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Lecture 4. Old English morphology

1. Grammatical categories of the Old English noun

2. The morphological classification of OE nouns into declensions
3. The Pronoun. Personal, demonstrative, interrogative and indefinite pronouns
4. The Adjective and its grammatical categories. Degrees of comparison of the adjective
5. The Verb in Old English. Morphological classes of verbs

The morphology of the OE language is quite different from that of Modern English,
predominantly by being much more highly inflected. As an old Germanic language, the
morphological system of Old English is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic
reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections theorized to have been common in Proto-
Indo-European.
Among living languages, Old English morphology most closely resembles that of
modern Icelandic, which is among the most conservative of the Germanic languages; to a
lesser extent, the Old English inflectional system is similar to that of modern High German.
The Old English language was a synthetic language which means that all the principal
grammatical notions were expressed by a change of the form of the word.
The grammatical means that the Old English language used were primarily a)
grammatical endings, b) vowel gradation, c) grammatical prefixes and suffixes d) use of
suppletive forms. There were no analytical formations.
The parts of speech to be distinguished in OE are as follows: the noun, the pronoun, the
adjective, the numeral (all referred to as nominal parts of speech), the verb, the adverb, the
preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.

1. Grammatical Categories of the Old English Noun

In Modern English, nouns have only a few inflections. The plural is usually made by
adding -s, (-es) and a possessive is made by adding -'s. These inflections come to us from Old
English. But Old English had many more inflections than Modern English has. Nouns in Old
English had the categories of number, gender and case.
Number. This is the easiest inflectional category, since we still inflect nouns for plurality.
But Old English had both singular and plural endings, and these varied depending on a word's
gender, case and declension.
Gender. Every noun was masculine, feminine or neuter. Often the gender of Old English
nouns is quite illogical, because it is not dependent upon considerations of sex. Words like
moegden (girl), wīf (wife), and cild (child), which we should expect to be feminine or
masculine, are in fact neuter, while wīfmann (woman) is masculine because the second element
of the compound is masculine. The simplicity of Modern English gender is seen as one of the
chief assets of the language. Gender in Modern English is determined by meaning. All nouns
naming living creatures are masculine or feminine according to the sex of the individual, and all
other nouns are neuter. English differs from all other major European languages in having
adopted natural (rather than grammatical) gender.
Case. Old English had four cases: nominative, genitive dative and accusative. The
endings of these cases varied with different nouns. The Modern English possessive is
descended from the Old English masculine/neuter genitive, but unlike OE nouns Modern
English nouns are not marked for case, which expresses a noun's function in the sentence.
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2. The Morphological Classification of OE Nouns into Declensions

OE nouns fall into declensions with respect to the stem-forming suffixes they had in the
Germanic period. This classification is historical because those suffixes are hardly visible in the
OE noun.
The OE nouns are grouped into three main declensions: vowel (or strong), consonant (or
weak), and root.
The vowel (strong) declension includes the nouns with a vowel in the stem; the nouns of
the consonant (weak) declension have consonants in the stem, while the nouns of the root
declension are characterized by the gradation of the root vowel.
2.1. Strong or vowel declension. It has certain subdivisions according to the stem-
forming vocalic suffix. The stems of nouns belonging to the vowel declension ended in one of
four vowels in Proto-Germanic (although these have disappeared in Old English): a, ō, i, or u,
and the inflection varies accordingly.
The peculiarities of the nouns of the vowel declension can be demonstrated by the
declension of a-stem nouns. This type of declension consists of the masculine and the neuter
genders of Old English nouns.
An example is a masculine a-stem noun stān (stone). Forms are given for the four cases,
nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative in singular and plural:
Singular Plural
Nom. stān (stone) stān-as
Gen. stān-es stān-a
Dat. stān-e stān-um
Acc. stān stān-as
The a-stem nouns of the neuter gender had the following paradigm:
short-stemmed long-stemmed
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom. scip (ship) scipu dēor (dear) dēor
Gen. scipes scipa dēores dēora
Dat. scipe scipum dēore deorum
Acc. scip scipu dēor dēor

The nouns of the vowel declension had the following peculiarities:

1. The nominative and accusative cases coincided which later facilitated the formation
of the common case.
2. OE masculine and neuter nouns possessed the same endings in the singular which
later led to their merging. Though their endings in the Nominative and the Accusative
plural (of short-stemmed neuter vowels) were different, i.e. -as for the masculine and
-u for the neuter.
3. Long-stemmed neuter nouns had homonymous singular and plural forms of Nom. and
Acc. Cases: dēor – dēor, likewise scēap – scēap (sheep). Traces of this group of a-
stems have survived as irregular plural forms in Modern English: sheep, deer, swine.

2.2. Weak or consonant declension. This class of nouns consists of a rather numerous
group of nouns originally having -n-stems. N-stem nouns may be of all three genders. But
actually no difference in declension of nouns of different genders can be found.
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m n f
Singular Plural
Nom. nama (name) ēare (ear) tun3e (tongue) Nom. naman ēaran tun3an
Gen. naman ēaran tun3an Gen. namena ēarena tun3ena
Dat. naman ēaran tun3an Dat. namum ēarum tun3um
Acc. naman ēaran tun3an Acc. naman ēaran tun3an

The endings in the nouns of the consonant declension coincided in many cases which
resulted in their little distinctive force. Therefore this declension is called weak.
Among the other consonant stems we should menthion -r-stems, -s-stems, -nd-stems.
Though they are less numerous and less significant for the development of the present-day
nominal system.

2.3. Root-stem declension. Nouns belonging to this stem never had a stem suffix. They
had a mutated root vowel (or the interchange of root-vowels).
In Early OE the root-vowel in some forms (in the dative case singular and in the
nominative and accusative cases plural) was subjected to phonetic changes: if the grammatical
ending contained the sound [i], the vowel was fronted or narrowed by palatal mutation. After
the ending was dropped the mutated vowel turned out to be the only marker of the form. This
declension is exemplified by the OE noun mann:

Singular Plural
Nom. mann menn
Gen. mannes manna
Dat. menn mannum
Acc mann menn

The group was not numerous, but the words belonging to it were characterised by high
frequency of use (e.g. mann (man), wimman (woman), tōð (tooth), fōt (foot). This peculiarity of
the root-stems is of considerable consequence for later history and has left traces in Modern
English (irregular plural forms – men, women, teeth and the like come from the OE root-stem
declension).

It is apparent from these examples that the inflection of the noun was much more
elaborate in Old English than it is today. Even these few paradigms illustrate clearly the marked
synthetic character of English in its earliest stage.

3. The Pronoun
There are several types of pronouns in Old English: personal, demonstrative,
interrogative and indefinite. As for the other groups – relative, possessive and reflexive – they
were not fully developed and separated from the four main classes.
3.1. Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns constitute a system of words replacing nouns, that’s why they are also
called noun-pronouns. In OE they had three persons (the first, the second and the third), three
numbers (singular, plural, dual for the 1st and 2nd persons), three genders (masculine, feminine,
neuter), four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative).
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Old English shows the tendency in preserving in addition to the ordinary two numbers,
singular and plural, a set of forms for two people or two things — the dual number. Indo-
European had separate forms for the dual number in the verb as well, and these appear in Greek
and to a certain extent in Gothic. They are not found, however, in Old English, and the
distinction between the dual and the plural was disappearing even from the pronoun in Old
English. The dual forms are shown, however, in the following table of the Old English personal
pronoun:
Singular
st nd
1 person 2 person 3rd person
masculine feminine neuter
N. ic ðū hē (he) hēo, hīo (she) hit (it)
G. mīn ðīn his hire, hiere his
D. mē ðē him hire, hiere him
A. mē (mec) ðē (ðec) hine hīe, hī, hy hit
Dual
st nd
1 person 2 person
N. wit (we two) зit (ye two)
G. uncer incer
D. unc inc
A. unc, uncit inc, incit
Plural
st nd
1 person 2 person 3rd person
N. wē зē hīe
G. ūser, ūre ēower hiera
D. ūs ēow him
A. ūs, ūsic ēow, ēowic hīe
The genitive case of personal pronouns had two main applications: it could be an object,
but far more frequently it was used as an attribute or a noun determiner, like a possessive
pronoun. The pronouns of the 1st and 2nd persons were declined like adjectives to show
agreement with the nouns they modified; the 3rd person pronouns were not declined.
Personal pronouns in combination with self could also serve as reflexive pronouns, e.g.
swā ðū self talast (as you yourself say).
3.2. Demonstrative pronouns
There were two demonstrative pronouns in OE: sē (that) and ðes (this). They had tree
genders, two numbers, and five cases in the singular and four in the plural. They agreed in
number, gender and case with the nouns they modified.
Singular Plural (for all persons)
masculine neuter feminine
Nom. sē ðæt sēo ðā
Gen. ðæs ðæs ðære ðāra, ðære
Dat. ðæm ðæm ðære ðæm, ðam,
Acc. ðone ðæt ða ða
Instr. ðy, ðon ðy, ðon –––– ––––

Demonstrative pronouns are especially important for the development of the language
because they were frequently used as noun determiners and through agreement with the noun
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they indicated its number, gender and case. The forms of the pronouns may help to define the
forms of the nouns in ambiguous instances, e.g. the form of the noun sunu – suna might render
the meanings of the genitive, dative and accusative in the singular and nominative, genitive and
accusative in the plural; if it is modified by a demonstrative pronoun, almost no ambiguity
arose: ðæs suna (gen.); ðæm suna (dat.); ðone suna (accus.) – sing.; ðā suna (nom., accus.);
ðāra suna (gen.) – pl.

3.3. Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns are noun-pronouns hwā and hwæt and adjective pronoun hwilc
had the category of case, but did not change in number.
3.4. Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns sum (some) and ǽniз (any) are declined as strong adjectives.

4. The Adjective
The OE adjective agreed with the noun it modified in number, gender and case.
Consequently, the adjectives had the same categories as the nouns did.
The adjective in OE had the following categories:
 number – the singular and the plural;
 gender – masculine, neuter, and feminine;
 case – 4/5 (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and partly instrumental)).
Besides, the adjectives in Old English (and the other Germanic languages as well) have
two rather different declensions, depending on the context in which we find them.
An adjective will have the endings of the strong declension (so called because the
number of "strong" endings is relatively large) when no pronoun or possessive adjective
precedes it. It will have the endings of the weak declension (so called because the number of
"weak" endings is relativelly small) when it is preceded by a pronoun or possessive adjective.
For example, here are two paradigms for the adjective gōd "good" with the feminine noun cwen
"queen." First the strong:
singular plural
nominative gōd cwen gōde cwena
accusative gōde cwene gōde cwena
genitive gōdre cwene gōdra cwena
dative gōdre cwene gōdum cwenum
And now the weak:
singular plural
nominative seo gōde cwen þa gōdan cwena
accusative þa gōdan cwene þa gōdan cwena
genitive þære gōdan cwene þara gōdra cwena
dative þære gōdan cwene þam gōdum cwenum

4.1. Degrees of Comparison of the Adjective

Qualitative adjectives had degrees of comparison (positive, comparative, and
superlative).
The degrees of comparison were expressed, the same as all other grammatical notions,
synthetically, namely:
a) by means of suffixation:
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heard — heardra — heardost (hard)
b) by means of vowel gradation plus suffixation:
eald — ieldra — ieldest (old)
c) by means of suppletive forms:
3ōd — bettra — betst (good),
the first means being unquestionably the most common.
Both suffixation and the use of suppletive forms in the formation of the degrees of
comparison are original means that can be traced back to Common Germanic. But the use of
vowel interchange is a feature which is typical of the English language only and was acquired
by the language in the prehistoric period of its development.
The origin of vowel gradation in the forms eald — ieldra — ieldest is a result of the
process of palatal mutation which the root-vowel ea underwent under the influence of the
original stem-forming suffix –i.
The remains of the mutated vowel now may be found only in two adjectives: old
(older/elder) and far (further/farther).

5. The Verb in Old English

5.1. Grammatical Categories of the Finite Verb
The verb in OE has the following categories: person, number, tense and mood. The
verb-predicate agreed with the subject of the sentence in two grammatical categories: number
and person. Its specifically verbal categories: mood and tense.
5.1.1. Person
There were three person forms in Old English: first, second and third. For example:
Present tense of the Indicative mood singular,
First person — Ic finde
Second person — þu fintst
Third person — hē, hēo, hit fint
But there were distinct person forms only in the Indicative mood, the Imperative and the
Subjunctive mood forms reflected no person differences and even the Indicative mood forms
changed for person only in the Singular, the plural forms were the same irrespective of person.
5.1.2. Number
The grammatical category of number was built up by the opposition of two number forms
— Singular and Plural.
Ic finde (singular)
wē findaþ (plural)
5.1.3. Tense
The grammatical category of tense was represented by two forms: Present tense and
Past tense, for example:
Present Past
Indicative Ic finde Ic fond
Subjunctive Ic finde Ic funde

There was no Future tense in Old English, future events were expressed with the help of
a present tense verb + an adverb denoting future time or by a combination of a modal verb
(generally sculan (shall) or willan (will) + an Infinitive, for example:
Wille ic āsec3an mærum þeodne min ærende
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(I want to tell the glorious prince my mission).
5.1.4. Mood
There were three mood forms in Old English: Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive,
for example:
Indicative Imperative Subjunctive
þu cepst сēр сēре
The Indicative Mood and the Imperative Mood were used in cases similar to those in
which they are used now. But the Subjunctive mood in Old English differed greatly from the
corresponding mood in New English. Subjunctive forms conveyed a very general meaning of
unreality or supposition. In addition to its use in conditional sentences and other volitional and
hypothetical contexts the Subjunctive mood was also sometimes used in contexts for which
now the Indicative mood would be more suitable — in clauses of time, result, purpose and
concession, to present events in the so-called "indirect speech", e.g. Hē sæde hē wære of Truso
(He said that he was from Truso).

5.2. Morphological classes of verbs

The verbs were divided into the following groups: strong, weak, preterite-present,
irregular.
Strong verbs indicate tense by an interchange of the root vowel, while weak verbs
indicate tense by adding a dental suffix.
Modern English irregular verbs resemble a much larger set of OE strong verbs, and
Modern English regular verbs are like OE weak verbs.

5.2.1. Strong verbs

Strong verbs use the form of conjugation known as vowel gradation or ablaut. In this
form of conjugation, the root vowel of a verb changes to indicate its basic grammatical forms.
Gradation in OE develops from common Indo-European gradation. Its essence is the use
of the gradation series consisting of a front vowel, back vowel and zero,
e—o—0
i—a—0
In Ukrainian, for instance, they use two grades of the series, e/zero to form the category
of tense:
Present tense Past tense
e — беру 0 — брав

However, in OE the vowel change in the root differ due to numerous phonetic changes in
Germanic languages and then in English, so the vowels may be quite different, but the principle
is the same. So in Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verbs; each class has
its own pattern of vowel changes according to the type of ablaut. The strong verbs had four
forms: 1) Infinitive, 2) Past singular, 3) Past plural, 4) Participle II.

infinitive past singular past plural past participle

Class 1 drīfan to drive drāf drifon drifen
Class 2 bēodan to offer bēad budon boden
Class 3 winnan to fight wann wunnon wunnen
Class 4 cuman to come com comon cumen
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Class 5 sprecan to speak spræc spræcon sprecen
Class 6 faran to go fōr fōron faren
Class 7 healdan to hold heold heoldon healden

As seen from the table the principal forms of all the strong verbs have the same endings
irrespective of class: -an for the Infinitive, no ending in the Past singular, -on in the form of
Past plural, -en for Participle II.

5.2.2. Weak verbs

The Old English weak verbs are relatively younger than the strong verbs. They reflect a
later stage in the development of Germanic languages.
The number of weak verbs in OE exceeded that of strong verbs. Moreover, the number
of weak verbs was constantly growing as new verbs that entered the language generally built
their forms by analogy with the weak verbs.
If the English strong verbs had four principal forms, the English weak verbs had three
principal forms: 1) Infinitive, 2) Past tense, 3) Participle II. Their Past tense and Participle II
were made by adding the dental suffix -t or –d.
The suffix was added to the stem in three ways which resulted into their division into
three classes:
1) in the verbs of the 1st class (ended in –an) the dental suffix was joined by a vowel –i/e
e.g. nerian – nerede – nered (to save)
2) in the verbs of the 2nd class the dental suffix was joined by a vowel –o,
e.g. hopian – hopode – hopod (to hope)
3) ) in the verbs of the 3d class the was no joining vowel because it had disappeared
e,g. habban – hæfde – hæfd
Preterite-present verbs occupy a specific place within the verbal system of OE verbs.
They combine the qualities of the strong verbs as well as weak verbs. Their present tense is
formed according to the rules of formation of the past tense of the strong verbs, that is by
gradation (vowel interchange) whereas their past tense has all the peculiarities of the weak
verbs, e.g. wītan – wāt, but wisse, wiste; participle II meanwhile retains the suffix –en of the
strong verbs. It is just this peculiarity that makes them preterite (in form) – present (in the
meaning).
Most of the preterite-present verbs did not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of
attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an infinitive which followed the preterite-present.
In other words, they were used like modal words, and eventually developed into modern modal
verbs. Six of modern modal verbs (can, may, must, ought to, shall and dare) go back to the OE
preterite-present verbs (cunnan, maЗan, mōt, āЗ, sculan, dear).
Irregular verbs. There are four verbs in OE listed as irregular bēon/wesan (be), 3an
(go), dōn (do) and willan (will).