INFLECTION. SECT. 1. Introduotoey 9 3. Alphabet and Pbonuncution . 11 6. Nouns 14 16. I. Strong Nouns 20 16. A. Ordinary Declension . ib. 16. 1. Masculines .... ib. 20. 2. Neuters .... 22 26. 3. Feminines .... 25 31. (i) JF-Stems (all genders) 28 33. (ii) tT- Stems „ „ 30 34. (iii) J-Stems „ „ 31 36. B. Minor Declensions 34 36. 4. Z7-Stems .... ib. 37. 5. iJ-Stems .... 35 38. 36 39. 7. Other Stems ib. 40. n. Weak Nouns 38 41. Adjectives 39 42. Strong Declension 40 47. Weak Declension 45 48. Participles 46 VIH CONTENTS. SECT. PAGE 60. COMPABISON . . . 47 50. I. Adjectives ... . . . . . ib. 52. n. Adverbs . . . . . 50 54. NUMISKALS ... ... . 51 66. Peonouns . . . . 54 56. I. Personal . ib. 57. II. Eeflexive ... . 55 58. III. Possessive (Adjectives) . 56 59. IV. Demonstrative 57 60. V. Relative ... 58 61. VI. Interrogative ib. 62. vn. Indefinite 59 63. Veebs . 60 64. Strong and Weak . . ib. 66. I. Strong Verbs 63 68. 2nd and 3rd Singular Present 65 70. Gradation .... . 68 72. Classes of Strong Verbs . 71 80. Weak Presents 82 81. Contracted Verbs ... . . . 85 82. II. Weak Verbs . 89 83. Class I {" Wean-Ween ") . . . . . 90 90. „ II ("Tell") . . . . . . 97 91. „ III ("Look"). . 100 93. „ IV : Mixed Verbs . . . . . 102 95. III. Past-Present Verbs . 104 96. IV. Anomalous Verbs . 108 PAET II. PHONOLOGY. 98. Stkessed Vowels (and Diphthongs) . 98. A. Downward History. — OE. Primary Vowels 113. Table of Correspondences . 114. B. The Old EngUsh Sound-laws 117. Mutation 118. I. I-Mutation . 131. n. (/-Mutation .... 135. III. Palatal Mutation . 112 ib. 118 119 121 122 127 129 CONTENTS. IX SECT. PAGE 136. IV. Breaking . 130 140. V. Glide-Diphthongisation . 132 141. VI. Palatal Diphthongisation . . lb. 145. VII. „ Monophthongisation . 134 146. VIII. Influence of Preceding W . . 135 147. IX. „ „ Following W . . 136 148. X. ,1 ., 1, Nasal . a. 153. XI. Loss of Nasal . 138 154. XII. Contraction (and Absorption) . ib. 159. XIII. Loss of G and H . . 141 161. XIV. Lengthening . 142 162. XV. Shortening . . ... . ib. 163. C . Upward History.— Selected Examples . . ib. 164. Consonants . • . • .... . 149 165. I. Loss ... . ib. 166. II. Assimilation 150 167. m. Metathesis .... . ib. 168. IV. Gemination ... ib. 169. V. Verner's Law . 151 APPENDIX.— WORD-FORMATION. 170. I. Formation of Adverbs . 153 174. n. Prefixes . 155 175. III. Suffixes . 158 ABBREVIATIONS, etc. OB. Old English. EWS. Early West Saxon. LWS. Late West Saxon. > becomes, became, becoming, passes into, etc. < (is) derived from, etc. cc alternating with. TO c. w. PARADIGMS. Some such plan of work as the following is recommended to the heginner. (1) Study the paradigms given below. (2) By their aid work jour way through the earlier extracts, or the whole, of the companion Beading Primer. (3) Continue your reading side by side with the systematic study of the large print of, first the Accidence, then the Pho- nology. (4) Work carefully through the whole book again, small and large print, making all the cross references. STRONG NOUNS. Maso. Neut. Sinffidar. Fem. iVow; stan, stone soip, ship word, word gief u ' ,gift l&r \lon Ac, i.e. the sounds usually represented in modern English by ■;;, z, th in thine (= dh). Moreover, c, g, sc and h represent both guttural and palatal sounds. 1 Modem English has only the open sounds of short e and short u. See § 4. 12 INFLECTION. § 4 N.B. I-mutation ^ and Breaking. (1) The vowels produced by i-mutation are i, § (se), x, ie, le, e, y, y, of which those printed black are in every instance in EWS. (with unimportant exceptions) produced by i-mutation. (2) Breaking includes the change of a to ea and e to eo before r + consonant, I + consonant, h + consonant, or h final. Full details are given in Part II, 4. Pronunciation. — N.B. Every letter in Old English must be fully sounded, whatever its position. The vowels a, . «. h 0, u in Old English had what may be called their " continental," or Italian, sound. a =; the a in answer ', only shorter. a = a father ae = a man » = a care e (close) = € Fr. epais. ? (open) = e men e = ey they i = i pin i = i machine o (close) = Ger. Gott ? (open) = not o = note u = u put u = u rule y = u Ger. hiibsch, Fr. ult6rieur y = u Ger. griin, Fr. voiture. If the values of e, o, y, y, assigned above cause much difficulty the values of g, q, i, I, may be substituted for them for a time. 1 "Mutation" and "mutated" are frequently used in the following pages with reference to i-mutation only. * Not of course in the affected pronunciation of the " finishing " school- mistress and her tribe : ' Anne-Sir.' § 4 PRONUNCIATION. 13 The diphthongs of Old English are ea, eo (io), ie, short and long. The stress falls on the first element, which in ea is the open sound, and in eo the close sound, of e. The pronunciation of the consonants b, d, k, I, m, n, p, r, t, w, X, does not differ materially from that of modern English. C = mod. k M = g in get. These two letters (and h), as has been said, had both a guttural and a palatal sound, and g was also both a spirant and a stop. But, as it is hardly possible for the beginner to decide for himself which sound they had in a particular word, it seems best, at least at this stage, to adopt one value for each letter (a practice which some eminent scholars never depart from, except for phonetic exposition) '. N.B. cg = gg(, 8 are (1) voiceless (sxxtd, sharp, hard) whenever possible, i.e. always when initial, always when final, and when medial in voiceless company (i.e. in company with another voiceless conso- nant) : exs. fod, food ; Iwrs, horse ; siSSan, since ; (2) voiced when medial between voiced sounds (vowels, liquids, nasals, voiced consonants) : exs. ofer, over ; hdlsian, to greet ; mSinnan, within. It would be convenient to appropriate i> for the voiceless sound, th in thin, and 'S for the voiced sound, dh in thine, as in Icelandic ; but Old ^ The author is confirmed in this opinion by the hopeless confusion that results from the attempt to expound this matter fuUy in what are pro- fessedly elementary text-books. Sievers comes to the conclusion that Old EngMsh g was most frequently a voiced spirant, but his proofs seem in- conclusive for initial g. In any case, the voiced spirant ^ is a sound not only foreign to modern English, but one difficult for English people to acquire. To say, as is usually done, that it is the sound of g in Ger. sagen, is to ignore that the g in sagen, on the stage and in North Germany generally, is a voiced stop. 14 INFLECTION. |§ 5, 6 English MSS. afford no justification for this usage. In printing texts it is usual to follow the MSS. exactly. Throughout this book the sign « is alone used ; it came into use much earlier than J>, and is found almost exclusively in the best of the older MSS. 5. Stress. — The chief stress, or syllabic accent, usually falls on theirs* syllable of Old English words : ex. hldford, lord. Exceptions. (1) In derivative verbs, the principal stress falls almost invariably on the root, not on the prefix : ex. drisan, to arise. (2) In nouns and adjectives compounded with ge-, be- and sometimes ybr-, the chief stress falls on the radical syllable, not on the prefix ; but in the case of other prefixes, the stress falls on the prefix ; exs. gefira, companion ; behdt, promise ; but gndUan, requital. NOUNS. 6. Gender. — The modern Engli.sh system of gender is un- known to Old English, in which the names of things are masculine, feminine or neuter. There are two ways which enable us to determine the gender of many nouns. (1) By 'meaning. Names of males are masculine; names of females are feminine ; names of young creatures (because their sex is less easily distinguishable) are neuter : exs. se cyning, the king; seo cwen, the queen ; Sas< cUd, beam, the child. Excep- tions : S«< 'unf, the woman ; S«< mxgden, the girl. (2) By termination, (a) Nouns ending in -a, -aS, -els, -end, -ere, -dom, -had, -scipe, -stqfas, names of persons in -i/ng and -ling, and compounds ending with a masculine word, are masculine. (5) Nouns ending in -estre, -nes, -rxden, -S (except -osS), -ung {-ing), and compounds ending with a feminine word, are feminine, (c) Nouns ending in -em, -rice, -lac, and compounds ending with a neuter word, are neuter. §§ 7 — 9 NOUNS. 15 7. Cases. — Old English has the following cases : Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Instrumental. The Nominative serves also as a Vocative. The Instrumental in nouns never differs in form from the Dative, and it is therefore omitted in the noun paradigms. 8. Strong and Weak.— Every noun in Old English belongs to either the strong or the weak declension; a few have both strong and weak forms : as, mQnn, mgnna, man. (On the other hand, almost all adjectives may be declined both strong and weak : see § 41.) A glance at the paradigms will show that it is easy to distinguish weak nouns and adjectives from strong, except in the nom. sing, and dat. plural. All weak nouns end in a vowel in the nom. sing. : (1) All nouns ending in -a are weak masculines. (2) Weak fems. and neuters end in -e, all but a few short- stemmed fems. in -u. But by no means all nouns ending in -e or -u are weak. 9. Loss of final e and u. — The simple practical rule is this (great attention should be paid to it, for it covers a large number of instances) : Fined 6 (earlier i) and u are generally retained after a slwrt syllable, dropped after a long syllable^. The applica- tions of this rule are numerous and important. (1) Original short i-stems retain final -e, while long stems drop it : cp. wine, friend, spere, spear, with giest, stranger, hen, boon. (2) The nom. sing, of fem. nouns and the nom. plur. of neuter nouns of the ordinary declension retain final -w after a short syllable, drop it after a long syllable. Cp. giefu, gift, with sprxc, speech ; and scipu, ships, with hUs, houses. Cp. also the moderti plurals deer, sheep, swine. 1 A syllable is long if it has a long vowel or if it ends in two consonants. 16 INFLECTION. § 10 (3) Exactly the same rule applies to the fern. sing, and neuter plural of adjs. : cp. fem. sing, and neut. pi. tilu, useful, with god, good. (4) The same rule applies to disyllabic nouns and adjs. : -u is generally retained after a short second (or even third) syllable. Exs. : nee, realm, pi. ricu ; heafod, head, pi. heaf{o)du ; grene, green, fem. sing, and neut. pi. grenu ; eeSele, noble, se'Selu. Exceptions, (a) After two short syllables there is a good deal of irregularity. Thus ^rcm (fem.), crime, has no final u; the fem. sing, and neut. pi. of micel, great, and mgnig, many, are micel, mgnig, but also mic{e)lu, mgnigu ; the pis. of mwgen and wmter are mssgenu, wwt{e)ru. (6) Late West Saxon texts not only break the rules of this and the next section, but show almost every possible grammatical irregularity. For this reason only the more frequent and important variations of Late West Saxon from Early West Saxon will be noticed in this book. 10. Loss of middle vowels. — Some disyllabic nouns and adjectives with a short second syllable, such as e^el, native land, deofol, devil, oSer, second, syncopate the middle vowel in inflection according to the following Eule : When a termination beginning with a vowel is added to a disyllable, whose first syllable is long and second syllable short, the vowel of the second syllable is usually dropped. Thus : e^el, native land, long + short, gen. eSles, not e^eles. lytel, little, long + short, gen. lytles, not lyteles. heofon, heaven, short + short, gen. heofones, not heofnes. heerfsest, autumn, long + long, gen. hxrfasstes, not hxrfstes. N.B. It is obvious that the above rule cannot apply when the Sectional syllable begins with a consonant. Thus we have ace. masc. sing. SSerne, gen. pi. lytelra. Exceptions, (a) Micel, great, j//cZ, evil (both short + short), synco- pate the middle vowel in inflection : thus, gen. micles, yfles, dat. miclum, pi. yf(e)lu (see below). §§ 11, 12 NOUNS. 17 (6) When the above rule and that given in § 9. 4 both apply to the same word, the above rule may or may not be observed : thus we find nom. pis. hlaf{o)du, deoflu, earf&Su, bismru, id(e)lu (neut.). 11. Intrusive vowels. — Old English words ending in consonant + vocalic liquid or nasal often introduced a vowel before the liquid or nasal, making the latter into a distinct syllable, as iafugol, bird (Gothic fugls). This intrusive vowel was usually e when the preceding vowel was palatal, most often o when the preceding vowel was guttural ^ : exs. xcer, field ; beacen, beacon ; ator, poison. These words for the most part conform to the rule laid down in § 10 : thus we have gen. wintres from winter (long + short), hut fesgeres ivovx fxger (short + short). Exception : fugol, bird, gen. fugles, pi. fuglas. In the following words the second vowel is intrusive : seppel, apple tac(e)n, token iodor, fodder tempel, temple W3ep(e)n, weapon hlutor, pure maSum, treasure ceaster, city hungor, hunger beacen, beacon cldstor, prison wundor, marvel fac(e)n, treachery finger, finger etc. 12. Variation of middle vowels.— The o or m of the second syllable of a word tends to become e whenever a third (flexional) syllable containing a guttural vowel is added. This law is well illustrated by the declension of such a noun as heofon : Sing. Nom. heofon Gen. heofones Dat. heofone Plur. heofenas heqfena heqfenum. Similarly we find staSol, pillar, gen. staSoles ; but pi. statSelag, and the verb sta15elian{i-row set ham, at home to, frgm his agnum ham, to, from his own home 1 The arrangement of declensions here adopted is a compromise between a complete ignoring of the original stems, which are often obscured beyond recognition in Old English — a method •vthioh has the disadvantage of not leading on and up to the study of cognate and earlier languages ; and, on the other hand, an undue multiplication of declensions (according to stems), which in Old English sometimes differ only in a single case or form. XF-stems, j-stems and i-stems, which differ in inflection from the ordinary declension, are given in §§ 32 — 34 ; all the rest are included here. §§ 17, 18 STRONG NOUNS. 21 (3) See (Gothic saiws), sea, is both maso. and fern. : Singular. Plural. N. Ace. see sses, sse Gen. sses, s^, slewe s»wa Dat. sse, s»we sM(u)m, ssewum 17. Secondary Paradigm. Deig, day, returns to the original root-vowel in the plural (as explained in Part ii., § 100). Sing. Plural. N. Ace. daeg dagas Gen. dseges daga Dat. dsege dagum Notes. (1) In the same way are declined hwsel, whale pseS, path stsef, staff (2) Mxg, kinsman, with a long vowel, is similarly declined (see § 105), but the vowel of the singular sometimes invades the plural : Sing. Plural. N. Ace. maeg magas, msegas Gen. maeges maga Bat. mSge magum, maegum 18. Secondary Paradigm. Bridel, bridle, will serve as a model of the syncopated declension, the rule for which is given in §10: Sing. Plural. N. Ace. bridel bridlas Gen. bridles bridla Dat. bridle bridlum In the same way are declined all disyllabic masculines with the first syllable long and the second short. 22 INFLECTION. 19,20 19. Secondary Paradigm. Mearh, horse (see § 13) : Sing. Plural. N. Ace. mearh mearas Gen. meares meara Dat. meare mearum Decline in the same way fearh, swine ; seolh, seal ; Wealh, Welshman, foreigner. ORDINARY DECLENSION.— 2. NEUTERS. 20. Primary paradigms: (a) Long monosyllable : word, word. (h) Short „ : Iwf, dwelling. (c) Disyllables : wite, punishment ; sife, sieve. Singul 'ar. N. Ace. word hof wite sife Gen. wordes hofes wites sifes Dat. worde hofe wite sife Plural. N.Acc. word (§ 9. 2) hofu (§ 9 •2) Wltu(§9. 4) sifu(§9.4) Gen. worda hofa wita sifa Dat. wordum hofum witum sifum Notes. (1) In deciding which paradigm a neuter noun follows, prefixes must he ignored : thus, hehat, promise, is declined like word. (2) Word and hof are original neuter o-stems, wite an original jo-stem (see § 33), and sife an original i-stem (see § 34). There is no difference in inflection ; but the -e of the nom. sing, is a trace of the original stem of the last two words. (3) For the -u of the nom. aco. plural, -o, -a are not infrequent : witu, wito, wita. §§ 21, 22 STRONG NOUNS. 23 (4) The declension of geat, gate, is Singular. Plural. K Ace. geat (§ 143) gatu (§ 100) Gen. geates gata JDcU. geate gatum But we also find plural geatu, geata, geatum, where the vowel of the singular has been extended to the plural. 21. Secondary paradigm : fmt, vessel. Sing. Plural. N. Ace. fset (cp. § 17) fatu (§ 100) Gen. fsetes fata Dat. fsete fatum Decline in the same way baeS, bath swseS, track dael, dale trsef, tent 22. Secondary paradigm (syncopated) : heafod, head. Sing. Plural. K Ace. heafod heaf(o)du (§§ 9, 10) Gen. heafdes (§10) heafda Dat. heafde heafdum Notes. (1) Decline in the same way disyllabic neuters with long first and short second syllable ; cp. § 18. (2) Exceptions. Neuters in -en, like cllewen, ball, nieten, animal, mxden, maiden, where the e is not intrusive (as it is in heacen,facen, tdcen, wsepen, § 1 1), are not syncopated : gen. nietenes, mMdenes ; dat. cUewene ; pi. nietenu, etc. (3) Several neuters with intrusive vowels have two noms. plural, with and without -u : tungol, star, pi. tunglu and tungol ; wundor, marvel, pi. wundru, wundra, and wundor; wSp(e)n, pi. ■weep{e)mi, wmpeno, and wSBp(e)n; tSc(e)n, pi. taenu and tdcen. 24 INFLECTION. §§ 23 — 25 23. Secondary paradigms : fem-h, life ; feoh, money. Singulwr. N. Ace. feorh feoh Gen. feores (§ 13) feos (§13) Dat. feore fee JV. Ace. feorh (?eM. feora Dat. feorum Like feorh, decline holh, hole, gen. holes ; like feoh, decline pleoh, danger. Cp. § 19. 24. Secondary paradigm : Urn, limb. Sing. Plural. K Ace. lim limu, liomu (§132) Gen. limes lima, lioma Dat. lime limum, liomum Notes. (1) In the same way are declined neuters with t or e before a single consonant, such as clif, cliff gebed, prayer (pi. gebedu, gebeodu) scip, ship geset, seat (2) Plurals with i or e, limu etc., are most common ; those with io, eo, due to M-mutation, decrease in frequency in later texts. 25. There are traces in some OE. neuters of stems cor- responding to Greek neuters in -os, Lat. -us, -eris (ycVos, genus). The s appears in OE. as r. These words are divided into two classes : (1) those which retain the r throughout ; (2) those which retain it in the plural only. §26 STRONG NOUNS. 25 (1) Here belong dogor, day; hryVer, cattle; salor, hall; sigor, victory; wildor, wild beast. For the most part they follow the ordinary declension, but occasionally an uninflected dat. sing, is met with, dogor, sigor. Plurals are dogor, hrfSeru, wildru, etc. Forms without r are also found ; ssbI as well as salor, sige and sigor (this word has become masculine). (2) The words Sg, egg, cealf, calf, and Igmb, lamb, are declined alike; cild, child, diSers somewhat. Singular. N.Acc. cealf cild Oen. cealf es elides Dat. cealfe Plural. cilde N. Ace. cealfni cild, cild(e)ru Gen. cealfra cilda, cildra Dat. cealfrum cildum ORDINARY DECLENSION.— Z. FEMININES. 26. Primary paradigms : (a) Short stem : gi{e)fu, gift. (J) Long „ : stow, place. Singular. Nom. gi(e)fu, -o Ace. gi(e)fe Gen. gi(e)fe Dat. gi(e)fe N. Ace. gi(e)fa -8 Gen. gi(e)fa, -ena Dat. gi(e)fum Plural. stow stowe stowe stowe stowa, -e stowa stowum 26 INFLECTION. i 27, 28 Notes. (1) Gi{e)fu is a short a-stem (corresponding to Latin and Greek a-deolenaion), stow is » long loa-stem (see § 31). All long a-stems, such as dr, honour, Idr, lore, glof, glove, wund, wound, and long ja-stems (see § 33), such as gierd, rod, yard, wylf, she-wolf, are declined like stow. (Note the mutated root- vowels of the ja-stems. ) (2) The gen. pi. in -ena was imported from the weak declension and is found only in the later texts. It is very rarely added to long stems, never to jd- or wa-stems. (3) In the sing, of short stems with root-vowel a (especially when followed by c), the a alternates with sb (see § 100) ; examples, sacu, strife ace. gen. dat. saoe, sseoe wracu, vengeance wrace, wrcece (4) Final -o as a variant for -u is so common (see § 20. 3, etc.) that it will be omitted, for the sake of simplification, in some future paradigms. 27. Secondary paradigms: sdwol, soul; Jiren, crime: to illustrate the syncopation in the first (long -t- short) and the absence of syncopation in the second (short -i- short), according to §10. Sing/ular. Nom. sawol firen Ace. sawle firene Gen. sawle firene Bat. sawle firene Plural. N. Ace. sawla, -e Gen. sawla Dat. sawlum firena, -e firena firenum 28. Secondary paradigm : scotung, shooting, missile. Sing. Plural. Nom. scotung scotunga, -e Ace. scotunga, -e scotunga, -e Gen. scotunga, -e scotunga Dat. scotunga, -e scotungum § 29 STRONG NOUNS. 27 In the same way are declined all fern, abstracts in -ung ; but those in -ing do not take -a in the singular, and so conform to the ordinary declension. 29. Secondary paradigm : str§ngi{u), strength. Singular Plural Nom. strgngS, strgngSu strgngSa, -e, strgngSu Ace. strgngSe, strgngSu „ „ „ Gen. „ „ strgngSa Dat. „ „ strgngffum Two classes of feminine abstracts belong here. (a) Nouns such as hail(u), health mgn(i)gu, multitude ieldu, age strgngu, strength, which were originally of the weak declension (i-stems), borrowed the -u of the nom. sing, from the ordinary fem. declension, then extended it to other cases, and finally conformed to the ordinary declension. (6) Nouns ending in -fS{u) and -t(u) (earlier -i^u), such as hiehS(u), height ofermettu, arrogance sSlS, happiness giemeliest, neglect, belonged from the first to the ordinary declension, but later imitated the uninflected declension of the first class. Notes. (1) In (a) the sing, is usually indeclinable and plurals are rare. (2) In (6) the ordinary fem. declension is more often followed, and plurals are more common, than in (a). (3) In both classes there has been i-mutatiou of root-vowels. (4) For -u final, -o is frequent. (5) The uninflected strpig^, as well as str^ng^u, is found in the acous. sing., but not in EWS. 28 INFLECTION. 30—32 N. Aec. Oen. Bat. N. Ace. Oen. Bat. 30. Ea, river, and a, law, are declined as follows : Singidar. ae, sew £6, Swe, Ss », Kwe Plural. Sa, (San weak) w ea ea(u)m, ean ea ea, le, eas ea, le (i) TT-Stems. 31. In the following sections attention is called to the special characteristics of M;-stems, _/-stems and i-stems of all genders, and paradigms are given representing all peculiarities of inflection. Note. The majority of OE. masc. and neater nouns are o-stems, and the majority of fem. nouns a-stems. If the -o and -d were preceded by w or j, the stems are distinguished as wo-stems, wd-stems and ^°o-stems, ja-stems respectively. Next in importance come the i-stems, most of which passed over to the o- and a- (or " ordinary") declensions. 32. Paradigms : (a) Masc. : hea/ru, grove ; 5eo(M>), servant. (6) Neuter : healu, evil ; treo{w), tree, (c) Fem. : beadu, battle ; mxd, meadow. Masc. Neut. Singular. rem. Nom. bearu, -o bealu, -0 beadu Ace. )) )> beadwe Gen,. bearwes bealwes )j Bat. bearwe bealwe Plural. )j N. Ace. bearwas bealu, -0 beadwa, -e Gen. bearwa bealwa beadwa Bat. bearwum bealwum beadwum Y62 STRONG NOUNS. Masc. Neut. Singular. Nom. (Seo(w) treo(w) Ace. jj jj Gen. Seowes treowes Bat. 5eowe treowe, treo 29 Fern. msed N. Ace. Seowas Gen. Seowa Bat. Seowum Plural. treow(u)', treo treowa treowum m»d(w)a, -e m8id(w)a mSd(w)um Notes. (1) It will be seen that these words hardly differ from the ordinary declensions, except in that, when there is no termination, the w is vocalised to u after a short vowel, and is sometimes dropped after a long vowel. When w is retained in the nom., as in hlMw, mound, the ordinary declension is followed throughout. (2) Decline like bealu searu, art beadu nearu, straits pis. geatwa, getawa, equipments fraetwa, ornaments treo(w) cneo(w), knee maid iSs, pasture (3) The broken vowel in beam, bealu, is carried over from the oblique cases, where a is broken regularly before r,l + w. (4) An intrusive vowel is often found before w, to ease the pronunciation : exs. bealowes, bealewa, beaduwe, fraetewum (see § 12). 1 From this final -MCosijn infers that the preceding eo in these words was short : see § 9. 30 INFLECTION. (ii) /-Stems. 33. Paradigms : (a) Masc. : hgre, army ; sgeg, man. (b) Neuter : rice, realm ; fassten, stronghold. (c) Fem. : hMignes, holiness, sanctuary. Masc. Singular. ]!f. Ace. Gen. Bat. hgre hgr(i)(g)es h§r(i)(g)e Plural. sgcg sgcges sgege N: Ace. Gen. Bat. her(i)(g)(e)as' h§r(i)g(e)a hgr(i)gum sgcg(e)as sgcg(e)a sgcg(i)um §33 Neut. Fem. Singular. Norn. rice fsesten Ace. jj >j Gen. rices f8esten(n)es Bat. rice fsesten(n)e Plural. If. Ace. ric(i)u f8esten(n)u Gen. ric(e)a f8esten(n)a Bat. ric(i)um fsesten(n)um halignes halignesse halignesse halignesse halignessa, -e halignessa halignessum 1 Forms witli g and without i or e are common, but never the converse. Thus the forms of the nom. pi. are h^rigeas, h^rigas, h^rgeas, h^rgas, h^ras. § 34 STRONG NOUNS. 31 Notes. (1) Decline like sgcg like rice hrycg, hack stycce, piece w§cg, wedge gefylce, troop Isece, leech gemierce, boundary mece, sword (2) The gemination in the oblique cases of fsesten and halignes is found in all polysyllables (including disyllables) ending in -es (-is), -et, such as lleget, lightning ; in numerous fern, and neut. derivatives in -en, such as sefen (masc. and neut.), evening, rxden (fern.), arrangement, and all compounds of -rxden ; in cgndel (fem.), candle; and in dat. infinitives or gerunds, e.g. to heranne, -enne, to bear. (3) The above paradigms are grouped together because each of them shows some sign of the original J of the stem, (a) In hire, g, ig, ige represent earlier J ; (6) in s^cg, the doubled consonant (cg=gg) after a short vowel represents earUer consonant +j (gg-cgj), and the mutation of the root-vowel was caused (and in h^re) by the j ; (c) in rice and s^cg, the palatalisation of the original guttural of the stem, denoted by the intrusive «, i, is due to the original j ; (d) in fsesten and hdlignes, the doubling of the final consonant in the oblique cases is due to the same cause (see § 13). (4) <7-stems presenting no peculiarity of inflection have already been declined in §§ 16, 20, 26. (5) Mete, meat and hyse, youth, have passed over in the plural from the i-stems to the j-stems, as is seen by the doubled consonant: pi. mettas, metta, mettum; hyssas (as well as hysas). (iii) /-Stems. 34. Paradigms : (a) Masc. : loine, friend ; {ngle, Angles, English. (6) Fem. : died, deed. 82 INFLECTION. §34 Masc. Fern. If. Ace. wine Gen. wines Bat. wine Singula daede daede Plural. i\". Ace. wine, -as ?ngle daede, -a Gen. wina, wini(g)(e)a 5ngla daeda Dat. winum ^^iQglini dSdum Notes. (1) The characteristics of this declension are the plurals in -e, and the unchanged acc. sing, of the feminines. The plural terminations -as and -a came in from the ordinary declensions. Later came also acc. sing, of feminines in -e : dsede, cwene, Ude, etc. (2) The neuter i-stems do not differ in inflection from the ordinary declension ; see sife § 20. (3) Like ^ngle (i.e. without plural in -as) are declined a few plurals (without singulars), and names of tribes, nations etc. ending in -e : Masc. Pis. Nations, Tribes leode, people Mierce, Mercians ielde, men Seaxe, Saxons ielfe, elves Sumorsaete, men of Somerset etc. (4) Like ivine — the plural in -as is much the more frequent — are declined all mascs. with short mutated vowel + single consonant + e (except hgre, § 33) such as cwide, speech hyge, mind slgge, stroke gge, terror sige, victory stgde, place and abstracts in -scipe, such as freondseipe, friendship. Only D§ne, Dane, has the longer form of the gen. pi. (5) Like d^d are declined the following feminines, all with long root-syllables and mutated vowels : § 35 STRONG NOUNS. 33 »ht, property hyd, hide tid, hour b§nc, bench lyft, atmosphere wen, expectation bysen, example miht, mig'/ti wist, food cwen, woman nied, neec^ wyn(n), joy est, favour scyld, g'wi^* -wyrA, fate fierd, army sped, success wyrt, roo< and a few less common words. (6) The intrusive vowel, to which attention was called in § 33. (1) as marking the palatalisation of the preceding g or c, is frequently found after those letters in all stems, verbal and adjectival as well as nominal, which originally ended in i or j. Thus, among i-stems, for min(i)gu we find m^iig{e)o, and the plural of wl^ncu, pride, is nom. gen. wlinc(e)a, dat. wlinc(i)um. Of the i-stems declined like wine, those whose root ends in g or c sometimes have e or i before a guttural vowel : bygeas, curves, sl^geas, strokes, etc. ; while among long i-stems, which have otherwise passed over to the ordinary declension, we find gl?ng(e)as, gen. gleng(e)a, ornaments st5ng(e)ae, poles st§nc(e)as, stenches str§ng(e)as, strings wr5nc(e)as, dal. wr^ne(i)um, wrenches. (7) The only I'-stems which have not a mutated root-vowel are Seaxe, leode, gesceaft, creation, geiSeaht, thought, and one or two more. Seaxe was originally of the weak declension ; hence the gen. pi. Seaxna, which has been imitated by Mierce, Miercna. (8) Woruld (fem.), world, has passed over to the i- from the u-declension, of which however it sometimes retains the dat. sing, in -a, wonilda. 35. The great majority of OE. nouns belong to the fore- going ordinary declensions. In the following minor and weak declensions, lists or other indications will be given (as has been done already in the case of w-stems, j-stems and i-stems) of the nouns that follow those declensions, so that in what has often been regarded as the difficult problem : "To what declension does a noun belong ? " the student has only to master the lists and criteria given in the various sections and then to follow this rule : Ascertain the gender of the noun ; apart from any indica- tion to the contran-y, it will follow the ordinary declension for that gender. w. 3 34 INFLECTION. 36 MINOR DECLENSIONS. 4. J7-Stems. 36. Paradigms : (a) Short stem : sunu (m.), son. (6) Long stem : hgnd (f.), hand. Singular. N. Ace. sunu Gen. suna Bat. suna N. Ace. suna Gen. suna Bat. sunum Plural. hgnd hgnda hQnda hQnda hijnda hpndum Notes. (1) Several words have passed over to the ordinary declension. Of short stems, wudu, wood, si{o)du, custom, duru, door, nosu, nose, are alone fully declined. Meodu, mead (drink), has dat. sing, meodu, -o. Heoru, sword, lagu, water, magu, son, have only nom. ace. sing. All these words are masc. except duru and nosu (fem.). Of long stems hgnd alone is fully inflected ; but traces of this declension are seen in the dats. sing, felda (field), forda (ford), wealda (forest), rjuintra and sumera, and in the occasional gen. sing, vointra. All these (except hgnd) are masc. Winter has also gen. vnntres ; its plural is neuter, winter and wintru. (2) Even the few words given above tend to pass over to the ordinary declension. Magu has pi. magas even in EWS. ; later we find gen. wudes, dat. dure, nose, pi. sunas, wudas, etc. (3) The -u(-o) of the short stems sometimes intrudes into the dat. sing, and nom. ace. pi. For the loss of final -u after a long stem see § 9. §37 STRONG NOUNS. 35 5. ^-Sterns. 37. Here belong only five names of relatives ending in -r : feeder, father, rrwdor, mother, hrSSor, brother, sweostor, sister, dohtor, daughter. Singular. N. Ace. feeder modor broSor Gen. feeder, -(e)res modor broSor Bat. fseder meder Plural. breSer N. Ace. f8ed(e)ras modor, modru, -a broSor, bri Gen. f8ed(e)ra modra brocJra Dat. fsed(e)rum modrum Singular. broSrum N. Ace. sweostor dohtor Gen. sweostor dohtor Dat. sweostor Plural. dehter, dohtor N. Ace. sweostor dohtor, dohtru, -a Gen. sweostra dohtra Dat. sweostrum dohtrum Notes. (1) Instead of -or we find -ur, -er, but not -or for -er. Other forms (mostly later) of sweostor are swostor, svouster, sun/ster. The gens. sing, meder and dehter are late. There are collective plurals gebrSSor, -'Sru, brethren, gesweostor, sisters. (2) Hitherto (with the exception of § 25) we have had only strong vowel-stems. The weak n-stems are placed last. This and the next two declensions contain irregular consonant-stems. At a, later stage these distinctions become fundamental; here simplicity and convenience have been chiefly consulted. 3—2 36 INFLECTION. §§ 38, 39 6. ND-8tems. 38. Paradigms : freond, friend ; dgend, owner. Singular. m Ace. freond agend Gen. freondes agendes Bat. friend, freonde Plural. agendo N. Ace. friend, freond {poet, freondas) agend, -de, -das Gen. freonda agendra Dat. freondum agendum Note. This class of nouns consists of present participles, which have dropped the final participial -e and are used as nouns. Like freond is declined only feond, enemy. Like dgend are declined all polysyllables ending in -end. Godddnd, (good- doing) benefactor, has pi. goddend. Dat. sing, freonde and pi. agendas are borrowed from the ordinary declension. PI. dgende and gen. pi. agendra are borrowed from the declension of adjs. and participles (see § 48). In reading texts, it is often difficult to decide, from the similarity of forms, whether a word is a noun or a participle. 7. Other Stems. 39. Paradigms: {a) Masc. : mgnn, man ; fot, foot. (6) Fem.: boe, book ; hnutu, nut. Singular. N. Ace. mQn(n) fot Gen. mgnnes fotes Dat. mgn(n) Plural. fet N. Ace. mgn(n) fet, fotas Gen. mgnna fota Dat. mgnnum fotum § 39 STRONG NOUNS. 37 i\^. Ace. Gen. Dat. N. Ace. Gen. Dat. STRONG NOUNS. Singular. boc hnutu bee, boce hnute bee Plural. hnyte bee hnyte boea hnuta bocum hnutum mus, mouse pi. mys turf, tur/ tyrf and a few more. Notes. (1) The second forms, i.e. those without i-mutation, are later. (2) lAkeJvt is declined asg-, so that we get the following scheme of indefinite pronouns : hwa hwsetSer hwUc ahwa, ahwseSer, ahwilc. anyone one of two whatsoever gehwa. gehwseSer, gehwilc, each one both each gghwa, aeghwseSer, Sghwilc, each one either, each each. swelc, such swa hwa swa, whoever swa hwilc swa, whichever. These, together with awiht, aught, amything »lc, each Snig, any are the most important indef . prons. in OE. Notes. (1) The declension of hwa is given in § 61. All the other words mentioned above (except awiht, -es, -e) are declined like strong adjs. (2) Hwa and its compounds and awiht are substantive pronouns ; the others are adj. -prons., i.e. may be used either as prons. or in agreement with a noun. (3) To several of the above words n can be prefixed, and thus the corresponding negative word is obtained : nsenig, nan, none, nawiht, naught, nahws^er, neither. (4) Some of the above words have forms and contractions that difier from one another very considerably. Thus seghws^er > MglSer = either ; dhws^er - ohwsSier > d{wySer ; nawiht = nawuht > na,{u)ht = naught, and so on. 60 INFLECTION. §§ 63, 64 VEKBS. 63. OE. verbs are divided into two main classes, Strong and Weak, and two minor classes, Past-Present and Anomalous. They have four moods, infinitive, indicative, subjunctive, and imperative (present) ; only two tenses, present and past (the pres. is often used as a future) ; two numbers and three persons ; two participles, present (active) and past (passive). The infinitive has a dative case governed by to which is often called the gerund. The passive voice is simply made up of the verb wesan, heon, to be, followed by a past part., and is therefore not treated of here'. The principal parts of a verb are the infinitive, past singular, past plural, and past participle. To these is often added the 3rd sing. pres. indie. In weak verbs the past pi. is omitted, because in them it is formed from the past sing. (See §§ 67, 83.) 64. Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs.— Strong verbs may be distinguished from weak verbs in several ways : (a) By the formation of the past tense. Strong verbs form their past tense by gradation of the root-vowel, as in wrltan, lorat, write, wrote ; weak verbs by adding the termina- tion -de {-te) to the root. This is the main distinction. There is no gradation in weak verbs; there are no, past tenses in -de, -te, in strong verbs. (6) The past part, of strong verbs ends in -en, of weak verbs in -d, -t. Note. The past part, also is formed by gradation in strong verbs. But, since Classes V, VI and VII have the same vowel in the past part, as in the infin., this is a, much less conclusive test of a strong past part, than the ending. (c) The roots of strong verbs are monosyllabic. All poly- syllabic roots belong to the weak conjugation. ' The only relic of pass, inflection is in the forms fcattc (sing.), hdtton (pi.), pres. and past of hdtan, to be called. § 64 VERBS. 61 (d) Strong verbs are original ; a word showing the same root as a strong verb is derived from one of its stems. Weak verbs are derivative. (e) Many strong verbs are intransitive ; most transitive verbs are weak, and many have been formed from strong intrans. verbs : Strong. Weak. cp. cwelan, die and cwellan, kill ; licgan, lie „ l§cgan, lay ; sittan, sit ,, s§ttan, set ; heornan, burn (intrans.) „ bxrnan, burn (trans.). {/) Weak verbs originally joined all present endings to the root by means of j or i, and this j or i has remained in the infins. in -iam, (n^ian, lufian), and has left traces in the mutation of root-vowels [hleran) and in the doubled consonants (< con- sonant +j) after a short root-vowel (^frgmman). Nearly all weak verbs in -an and a few in -ian have mutated root-vowels. No strong verbs (except those with weak presents) have infins. in -ian, or mutated root-vowels, or doubled' consonants. NB. A mutated root-vowel (§ 3) therefore infallibly denotes a weak verb (or a " weak present," § 80). {g) On the other hand, a mutated vowel in the 2nd and 3rd sing, pres., with an unmutated root^ vowel in the infin., is a mark of strong verbs (§ 68) ; weak verbs have the same vowel, whether mutated or unmutated, in the infin. and in the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. (A) The following are characteristic of weak verbs (but not of all weak verbs) : i, ig, ige before the endings -an, -anne, -aS, -e, -en, -ende ; 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. in -ast, oS ; imperative sing, in -e or -a. NB. Tests (/), (g), (h) are useless for a dozen strong verbs with weak presents, for which see § 80. 1 Doubled, not double. The strong verbs feallan, weallan, bgnnan, etc., have original double consonants, not doubled before j. 62 INFLECTION. § 65 65. Endings. — For the sake of comparison a scheme of the normal endings of strong and weak verbs respectively is here given, but they will be better learnt in the paradigms of the verbs themselves. Strong. Weak. Classes I., II. Present Indicative. m. Sing. 1. 2. 3. -e -(e)st -(e)S -e -(e)st -(6)8 -ie -ast -as Plur. 1, 2, 3. -a?S ■-aS Peesent Subjunctive. -iaS Sing. 1, Plur. 1, 2, 2, 3. 3. -e -en -e -en Past Indicative. -ie -ien Sing. 1. 2. 3. -e -(e)de, -te -(e)dest, -test -(e)de, -te -ode -odest -ode Plur. 1, 2, 3. -on -(e)don, -ton Past Subjunctive. -odon Sing. Plwr. -e -en -(e)de, -te -(e)den, -ten Imperative. -ode -oden Sirng. 2. Plur. 2. -as (-e) -as -a -iaS Infinitive. -an -an -ian Participles. Pres. -ends -ende -iende Past. -en -(e)d, -t -od Note. It must be remembered that, as will be seen from the following paradigm, the gradation of the root-vowel in strong verbs is more important than the endings for distinguishing one part of the verb from another and for distingviishing a strong from a weak verb. § 66 VERBS. 63 I. STRONG VERBS. 66. Paradigm : rldcm, ride. Present Indicative. Past. Sing. 1. ride rad 2. ridest, ritst ride 3. rideS, rit(t) rad Plur. ridatS Subjunctive. ridon Sing. ride ride Plur. riden Imperative. riden Sing. rid Plur. ridaS Infinitive. ridan, dat. -anne. Participles. ridende geriden Variants, (a) Instead of the pres. subj. plur. riden we regularly find ride, when the prons. we, ge, foUow immediately : ride we, ge (a kind of jussive subjunctive), let us ride, ride (ye). This usage was extended to the pres. and past indie, so that ride ge ? = do ye ride ? and ride ge? = did ye ride ? This remark applies equally to weak verbs ; as also do the following as far as weak verbs have the same terminations. (6) Past parts, of both strong and weak verbs usually have the prefix ge-, which is, however, rarely found before another prefix. 64 INFLECTION. § 67 (c) The original endings of the sing. pres. indie, were: 1st pers. -u, -o; 2nd pers. -is>-es; 3rd pers. -i5. Hence the r'-mutation of the root-vowel (there can be no i-miitation of i) in the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. indie, of strong verbs (§ 68). (d) The final -t of the 2nd pers. sing, is the emaciated remnant of S«, thou; a few forms ending in -sIS are extant: rides + 1Su>rides'S>Tidest. Similarly, an epithetic -t has been added to the 2nd sing, past of weak verbs. (e) The past indie, pi. originally ended in -un ; later texts often have -an. (/) The subjunctive pi. pres. frequently ends in -an; in the past, later texts often take over the -on of the indie. {g) The usual ending of the dative infin. or gerund is -anne, but -en{n)e (§ 33) is not uncommon. 67. Principal Parts. — It will be seen from the paradigm given in § 66 that, through the gradation of the root-vowel, the strong verb rldan has at least three dififerent stems : nd-, rod, rid-. The number of different stems in a strong verb is some- times four, as in heod-axi, head, bud-on, bod-en ; ber-an, hxr, hxr-on, 6or-en. We say then that the OE. strong verb has four stems, which are not necessarily different. These four stems are best shown in the four principal parts: (1) infin., (2) past sing., (3) past pi., (4) past part., as seen in the examples just given. Thus the importance of knowing the principal parts of a strong verb is evident, because all the other parts are formed from them by simply clianging the endings as shown in the paradigm of § 66. The following scheme shows what parts are formed from each of the principal parts : From Are formed Tenses. Infinitive All present forms Pres. Indie. Pres. Subj. Imperative. Pres. Part. Past 1st and 3rd Sing. None Past Plur. All past forms Past Indie. 2nd Sing. Past Subj. Past Part. Passive Voice only § 68 VERBS. 65 2nd and 3rd Singular Present. 68. It will have been noticed that two forms, syncopated and unsyncopated, of the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. indie, were given in the paradigm of rldam,. Moreover, a verb with root-vowel i was purposely chosen because there would have been mutation of almost any other vowel in the above parts (as explained in § 66 c). These two things then demand a little attention in forming the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. of strong verbs : (i) Mutation of root- vowel ; (ii) Syncope, and consequent changes. (i) Mutation of root- vowel. Rule : Form the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. indie, of strong verbs with mutated root-vowel, according to the following scheme : Original Vowel Mutated Vowel Injm. 3rd Sing. a se (§ 121) faran, go fsertS a SB blawan, blow blaewtS e i (§§ 98, 120) helpan, help hilpS ea ie healdan, hold hielt ea le heawan, hew hiewb eo ie (§ 120) weorSan, become wierS eo ie (§ 120) creopan, creep criep?5 Q g stgndan, stand stgnt e blowan, bloom blewS u y cuman, corns cymS u y brucan, enjoy brjcS e, i, 1, ie, se are not affected by i-mutation. Notes. (1) Empirical rules for forming the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. from the infin. are often helpful and usually harmless. But it must be clearly understood that these parts are not derived from the OE. infin., but from their own earlier prehistoric forms, and it is at times of the utmost importance that the fact w. 5 66 INFLECTION. § 69 should be as clearly stated. Thus hire's can be traced step by step from the Indo-Germanic form hhereti ; to say that it is formed from the root of heran by the addition of -e?S, with mutation of the root-vowel, is certainly both inaccurate and misleading. (2) Syncopated forms with mutated vowels, as above, are the rule in EWS., although uusyncopated forms both with mutated and with unmutated vowels are also found: Mre^ from heran, bygeS from bugan, weorSe^ from weorSan. (3) Unsyncopated forms without i-mntation are the rule in Anglian. 69. (ii) Syncope, etc. The e of the endings -est, -eS, in the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. indie, is regularly dropped in EWS., and the following changes take place in the consonants thus brought together. NB. These changes are not peculiar to strong verbs, but take place also in weak verbs (Classes 1 and 2) when the specified con- ditions are present. Persons. 2nd, 3rd. (a) Double consonants are simplified : winn(e)st > winst, mnn{e)S > win^ ; fyll(e)st >fylst, fyll{e)S >fyVt. 2nd. (6) Before -st, d>t, and s, 5 and st are dropped : find(e)st > fintst ; st§nd{e)st > stgntst ; cies(e)st > clest ; wier'6{e)st > wierst ; cmS{e)st > cwist ; birst(e)st > birst. 3rd. (c) i after a consonant, >tt or t after a vowel : find{ep >fint ; birst(e)'6 > birst (thus the 2nd and 3rd sing, of stems ending in st became identical) ; fsest{e)S >f«st ; bid{e)S > hit(t) ; gret{e)'5 > gret{t) ; sgt{e)S > s§tt. Similarly 5 + S > S after a consonant, > ^ or S after a vowel : tOTerS(e)?5 > wierS ; cwiS(ep > ctoiJS(5). 3rd. (c?) s + ?S usually >-st, but in early texts -s?S also remains: forlles{e)S>forllest; wiex{e)^>ioiext (x=h + s); cies{e)^ > ciest (thus the 2nd and 3rd sing, of stems ending in s became identical). 2nd, 3rd. (e) g sometimes > ft before -st and -^, but chiefly in later texts: stig{e)st>stihst; lieg(e)'S>-lieh'S. §69 VERBS. 67 NB. The above rules are given here in order that the succeeding sections on " gradation," with which they have properly nothing to do, may not be cumbered with them, and because they could not be postponed till later. The student must pay due attention to them, so that, when gradation has been mastered, he may be in a position to conjugate in full every OE. strong verb. One or two examples from each strong class are appended ("weak presents " and contracted verbs are treated separately) ; the 2nd and 3rd sing. pros, of every verb mentioned in the following §§ should be written out in the same way. Class Infin. 2nd Sing. 3rd Sing. I. ("Shine") arisan, arise arist arist bidan, wait bitst bit(t) bitan, bite bitst bit(t) miSan, avoid mTst mi5(S) II. ("Creep") beodan, order bietst blet(t) sceotan, shoot scietst sciet(t) lucan, lock lycst lyctJ Ilia. (" Help ") helpan, help hilpst hilpS f eohtan, fight fiehtst fieht b. ("Drink") drincan, drink drincst drinctS IV. ("Bear") beran, bear bir(e)8t bir(e)S V. ("Tread") tredan, tread tritst trit(t) VI. ("Fare") faran, go fserst fsertS VII. (RedupHcating) blawan, blow blsewst bl8iw(5 Isitan, let IStst Isit(t) healdan, hold hieltst hielt heawan, hew hiewst hIewS blgndan, blend bl§ntst blgnt blowan, bloom blewst blewS 6—2 68 INFLECTION. §70 GRADATION (Ablaut). 70. Strong verbs are conjugated principally by the use of different stems in the same verb, these stems being related to one another by the " gradation " of the root- vowel without other change. Gradation in OE. then may be defined as a series of relations between primary vowels by which alone the stems of a strong verb are differentiated. There are seven classes of strong verbs in OE., distinguished from one another by the graded vowels of the four stems. The following table shows these vowels in what may be called GRADATION-ROWS. Class Pres. Past S I. ("Shine") 1 a II. (" Creep ") eo (u) ea nia. ("Help") e, eo ea ta. ("Drink") i ? IV. ("Bear") e se V. ("Tread") e se VI. ("Fare") a o VII. (Redupl.) - - ' eo, pn. n n 1 1 u o u o u u ffi o X e o a eo, e same as pres. Notes. (1) NB. The past sing, and plur. of the 7th Class were originally formed by Reduplication of the root-syllable §70 VERBS. 69 (cp. Lat. do, dedi ; Gk. BlBw/jli, SeScoxa), in some verbs with, in others without, gradation. Since the traces of the original re- duplication are very few in OE., it is best for the present to rank Class VII. with the other gradation-classes, whilst retaining the name "Reduplicating." (2) It will be noticed that only in Classes II., Ilia., and IV. are there /our different stems; that in Classes I., Illb., and V. there are three different stems, and that in Classes VI. and VII. there are only two different stems. Nevertheless, excluding past parts, (which cannot be mistaken for any other part), no pres. form of a strong verb has the sam,e root-vowel as any past form of the same verb. (3) The importance of the gradation-rows just given can hardly be exaggerated. They are most easily remembered by learning the principal parts of the verb selected as the name of each class (except in Class VII., in which the vowels of the present are various) : Class Infin. Past Sing. Past Plur. Past Part. I. ("Shine") scTnan scan scinon scinen II. ("Creep") creopan creap critpon cropen Ilia. (" Help ") helpan healp hwlpon holpen b. ("Drink") drincan drpnc drwncon drwncen IV. ("Bear") be ran bar b«ron boren V. ("Tread") tredan tveed trsdon treden VI. ("Fare") faran for foron faren (4) Given the class of a strong verb, the gradation-rows, together with the rules of §§ 68, 69, suffice for the complete conjugation of all perfectly regular (i.e. the majority of) Old English strong verbs. Irregularities are fully dealt with in their place. 70 INFLECTION. § 71 71. How to tell the class of a strong verb. In the gradation-rows as repeated below, the vowels printed black are in themselves conclusive (irregularities apart) as to the class of the verbs in which they are found, since they occur nowhere else in strong verbs in the same pa/rts^; as to those printed in italic there is more or less uncertainty, which is removed however by the hints given at the foot. Class Infin. Past Sing. Past Plur. Fast Part. I. ("Shine") 1 a i i II. ("Creep") eo, u ea u Ilia. ("Help") e, eo ea u b. (" Drink ") i ?(a) u u IV. ("Bear") e X a V. ("Tread") e se. s. e VI. ("Fare") a O o a VII. (Redupl.) /a. S, lea, 9, ea, 5 eo,e eo. e a, ae, ea, ea, (j, o The only uncertainty therefore lies between Classes II., III., IV. and v., and that is completely dispelled by the following statements : The stem-vowel in Classes II. (" Creep ") and V. ("Tread") — between which there is no uncertainty — is fol- lowed by a single consonant which is not I or r (except in past parts, coren, droren, Jhrloren, froren, hroren; see § 73). The stem-vowel in Class III. is followed by two (or more) consonants, the first of which is a nasal in (6) (" Drink "), but not in (a) {" Help "). The stem-vowel in Class IV. ("Bear") is followed by I or r only (except in hrecan). 1 It is assumed that drincan, e.g., will not be taken for a past plur. or past part, of Class I. §72 VERBS. 71 CLASSES OF STRONG VERBS. 72. Class I (" Shine "). Gradation-row : i a i i. A regular verb of this class is conjugated in full in § 66. The following are among the commonest verbs of the class ; their principal parts are not given here because the student is expected to write them out for himself : bidan, wait bitan, bite drifan, drive gewitan, depart gripan, seize scinan, shine sigan, sink slitan, slit stigan, ascend, descend swlcan, cease. writan, write. Irregular. {a) The following verbs come under Vemer's Law (see § 169), and accordingly have d in place of S in the past plur. and past part.: Injin. Past Sing. Past PI. Past Part. liSan, go m lidon geliden scriSan, proceed scraS scridon gescriden snISan, cut snaS snidon gesniden Whereas Vemer's Law fails in miSan, avoid (a)risan, (a)rise wriSan, hind gerisan, hefit which therefore retain 5 or s throughout. (J) For the contracted verbs leon, teon (accuse), Seon, tvreon, see §81. 72 INFLECTION. 73 73. Class II (" Creep "). Gradation-row: eo,u ea u o. Paradigm : creopan, creap, crupon, cropen. Present Past Indicative. Sing. 1. creope creap 2. criepst crupe 3. criepS creap Plur. creopaS Subjunctive. crupon Sing. Plur. creope creopen Imperative. crupe crupen creep, creopaS Infinitive. creopan, dat. . -anne Participles. creopende gecropen Among the commoner verbs of this class are beodan, command neotan, enjoy breotan, break sceotan, stioot cleofan, sever dreogan, endure brucan, enjoy fleogan, fly bugan, bow fleotan, float dufan, dive geotan, pour lucan, lock greotan, weep lutan, stoop hreowan, rue scufan, shove leogan, lie slupan, glide Note. Verbs with u in the present are otherwise perfectly regular : bugan, beag, bugon, bogen. §74 VERBS. 73 Irregular. (a) The following come under Verner's Law (§ 169), with r in place of s, and d in place of S, in past plur. and past part. : ceosan, choose ceas curon gecoren dreossin, /all dreas druron gedroren forleosan, lose forleas forluron forloren f reosan, freeze freas fruron gefroren hreosan, fall hreas hruron gehroren seoSan, seethe seaS sudon gesoden Whereas Verner's Law fails in a,breo5an,/aiZ abroSen (6) For the contracted verbs _^eon, teon (draw), see § 81. 74. Class Ilia ("Help"). Gradation-row: e,eo ea u o. Paradigm : helpan, healp, hulpon, holpen. Present Fast Indicative. Sing. 1. 2. 3. helpe hilpst hilptS healp hulpe healp Plur. helpaS hulpon Sing. Plur. helpe helpen help, helpa?S helpan, dat. helpende Subjunctive. Imperative. Infinitive. -anne Participles. hulpe hulpen geholpe 74 INFLECTION. § 74 Among the commoner verbs of this class are : belgan, be angry beorgan, protect delfan, dig ceorfan, carve meltan, melt iedhta.n, fight swelgan, swallow hweorfan, turn swellan, swell meolcan, milk sweltan, die steorfan, die weorpan, throw Note. (1) The ea of the past sing, is a breaking of a, and the eo of the pres. is a breaking of e. The reason why some verbs have e and others eo in the present is, that e broke before I only when followed by c or A (§ 138). Irregular. (a) Under Verner's Law (§ 169) comes weorSan, become wearS wurdon geworden (6) For the yerhfeolan, penetrate, see § 81. (c) In three verbs e>ie after palatal g (see § 143) : gieldan, yield, pay geald guidon gegolden giellan, yell gielpan, boast geal(l) gullon gegoUen gealp gulpon gegolpen the pres. : mearn spearn murnon spurnon murnan, mourn spurnan (spornan), spurn (e) Metathesis of r is seen in berstan < * brestan ' and ^erscan < *^resean ; hence the normal change of o to « (see § 100) in the past sing, instead of breaking (§ 136). berstan, burst bserst burston geborsten Serscan, thresh Ssersc Surscon geSorscen ' An asterisk before a word denotes that it is not extant in that form. §75 VERBS. 75 (f) The root- vowel is not followed by consonants that produce breaking (see § 3) in bregdan, brandish braegd brugdon gebrogden stregdan, strew strsegd strugdon gestrogden with which may be remembered the anomalous frignan, inquire frsegn frugnon gefrugnen Notes. (2) All these verbs often drop g with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel (see § 160), thus: bredan (3rd sing, britt) brffid brudon gebroden frinan [fran (Class I.)] friinon gefrunen (3)^ Stregdan is also conjugated weak. 75. Class Illb ("Drink"). Gradation-row : i 9 u u. Paradigm : drincan, drgnc, druncon, druncen. Present Fast Sing. I. 2, drince drincst Indicative dr^nc drunce 3. drincS drgnc Plur. drincaS druncon Sing. Plur. drince drincen drinc, drincaS Subjunctive Imperative Infinitive drunce druncen drincan, dat. -anne drincende Participles gedrunce Among the commoner verbs of this class are bindan, bind onginnan, begin stincan, stink (b)linnan, cease sincan, sink swimman, swim limpan, happen singan, sing winnan, fight 76 INFLECTION. §76 Notes. (1) The Primitive Germanic gradation-row of Class III -was e a u u. The divergences from this of the English sub-classes "Help" and " Drink " are due to changes which took place partly in Germanic and partly in OE. (i) Germanic e>i before nasal + consonant : cp. drincan and helpan. (ii) Germanic m > o in strong past parts., except before nasal -f consonant : cp. geholpen, gedruncen. (iii) OE. o>g before a nasal (see § 149), and >ea (breaking) before )•, I, ft -I- consonant : cp. dr(pic, healp. (iv) See § 74, Note (1). (2) Double consonants are usually simplified when final : swimman, past sing. sw(^m,{m), imperat. sing. swim. Irregular. (a) Metathesis of r is seen in bi(e)rnan (beornan) <*brinncm and i{e)man < rinnan (extant in torinnan). bi(e)rnan (beornan), burn b^rn, barn bumon gebumen i(e)rnan, run grn, arn urnon geurnen (6) Findan has quasi-weak past sing, funde as well a&fond. (c) For bringan see § 90, and for -^ungon, -Sungen, § 80, N. 6. 76. Class IV ("Bear"). Gradation- row : e se Paradigm ; beran, basr, bseron, geboren. Sing. 1. Present Indicative. bare Fast bser 2. 3. bir(e)st (bierst) bir(e)?S (bierS, § 140) bsere bser Plur. beraS bseron Sing. Subjunctive. bere biire Plv/r. beren Imperative. ber, beraS Infinitive. beran, dat. -anne Participles. bseren berende geboren §77 VERBS. The only important verbs of this class are brecan, break helan, conceal cwelan, die stelan, steal 77 teran, tear Irregular. {a) Scieran, shear, cut, has diphthongised the vowels of the first three parts, e > ie, se > ea, M> ea, under the influence of palatal sc (see § 143) ; but scier, scseron, are also found in poetry : scieran scear (scser) scearon (scseron) gescoren (6) Especially important are cuman, come c(w)om c(w)omon (ge)cumen (cymen) niman, take nom (nam) nomon (namon) genumen. Note. The o of the past sing, is borrowed from the past plur., perhaps on the analogy of Class VI. For the other vowels see §§ 146, 148. 77. Class V ("Tread"). Gradation-row: e se se e. Paradigm : tredan, treed, triedon, treden. Present Fast Sing. 1. 2. trede tritst Indicative. trsed traede 3. trit(t) trsed Plur. tredatS triedon Sing. Plur. trede treden Subjunctive. Imperative. trade trseden tred, tredaS Infinitive. tredan, dot. -anne Participles. tredende getreden 78 INFLECTION. § 78 The only important verbs of this class are drepan, strike sprecan, speak metan, mete, measure wegan, ca/rry wrecan, avenge Irregular. {a) Under Verner's Law (§ 169) come cweSan, say cwseS cwsedon gecweden wesan, he wses wsiron (§ 96) Whereas the law fails in (ge)nesan, survive (ge)n8es (ge)nieson genesen lesan, collect Ises lieson gelesen (6) Diphthongisation due to palatal g is seen in all parts of giefan, give (§ 143) geaf geafon gegiefen -gietan, get -geat -geaton -gieten (c) Etan and its compound yretow have se, in past sing. : etan, eat set Ston geeten fretan, devour frset frieton freten (d) For the weak presents hiddan, fricgan, licgan, siitan, Sicgan, see § 80, and for the contracted verbs ge/eon, pleon, seon, see § 81. a. 78. Class VI (" Fare "). Gradation- row : a Paradigm . : faran, for, foron, faren. Sing. 1. Freseut Indicative. fare Past for 2. fserst fore 3. fserS for Plur. faratS foron Sing. Subjunctive. fare fore Plv/r. faren foren § 78 VERBS. 79 Imperative. far, faraS Infinitive. faran, dot. -anne Participles. farende gefaren The more important verbs of this class are bacan, hahe galan, sing hladau, lade dragan, drag grafan, dig sacan, quarrel Irregular. (a) Diphthongisation after palatal sc (§ 144) is frequent in sc(e)acan, shake scoc, sceoc scocon, sceocon gesc(e)acen (6) The weak verb wsecnan supplies the place of the lost pres. *wacan : [wsecnan], awake woe wocon (c) In two verbs a > g before n (§ 149) : spgnan, allure spon sponon gespgnen stQndan, stand stod stodon gestgnden Note. The later past of spgnan is speon, Class Vn., to which class weaxan (<''wahsan), grow, went over entirely. {d) In several past parts, of this class mutated and un- mutated forms alternate (see § 121) : fseren + faren sl§gen, slsegen + slagen 1 g qq grsefen + grafen ?Swggen, Swsegen + SwogenJ hlseden + hladen hsefen + hafen l » oi ssecen + sacen scgpen + sceapenj (e) For the weak presents hgbban, hliehhan, sc^an, scieppan, stxppan, swgrian, and for the contracted verbs flean, lea/n, slean, ^wean, see §§ 80, 81. 80 INFLECTION. §79 79. Class VII (Reduplicating). Infin. and Past Part. Stem-vowels : a, ae, ea, ea, 9, o Paradigms : feallan, f eoU, f eollon, feallen. IStan, let, leton, ISten. Present Indicative. Ijete l^tst l8et(t) IStaS Subjunctive. Isete ISten Imperative. 1st, IsetaS Infinitive. Isetan, dat. -anne Participles. lietende Past eo, e. Fast Sing. 1. 2. 3. Plur. Sing. Plur. fealle fielst fielS feallaS fealle feallen feall, feallatJ feallan, feoU feolle feoU feoUon feolle feoUen let lete let leton lete leten feallende Isetende gefeallen gelaeten Note. (1) The only remnant in EWS. prose of the earlier reduplication in the past tense is seen in heht {<:*hehdt) from hatan; but leolc from Idcan, reord from rxdan, {pn)dreord from (on)drmdan, and leort from Ixtan, are preserved in poetical or non-WS. texts. The following are the chief verbs of this class. They are divided into two sub-classes according to the vowel of the past tense, and are then grouped according to the vowel of the present. NB. All reduplicating verbs liave eo in the past tense, except those with x in the present stem, and hatan^ lacan, scddan, and blgndan (blend). § 79 VERBS. 81 I. Past tense in eo. (i) blawan, blow mawan, mow cnawan, know sawan, sow crawan, crow swapan, sweep Srawan, throw (ii) fealdan,yoM wealcan, roll feallan,ya^^ wealdan, wield healdan, hold weallan, well weaxan, grow (iii) beatan, beat heawan, hew hleapan, leap (iv) bgnnan, summon spgnnan, join (v) blotan, sacrifice hwopan, threaten blowan, bloom rowan, row flowan.yow spowan, succeed growan, grow swogan, sound, swoon II. Past tense in e. (vi) hatan, command, call lacan, play scadan, divide Note. (2) Besides scadan, iced, etc., we find aceadan, gesceaden, with diphthongised vowel after palatal sc (§ 144), and an anomalous past scead. (vii) (on)drSdan, dread rSdan, counsel IStan, let slaipan, sleep Note. (3) Three of these verbs have also weak forms : -dreedan and slMpan have the weak pasts -drxdde, slsepte, as well as past part. -dr^d{d); while rssdan, counsel, read, is always weak in WS., except for one occurrence of the past part, raden. w. 6 82 INFLECTION. §80 Irregular. (a) GQngan, ggngan, go, has past tense geong (gang) and ggngde, pp. geggngen. In prose, only eode, the past tense of gan (see § 96), is used. (6) For the weak present wepcm, and the contracted verbs yoM, hon, see §§ 80, 81. (c) Buan, dwell, pp. gebun, supplies the place of its lost past tense from the weak biiian, bade, gebud. WEAK PRESENTS. 80. In Classes V., VI. and VII. there are a few verbs. otherwise strong, whose presents resemble those of weak verbs (i.e. were originally formed with j or i). They are Infin. Past Sing Fast PI. Past Part. Class V ("Tread"). biddan, request bsed bsidon gebeden fricgan, inquire fgefregen Igefrigen licgan, lie Iseg l*gon gelegen sittan, sit saet sieton geseten Slogan, take 5eah (SSgon getSegen Class VI (" Fare "). hgbban, heave hof hofon gehafen hliehhan, laugh hloh hl6gon sc§65an, injure scod scodon scieppan, create scop scopon gesceapen stseppan (stgppan), step stop stopon gestapen swgrian, swear swor sworon gesworen Glass VII (Redupl.). wepan, weep weop weopon gewopen § 80 VERBS. 83 Paradigms: biddan, licgan, h§bban, swerian, wepan. Present Indicative. Sing. 1. 3. bidde bidest, bitst bideS, bit(t) liege hgbbe lig(e)st hgf(e)st lig(e)S (li?S) hgf(e)S swgrie swgrest swgre?$ wepe wep(e)s wep(e)t5 Plur. biddaS licgaS hgbbaS Present Subjunctive. swgriaS wepaS Sing. Plur. bidde bidden liege hgbbe licgen hgbben Past Indicative. swgrie swgrien wepe wepen Sing. 1. 2. 3. bsed baide bsed Iseg hof iSge hofe Iseg hof swor swore swor weop weope weop Plur. bSdon iSgon hofon Past Subjunctive. sworon weopon Sing. Plur. bSde bSden ISge hofe ISgen hofen Imperative. swore sworen weope weopen Sing. Plur. 2. 2. bide biddaS lige hgfe licgaS hgbbaS swere sweriaS wep wepaS Bat. (to) biddanne Pres. biddende Past. gebeden Infinitive. licganne hgbbanne swerianne Participles. liegende hgbbende sweriende gelegen gehafen gesworen 6- 84 INFLECTION. § 80 Notes. (1) Like licgan are conjugated the presents of fricgan, licgan ; and like biddan the presents of all the other verbs with double consonants. (2) The principal parts, as given on p. 82, must be com- mitted to memory, because of their great irregularity and the uselessness of applying §§ 70, 71, to them. (3) The irregularities of these verbs are all seen in their principal parts. Otherwise, they are conjugated in the present like regular weak verbs, and in the past like regular strong verbs. (4) These verbs may be recognised as having weak presents in four ways, which will be best appreciated by comparison with the tests for strong and for weak verbs in § 64 : (i) They have mutated root-vowels throughout the present. Strong presents have mutated vowels in the 2nd and 3rd sing, only (§ 68). (ii) In the majority of them the original vowels, the mutated forms of which are seen in the present, are contained in the past participles. Strong verbs of Classes V., VI., and VII., have the same vowels in the present and in the past participle. (iii) The original j, which is to be traced in the doubled consonants and in the i of sw§rian (see Note 5), is a mark of weak presents. (iv) The imperative sing, in -e (except in wepan) is peculiar to weak verbs. (5) 'Besides their weak presents, these verbs show several other irregu- larities. We often meet with the intrusive vowel, to which attention was called in § 34 (6), in fricg(e)an, licg(e)an, 'Sicg{e)an, licgeoS, etc. Swerian alternates with stcer(t)3(e)ore. It is possible that the past parts. /rc^cn, /ripen, belong to the very irregular verb fngnan of Class IH. Hlogon and scodon come under Verner's Law. Besides scs^an there is a strong infin. scea^San, and besides scod a weak past secede. Diphthougisation after palatal sc is seen in scea'San, gesceapen, sceod (« scod), and sceop (x scop). In scieppan, ' If the student is puzzled by this note he will find fuU explanations in Part II. §81 VERBS. 85 this diphthongisation has been followed by mutation (see § 123). In hliehhan, the same vowel has resulted from mutation of broken a. The vowel in iScaft, as in seah {§ 80), is a breaking of original a. The o of sworen (<«i«are»), like that of iSwogen (§ 78), is due to the influence of the preceding w. The interchange of 66 and / in hibban is explained by the fact that 65 in OE. represents earlier fj. The doubled consonants (og=gg) of the presents stand for earlier consonant +j, and thus =the ri {=rj) of swirian, r being the only consonant that was not doubled after a short vowel through in- fluence of following J. CONTRACTED VERBS. 81. All strong verbs whose present stem originally ended in h, lose the h and contract before every termination beginning with a vowel. In fact h remains only before the -st, -8, of the 2nd and 3rd sing, pres., and when final in the 2nd sing, impera- tive and 1st and 3rd sing, past; it has been replaced by g in the pret. plur. (and derived parts) and past part, in accordance with Verner's Law (see § 169). The chief strong contracted verbs are : Class. I. (" Shine ") leon, lend teon, accuse fleon, flee ^feolan, penetrate II. ("Creep") Ilia. ("Help") V. (" Tread ") VI. ("Fare") gefeon, rejoice pleon, adventure flean, _/?««/ lean, blame VII. (Reduplicating) fon, seize '5eon, thrive''''^ wreon, cover teon, draw seon, see slean, slay Swean, wash hon, hang ' The numbers in brackets refer to the following notes. 2 Strictly speaking, /eoian is not a contracted verb (see § 154), but this is the most convenient place to give its conjugation. 86 INFLECTION. ^Sl Paradigms. I. teon II. teon III. feolan Presekt Sing. I. 2. 3. teo tlhstW tihS teo tiehst tIehtS feole (§ 13) fielhst fielh5 Plur. teo?S teoS feolaS Present Sing. Plur. teo teon teo teon feole feolen Past Sing. 1. 2. 3. tahP) tige tah teah tuge teah fealh [fiele] fulgel^> fealh Plur. tigon tugon [fselon] fulgon Past Sing. Plur. tige tigen tuge tugeu Imperative. [f Sle] fulge [f Slen] fulgen Sing. 2. Plur. 2. tlh(i) teoS teoh teoS Infinitive (dat.). feolh feolaS (to) teonne teonne Participles. feolanne Pres. Past. teonde tigen teonde togen feolende [folenJP) §81 VERBS. 87 V. seon VI. slean VII. fon Indicative. seo slean fo siehst sliehst fehst siehS sliehS fehtS seoS sleaS fo(S Subjunctive. seo slea fo seon slean fon Indicative. seah slogW feng(<> (saige) sawe'*' sloge fenge seah slog feng (sSgon) sawon slogon fengon Subjunctive. (sSge) sawe sloge fenge (ssegen) sawen slogen Imperative. fengen seoh sleah foh seoS sleaS Infinitive (dat.). fo5 seonne sleanne Participles. fonne seonde sleande fonde (segen) sewenl^' (slagen) slaegenf^' fyngen 88 INFLECTION. § 81 Notes. (1) The uncontraoted vowel of the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. is a mutation of the uncontraoted vowel (broken in Classes III., V., VI.) which is preserved in the imperative sing. This will be better understood when the prehistoric forms of the infinitive are given : I. teon<*tihan. II. teon < *teuhan. III. feolan < *feolhan (breaking) <*felhan. V. seon < *seh(w)an P). gefeon <:*-fehauP). VI. slean<*slahan. VII. fon<*fohan. (2) The past pi. fulgon (and derived parts) is rare, and pp. folgen is wanting. In their place have been formed a past plur. and pp. according to Class IV ("Bear"). (3) The past plur. and pp. smgon, segen, are necessarily given in the paradigm, because they are the model for the other verbs of the class, but (like pp. slagen) they are not the usual forms. As is seen above, the root of seon originally ended in hw, which in the past plur. and pp. > jw by Vomer's Law; gw>g or w in OE., but>w in WS. prose. See § 169. (4) The g of the past plur. has been extended to the sing, in Classes VI. and Vn. Forms like sloh are later than slog. (5) Through the identity of the contracted forms of teon (I.) and teon (II.), the former passed over into Class II. and was followed by wreon, so that we frequently meet with such forms as teah, tugon, wreak, wrogen, belonging to verbs of Class I. (6) Connected with ^eon, thrive, are the past plur. Vungon, the pp. 'Sungen, and the adj. ge'Sungen, distinguished, excellent, belonging to Class ni., to which class ISeon ( -c *Mhan < *'Sinhan) itself originally belonged. § 82 VERBS. 89 II. WEAK VERBS. 82. Weak verbs are divided into four classes : Class I (" Wean- Ween "), in -an and -ian, with mutated stem-vowel throughout. Class II ' (" Tell "), in -an (list in § 90), with mutated stem-vowel in the present only. Class III ' (" Look "), in -ian, with the stem-vowel not mutated. Class IV ' (Mixed), in -an ; a few verbs conjugated partly like Class I. and partly like Class III. (see list given in §93). The principal parts are the infinitive, past singular, and past participle. It is unnecessary to give rules for forming the other parts from them, beyond this : Follow the paradigms. For the ways and means of distinguishing weak verbs from strong see §64. Weak verbs betray their weakness of character in a certain hesitancy as to the class they belong to and as to the length of their root-syllable, which leads them at times to transfer themselves from one paradigm and class to another. Once decide the paradigm that a weak verb follows and the rest is easy. ' Sievers does not make a separate class of " Tell " verbs. Hence Class III. (above) = Sievers' Class II., Class IV. (above) = Sievers' Class III. 90 INFLECTION. § 83 Class I (" Wean-Ween"). 83. Primary paradigms : (a) Original short stem : wgnnan, accustom (wean). (6) Original long stem : wenan, suppose (ween). Present Indicative. Sing. I. 2. 3. wgnne wgnest WgneS wene wen(e)st wen(e)3 Plur. wgnnaiJ wenatS Present Subjunctive. Sing. Plur. wgnne wgnnen wene wenen Past Indicative. Sing. 1. 2. 3. wgnede wgnedest wgnede wende wendest wende Plur. wgnedon wendon Past Subjunctive. Sing. Plur. wgnede wgneden Imperative. wende wenden Sing. 2. Plwr. 2. wgne wgnnaS Infinitive. wen wenaS Dat. (to) wgnnanne Participles wenanne Pres. Past. wgnnende gewgned {pi. ge wgnede) wenende gewened {pi. gewende) § 83 VERBS. 91 Notes. (1) As regards terminations, wgnnan is the model of the original conjugation of this class, the differences being due solely to syncope and apocope of e after an originally long syllable. (2) The double consonant of wgnnan is owing to the original j, before which every consonant except r was doubled after a short vowel, and to which the mutation of the root-vowel throughout this class is also due : such stems therefore were originally short. Gemination is found in all present forms eaxept 2nd and ^rd sing. pres. and sing, imperative ; it is absent in all past form^. (3) Like wenan are conjugated original long stems and all polysyllabic stems ; like wgnnan, original short stems. The latter part of this rule, however, has important exceptions, as will be seen in the following sections. (4) In words like afierran, withdraw mierran, mar c^nnan, bring forth pyffan, puff cierran, tiirn stillan, still clyppan, embrace Sryccan, oppress cyssan, kiss wgmman, defile iylla.n,f.ll yppan, reveal the double consonant is original (not a gemination before j), and therefore they are original long stems' and are conjugated like (5) Ciegan, call, in which the £r = original j, is also conjugated like wenan : past ciegde, pp. gecleged. (6) An occasional impeiative sing, in -e is met with in long stems: Isere — ISr, sende = send. ' It must always be borne in mind that a syllable ending in two consonants is long. 92 INFLECTION. §84 84. Secondary paradigms: ngrian, save; gierwan, pre- pare ; swgbban, put to sleep ; sgttan, set ; Igcgan, lay. Present Indicative. Sing. 1. ngrie gierwe swgbbe sgtte Igcge 2. ngrest gierest swgfest sgt(e)st lgg(e)st 3. ngreS giereS swgfeS sgtt ieg(e)ts Plur. ngriaS gierwaS swgbbaS sgttaS IgcgaS Present Subjunctive. Sing. Plur. ngrie ngrien gierwe swgbbe gierwen swgbben Past Indicative. sgtte sgtten Igcge Igcgen Swig. 1. 2. 3. ngrede ngredest ngrede gierede swgfede gieredest swgfedest gierede swgfede sgtte sgttest sgtte Iggde Iggdest Iggde Plur. ngredon gieredon swgfedon Past Subjunctive. sgtton Iggdon Sing. Plur. ngrede ngreden gierede swgfede giereden swgfeden Imperative. sgtte sgtten Iggde Iggden Sing. Plur. 2. 2. ngre ngriaS giere swgfe gierwaS swgbbaS sgte SgttaS Igge IgcgaS Infinitive. Dat. (to) ngrianne gierwanne swgbbanne sgttanne Igcganne Participles. gierwende swgbbende sgttende Igcgende Pres. ngriende Past. gengred pi. gengrede gegier(w)ed geswgfed gegierede geswgfede gesgt(t) gelggd, -led gesgtte gelggde 1 85 VERBS. 93 Note. All these verbs, except gierwan (which is conjugated like a short stem), were originally short stems. Sgttan and Igcgan have conformed to the conjugation of wenan in the syncope of medial e. The conjugation of ngrian, gierwan and swgbban differs from that of w§nnan only in this : that wherever wgnnan simplifies nn to n, swgbban simplifies 66 to /, ngrian drops i, and gierwan drops w. 85. N^rian. — H alone has not doubled before j after a short vowel. Like ngrian (§ 84) then are conjugated dorian, injure gebyrian, pertain, §rian, plough {ear) spyrian, inquire fgrian, carry styrian, stir hgrian, praise w§rian, defend Moreover, verbs with stem-final I, m, n, s, S, have passed over from wgnnan to n§rian even in EWS., so that we may also conjugate like the latter beh^lian, conceal trymian (+ trymman), confirm grgmian (+ grgmman), provoke Sgnian (+ Sgnnan), stretch Igmian, oppress hrisian (+ hrissan), shake tgmian, tame wrg?5ian, support This reduces the verbs conjugated exactly like wgnnan to a very few, such as cnyssan, knock frgmman, perform dynnan, resound hlynnan, resound in addition to grgmm,an, etc., already given. Later, all the verbs mentioned in this §, tend to pass over into Class III (" Look "), so that we find frgmian, wgnian ; past frgmode, trymode, and so on. Note. Besides n^rian we find n^rgan, n^rigan, n^rigean, iiirige, etc., but these probably show mere graphic variants of i ( =_;) before a and e. 94 INFLECTION. §§ 86, 87 86. Gierwan, sw^bban, sfttan, l^cgan (§ 84). (i) Gierwan. Like this verb are conjugated sierwan, deceive smierwan, anoint ■wielwan, roll Note. (1) In LWS., besides passing over to Class III ("Look"), sierian, etc., these verbs were sometimes conjugated with w throughout and sometimes without w throughout, no two verbs being alike. (ii) Swgbban. For 66 "^f+j cp. h§bban, § 80. Later, this verb also passed over into Class III (" Look "), swgjian, swg/ode, etc. (iii) S§ttan. Like sgttan are conjugated all weak verbs ending in -ttan, e.g. : hwgttan, whet gndettan, confess Igttan, hinder onettan, hasten licettan, simulate sarettan, grieve Notes. (2) Verbs in -ddan, like hr§ddan, rescue, syncopate like s§ttan in their past forms : hrgdde, gehrgdd. (3) The polysyllables retain the tt in the sing, imperative: onette. (iv) Lgcgan. Like Igcgan is conjugated wgcgan, agitate, as regards the simplification of eg to g ; but past wggede, etc. 87. 2nd and 3rd Sing. Present : Eules for Classes J. and II. (1) Syncope of e is usual in original long stems ; in original short stems only after c, s and ?, and occasionally after I and g. Exs. : wenest + wenst, weneS + twmS, dsele^ + dsel^ ; cnys{e)(S from cnyssam, sgtt from sgttan, rgcS from rgccan, wgdS from wgccan ; sgle'S + sgl^, IggeS + Igg^. (2) Consonant-change in consequence of syncope takes place according to the rules laid dov^n in § 69, whenever the conditions there specified are present. Exs. : (liwgteS >) hwgtt from hwgttan ; fylle'S >fyl^ irovafyllan ; c(/5eS > cyS(5) from cySan; Isedest > Isetst, Issde'S > lxt{t) from Isedan ; hyde'S > hyt{t) from hydan; forielde6>forieUirovD.forieldan; wgnde^>wgnt from wgndan, and so on. § 88 VERBS. 95 88. Past Tense. — Verbs that form their past tense by adding -de immediately to the root-syllable (including therefore all original long stems ; see § 83) are subject to the following rules : (1) Double stem-finals are simplified: afierran, afierde; c^nnan, ognde ; fyllan, fylde. (2) After a voiceless stem-final, c, p(^), t, x, ff, S8, -de > -te : Past Past drgncan, give to drink dr§ncte slSpan, sleep slSpte dyppan, dip dypte jnetsbn, Jind mette liexan, shine llexte pyfian, puff pyfte cyssan, kiss cyste (3) After a consonant -dde > -de and -tte > -te : Qndwyrdan, answer gndwyrde awestan, lay waste aweste sgndan, send sgnde fsestan, fasten fseste (4) M>dd in later texts : cpSan (make known), cyScfe and cydde. (5) Verbs in consonant + I, n, r, should have syllabic I, n, r, in the past, but more frequently they take the ending -ede or -ode: seglan, sail seglde bytlan, build bytlede gf nan, perform gf nde ^- gfnede timbran, build timbrede, timbrode. N^mnan (name) loses n : nemde ( + nemnode). NoiE. Later, these verbs formed presents also according to Claes III (" Look ") : timbrian, etc. (6) Apparently in imitation of verbs in Class II., verbs in c sometimes take ht for ci in the past tense and past part. : Past PP. olgcc(e)an, flatter olgcte -i- ol^hte neal«c(e)an, approach nealaicte + -IShte Iec(e)an, increase iecte -i- lehte geieced h- geieht Srycc(e)an, oppress tJrycte + Sryhte geSryoced 96 INFLECTION. §89 89. Past Participle. (i) Uninflected. The uninflected pp. usually ends in -ed ; but [a) after a vowel -ded as a rule > d(d), and -ted > t{t), while (6) after consonant + d or t, the ending -ed was often dropped. Thus we find (a) tselan, blame nStan, annoy tobrSdan, scatter ISdan, lead geeaSmedan, humble under?5iedan, suhdioe (b) begyrdan, surround scieldan, shield sgndan, send gndwyrdan, answer befsestan, secure atyhtan, entice pp. getseled (+ getSld) gen»t(t) tobrSd(d) gelied(e)(d)' geeaSmed(e)(d) ' underSied(e)(d)' begyrd(e)(d)' gescield(ed) gesend(ed) gegndwyrd befsBst atyht (ii) Inflected. In original short stems there is syncope of e only after d, t. In original long stems, syncope of e is usual before a termination beginning with a vowel ; but unsyncopated forms are also common, except after d, t. After a voiceless consonant d>t as in the past tense. Exs. : Short Long Uninflected Inflected (pi.) cnyssan, knock gecnysed gecnysede s^ttan, set geset(t) gesgtte fyllan, fill gefylled gefylde cytSan, make known gecySed gecyfJde (later gecydde) ngmnar, name gen§mned gengm(ne)de besgncan, immerse besgnced besgncte awiergan, curse awierged awierg(e)de Isedan, lead gel§ed(e)(d) gelSdde. Of course pps. that syncopate in the uninflected form (nom. sing.) remain syncopated in inflection. ' That is, the three extant forms are geea'Smeded, geeaiSmedd, geeaSmed. §90 VERBS. 97 Class II ("Tell"). 90. A small class of about twenty verbs, with roots ending in c, g, I, originally joined the endings of the past tense and past participle immediately to the root-syllable, i.e. without an inter- vening i. In consequence, whereas the vowel of the present is mutated, the past forms usually retain the original voweL Stems ending in c or g had (from the Germanic period) ht in the past tense and past participle. Below are the principal parts of the chief of these verbs, divided into (a) original short stems, (6) original long stems. (a) (6) Infin. Past PP. cwgUan, kiU cwealde (§ 137) gecweald sgUan, give sealde geseald st^llan, place stealde gesteald t§l]an, tell tealde geteald cw?cc(e)an, shake cweahte (; §137) gecweaht drgcc(e)an, vex dreahte gedreaht l?cc(e)an, moisten leahte geleaht rgcc(e)an, explain reahte gereaht strgcc(e)an, stretch streahte gestreaht Sgcc(e)an, cover Seahte geSeaht wgcc(e)an, wake weahte geweaht bycg(e)an, buy bohte (§ 129) geboht bepSc(e)an, deceive bepShte bepseht rSc(e)an, reach rShte gerseht tsec(e)an, teach tShte getseht [rec(e)an>] recc(e)an ,reck rohte sec(e)an, seek sohte gesoht wyrc(e)an, work worhte (§ 129) geworht ?S§nc(e)an, think Sohte (§ 1 53) geSSoht Sync(e)an, seem tSuhte geSuht br?ng(e)an, bring brohte (§ 153) gebroht w. 98 INFLECTION. § 90 Notes. (1) For the intrusive e, so often found wherever c or p was originally followed by j, see § 34, N. 6. (2) Verbs in -jcc frequently borrow the g of the pres. in the past tense and pp., even in BWS. : l^hte, r^hte, ger^ht, etc. (3) The usual past forms of bepwcan, rmcan, tmcan, have borrowed the vowel of the present, but rahte, tahte and -tdht occur in EWS. (4) For hringan, the strong bringan (rare pp. brungen) of Class Illb ("Drink"), is more often found. (5) Occasional pps. according to Class I. are met with, such as omt^led, get^led. (6) It is exceedingly good practice for the student to explain, by the aid of Part II., the relations between the vowels of the present and those of the past forms of these verbs. It is therefore not done for him here, but the following notes may help him in some of the chief difficulties : cw^llan etc. — there is no breaking in OB. before ll, u; a(*), se, e, I(*>, o, u^ ; ai, au, eu (iu*^)). Notes. (1) This i includes, not only original i, but the i that arose from e in the Germanic period, (a) before nasal + consonant, whence the difference of vowel in OB. drincan and helpan belonging to the same class of strong verbs; (6) before i ovj in the same or the next syllable, whence the difference of vowel in OE. biddan {o under the influence of original o or a in the next syllable ; but if (a) nasal + consonant or (6) i or j intervened, u was protected from change. This law has the most marked and important bearings on OE. phonology. Thus, on (a) depends the difference between such OE. past parts, as gedruncen (Class 3b) and all strong past parts, with root-vowel o (Classes 2, 3a, 4). For the vowel of the ending ■en was a in Germanic, and this, according to the law, caused the change M > in all strong past parts, where u was not protected by nasal -l- consonant. Again, on a knowledge of (6) depends the understanding of OE. i-mutation. For whereas in OE. gold, being an o-stem, the original u of the root>o in Germanic under the influence of the following o ; in the derivative adjective 1 The numbers in brackets refer to the notes. §§ 99, 100 PRIMARY VOWELS. 113 den, the original i of the ending -en (d+h, with com- pensatory lengthening for the loss of the nasal. Thus Germanic a is found only before h. (4) In the same way Germanic i + nh>T+h, and ,, , u + nh>-u + h; but, unlike a, these are not the only i and u in Germanic. (5) Germanic iu West Germanic S, but ,, M> „ „ a. Apart from this last vowel, it is immaterial whether we make Germanic or West Germanic the point from or to which we trace the OE. vowels. In dealing with this particular vowel due care must be taken. With this caution we proceed to trace seriatim the normal developments of the Germanic vowels as given in § 98. It must be borne in mind that all changes in stressed vowels that come under the special phenomena dealt with in § 114 Jbll. are excluded Jrom §§ 100 — 13. 100. (West) Germanic a > (a) OE. a, (6) OE. ae. (a) OE. a is found, i.e. Germanic a remains, in open syllables (i.e. before a single consonant) followed by a guttural vowel (a, o, u) or by an e or i weakened from o or u: /aran, to go, and the other verbs of the 6th strong class ; ga/ol, tax ; laSung, invitation ; hSian (i < o), invite. Notes. (1) OE. a is rarely found in closed syllables : hahhan ; nahhan ; appla, plur. of xppel, apple ; assa, ass ; asce, ashes ; and a few less common words. W. 8 114 PHONOLOGY. §§ 101, 102 (2) OE. a is always found in the imperative sing, of strong verbs of Class 6 : far irova/a/ra/n. (b) In most other instances — apart from the special influences and sound-changes which are dealt with in § 114 foil. — a>se. This must be regarded as the normal development, just as that of a is to a. It is the rule in closed syllables, and before an e which is not weakened from o or u: dxg, day ; fxt, vessel ; hlaic, black ; hser, trsed, and the other past sings, of the 4th and 5th strong classes ; hence in masg, can, a " past-present " of the 5th class ; hrsegd, past of bregdan, brandish (§ 74, e. f.) ; dseges, dxge, etc. ; feeder (e < a) ; aicer, field ; fxger, fair. Note. (3) OE. se is steadfast in the gen. and dat. sing, of masc. and neuter nouns of the ordinary declension, such as dxg, fxt, above ; but in all other flexional forms of nouns and verbs where x would be normal, a is carried over from forms where a is normal : hwate, instrumental masc. and neut. sing, and nom. ace. masc. pi. of hwxt, active ; hwates, gen. sing. masc. and neuter, on the analogy of hwatu, hwata, hwatum ; so fare, /dren, fa/r&nde, following /flsroji, etc. 101. (W.) Germ, e often remains in OE. ; e.g. in many verbs of the 3rd, 4th and 5th strong classes, such as helpan, beran, brecan, tredan, pp. getreden; and in feld, field ; helm, helmet ; weg, way, etc. 102. (W.) Germ, i (see § 98, Note 1) often remains in OB. ; e.g. in the past plural and past part, stems of strong verbs of the 1st Class : seine, scinon, gescinen, etc.; in the prons. ic, inc, hit in the "past-present" verb witan; in is, is; in fisc, fish micel, great, etc.; in verbs of the strong Class Illb ("Drink") drincan, winnan, fight, etc. ; in blind, blind; in the 2nd and 3rd sing, of strong verbs of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Classes; hilpst, hilpS from helpan ; bir(e)st, bir(e)^ from beran ; itsf, itt from etan ; and in " weak presents " of the 5th Class of strong verbs : biddan, ask; sitta/n, etc. §§ 103 — 105 PRIMARY VOWELS. 115 Notes. (1) (W.) Germ, i has weakened to e in mec, me, and in several other pronominal forms in which the e was subsequently lengthened, e.g. me, to me, me (see § 161). (2) OE. i is replaced by y (sometimes e) in the negative forms of witan and wiUan, nytan, nylUxn {nellan), etc., and occasionally in other words, especially in LWS. Op. the replacement of EWS. ie by LWS. y (§ 116). 103. (W.) Germ, o (see § 98, N. 2) usually remains in OE. ; e.g. in past parts, of Classes II., Ilia, and IV. of strong verbs : geboden, geholpen, gehoren ; and in gold, gold wolc(e)n, cl m in a number of words, e.g. duru, door wull, wool lufian, to love f ugol, hvrd bucca, huck cnucian, to knock iu\l,full rust, rust ufan, above luf u, love wulf , wolf f urSor, further (cp. /orS) For this change no reason has been assigned. 104. (W.) Germ, u often remains ; e.g. in past plurals of the 2nd and 3rd Classes of strong verbs : hudon, htdpon, druncon; in past parts, of Class lllb. : gedruncen ; and in sunu, son hungor, hunger unc, (to) us two grund, grov/nd burg, stronghold lungre, quickly Note. (W.) Germ. u> o in the stressed prefix or- (out of, without); e.g. orlgge, war orsorg (= Lat. se- curus) orSgnc, skill ormod, despondent 105. Germ, se = W. Germ, a, (§ 99) > (a) OE. a, (b) usually OE. se. (a) OE. a is found, i.e. W. Germ, a remains, (1) before w : e.g. the past plural etc. of seon, sdwon ; clawu (claw), tdwian 8—2 116 PHONOLOGY. §§ 106—109 (prepare), and the foreign word pdwa (peacock). (2) In an open syllable before a guttural vowel, interchanging with x : slapan cc slmpan, to sleep ; logon oc Ixgon, past pi. of licgan ; Idc- nian oc liecnian (i < o), to heal ; mdgas oc msegas, magum oc mxgum, pi. of mseg, kinsman. (6) OE. (WS.) si is the normal development of Germanic x through W. Germ, a, just as OE. « is of Germ, a (cp. § 100). Examples are seen in the past pis. of strong Classes IV. and V. : hxron, trsedon ; in some Reduplicating verbs, Ixtan, etc. ; in the privative prefix «-, e.g. eemen, uninhabited ; and in rsed ('rede '), wiepn (weapon), strxt (< L. strata), etc. Note. Germanic a (§ 98, N. 3) > OE. o ; but as this is in reality a case of nasal influence it is dealt with in § 152. 106. (W.) Germ, e is the only letter that passed into English without undergoing any change. It is of comparatively rare occurrence. Exs. : her, here ; med, reward ; and past tenses in e of Reduplicating verbs : let, slepon, etc. (Sievers). 107. (W.) Germ, i > OE. i in the great majority of instances; e.g. all the present parts of strong verbs of Class I. : sc%nan, sain, sclnende, etc.; o/er^th^ (§§ 81 and 98, N. 4) from oferSeon (excel) ; U/ (life), wis (wise), vnsian (to direct), etc. 108. (W.) Germ, o almost always > OE. o ; e.g. past tenses of strong verbs of Class VI. : for, foron ; hence in mot (may), a " past-present " of Class VI. ; some Reduplicating verbs : blowan, to hloom growan, to grow swogan, to sound and in dom, doom ofost, haste swote, sweetly wroht, accusation god, good sohte, soitght 109. (W.) Germ, u almost always remains in OE.; e.g. aorist-presents of the 2nd class of strong verbs : liican (lock), hugan (bow), etc. ; tun (enclosure), fill (foul), rum, (roomy), "Suhte (see g 98, N. 4) from "Synoan (seem). i 110-113 PRIMARY VOWELS. 117 110. (W.) Germ. ai>OE. a usually; e.g. the past sing, of the 1st class of strong verbs : stag from silgan (ascend), scan from scinan (shine); hence in wdt (know), ag (possess), "past-presents" of Class I. ; in some Reduplicating verbs : hatan, command lacan, play swapan, sweep and in stan, stone sar, wound an, one hal, hale ma, m,ore 111. (W.) Germ, au > OE. ea usually; e.g. the past sing, of strong verbs of Class II. : creap from creopan (creep), ceas from ceosan (choose) ; hence in deag (avails), a " past-present " of the same class ; Reduplicating verbs with root- vowel ea : beatan (heat), heawan (hew), etc.; deaS, death heah, high eac, eke heafod, head gleaw, prudent 5eah, though 112. (W.) Germ. eu>OE. eo (to) invariably; e.g. strong verbs of Class II. : seotSan, seethe hreowan, rue ; creopan, creep and deor, animal 5eod, nation getreow, true hreow, regret deop, deep seoc, sick leoht, light alternating with cnopan, dior, lloht, ^Siod, diop, sloe, etc. Notes. (1) (W.) Germ, eu ocoasionally remains unchanged in the oldest texts: 'Seuw=^eow, servant. (2) (W.) Germ, lu arose only before i or j (see § 98, N. 5), which subsequently caused mutation to ie in the OE. period. See § 126. 113. The following table shows the normal correspondences between the stressed vowels of Germanic, Gothic, Icelandic, Old High German and Old English. To include in such a table the special developments dealt with in the succeeding paragraphs, 118 PHONOLOGY. §113 especiallj' where they are as numerous as in Icelandic and Old English, would simply be to rob the table of any use it may have. NORMAL CORRESPONDENCES OF STRESSED VOWELS. Germanic Gothic Icelandic OHG. 0£. a a a a se(a) e i, ai (= g) 6 e e i i, ai (= g) i i i u, au (= q) o u u, au (= g) u u u a (§ 98, N. 3) a a a 6 se (W. Germ, a) e a a *(a) e e e ie e i ei(=i) i 1 I 6 uo (ua) 6 u u u u u ai di ei ei (e). a au 4u au ou(o) ea eu (iu) iu Jo(y) eo, io (iu) eo § 114 SOUND-LAWS. 119 B. THE OLD ENGLISH SOUND-LAWS. 114. Under the above convenient and comprehensive head- ing it is proposed to trace the chief developments of the Germanic stressed vowels {apart from the normal correspondences), which took place in the OE. period, prehistoric and historic. Under this heading are included {a) Changes due to following vowels, (6) to neighbouring consonants, (c) to the loss of consonants ; {d) Lengthening and Shortening. Following this arrangement the laws of sound-change are considered under the following (a) I. /- or /-Mutation (Mut.). n. U- or 0-Mutation (f7-Mut.). (6) III Palatal Mutation (Mut. Pal.). IV. Breaking (Brkt). V. Glide-Diphthongisation (Glide-Diph.). VI. Palatal Uiphthongisation (Pal. Diph.). VII. „ Monophthongisation (Pal. Mon.). VIII. Influence of preceding W {W-ItoA.). IX. „ fo^owing r(Infl.-Tr.). X. „ -''„ Nasal (Infl.-A'.). (c) XL Lengthening in compensation for lost Nasal (Loss-i^). XII. Contraction (Contr.). XIII. Lengthening in compensation for loss oi G or H (Loss-ff, Loss-fi). (d) XIV. Lengthening (Length*). XV. Shortening (Short*). 120 PHONOLOGY. § 115 The foregoing names (if sometimes clumsy) are significant ; that is to say, they suggest with sufficient clearness the nature of the processes which they denote. The abbreviations in paren- theses are convenient substitutes, especially for the longer names, and frequently save making a reference. 115. It is not possible to assign the exact chronological order in which the processes represented above came into opera- tion. Some of them, e.g. Breaking, were completed in prehistoric times, others had hardly manifested themselves at the commence- ment of the historic OE. period, e.g. f- Mutation; some of them must have been in operation over a considerable period of time, e.g. Palatal Mutation. But by careful observation of the pro- cesses that precede, and the processes that follow, other processes in the successive sound-changes of the same word, the present writer has formulated the following scheme of processes in the approximate order of their appearance, which is probably not very far from the truth. Those on the same level are supposed to be nearly synchronous, but dates are not assigned (for abbreviations see above). (1) Shortening (2) Breaking Contraction Infl.-iV (3) Lengthening (4) Pal. Diph. Loss-i^'' (5) /-Mutation (6) f'^ Mutation Infl.-r (7) r-Infl. Mut. Pal. Loss-ff, -H (8) Palatal Monophthongisation §§ 116, 117 SOUND-LAWS. 121 116. General Statements. It may be well to premise, in order to avoid reiteration, (1) that EWS. ie (i), le (l), are invariably replaced in LWS. by i and i, or y and §, usually the latter. (2) that eo and io often replace each other in WS., and likewise eo and w>, but that WS. usually prefers eo and eo, even where io and io are etymologically correct. But in the following sections these diphthongs are used correctly, i.e. eo x. There are three kinds of mutation in OE. : I. /- or J"- Mutation, called briefly /-Mutation or simply Mutation, which was caused by a following i or j in the same word. II. U- or 0- Mutation, called briefly f/- Mutation, which was caused by a following m or o in the same word. III. Palatal Mutation, which was caused by a palatal con- sonant immediately following. 122 PHONOLOGY. §§ 118, 119 I. /-Mutation. 118. 7- Mutation i? the influence exerted by a following i orj upon the vowel-sound of a stressed syllable, by which that sound is partially assimilated to the sound of the mutating letter. In this mutation, the mutating sounds being palatal, the effect is a palatalisation, i.e. the replacement of a less palatal vowel by a more palatal vowel in every instance. The i or j that caused the mutation has either disappeared or weakened to e in most cases in historic OE. ; exceptions, however, are seen in such verbs as n§rian = 7isrjan (§ 85), and in some adjs., e.g. hgfig (heavy), wielisc (foreign) ; while numerous traces of mutating i and j have been pointed out in the Accidence. On the other hand, the i in verbs of the 3rd weak class ("Look"), locian, lufian, is a weaken- ing of o, and therefore does not cause i-mutation (see § 91). Mutation and Gradation. Mutation is a perfectly simple phenomenon; but the subject has been obscured and confused by its being classed and explained side by side with Gradation, with which it has no conceivable connection except by way of contrast. Gradation is a relation of different vowels in words derived from one root existing side by side at the same time ; Mutation is a change of vowel in one and the same word, which at one period, therefore, had one vowel-sound, and at a later time another (the mutated vowel). Gradation is a relation of different vowels to one another ; Mutation is a change in the history of one vowel. 119. Mutation explained. Great confusion has resulted from loose ideas and statements as to the epoch when derivative words were formed. This is an important point and must be cleared up once for all. From the OE. noun gold, it is said, was formed an adjective g'y^c^eji, thus: gold + in > gylden. Un- fortunately, the OE. i-mutation of o is g, and if therefore the above adjective had been an OE. formation at all, it would have been gulden, not gylden. Again, from an OE. noun *wunsc was formed, it is said, a verb wyscan (wish), thus : wunsc + ian > wwnscian > zvuscian > wyscan ; but, unfortunately, the OE. § 120 SOUND-LAWS. 123 noun *wunsG never existed, in all probability. Even Sievers allows himself to speak of the i-mutation of eo and eo, although he himself states quite clearly elsewhere " that the e of the Indo- European Parent Speech was regularly changed to Germanic i when the next syllable contained an i or _;'," that is to say, in every word, in which OE. i-mutation could possibly take place, Germanic e and eu> i and iu, which in the pre-mutation period of OE. > io and lo (and ?wt, accurately speaking, eo and eo). The truth is simply this : most OE. derivative words are not OE. formations at all, as we know from their existing in one or more of the cognate languages and therefore also in the parent Germanic. Many of them are of immemorial antiquity. This is just as true of the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. of verbs as of the principal parts. From the remote ancestor of hatan, e.g., there had once been formed a 3rd sing. pres. something like hateti. Once formed, this word had an independent existence and came under sound-laws which did not affect Jiatan. It reached the OE. pre-mutation period in the form hatiS > OE. heett. So with the other words named above. Gylden and the OHG. guldln prove the existence of a Germanic parent adjective, whose i preserved the radical u from change to o (§ 98, N. 2) until the OE. i-mutation period. OE. wyscam and OHG. wumsken prove the existence of a Germanic wunskjan, from which of course wyscan is directly descended, and not from an OE. *wunsc, the fictitious parent of a verb with real blue Germanic blood in its veins. 120. We have already seen that there was what may be called a Germanic t-mutation (§ 98, N. 1, 5), by which e>i and eu > iu. There is therefore no OE. mutation e> i; every such change, as in hilp{e)S, 3rd sing, of helpan, hir{e)'S of heran, triit of tredan, in hiddan and the other " weak presents " of the " Tread " class (cp. pp. geheden), had already occurred in Germanic. But this Germanic i could and did, in some words, suffer " breaking " to io, and then underwent in OE. a second i-mutation, viz. io > ie. ' Sievers' OE. Grammar, Cook's translation, § 45. 124 PHONOLOGY. § 121 An example is seen in Germanic herdjo > hirdjo > OE. *hiordjo > hierde, herdsman. Similarly eu underwent double mutation, first in Germanic, then in OE. : eu> iu> OE. %o > le. /-Mutation in OE. can follow Breaking, Pal. Diph., Infl.-iV, hoss- Jy, and Contraction, and can itself be followed by Infl.-TT, and Iiosa-G-H. Mutated forms of English proper names, such as Kgnt, T§mes, prove that 7-Mutation is to be dated after the Saxon Conquest. Pogatscher suggests about the year 600 a.d. The results of /-Mutation in OE. may conveniently be shown as follows : (i) (a >) se > f (se) (ii) a > ffi (iii) ea > ie (iv) ea > le (v) io > ie (vi) (iu >) lo > ie (vii) ^ ('''iii) o > e (ix) u > y (x) u > y 121. (i) (a >) se > §. In positions in which original a could suffer /-Mutation, it had already become a or p (§§ 100 (6), 148) before the /-Mutation period (except as stated in Note 2). Examples : Igcgan (lay), op. Iseg, past sing, of licgan ; s§ttan (set), cp. ssBt, past sing, of sittan ; tgllan, cp. talu (tale) ; ngrian (to save) ; mgte (meat), an t-stem ; h^l, a j'-stem ; and " weak presents " of the " Fare '' class : hgbban (raise), cp. pp. gekafen ; scgi^an (injure), and swgrian (swear). Notes. (1) x instead of g is regularly found in the 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. of strong verbs of Class VI. : fsrst, feer^, from faran ; in the mutated past parts, of the same Class, ge/seren 86. Exs. : iMdan (lead), cp. laS, past of li^an (go) ; liefan (leave), cp. Idf, past of lifan (remain) ; l^ran (teach), cp. Idr (teaching) ; hlseviS, 3rd sing, of hldwan (blow) ; dsil (part), an i-stem ; Ixwan (betray). Note. OE. (WS.) S, the normal equivalent of Germanic S (W. Germ, a), is not subject to i-mutation. Hence it is not obvious that dSd, deed, is an i-stem, and that ISce, leech, and mSre, great, are ./-stems. 123. (iii) ea > i(e). Examples : hi(e)lt, wiex^S, 3rd sing, pres. of healdan (hold), weaxan (grow) ; sliehst, 2nd sing. pres. of slean (strike) ; mi{e)ht (might), slieht (blow), i-stems ; bi{e)ldu (boldness), vstem, cp. heald (bold) ; i(e)ldra, compar. of eald (old); hli{e)hhan (laugh) ; ctuielman (torment), cp. cwealm (destruction) ; giest (guest), i-stem ; sci(e)ppan (create), " weak-present." Note. EWS. i(e), i(e), whatever their origin, are regularly replaced later by y, y, which sometimes appear in EWS. For Hfi) < ea EWS. not infrequently has y before ^ or r : yldest « ieldest (oldest) ; gemyldan cc gewi(e)lda/n (control) ; dyrne oe dierne (secret); wyrnan « wiernan (refuse). 124. (iv) ea > i(e). Examples : hiewS, hliepS, 3rd sing, pres. of the Reduplicating verbs, heawan (hew), hleapan (leap) Vieg (flame), i-stem; nxeten (small animal), cp. neat (animal) hiehst, superl. of hsah (high); dli(e]fan (allow) ; geli{e)fan (believe) ciese (cheese). 125. (v) io>i(e). Here belong all the examples usually given under eo, as explained in § 119 : fi{e)ht, m{e)r'S, 3rd sing, pres. oifeohtan (fight), weor^n (become) ; gesi{e)MS, gefi{e)h^, 3rd sing. pres. of geseon (see), gefeon (rejoice) ; hi{e)rde (herdsman), cp. heord (herd) ; bi(e)rhtu (brightness), cp. heorht (bright) ; fierst (time), ■i-stem; 'wi(e)rSe (worthy), cp. weorS (worth) ; dfierran (re- move), cp. feorr (far) ; liehtan (make easy), cp. lioht (light, easy). 126 PHONOLOGY. §§ 126—129 126. (vi) io > le, I. Here belong all the examples usually given under eo, as explained in § 119 : criepS, sciet, 3rd sing. pres. of creopan (creep), sceotan (shoot); getrlewe (true), cp. treow (truth) ; li{e)htan (illuminate), cp. leoht (light) ; stl{e)ran (guide), cp. steor (guidance) ; strlenan (obtain), cp. gestreon (possessions) ; as well as fiend, friend, dat. sing, and nom. pi. of fiond (enemy), friond (friend). 127. (vii) o, o > §. {a) Examples of p > g : stgnt, 3rd sing. pres. of stgndan (stand) ; b§nd (bond), i-stem, cp. bgnd, past sing, of bindan ; m§n{n), dat. and pi. of mgn{n), man ; strgngra, compar. of strgng ; frg^nman (perform), cp. frgm (bold) ; ngmnan (to name), cp. ngma (name) ; sgndan (to send), cp. sgnd (message) ; tgmian (to tame), cp. igm (tame). (b) The only examples of o>§ are : dghter, dat. of dohtor (daughter) ; §xen, pi. of ooca (ox) ; mp-gen (morn), cp. mgrgen ; §fes (eaves) ; gle (oil). 128. (viii) o>e. Exs. : blew^, grew^, 3rd sing. pres. of the 'ReduTplioa.ting yerhs blowan (hloom), growan; the "weak-present" wepan (weep), cp. pp. wopen; sweg (sound), cp. swogan (to roar); bre'Ser, dat. of hrSSor; swete (sweet), cp. swote (sweetly); deman (to judge), cp. dom (doom); efstan (to hasten), cp. ofost (haste); secan (to seek), cp. sohte (sought); ctuen (woman), i-stem; gecweman (to please); ges, dat. and pi. of gos (goose); smeSe (smooth), cp. smSSe (smoothly); gesSS(wi, (to prove), cp. soS (true); ehtan (to pursue), cp. oht (persecution) ; fehst, feKS, 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. of fon (to seize). 129. (ix) u > y. Exs. : cymS, 3rd sing. pres. of cuman (come); the "past-present" subjunctives dyge, dyrre, gemyne, scyle, ^yrfe, cp. dugon, etc.; hyngran (to hunger), cp. hungor; gesynto (health), cp. gesund (sound); byr{i)g, dat. of burg (fort); pytt (pit); tvylfen (she-wolf), cp. wulf; loyllen (woollen), cp. louU; fyllan (fill), cp. full. In nearly all other instances, such as gylden (golden), gyden (goddess), bycgan (buy), y appears to be the i-mutation of o (in gold, god, bohte), as it is still often said to be. §§ 130, 131 SOUND-LAWS. 127 But the truth is that y cannot possibly be the mutation of o ; for not only is g the mutation of o, and no vowel has two mutated forms ; but we have already seen that Germanic u was protected by a following i, j, from the change into o, which was undergone by the pair-words gold, god, bohte, etc. (see § 98, N. 2). Note. After palatal g, c, sc, we not infrequently find i for y : gingra, gingest (always with i), compar. and superl. of iung, geong (young) ; scile ec scyle, etc. 130. (x) u > y. Examples : brycS, lyc6, 3rd sing. pres. of hrucan (enjoy), lucan (lock); hryd (bride), fyst (fist), i-stems; cyrSan (to make known), cp. diS (known) ; fysan (to hasten), cp./ws (eager) ; wyscan (to wish). II. ?7- MUTATION. 131. IT'-Mutation (under which we include 0-Mutation) is the influence exercised by a following guttural vowel upon a stressed i, e, or a, in consequence of which, i.e. in anticipation of the following guttural vowel, a guttural glide-sound arose after the stressed vowel, and in time formed a diphthong with it. Thus (i) i -I- a, o, u > io, (ii) e + a, o, u > eo, (iii) a H- u > ea (= sea). The vowel a does not suffer o-mutation in WS., and w-mutation of a is very rare. Indeed the effects of this influence generally are very limited in WS., as compared with the other dialects. The guttural vowels that caused this mutation, being vowels of un- stressed syllables, have so frequently weakened in historic times, u to 0, o to a, etc., that some knowledge of prehistoric forms is necessary in order to discriminate z«-mutations from o (a)- mutations. 128 PHONOLOGY. 132—134 C- Mutation could be followed, in the history of the same word, by TT-Infl. (§ 114), but no other change either preceded or followed it. It is uniformly wanting before c and g. In most words in which this mutation is seen, forms with the original vowel unchanged are also found. 132. (i) i > io (eo). This is by far the most extensive of the three effects in WS. It is especially common in EWS. Later, the sound reverted to simple i, or the effect was disguised by the operation of TT-Infl. Examples are : (a) M- mutations : freoSo, peace mioloc, meolc, milk siodu, custom (6) o(a)-mutations : wiotan, counsellors hiora, of them nioSor, downwards neoSan, yi-om beneath Note. It is to be remembered that most of the above words are also found in EWS. with original i unchanged : hira, sido, etc. 133. (ii) e > eo is pretty common, but is not as a rule caused by inflectional u. Examples are : (a) zt-mutations : eofor, boar weorod, troop heofon, heaven sweostor, sister heorot, hart seofon, seven. (6) o(a)-mutations : weola, weal weorold, world siolofr, seolfor, silver liomu, pi. of lim, limh swiotul, sweotol, clear cliopian, to call tiolian, to aim, at liofaS, lives (from lihban) 134. (iii) a > ea is very rare in EWS. prose, being found only in the three words ealu, gen. ealo'8 (ale), cearu (sorrow), sleacnes (slackness). As forms with ea are common in poetical § 135 SOUND-LAWS. 129 texts, it is probable that they adopted the ea from the Anglian originals : beadu, hea^u-, battle ; eafo'5, strength, etc. Notes. (1) The ea in beam (grove), healu (evil), etc., is a "breaking" borrowed from the oblique cases, bea/rwes (§ 136), etc. On the other hand, the ea of geatu, pi. of geat (gate), is borrowed from the sing. (§§ 100, 143). (2) The protecting influence of a following guttural vowel we have already seen in the retention of original a, a, in dagas, fatu, magas, etc. (§§ 100, 105). III. PALATAL MUTATION. 135. Palatal Mutation is the palatalisation of a stressed vowel through the influence of a palatal consonant immediately following. It is of little importance in WS. in comparison with the other dialects. There are four cases, one of which is doubtful, and two more of which are confined to LWS. In three of the four cases Palatal Mutation follows Breaking : no other change either preceded or followed it. The four cases are as follows : (i) eo > i{e) in EWS. in the four words cni{e)ht, servant, riht^, right, ivri(e)xl, exchange, and si(e)x, six. In these words, guttural h {x = hs), which had ' broken ' e to eo, became palatal and then palatalised the preceding vowel. In feohtan, gefeoht (fight), there was no further change. (ii) ea>i{e) in ni{e)ht (night) in EWS., and later in mihte e in LWS. before h (x). Examples : seh < seah (saw) ; sleh < sleah, 2nd sing, imperative of slean (strike). (iv) ea > e in LWS. before h, g, c. Examples are seen in the past sing, of strong verbs of Class II. : teh < teah from teon, to draw ; heg < heag from hugan, to bow ; lee < leac from lucan, to lock ; and in SeA < 5eaA (though), etc. This is the case in which Breaking did not precede. IV. BREAKING. 136. Breaking is a process of the same nature as ^/-Mutation, but was caused by following guttural consonants. To ease the transition from the palatal vowels x (< a), e, i, to a guttural h, covered I (i.e. I followed by another consonant), or covered r, immediately following, a guttural glide-sound arose, which soon formed a diphthong with the preceding vowel. Thus (i) (a >) se + U + A, r (+ const.), I (+ const.) > ea + etc. (ii) e + O + A, r (+ const.), l{+c or h)>eo + etc. (iii) i + o + A, r (+ const.), > io (eo) + etc. This table shows at a glance the vowels affected by breaking, its causes and conditions, and its results. Although the vowels affected and the results are the same as in the similar process of C^-Mutation, it is only rarely possible to confound the two. Except in monosyllables, where M-mutation is necessarily im- possible, breaking was always conditioned by two following con- sonants ; whereas M-mutation did not penetrate through two consonants, except in rare instances (such as sweostor, 'Siossum Breaking follows Shortening (of I); it can be followed, in the history of one and the same word, by /-Mutation, Palatal Muta- tion, Pal. Hon., W-lnA., and Loss-5'. §§ 137—139 SOUND-LAWS. 131 137. (i) (a>)8e> ea before h{x), covered r, and covered I. Examples are numerous : feallan (fall), healdan (hold), weaxan (grow), of the Reduplicating class of strong verbs ; past sing, of strong verbs of the "Help" class : healp from helpan, wearS from weortSan (to become), feaht from feohtan (to fight) ; hence in the "past-present" verbs dear{r), ^earf, of the 3rd strong class ; seah from seon (see); similarly in the "past-present" verb be-, ge-neah (it suffices); sleah, sing, imperat. of slean (strike); meaht, meahte, parts of the "past-present" verb mieg ; feax (hair); Wealh (Welshman) ; Seaxan (Saxons) ; eealc (chalk), a foreign word introduced at an early period ; all the forms of bearu (grove), bealu (evil), searu (armour), and of the adjs. gearu (yare), nearu (narrow), in the uninfected forms of all which the broken vowel is borrowed from the oblique cases ; eald (old) ; eall (all) ; earm (wretched); eahta (eight); earnian (to earn). Notes. (1) a before covered I sometimes remains: Jallan, haMa/n, aid, all. Walk. (2) II < earlier I +j does not cause breaking, because the U had become palatal : hgll (hell), _;-stem ; sgllan (give) ; t§llan (tell). (3) Metathesis of r took place after the Breaking-period ; hence there is no breaking in bxrst (burst), bxrnan (burn, trans.), ssrn (house), gxrs (grass), nor in berstan (burst), ^erscan (thresh) ; but, exceptionally, beornan < brinnan (burn, intrans.) has a broken vowel. 138. (ii) e > eo before h, covered r, Ic and Ih. Examples : feohtan (fight), weorpan (throw), of the "Help" class; seoh, sing, imperat. of seon; cneoht (a servant); eorSe (earth); heord (herd) ; seolh (seal), cp. helm (helmet) ; steorra (star) ; seolf {sali), exceptional form of self; teohhian (arrange); meolcan (milk). 139. (iii) i > io (eo) before h and covered r ; but examples are few, because in many words i-mutation supervened (see § 1 25) : Wioht (Isle of Wight), beornan (to bum), leornian (to learn), leoht (light, easy), betweoh, betweox (betwixt). 9—2 132 PHONOLOGY. §§ 140, 141 V. GLIDE-DIPHTHONGISATION'. 140. The above name is used here to denote a process, similar in character to ?7-Mutation and Breaking, and perhaps arising in imitation of them, but differing from them in that the ' glide ' is palatal. It is probable that, in imitation oii>io before guttural r, i>ie before a palatalised r, and then the same diph- thongisation arose before other consonants. It follows, and is followed by, no other change. In every word in which it is seen, unchanged i is also found. Examples are : bi{e)rnan (burn), iernan (run), of the " Drink " class ; hi{e)rst, hi{e)r^, 2nd and 3rd sing, of heran (bear) ; bi(e)rst, 2nd and 3rd sing, of berstan (burst) ; hi{e)re, gen. and dat. of heo (she) ; hi{e)ne, ace. of Ae (he) ; gi{e}fS,- ongi(e)tt (§ 120), 3rd sing, of giefan, ongietan (§ 77); si{e)ndon (are). VI. PALATAL DIPHTHONGISATION. 141. The above name is given to a series of changes which consist in the introduction of a palatal ' glide ' (i or e) between an initial palatal consonant (j, g, sc, c) and a following stressed vowel ; the ' glide ' afterwards formed a diphthong with the following vowel, and then, being the first element of the diphthong, took over the stress. This is the general nature of the change; the particular cases are somewhat numerous, occurring, as they do, in the downward history of Germanic stressed e, a, o, u, a, o, u, ai. They are conveniently summarised in three classes : (i) Palatalisation of S, o, o, u, u after initial j. (ii) Palatalisation of primary^ e, se, x after initial palatalised c, g, sc. (iii) Palatalisation of a, a, o, g, o, u, u, after initial palata- lised sc. 1 This name is equally applicable to JJ- Mutation and Breaking; but they are already better named; and a similar objection might be urged against the term Mutation, which could of course be used of any change whatever. ^ I.e. the normal OE. developments of Germanic e, a, S. §§ 142, 143 SOUND-LAWS. 133 Palatal Diphthongisation could follow Infl.-iV and Lengthen- ing ; and could itself be followed by /-Mutation (as in scieppan, create ; clese, cheese), by Loss-ff {ongean, against), and by Pal. Mon. (see § 145). Notes. (1) Breaking is prior to Pal. Diph. and has the preference. Hence *cerfan (carve) > ceorfan, not cierfan. Hence also the ea in geald is a 'breaking,' whereas the infin. of the same verb, gieldan (pay), shows Pal. Diph. (2) A following ti or o prevents Pal. Diph., and preserves the stressed vowel for subsequent M-mutation: e.g. *gelo (yellovr) >geolo, not gielo. The ie of giefu (gift) is due to analogy with the oblique giefe, and the ea of geatu (gates) to analogy with the singular geat. 142. (i) After initial j^ the following changes occurred — examples are scarce, because but few OE. words began with j : (a) a > ea in gea, yea ; gear, year. (b) > eo{io) in geoc, yoke. (c) (< a by Infl.-iV^.) > eo in geomor, sad. {d) u, u, sometimes remain, as in iung, young, iugu^, youth, iu { eo(io), eo, as in geong, geoguS, geo. 143. (ii) After initial palatalised c, g, so, primary e, 86, se regularly suffered the following changes in EWS. : (a) e > ie. Examples : gieldan (pay), giellan (yell), of Class " Help '' ; scieran (cut), of Class " Bear " ; giefan (give), ongietan (perceive), pp. ongieten, of Class " Tread." Note. (1) Forms with i are also found: gildan, gifan, etc. (b) (a >) se > ea. Examples : scear, past sing, of scieran ; geaf, -geat, past sing, of giefan, -gietan ; the " past-present " verb sceal (shall) ; ceaster (fort), geat (gate), etc. In giest (stranger), scieppan (create), < *geasti, *scewppjan. Pal. Diph. has been followed by /-Mutation. 1 There is no character j in OB.; the symbols i and g were used, usually the latter, as in the above examples. It is only by knowing the history of a word that g (=j) can be distinguished from g(=g). 134 PHONOLOGY. §§ 144, 145 (c) 36 > ea. Examples : scearon, past pi. of scieran ; geafon, -geaton, past pi. of giefan, -gietan ; sceap (sheep). In clese < *ceasi, Pal. Diph. has been followed by /-Mutation. Note. (2) Only primary e, as, ie, suffer this change. The mutated vowels g, x, x (§§ 121, 122, 127) are unaffected by it : gescgpen (pp. of scieppan), gsedeling, togxdere. 144. (iii) After initial sc, guttural vowels suffered the following changes, but not uniformly ; in every word in which the changes are seen, the original vowel is also found, even in the same text. (a) a > ea, seen in verbs of the " Fare " class, e.g. sceacan a: scacan (shake), pp. sc{e)acen. (h) a > ea, seen in sceadan «: scddan (to distinguish) of the Reduplicating class. (c) > eo, seen in sceop oo scop (bard), sceolde o= scolde from sceal (shall). (d) Q > eo, seen in sceomu oc scqmu (shame). (e) o > eo, seen in past tenses of the " Fare " class, e.g. sceoc cc scoc (shook), sceop oc scop from scieppan. {/) u > eo, seen in sceolon oc sculon, pi. of the " past-present " verb sceal (shall). This eo may be borrowed from sceolde above, since it is the only instance in EWS. {g) it > eo in LWS. only : sceofan oc scufan (shove). VII. PALATAL MONOPHTHONGISATION. 145. This is a process which consists in the change of the diphthongs ea, ea, into the palatal monophthongs e, e, through the influence of initial palatal j, c, g, sc. It is frequently the completion of the palatalising process begun in Pal. Diph., but it may also follow Breaking and Loss-ff. It is itself followed by no other change. It is seen in the downward history of Germanic a, X and au. § 146 SOUND-LAWS. 135 Note. Sievera makes the tactical error of including this phenomenon under Palatal Mutation, although, being a forward influence, it is excluded by his definition of Mutation. Classified examples are : (a) Following on Pal. Diph. : — gef e, as in the past sing, of verbs of the " Creep " class : ces < ceas (chose), get < geat (poured), scet < sceat (shot). VIII. INFLUENCE OF PRECEDING W. 146. The semi-vowel w has a close afiinity to the vowels u and 0, and its influence tends to substitute one of them for the diphthongs io, eo, arisen through Breaking or C-Mutation. This change therefore in almost every instance follows Breaking or CA-Mutation ; it is itself followed by no other change. The two chief cases, with selected examples, are : (a) wio usually > wu (and even u), but both tvi and uno sometimes remain : — wudu (wood), rarely wiodu ; wuduwe (widow), beside widuwe ; wuht (wight, thing), beside wiht ; swutol (clear), beside swiotol ; bet{w)uh, bet(w)ux (betwixt), beside hetwih, hetweoh, etc. (b) weo usually remained, but also > wo and in LWS. wu : — worold (world) < weorold ; worlSig (street) < weor^ig ; swostor (sister), LWS. swustor, < sweostor ; LWS. swurd (sword) < sweord. Note. Apparently isolated instances of woauw > eaw, seen injeawe, few. (6) ew>euw>eow, seen in the inflected forms of ^eo(w), servant, cneo(w), knee, treo{w), tree, e.g. gen. sg. 'Clowes, cneowes. Notes. (1) The eo of the nom. sg. is due to vocalisation of the w and contraction, w being afterwards borrowed from the oblique cases. (2) Gesewen, pp. of seon (see), is an exception. (c) Following /-Mutation, gw > emv > eow, seen in meowle (maid), streowede 0= strewede (strewed), etc. X, INFLUENCE OF FOLLOWING NASAL. 148. The influence of a following nasal, already seen in Germanic (§ 98, N. 1, 2), produced in the prehistoric OE. period the five following well marked changes : Germ. OE. (i) a > «2 (ii) e > i (iii) > u (iv) se > 5 (V) a > This is one of the earliest of the OE. influences, being perhaps synchronous with Breaking. It can be followed by Pal. Diph., Loss-iV^, and /-Mutation, and even by the last two in succession in the same word (e.g. ges). §§ 149 — 152 SOUND-LAWS. 137 149. (i) a > ^. Examples : — mQn(n), man ; Ignd, land ; Ignff, long; and the "past-present" verbs, Qn(n), grant; CQn{n), know (how to) ; (ge)mgn, remember. Notes. (1) OE. had no distinctive symbol for the sound of open o, and therefore used both a and o to denote this sound, more often o in EWS. This very fluctuation of symbol points to a sound different from both a and 0. It must not be supposed that the sound varied with the symbol, which often fluctuated in the same text. (2) In a few weak-stressed words, such as on, in ; the masc. accus. ^one, hwone, the neuter instr. tSore, hwon, from se, hwa; the advs. 'Sonne, then, hwonne, when, etc., o is almost invariably found, and we may therefore conclude that the sound was o, not g. 150. (ii) e > i, seen in niman, take ; and in early borrow- ings from Latin, e.g. gim{m), gem ; pinsian, consider. Notes. (1) Examples are few, chiefly because e>i in Germanic before nasal plus consonant (§ 98, N. 1) ; partly because of the exceptions, cwene, woman, denu, valley, and the late or "learned" borrowing temp{e)l, temple. (2) The history of cuman (to come) is probably this : *cweman>*cwiman {Inti.-N)>*cwuman (TF-Infi.)> cuman. 151. (iii) O > U. Exs. : (ge)cumen, genumen, pps. of cuman, come, niman, take; wunian, dwell; and the early borrowings from Latin : mumoc, monk ; nunne, nun ; munt, mount ; pund, pound; etc. Not in fgnt, font, which is therefore probably late. 152. (iv) Germ, se > W. Germ, a > OE. o. Exs. : — c(w)dmon, nomon, past pis. of cuman, niman; gedon, pp. of don, do ; m3na, moon ; monaS, month ; sona, soon ; etc. (v) (W.) Germ, a (§ 98, N. 3)> OE. 5. Exs. :— fon, seize brohte, brought oht, persecution hon, hang (§ 81) Sohte, thought (§ 90) woh, crooked Note. It may be wondered how this last change comes under In&.-N. The very fact that this a underwent the same change to 5 as the a in (iv) above, proves that this a, had a certain nasal quality surviving from the following n lost in the Germanic period, which justifies its classification under Nasal Influence. 138 PHONOLOGY. §§ 153, 154 XL COMPENSATORY LENGTHENING FOR LOSS OF NASAL. 153. Just as in. Germanic every a^ i, u, occurring before nh, > a, l, u in compensation for the loss of the n ; so in the prehistoric OE. period, (as >) p > o, i > i, and u>u in compensation for the loss of Ji or m before the three other voiceless spirants, /, s, S. This change may be preceded by Infl.-iV (in the change a> q), and is frequently followed by 7-Mutation (^ 128, 130). Classified examples are : (a) i > 1 : — si5, journey ; smS, strong ; /if ( o : — gos, goose ; tdS, tooth ; oSer, second ; sSS, true ; smSSe, smoothly ; sqfte (< sgrn/te), softly. (c) U > u : — hiisl, 'housel ' ; nvSS, mouth ; us, us ; cvSe, cviS, iSSe, parts of the " past-present " verbs cunnan (know), unnan (grant). Note. N is lost in all the above words but flf and sqfte. XII. CONTRACTION. 154. Contraction is the blending of two following vowel- sounds into one in order to avoid hiatus. The two sounds have in most instances been brought together through the loss of a consonant, usually h, sometimes j or w, rarely another consonant ; but there are many instances in which no consonant has been lost. There are two kinds of Contraction. Contraction proper, in which original a, a, e, i, or i forms a diphthong with the following vowel, and which is almost always preceded by the loss of a consonant ; and Absorption, in which a long vowel, OE. a, se, o, u, y, ea, eo, simply absorbs the following unstressed vowel, and which is often not preceded by the loss of a consonant. Contraction proper is rarely followed by /-Mutation ; no other change precedes or follows it. Absorption is much later in date, and can follow Breaking and /-Mutation, §§ 155 — 157 SOUND-LAWS. 13.9 The following are the most important cases : (i) a, a (+ h, w) + guttural vowel > ea (ii) e (+ h) + „ „ > eo (iii) i, I (+ h. j) + „ „ > io (eo) (iv) i (+ j) + e > ie (v) Absorptions. 155. (i) W. Germ, a, a + guttural vowel > ea after loss of h or w. Examples : — the contracted verbs of the " Fare " class : slean (< *slahan), slay ; flean, flay ; lean, blame ; 'Swean, wash ; and all present forms of the same, except 2nd and 3rd sing, indie, and 2nd sing, imperat. : slea, (I) slay, etc. ; tear (< *tahur), tear ; ea (< *ah{w)u), water ; clea < cldum, claw ; near (< *ndhor), nearer. 156. (ii) e + guttural vowel >eo after loss of h. Ex- amples : — the contracted verbs of the " Tread " class : gefeon (<* -fehari), rejoice ; ^Zeora, adventure; seon {<*seh{iv)an), see; gefeo, (I) rejoice, etc.; past tenses in eo of the Reduplicating class, resulting from the contraction of the e of the reduplicated syllable with the following stressed vowel : heold (< *hehald), heoldon, held ; feold (< *fefald), folded, etc. ; tweo (< Hweho), doubt ; fedSa (< HehdSa), tenth. 157. (iii) i, I + guttural vowel > lo, eo after loss of h or j, or without loss of consonant. Examples : — the contracted verbs of the " Shine " class : 'Sion (< *iSlhan), thrive ; lean, lend ; teon, accuse; vrrlon, cover; 6eo, (I) thrive, etc. ; heot (<*bihdt), boast; hetweonum (< *bitwhhunum), between ; flond (< *fijand), enemy ; freond, friend ; hlo (< hi- + u), she ; seo, fem. of se, that. Note. The mutation of this lo {eo) is seen in the dat. sing, and nom. -^X. fiend, friend. (iv) i + e>-ie after loss of / Examples : sle (< *sije), be ; hw, her, they ; 'Srie, three. 140 PHONOLOGY. § 158 158. Absorptions. Selected examples are arranged under the absorbing vowels : (a) a + vowel > a : — id (< tcthe), toe ; ra, roe ; gan (< gaan), go- (b) ae + vowel > Je : — sMs (< *seees), gen. of sx, sea ; M (< *iee), oblique sing, of B, law. (o) o + vowel > o : — the contracted verbs of the Reduplicat- ing class : Jon (< *Johan), seize ; hon, hang ; and all present forms of the same, except 2nd and 3rd sing, indie, and 2nd sing, imperat. : fo, (I) seize, etc. ; don (< *doan), do ; wos (< *wohes), gen. of woh, crooked. (d) u + vowel sometimes > u : — gehun (< gehuen), gebud (< *ge- hued), pp. of buan, bugean, dwell. (e) y + vowel sometimes > y : — drys (< *dryes), gen. of dry, magician ; but pi. dryas, etc. (/) e& + VOVre\>eB,:—frea{-<*frauja), lord; several in- flected forms of heah, high : heas (< *heahes), etc. (§ 46) ; its weak form, hea, etc. ; fia { eo : — the contracted verbs of the "Creep" class : Jleon (< *fleuhan), flee ; teon, draw ; fleo, (I) flee ; fleonde, fleeing, etc. Notes. (1) It seems better to attribute such forms as eos, gen. of eoh, horse, feos, gen. of feoh, money, to Compensatory Lengthening for Loss of h plus Absorption, than to simple Contraction, i.e. eos <*eoes <* eohes rather than eos <* eoi^es ; because on the latter supposition Contraction must have followed Breaking, which seems improbable ; whereas Absorption is a much later change, as has been stated. (2) Unstressed e is lost in be and ne in composition with words beginning with a vowel or w. — butarKbe-utan, ndn^ne an, nais < '^ ^^"^"^'h ' I *treu > treo, tree ; but it is apt to be restored from the oblique cases : treow. (b) After a long vowel it remains in some words, disappears in others : sx, sea ; hrd, corpse ; snaw, snow ; but here again it is often restored from the inflected forms : hrdw. (c) After consonants w> u: beam, grove ; which was lost, according to the usual rule (§ 9), after a long syllable : rased, meaidow. Besides the loss in Contraction, medial w disappears in a number of words, of which the following will serve as examples : negative forms of wesan (be), vntam, (know), vnllan (will) : nses, etc. ; tu, neut. of twegen, two ; betux cc betmtx, between ; gierede, past of gierwan, prepare. 150 PHONOLOGY. §§ 166-168 II. ASSIMILATION. 166. The following cases are worthy of note : (a) d>t before and after a voiceless consonant : in the 2nd and 3rd sing, indie, of verbs, and in the past tenses of weak verbs of Class I. (§§ 69, 88) ; and in blefsian, bless (cp. blod), etc. (b) S > < in the 2nd (rldest < rideg6 < rides Sm) and 3rd sing, pres. indie. (§ 69); in ^xtte {<'Sxt ?5e), that (conj.); ea5mettu, humility ; gieineUest, neglect, etc. (c) Ss > ss in bliss, joy, liss, grace ; cp. 6ZiS«, joyous, ll^e, gentle, (c^) sr > ss in Isessa, compar. of lytel, little ; Sisse, 'Sissa, in the declension of Ses, this. III. METATHESIS. 167. The only metathesis that need be mentioned here is that of r, which is somewhat frequent, especially before nn and covered s: burna {< *brunna), spring; bsernan (<*brannjan}, burn (trans.) ; bi{e)rnan (< *brinnan), burn (intrans.) ; i{e)rnan (< rinnan), run ; berstan (< *brestan), burst ; 'Serscan (< *irescan), thresh; hors (<*hross), horse; gxrs {<*gras), grass, etc. IV. GEMINATION. 168. The W. Germanic gemination before ^ has been referred to in the Accidence. After a short vowel every consonant, except r, was doubled before j ; subsequently this _; mutated the root vowel, and then dropped. Hence such forms as those of the " weak presents " (§ 80) of Classes V. and VI., and many other words : hgbban, raise hliehhan, laugh scieppan, create r§ccan, relate tgUan, tell cnyssan, thricst hrgddan, rescue frgmman, perform sgttan, set bycgan, buy dyn(n), din scgSSan, injure hrycg, back w§nnan, accustom 169 CONSONANTS. 151 V. VERNER'S LAW. 169. An interchange of consonants is seen in the parts of all contracted strong verbs and of some other strong verbs, the explanation of which must be sought in the Germanic period. Primitive Germanic yj h, Y, s ( ■«, g, S', z. In Late Germanic, as in OE., the principal accent fell on the root-syllable; but in the Primitive Germanic period the accent might fall on any syllable. This fact is illustrated in the strong verbs, in which the present forms and the past sing, indie, had the principal accent on the root-sj'llable, whereas all the other past forms had the principal accent on the ending. Therefore the present and the past sing, of strong verbs retained the voiceless spirants s, ]> ', h, f (= OE. s, 3, /j, /), which in all the other past forms became z, S\ g,v (= OE. r, d, g, f). This law was discovered and formulated by Karl Verner of Copenhagen in 1875, and has never been questioned since. Its operation is often referred to by the ambiguous term " grammatical change." OE. has not separate symbols for the sounds of f and v, and therefore the changes that are explained by Verner's Law can only be seen in the interchange of the following pairs of con- sonants : ia) S (6) 8 (c) h (d) h(w) r d g (g)w or g(w) The verbs that come under this law and those in which the law fails have been indicated in the Accidence ; therefore only a few examples are needed here. 1 Here J> and S are used with their proper phonetic value, J> voiceless ( = th) and « voiced (=dli). 152 PHONOLOGY. § 169 (a) s : r Class II (" Creep ") : ceosan, choose ceas curon coren „ V ("Tread"): wesan, 6e wses wseron In genesan, to survive, the law fails, but is seen in the derivative verb generian, to save. (6) 8 : d Class I (" Shine ") : sniSan, cut snatS snidon sniden Cp. snide, cutting. Class V (" Tread ") : cweSan, say cwseS cwjedon cweden Cp. cwide, speech. (c) h : g All strong contracted verbs (§81) belong here, except seen, see ; but those of Classes VI. and VII. were apt to borrow the g of the past pi. in the past sing. Class VI (" Fare") : Aean, strike slog slogon slsegen Cp. sl§ge, stroke, and slaga, slayer. And the " weak present " of the same class : hliehhan, laugh hlog hlogon (d) h(w) : (g)w or g(w) sewen ssegon segen Class V ("Tread") : seon, see seah \ _ I sses Note. Final g often > h after a, o, and sometimes after I or r, but this has nothing to do with Verner's Law. Thus slog > sloh ; stag > stah (ascended) ; hurg > hurh (stronghold). APPENDIX. I. FORMATION OF ADVERBS. 170. Adverbs formed from Adjectives usually end in -e and are identical with the instrumental sing, of the adj. : adj. adv. adj. adv. deop deope, deeply bllSe bllSe, blithely iQDg longe, long, far cl»ne cl»ne, clean swIS swiSe, strongly, very deoplio deoplice, deeply wid wide, widely glsedllc glsedlice, gladly nearu nearwe, narrowly heardllc heardlice, severely hlutor hlutre, brightly soSllc soSllce, tndy Notes. (1) In the last four examples, the simple adjs., deop, glxd, heard, sofS, are also foimd. Hence -lice came to be regarded as an adverbial termination, was added to adjs. that had not forms in -lie, and finally, in the Middle English period, supplemented the less distinct adverbial ending -e. Exs. : bliSe bliaelioe, joyously rot rotllce, gladly sweotol sweotoUlce, clearly (2) Three adjs., which are i- or ^-stems, have therefore mutated vowels, whereas the advs. keep the original vowel : sefte softe, softly smeSe smoSe, smoothly swete swote, sweetly 154 APPENDIX. §§ 171, 172 171. The oblique cases of adjs. and nouns are used adverbially. (1) Accusative (neut. of adj.) : eall, entirely ealne weg, always full, fully 8a bwlle (Se), while genog, enough norS, north lyt(el), little norjfweard, northwa/rds hwon, somewhat upweard, upwards (2) Genitive: ealles, altogether dseges, hy day nealles, not at all nihtes, hy night hamweardes, homewards niedes, needs norSweardes, northwards Sgnces, willingly ungewealdes, involuntarily and even compounded with a preposition : to-middes, in the midst (3) Dative (Instr.), sing, and pi. : elne, courageously hwllum, sometimes facne, excessively bwlltldum, sometimes hwene, somewhat wundrum, wondrous{ly) miolum, very floccmEelum, in troops styccemselum, piecemeal, here and there YJ2. Other adverbial terminations are -a and -unga (-inga) : geara, of yore anunga, once for all sona, soon eallunga, altogether tela, well ierringa, angrily tuwa, tioice grundlunga, from the foundations Sriwa, thrice 173 i, 174 PREFIXES. ] 3. The chief adverbs of place are : Best Motion towards Motion from her, here hider heonan hwffir, where ? hwider hwonan Sier, there aider SQnan inne, innan, within in(n) innan ute, utan, outside ut utan uppe, uppan, up, above up iifan, above ufan neotSan, beneath niSer neoSan foran, fore, 6e/ore forts hindan, behind hinder hindan feoiT(an), /ar, afar feor(r) feorran neah, ?i«ar nean nor8, north norSan suS, south suSan east, east eastan west, west westan 155 II. PREFIXES. 174. The following are the principal OE. prefixes, with selected examples. a-: (1) unstressed form of or-, away, and then merely intensive: afaran, to depart ; drisan, to arise ; dbeodan, to order. (2) weakened from on- : aweg, away. (3) shortened from dwa, ever, 'any-': dhwxr, anywhere, every- where (§ 62). ffi-, a privative prefix, ' without ' : xmod, discouraged ; Mswind, idle. af , rare stressed form of of-, ' off, from ' : xfweard, absent ; eeffSgnc, grudge. aefter-, ' after ' : sefterboren, posthumous ; sefterfylgend, follower. alg- (<*agi-), 'every-' : xghwxr, everywhere (§ 62). jet-, ' at, from ' : xtvntan, to twit ; xtsgmne, together ; xtniman, to take away. 156 APPENDIX. § 174< be-, unstressed form of bl-, ' by, about ' : (a) specialises the meanings of transitive verbs : bes^ttan, to beset; besecan, to beseech. (6) makes intrans. verbs transitive : bescman, to illuminate ; bendan, to encompass. (c) privative : bedselan, bellman, benseman, beniman, bescierian, besnyiSian, to deprive of. (d) without assignable force : bebeodan, to command ; bescufan, to shove. bi-, ' by ' (see be-) ; bUeofa, sustenance ; bupell, example. ed-, ' re- ' : edUan, reward ; edniwian, to renew. for-: (1) earlier unstressed form fer-, distinct from prep, for; denotes loss, destruction ; intensifies ; deteriorates ; negatives : fordon, to destroy forgiefan, to forgive forweorSan, to perish forbseman, to burn up forwyrd, destruction fretan (<*for-etan), to devour forspillan, to destroy forseon, to despise forgan, to forgo forswerian, to swear falsely forgietan, to forget forbSodan, to forbid (2) = the prep, for : forstqndan, to defend ; forfaran, forridan, to intercept. fore-, 'fore-': forecweSan, to foretell; foreSqnc, forethought; fore- msere, very great. ge-: (a) originally = together (L. cum), as in gefere, company; gefegan, to fit together (§ 62). (6) makes intrans. verbs transitive, often with the added notion of attainment, gain, success : gewinnan, to win, cp. winnan, to fight ; gesernan, to gain by galloping, op. sernan, to gallop ; geascian, to learn by asking, hear of. (c) initial inflection of past participles : gebiden, geLocod. (d) very often without assignable meaning : gebeodan, to order ; gebedhus, chapel. in-, ' in ' : inggng, ingress ; infyrdian, to invade. mid-^ 'with' : midun/rhta, cooperator. 1 Mid- frequently = ' mid-,' as in midniht, but can then hardly be regarded as a mere prefix. § 174 PREFIXES. 157 mis-, ' mis- ' : misUmpan, to go wrong ; misdeed, misdeed. n-, negative prefix : nis, is not ; nan, none. of-, unstressed form of «/-, which it almost entirely displaced : (a) originally = off : of spring, offspring; ofasUan, to smite off; ofteon, to withhold. (6) intensive : ofstingan, to stab to death ; oftorfian, to stone to death. (c) makes intrans. verbs trans., often specialising the meaning: ofsittan, to oppress offeallan, to fall upon offaran, to overtake ofSyncan, to displease. ofer-: (a) = over: oferstigan, to surmount; ofersvn^an, to over- power ; oferspraece, loquacious. (6) with negative force : ofergietan, to forget ; oferdttan, to abstain from. on (an)- ; (1) unstressed form of gnd-, denotes reversal, change : onlucan, to unlock onwindan, to unwind onhlldan, ontynan, to open onwgndan, to change, upset (2)= the prep, 'on': onwinnan, to assail onliehtan, to illuminate onsittan, to occupy onslsepan, to fall asleep onffilan, to ignite ongean, against. (3) often without assignable meaning : onginnan, to begin. gnd (and)-, stressed form of o» (Greek dj/ri), back : qndwyrde, answer. or-, stressed form of a- (1); see § 104 N. o8-, 'away'; offeallan, to fall off; o^healdan, to keep back. som (sam)-, ' together ' : sgmwist, a living together. som (sam)-, 'half: sommls, stupid; somworht, half- made. to-: (1) = earlier te-, L. dis-, ' asunder ' ; tobregdan, toslUan, to tear to pieces ; tofaran, toferan, to disperse. (2) =