Lectures History of English

1. The object of the History of English. History of English as a science.
Periods
of the English language history. Synchrony and diachrony. (1st lecture)
2. English phonetics diachronic approach. Word-stress. Vowels. Consonants. (2d,
3d lectures)
3. English morphology diachronic approach. Noun. Verb. Pronoun. Adjective.
Numerals. Adverb. (4th, 5th , 6th lectures)
4. Syntax diachronic approach. Structure of the sentence. Simple sentence.
Complex/compound sentence. (7th lecture)
5. The English language vocabulary. Dialects. Borrowings. Changes through
periods. (8th lecture)
6. Written records. The national literary language. (9th lecture) Individual work.
1. The object of the History of English. History of English as a science. Periods

of the English language history. Synchrony and diachrony. (1st lecture)
History of the English language is one of the fundamental courses forming the
linguistic background of the specialist in philology. It helps to understand the
changes and peculiarities of the modern language which seem unintelligible. These
peculiarities are found both in vocabulary and in phonetic and grammatical structure.
The first question which is baffling the students is how the English language
started. Practically all languages spoken on earth today can be traced by scholars
back to some common source, that is, an ancestor language which has many
descendants. Now there is a linguistic program working all over the world and
scientists try to prove this fact. They select the units of the languages which are
common or have something in common taking into account the changes in the
languages. Though the ancestor language—together with all the languages which
have developed from it—is called a “family” of languages. English is considered a
member of the Indo-European family of languages. Other languages belonging to the
same family are French, Italian, German, Norwegian, and Greek. In this Indo-
European family of languages there are various branches and English is a member of
the “West Teutonic” branch. Actually, English dates from about the middle of the
fifth century, when invaders from across the North Sea conquered the native Celts
and settled on the island now known as Great Britain. An Anglo-Saxon inscription
dated between 450 and 480AD is the oldest sample of the English language.
During the 7th and 8th Centuries, Northumbria's culture and language dominated
Britain. The Viking invasions of the 9th Century brought this domination to an end
(along with the destruction of Mercia). Only Wessex remained as an independent
kingdom. By the 10th Century, the West Saxon dialect became the official language
of Britain. Written Old English is mainly known from this period. It was written in an
alphabet called Runic, derived from the Scandinavian languages. The Latin Alphabet
was brought over from Ireland by Christian missionaries. This has remained the
writing system of English. So the original language spoken in English was Celtic. But
the Anglo Saxons (the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons) conquered the island so
thoroughly that very few Celtic words were kept in the new language. The Anglo-
Saxons themselves spoke several dialects. Later on, the Norsemen invaded England
and they introduced a Scandinavian element into the language. This influence, which
was a Germanic language, became a part of the language. In 1066, William the
Conqueror brought over still another influence to the language. He made Norman
French the language of his Court. At first, this “Norman” language was spoken only
by the upper classes. But gradually its influence spread and a language quite different
from the Anglo-Saxon developed. This language became the chief source of modern
English.
The second question arising in the course of studying of this subject is periodization.
For the sake of convenience, the history of the English language is divided into
three great periods: the old English (or Anglo-Saxon), from about 400 to 1100;
Middle English, from 1100 to 1500; and Modern English, from 1500 to the present
day.
There are also three periods mentioned by some scientists and they are Early
Old English, Early ME and Early NE. EOE lasts from the west Germanic invasion of
Britain till the beginning of writing, that is from the 5 th to the close of the 7th c. It was
the stage of tribal dialects. Which were used for oral communication, there being no
written form of English. The EME starts after the year of the Norman Conquest and
covers 12th, 13th and a half of 14th c. The local dialects were used mainly for oral
communications and were but little employed in writing. This period is also known as
Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French period. The ENE lasted from the introduction of
printing to the age of Shakespear.
All events outlining the EL History are invaders’ history. They are:
1) The Anglo-Saxon Settlement. Little is known of this period with any certainty,
but we do know that Germanic invaders came and settled in Britain from the north-
western coastline of continental Europe in the fifth and sixth centuries. The invaders
all spoke a language that was Germanic (related to what emerged as Dutch, Frisian,
German and the Scandinavian languages, and to Gothic), but we'll probably never
know how different their speech was from that of their continental neighbours.
However it is fairly certain that many of the settlers would have spoken in exactly the
same way as some of their north European neighbours, and that not all of the settlers
would have spoken in the same way.
The reason that we know so little about the linguistic situation in this period is
because we do not have much in the way of written records from any of the Germanic
languages of north-western Europe until several centuries later. When Old English
writings begin to appear in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries there is a good
deal of regional variation, but not substantially more than that found in later periods.
This was the language that Alfred the Great referred to as ‘English’ in the ninth
century.
The Celts were already resident in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, but
there are few obvious traces of their language in English today. Some scholars have
suggested that the Celtic tongue might have had an underlying influence on the
grammatical development of English, particularly in some parts of the country, but
this is highly speculative. The number of loanwords known for certain to have
entered Old English from this source is very small. Those that survive in modern
English include brock(badger), and coomb a type of valley, alongside many place
names.
2) The Scandinavian Settlements. The next invaders were the Norsemen. From
the middle of the ninth century large numbers of Norse invaders settled in Britain,
particularly in northern and eastern areas, and in the eleventh century the whole of
England had a Danish king, Canute. The distinct North Germanic speech of the
Norsemen had great influence on English, most obviously seen in the words that
English has borrowed from this source. These include some very basic words such
as take and even grammatical words such as they. The common Germanic base of the
two languages meant that there were still many similarities between Old English and
the language of the invaders. Some words, for example give, perhaps show a kind of
hybridization with some spellings going back to Old English and others being Norse
in origin. However, the resemblances between the two languages are so great that in
many cases it is impossible to be sure of the exact ancestry of a particular word or
spelling. However, much of the influence of Norse, including the vast majority of the
loanwords, does not appear in written English until after the next great historical and
cultural upheaval, the Norman Conquest.
3) The Norman Conquest. The centuries after the Norman Conquest witnessed
enormous changes in the English language. In the course of what is called the
Middle English period, the fairly rich inflectional system of Old English broke
down. It was replaced by what is broadly speaking, the same system English has
today, which unlike Old English makes very little use of distinctive word endings in
the grammar of the language. The vocabulary of English also changed enormously,
with tremendous numbers of borrowings from French and Latin, in addition to the
Scandinavian loanwords already mentioned, which were slowly starting to appear in
the written language. Old English, like German today, showed a tendency to find
native equivalents for foreign words and phrases (although both Old English and
modern German show plenty of loanwords), whereas Middle English acquired the
habit that modern English retains today of readily accommodating foreign words.
Trilingualism in English, French, and Latin was common in the worlds of business
and the professions, with words crossing over from one language to another with
ease. You only have to flick through the etymologies of any English dictionary to
get an impression of the huge number of words entering English from French and
Latin during the later medieval period. This trend was set to continue into the early
modern period with the explosion of interest in the writings of the ancient world.
4) Standardization. The late medieval and early modern periods saw a fairly steady
process of standardization in English south of the Scottish border. The written and
spoken language of London continued to evolve and gradually began to have a
greater influence in the country at large. For most of the Middle English period a
dialect was simply what was spoken in a particular area, which would normally be
more or less represented in writing - although where and from whom the writer had
learnt how to write were also important. It was only when the broadly London
standard began to dominate, especially through the new technology of printing, that
the other regional varieties of the language began to be seen as different in kind. As
the London standard became used more widely, especially in more formal contexts
and particularly amongst the more elevated members of society, the other regional
varieties came to be stigmatized, as lacking social prestige and indicating a lack of
education. In the same period a series of changes also occurred in English
pronunciation (though not uniformly in all dialects), which go under the collective
name of the Great Vowel Shift. These were purely linguistic ‘sound changes’ which
occur in every language in every period of history. The changes in pronunciation
weren’t the result of specific social or historical factors, but social and historical
factors would have helped to spread the results of the changes. As a result the so-
called ‘pure’ vowel sounds which still characterize many continental languages were
lost to English. The phonetic pairings of most long and short vowel sounds were also
lost, which gave rise to many of the oddities of English pronunciation, and which
now obscure the relationships between many English words and their foreign
counterparts.
5) Colonization and Globalization. During the medieval and early modern periods
the influence of English spread throughout the British Isles, and from the early
seventeenth century onwards its influence began to be felt throughout the world. The
complex processes of exploration, colonization and overseas trade that characterized
Britain’s external relations for several centuries led to significant change in English.
Words were absorbed from all over the world, often via the languages of other
trading and imperial nations such as Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. At the same
time, new varieties of English emerged, each with their own nuances of vocabulary
and grammar and their own distinct pronunciations. More recently still, English has
become a lingua franca, a global language, regularly used and understood by many
nations for whom English is not their first language. The eventual effects on the
English language of both of these developments can only be guessed at today, but
there can be little doubt that they will be as important as anything that has happened
to English in the past sixteen hundred years.
The last question for today but not the least is distinguishing two approaches.
These approaches are synchronic and diachronic. Synchronic approach studies
phenomena of a language comparing them with the same in other languages at a
particular period. A synchronic approach analyzes a particular something at a given,
fixed point in time. Diachronic approach studies the development of a phenomenon
through time and periods. A diachronic approach is one that analyzes the evolution of
something over time, allowing one to assess how that something changes throughout
history. Approach that we are using in a History of English is diachronic. All the
units, phenomena of the language we shall observe diachronically.
2. English phonetics diachronic approach. Word-stress. Vowels. Consonants.

Vowels(2d lecture)
No one knows exactly how Old English sounded, for no native speakers
survive to inform us. Rather, linguists have painstakingly reconstructed the
pronunciation of the language from various kinds of evidence: what we know of
Latin pronunciation (since the Anglo-Saxons adapted the Latin alphabet to write their
own language), comparisons with other Germanic languages and with later stages of
English, and the accentuation and quantity of syllables in Old English poetry. We
believe that such reconstruction of Old English pronunciation is reasonably accurate;
but some aspects of the subject remain controversial, and it is likely that we will
never attain certainty about them. The greatest Old English scholar in the world today
might very well have difficulty being understood on the streets of King Alfred's
Winchester.
Old English had six simple vowels, spelled a, æ, i, o, u and y, and probably a
seventh, spelled ie. It also had two diphthongs (two-part vowels), ea and eo. (1 slide)
Each of these sounds came in short and long versions. Long vowels are always
marked with macrons (e.g. ā) (1 slide) in modern editions for students, and also in
some scholarly editions. However, vowels are never so marked in Old English
manuscripts. When we speak of vowel length in Old English, we are speaking
of duration, that is, how long it takes to pronounce a vowel. This fact can trip up the
modern student, for when we speak of "length" in Modern English, we are actually
speaking of differences in the quality of a vowel. Vowel length (that is, duration) is
significant in Old English because it does make a difference in the meanings of
words. For example, Old English is means 'is' while īs means 'ice', (1 slide) ac means
'but' while āc means 'oak', and ġe means 'and' while ġē means 'you' (plural). The
significance of length means that the macrons that appear in the texts you will be
reading are not there only as guides to pronunciation, but also to help you decide
what words mean. If you absent-mindedly read mǣġ 'kinsman' as mæġ 'may', you will
never figure out the meaning of the sentence you are reading.
Do you want to know how it was agreed to pronounce the vowels? Let’s find it
in the table 1
vowel pronunciatio how it should sound OE examples
n
a [ɑ] as in Modern macian 'make', bāt 'boat'
English father
æ [æ] as in Modern Bæc 'back', rǣdan 'read'
English cat
e [e] as in Modern Helpan 'help', fēdan 'feed'
English help
i [i] as in Modern Sittan 'sit', līf 'life'
English feet
o [o] as in Modern God 'God', gōd 'good'
English boat
u [u] never as in Modern Full 'full', fūl 'foul'
pronounced English tool
like [ʌ]
y like the ü in Cyning 'king', brȳd 'bride'
German über or Füße
ie appears mainly in early West Saxon, is difficult to interpret.
Most Old English consonants are pronounced as in Modern English, and most of
the differences from Modern English are straightforward:
1. Old English scribes wrote the letters þ ("thorn") and ð ("eth") interchangeably
to represent [θ] and [ð], the sounds spelled th in Modern English.
Examples: þing 'thing', brōðor'brother'.
2. There are no silent consonants. Old English cniht (which comes to Modern
English as knight) actually begins with [k]. Similarly hlāf (Modern
English loaf) and hring (ring) begin with [h], gnæt (gnat) with [ɡ],
and wrīðan (writhe) with [w]. Some Old English consonant combinations may
be difficult to pronounce because they are not in Modern English. If you find
this to be so, just do your best.
3. The consonants spelled f, s and þ/ð are pronounced as voiced [v], [z] and [ð]
(as in then) when they fall between vowels or other voiced sounds. For
example, the f of heofon'heaven', hæfde 'had' and wulfas 'wolves' is voiced. So
are the s of ċēosan 'choose' and the ð of feðer 'feather'.
4. These same consonants were pronounced as unvoiced [f], [s], and [θ] (as
in thin) when they came at the beginning or end of a word or adjacent to at
least one unvoiced sound. So f is unvoiced in ful 'full', cræft 'craft'
and wulf 'wolf'. Similarly s is unvoiced in settan 'set', frost 'frost',
and wulfas 'wolves', and þ/ð is unvoiced in þæt 'that' and strengð'strength'.
5. When written double, consonants must be pronounced double, or held longer.
We pronounce consonants long in Modern English phrases like "big gun" and
"hat trick," though never within words. In Old English, wile 'he will' must be
distinguished from wille 'I will', and freme 'do' (imperative) from fremme 'I
do'.
6. This book sometimes prints c with a dot (ċ) and sometimes without.
Undotted c is pronounced [k]; dotted ċ is pronounced [ʧ], like the ch in Modern
English chin. This letter is never pronounced [s] in Old English. It has a special
function in the combination sc (see item 10 below).
7. The letter g, like c, is sometimes printed with a dot and sometimes without.
Dotless g is pronounced [ɡ], as in good, when it comes at the beginning of a
word or syllable. Between voiced sounds dotless g is pronounced [ɣ], a voiced
velar spirant. This sound became [w] in Middle English, so English no longer
has it. Dotted ġ is usually pronounced [j], as in Modern English yes, but when
it follows an n it is pronounced [ʤ], as in Modern English angel.
8. The combination cg is pronounced [ʤ], like the dge of Modern English sedge.
Examples: hrycg 'ridge, back', brycg 'bridge', ecg 'edge'.
9. Old English h is pronounced [h], as in Modern English, at the beginnings of
syllables, but elsewhere it is pronounced approximately like
German ch in Nacht or ich--that is, as a velar [x] or palatal [ç] unvoiced spirant
(pronounced with the tongue against the velum [soft palate] or, after front
vowels, against the hard palate).
Examples: nēah 'near', niht'night', þēah 'though', dweorh 'dwarf'.
10.The combination sc is usually pronounced [ʃ], like Modern
English sh: scip 'ship', æsc 'ash (wood)', wȳscan 'wish'. But within a word,
if sc occurs before a back vowel (a, o, u), or if it occurs after a back vowel at
the end of a word, it is pronounced [sk]: ascian 'ask' (where sc was formerly
followed by a back vowel), tūsc 'tusk'. When sc was pronounced [sk] it
sometimes underwent metathesis (the sounds got reversed to [ks]) and was
written x: axian for ascian, tux for tusc. Sometimes sc is pronounced [ʃ] in one
form of a word and [sk] or [ks] in another: fisc 'fish', fiscas/fixas 'fishes'.
The system of writing in OE was changed with the introduction of Christianity.
Before that the English used the runes . Then Roman Alphabet was used. There were
23 letters. Interesting fact is æ, ð (developed from the rune), Ʒ pronounced like [g]
and [j]. The stress in OE was dynamic, and shifted to the first syllable.
Through history V-s displayed a strong tendency to change. They underwent different
kinds of alterations: qualitative and quantitative, dependent and independent.
Qualitative changes affect the quality of the sound, e.g. [o>a], quantitative changes
make long sounds short or visa versa, e.g. [i>i:] (2 slide); dependent changes are
restricted to certain positions or phonetic conditions, for instance a sound may change
under the influence of the neighboring sounds; independent changes take place
irrespective of phonetic conditions, they affect a certain sound in all positions.
The system of vowels in OE included 7 long[ā ǣ ē ī ō ū ȳ] and 8 short vowels
[a æ e i o u y å] (monophthongs); and 4 short [ea eo ie io] and 4 long [ēa ēo īe īo]
difthongs.
Various changes in the OE phonology can be called spontaneous, independent
and assimilative, influenced by surrounding sounds.
Spontaneous, independent changes are: Gothic ai corresponds to ā; āū to ēa; īu
to ēo (example, dāūð – dēað (dead)). These changes occurred irrespective of
whatever sounds surrounded the sounds in question.
Assimilative changes occurred in specific surroundings. Incidentally many of
the sounds that appeared in the language as the result of these changes returned to
their previous quality in the next period. These changes are:
1) Breaking (fracture) – processs of formation of a short diphthong from a
simple short vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster.
e →eo, a→ea, æ→ea

(ahta →eahta (eight), nah→neah (near), erl →eorl (earl) etc.) (3 Slide)
2) Palatal mutation – back sound (for example a or o) changes its quality if

there is a front sound in the next syllable. (3 Slide) тут мы остановились
(sandian →sendan (to send) sallian →sellan (to sell)).

That was common for diphthongs too. (ea→ie, eo→ie etc).
The reflexes of OE palatal mutation can be observed in Modern English in
such pairs as sale- sell, tale-tell, full-fill. And in plural of nouns – fōt – fēt (foot-feet)
3) Diphthongization after palatal consonants sc [sk], c [k], Ʒ [g]. (4 slide)
(ex. a→ea scal→sceal (shall), e→ie Ʒefan→ Ʒiefan (give)).
The words beginning with palatal consonants and with non-palatalized vowel
represent other dialects.
4) Back or velar mutation. The formula of mutation here reminds very much
that of palatal mutation, but the difference is that the syllable that influenced the
preceding vowel contained a back vowel – o or u. Not al the dialects had this
mutation. So the essence is that (4 slide)
i ˃io (hira – hiora (their))
e ˃ eo (hefon-heofon (heaven))
a ˃ea (saru-searu (armour))
5) Mutation before H
(a, e preceded H →ea, ie→i/y naht – neaht – niht – nieht – nyht (night)) (5
slide)
6) Contraction (сжатие) h interfered with the development of sounds. When H

was placed between two vowels it was reduced and the following changes of vowels
occurred:
A+H+vowel→ēa slahan→ slēan (to slay)
E+H+vowel→ ēo sehen – sēon (to see) (5 slide)
And others. The Old German had no contraction, and H is present in
corresponding words – in corresponding present-day German words this consonant is
still found in spelling though lost in pronunciation.
The quantitative changes were lengthening of vowels before clusters nd, ld, mb
– bindan, cild, climban (bind, child, climb). And further development of the sound
system led to diphthongization of long vowels and that explains the exceptions in the
rules of reading the sounds in the closed syllables in the present-day English.
Middle English
For various reasons the first change in the phonological system to be
mentioned is the leveling of sounds – vowels in the unstressed syllables. OE had a
fixed stress on the first syllable. In OE at the ends of the words we might find
whatever sound: cara, caru, care – now all the forms merged into one –care (talu OE
– tale ME) (6 slide). With the stressed vowels the situation was different. First of all
there were quantitative changes in vowels. In ME the quantity of the vowels becomes
dependent on the environment, on what follows the vowel. In some phonetic
environment only short vowels are possible, in the other the vowels are long. So a
long vowel before two consonants is shortened (the exceptions are the clusters mb, ld,
nd (short vowels before these consonants were lengthened OE wild – ME wild) or
when the two consonants belong to the second syllable of the word. (mæst læst →
most least) e.g. OE - f ēdan - f ēdde – ME feed – fed. It should be remembered that
while the OE unstressed vowels were thus reduced and lost, new unstressed vowels
appeared in borrowed words or developed from stressed ones. (e.g. shifting of word
stress and vocalization of [r] in such endings as writer where [er] became [ə]). (7
slide) Short vowels became long in open syllables. This lengthening mainly affected
the more open of the short vowels [e] [a] [o]. (OE nama – ME name) These
developments show that the gap between the stressed and unstressed vowels has
narrowed, so that in ME and NE we can no longer subdivide the vowels into stressed
and unstressed.
So the most significant change was monophthongization of OE diphthongs.

Earm – arm ea→æ→a
Heofon – heven eo→e (7 slide)
Some individual changes occurred in the sounds:
æ → a (thæt – that)
ǣ → Ɛ: (sound like i:) strǣt – street
ā→ō (stān →stōne (stone) (8 slide)
Alongside the changed English sounds ME had a number of French
unassimilated sounds, nasal. Their fate was to assimilate later. Nature, simple,
abandon.
New English
The changes in the sound system of the period were significant. The process of
the leveling of endings continued, and the most significant, of course, Great vowel
shift.
1) Loss of unstressed e. We can observe total disappearance of
neutral sound Ə marked by letter e in the endings (it was preserved
and even pronounced more distinctly like [i] only when two
identical consonants were found in the root and in the endings)
(dresses, stresses, wicked)
2) The sound e before r hanged into a: (sterre – star)
3) Great Vowel Shift (GVS).
Most scholars agree that it was the most significant event which influenced
Modern English emergence. GVS was a major change in the pronunciation of
the English language that took place in the south of England between 1450 and 1750
(the years are not the same in all the sources: some are giving 1400 – 1600) for
reasons that are not entirely well known. Of course the surprising speed and the
exact cause of the shift are continuing mysteries in linguistics and cultural history,
but some theories attach the cause to the mass migration to the southeast part of
England after the Black Death, where the difference in accents led to certain groups
modifying their speech to allow for a standard pronunciation of vowel sounds. The
different dialects and the rise of a standardised middle class in London led to changes
in pronunciation, which continued to spread out from that city. Another explanation
highlights the language of the ruling class: the medieval aristocracy had spoken
French but by the early fifteenth century they were using English. This may have
caused a change to the "prestige accent" of English. Whatever the reason was, it
happened. The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen (1860–1943),
a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term. GVS is one of the historical
events marking the separation of Middle and Modern English.
The essence of GVS is certainly connected with the pronunciation. For those of
us who are “into it”, there is one spelling in particular that deserves a lot of attention
– the “ough” combination. There are at least ten pronunciations for this combination
of letters, ranging from “cough” to “through” to “dough” to “bough” in most
common usage. Each of these was standardized at a different time during the Great
Vowel Shift, causing the confusion that we have today. GVS explains why police and
polite so close in spelling are so different in pronouncing. Here is the simplified table.
ME EME PDE
VOWEL VOWEL VOWEL
(ca. 1400) (ca. 1600) (after 1800)
/i:/ /'i/ /ai/time
/e/ /i/ /i/meet
/e:/ /e/ /i/east
/a:/ /e/ /ei/take
/ô:/ /o/ /o/stone
/o/ /u/ /u/tool
/u/ /'u/ /aU/noun
PDE – Present Day English (9 slide)
GVS affected all long vowels in native as well as borrowed before it words. Though
some borrowed words preserve i:and u: in the open syllable (routine)
In general as compared to the Great vowel shift other vowel changes of the NE period
seem few and insignificant. In ME and NE the development of new long
monophthongs and diphthongs took place. First of all because of the vocalization
resulted from the development of [r]. (Verba, 166)
Consonants (3d lecture)

OE From Germanic philology you remember the First Consonant shift (Grimm’s
law) appearance of voiceless fricatives. Their development continues in OE.
1. So voicing of fricatives in intervocal position f>v (ofer-over; wīf – wīfe, wīfa wife-
wives); θ > ð (ōðer – other); s>z>r (voiced sibilant (шипящий) z was very unstable
in OE and very soon changed into r. The process is called rotacism. (wesun –weren).
Suffix iza used to form the degrees of comparison and now has the variant er. (1
slide)
2. Palatalization of the sound k’, sk’ and kg’ (marked as c, sc and sƷ) k’ >tʃ (cild –
child); sk’ > ʃ (sceal – shall); kg’>dƷ (brycƷ- bridge); back γ sound before palatal
consonants turned into j – Ʒear (year). 2 slide
3. Assimilation before t. The sound t when it was preceded by a number of
consonants changed the quality of a preceding sound. (e.g. stefn→stemn /fn>mn/ etc.)
3 slide
4. Loss of consonants in certain positions. The sounds n and m were lost before h.
(bronhte – brōhte – brought). Other examples of similar loss was the loss of Ʒ before
d and n. (sæƷde – sǣde (said))3 slide
5. Metathesis (метатеза) of r. (cons +r+vowel→cons+vowel+r brunnan-burnan
(burn)). 3 slide
6. West Germanic gemination (удваивание) of consonants (salian – sellan –sell). 4
slide
ME:
English consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number
of consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods.
Thus we can assume that the sonorants [m, n, l], plosives [p, b, t, d] and also [k, g]
in most positions have not been subjected to any noticeable changes. The most
important developments in the history of English consonants were the growth of
new sets of sounds, - affricates and sibilants.
The writing system changed dramatically in Middle English:
 þ and ð were replaced by th (and sometimes y, as in ye meaning the)

 c before i or e became ch
 sc became sh
 an internal h was added after g
 hw became wh
 cw became qu (5 slide)
 the new symbols v and u were added; v was used word initially, and u was
used everywhere else
 k was used much more often (cyning became king)
 new values were given to old symbols too; g before i or e was pronounced ǰ; ʒ
became j, and c before i and e became s in some cases (6 slide)
 a historical h (usually not pronounced) was added to some words (it was
assumed that these words had once begun with an h): honor, heir, honest, herb,
habit
 Loss of initial h in a cluster (hleapan - to leap; hnutu - hut)
 [w] lost between consonant and back vowel (w is silent in two, sword, answer)
7 slide
 [č] lost in unstressed syllable (ič - I)
 [v] lost in middle of words (heofod - head; hæfde - had) 8 slide
 Loss of final -n in possessive pronouns (min fæder - mi fæder) and the addition
of -n to some words beginning with a vowel (a napron - an apron, a nuncle - an
uncle)
 Voiced fricatives became phonemic with their voiceless counterparts
 [ž] phoneme was borrowed from French as the voiced counterpart for [š]
NE: In many cases the change is resulted in the loss of consonants in certain
positions. The sound l was lost in combination before k, m, f, v
Talk, palm, half.
The sound l was preserved in the words of Latin origin such as resolve. It was also
lost after a vowel before d in should and others.
Sound b was dropped in combination mb at the end of the words climb, lamb
G, k at the beginning of the word knight, gnome
W before a consonant (mainly r) and in unstressed syllables write, answer. 9 slide
Qualitative change of consonants is illustrated by voicing of fricatives.
s→z – dessert, resemble
f→v – of
tʃ→dƷ – knowledge 10 slide
Some sounds mainly in the borrowed words merged with the preceding consonant
forming a sibilant:
Sj, tj - ʃ Asia, session
Zj – Ʒ collision, division
Tj - tʃ question, nature
Dj – dƷ soldier, procedure
These are the most noticeable changes in consonants.
Noun (4th lecture)

The morphology of Old English is quite different from that of Modern English,
predominantly by being much more highly inflected.
Without knowing the original structure of the nouns in the language we can hardly
explain the exceptions in the formation of plural of Present-day English too. For
example, why foot-feet but boot – boots.
Nouns had categories of number, gender and case. Gender is not actually a
grammatical category in a strict sense of the word (except for the notions mann,
fæder, brōðor – masculine and modor, sweostor – feminine; wīfman is masculine
because the send element of the compound is masculine.) (1 slide) for every noun
with all its forms belongs to only one gender; but case and number had a set of
endings. There are 2 numbers – singular/plural – There were five major cases:
nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.
 The nominative case indicated the subject of the sentence, for example se
cyning means 'the king'. It was also used for direct address. Adjectives in the
predicate (qualifying a noun on the other side of 'to be') were also in the
nominative. 2 slide
 The accusative indicated the direct object of the sentence, for
example Æþelbald lufode þone cyning means "Æþelbald loved the king", where
Æþelbald is the subject and the king is the object. Already the accusative had
begun to merge with the nominative; it was never distinguished in the plural, or in
a neuter noun. 2 slide
 The genitive case indicated possession, for example the þæs cyninges scip is
"the ship of the king" or "the king's ship". It also indicated partitive
(разделительный) nouns. 2 slide
 The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for
example hringas þæm cyninge means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king".
There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative. 2 slide
 The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for
example lifde sweorde, "he lived by the sword", where sweorde is the
instrumental form of sweord. During the Old English period, the instrumental was
falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and
strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental. 2 slide
There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for
example, hring 'one ring') or plural (for example, hringas 'many rings').
In traditional historical studies the nouns are divided into classes according to the
former stem-forming suffixes which determined what inflections (флексия,
окончание) were taken by the nouns. The nouns in OE are commonly classified as
belonging to strong and weak declension, within each of these groups there are
several subgroups.
The strong declension.
The strong noun paradigm declines for case, gender and singular/plural. 3 slide
Masculine Neuter Feminine

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative -- -as -- -u / -- -u / -- -a, -e
Genitive -es -a -es -a -e -a
Dative -e -um -e -um -e -um
-Accusative -- -as -- -u / -- -e -a, -e
Stone- stān (m) Ship – scip (n) tale – talu (f)

Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Of course there were some peculiarities in this declension. If you want to find
them out you should bury yourself in the books.
Weak Declension
The weak paradigm is more simplified and has less variation between the genders and
cases. 4 slide

Nominative -a -an -e -an -e -an
Genitive -an -ena, -a -an -ena, -a -an -ena, -a
Dative -an -um -an -um -an -um
Accusative -an -an -e -an -an -an
Example declension of nama 'name', ēage 'eye', and tunge 'tongue'

Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
There was also a group of root-stem nouns that was not numerous but comprised the
words used in everyday life, that’s why it was very conservative – a group of
exceptions with mutated root vowel preserved the majority of nouns belonging to this
class. It comprised such nouns as man, goose, calf, child and others. Though the
flexion coincided the root vowel changed, that’s why in plural in present-day English
we have exceptions in forming plural forms.
The form of declined word completely depended on a vocalic stem-forming suffix. . –
a- stems may be either masculine or neuter, the difference between the two genders
may be seen only in the nominative. If there was a mutated vowel in the stem, this
sound might be preserved only in the singular. There are some peculiarities of
declension of the nouns that had originally –j- or –w- in the stem (-ja –stem and wa-
stem) they may preserve this sound in declension, but otherwise the differences are
minor. Nouns belonging to ō-stems are all feminine. In the form of the nominative
case monosyllabic nouns with a short root vowel of this class have ending –u; if there
are 2 and more syllables or the root vowel is long there is no ending at all. In this
group of nouns the suffix ō may also be accompanied by additional I or w that is jō or
wō. i-stem the nouns might belong to all the three genders. Nouns belonging to –u-
stems may be of masculine or feminine gender.
Weak declension This class of nouns consists of a rather numerous group of nouns
originally having –n-stems. They may be of all three genders. But actually no
difference in declension of nouns of different genders can be found. ). Less numerous
and less significant for the development of the present-day nominal system are nouns
of –s-stem. They had had this suffix in older times, in OE due to rhotacism they
changed it into occasional appearance of –r- sound in indirect cases. They are all
neuter. In OE was a separate group of –nd-stems. They are all masculine and their
declension combines the peculiarities of the declension of –a-stem and to some extent
–r-stem as they all denote persons.
Middle English. The category of gender was lost; and the loss was total. The
category of number was preserved. In OE the plural endings originally were: -as, 0,
-u, -a, -e,, -an. Due to the reduction of the unstressed vowels all these came to –es, -0,
-e or -0, -en. So finally we have –es, -en. –es (5 slide) was added to form of plural
form of numerous borrowings. Several nouns retain their OE plural with the mutated
vowel (man-menn, foot-feet etc.) – these were more frequently used than those that
changed their ending to –es. The number of cases was reduced from OE 4 to 2, the
nominative and the genitive. The very nature of the genitive case is almost
unchanged, it has the same functions as that of the OE noun, and practically all nouns
can be used in this form.
Middle English retains only two distinct noun-ending patterns from the more
complex system of inflection in Old English. The early Modern English
words engel (angel) and name (name) demonstrate the two patterns: 6 slide
strong weak
singular plural singular plural
nom/acc engel engles name namen
gen engles* engle(ne)** name namen
dat engle engle(s) name namen
NE: The noun paradigm looks very much the same as we have it today. Having lost
the category of gender and much of its case forms it has the genitive case as opposed
to nominative; the number of nouns taking it is reduced mainly to those denoting
living beings. In fact we may call it possessive. At the same time the unification of
plural endings takes place, and former relics of –en disappear, giving way to –es. So
the general rule of formation of the plural of the noun is enriched by archaic forms
(geese, feet) – we call them grammatical archaisms. Some words borrowed from
Latin and used mainly in scientific texts retain their Latin plurals (datum-data). Of-
phrase replaces the former genitive case.
Verb (5th lecture)
OE: Some people say that Old English was much like modern German, not more.
This question is really interesting. In fact she is right, there is much more in common
between Old English and German, than between Modern English and German. That
happens because different languages have different speed of development. English
through history was very progressive and active - the whole revolution happened with
it in the 15th and the 16th centuries, not only taking into consideration the Great
Vowel Shift, but also the major grammar changes. The result was the Modern, or
New, English, which has practically no declension, lost genders, shortened words and
forms, simplified the syntax. Modern English makes a distinction between regular
and irregular verbs. This distinction goes back to the Old English system of strong
and weak verbs: the ones which used the ancient Germanic type of conjugation (the
Ablaut), and the ones which just added endings to their past and participle forms.
Strong verbs make the clear majority. According to the traditional division, which is
taken form Gothic and is accepted by modern linguistics, all strong verbs are
distinguished between seven classes, each having its peculiarities in conjugation and
in the stem structure.
The system of the verbs was less developed than it is now, it had fewer forms, and its
categories were somewhat different from the similar categories in present-day
English. All the paradigmatic forms of the verb were synthetic. There were also
lexical structures with non-finite forms of the verb rendering some grammatical
meaning. The non-finite forms of the verb in OE were the infinitive and two
Participles. They had no categories of the finite verb but shared many features with
the nominal parts of speech. The infinitive had the suffix –an/ian. It had the
grammatical category of case: the nominative and dative, the latter form was made by
the suffix –enne/anne: wrītan – to wrītenne.1 slide The infinitive in this form was
associated with the preposition tō. Participle I is formed by means of the suffix –ende
added to the stem of the infinitive: wrītan – wrītende (to write – writing). It was
active in meaning and expressed the action simultaneous with the tense of the finite
verb. Like all nominal parts of speech, it had the categories of number, gender and
case and was declined like a strong adjective.
Participle II expressed actions and states resulting from past action and was passive in
meaning. Depending on the class of the verb it was formed by vowel interchange and
the suffix –en (strong verbs) or the dental suffix –d/t (weak verbs). Participle II was
commonly marked by the prefix Ʒe-, though may be found without it. Wrītan –
written, Ʒewriten. 1 slide Categories: Number is not specifically verbal category. The
choice of singular or plural form depends on the number of the noun/pronoun subject
of the sentence. The category of person is represented by all the three persons,
though this opposition is neutralized in many positions. Present tense singular has all
forms, in plural it is not shown. Past tense singular had only one form for the 1 and 3
person, and in the Imperative and Subjunctive mood it was absent. The category of
mood was represented by the opposition of 3 moods – Indicative (represents action as
a real fact), Subjunctive (expresses condition, desire, supposition), Imperative
(expresses order, or request to a second person).
The category of tense was represented by opposition past – non-past (preterit-non-
preterit). The current form for the non-preterit. The majority of OE verbs fell into 2
great divisions: weak (derived their past tense stem and that of Participle II by
adding dental suffix – d and –t, normally they didn’t change their rot vowels) and
strong (formed their stems means of vowel gradation and by adding certain suffixes);
in some verbs gradation was accompanied by changes of consonants. There were 4
basic forms of strong verbs: I – the stem with this vowel are used in the infinitive, the
present tense indicative and subjunctive, the imperative mood and participle I; II – in
the past tense singular, the 1st and the 3d person; III – past tense plural< 2d person
singular and past Subjunctive; IV – in the form of the Participle II).
Strong verbs. There were about three hundred strong verbs in OE. They are derived
into 7 classes.
Regular strong verbs were all conjugated roughly the same, with the main differences
being in the stem vowel. Thus stelan 'to steal' represents the strong verb conjugation
paradigm.
Conjugation Pronoun 'steal'

stelan
Infinitives
tō stelanne
ic stele
þū stilst
Present Indicative
hē/hit/hēo stilð
wē/gē/hīe stelaþ
ic stæl
þū stæle
Past Indicative
hē/hit/hēo stæl
wē/gē/hīe stælon
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo stele
Present Subjunctive
wē/gē/hīe stelen
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo stǣle
Past Subjunctive
wē/gē/hīe stǣlen
Imperative Singular stel
Plural stelaþ
Present Participle stelende
Past Participle stolen
Of course it’s the easiest example. Cause you can find out that the word changed a
lot, its root vowels and so on. But this example can show you the main idea of
changes in OE strong verb.
Weak verbs. Weak verbs are formed by adding alveolar (t or d) endings to the stem
for the past and past-participle tenses. Some examples are love, loved or look, looked.
Originally, the weak ending was used to form the preterite of informal, noun-derived
verbs such as often emerge in conversation and which have no established system of
stem-change. By nature, these verbs were almost always transitive, and even today,
most weak verbs are transitive verbs formed in the same way. However, as English
came into contact with non-Germanic languages, it invariably borrowed useful verbs
which lacked established stem-change patterns. Rather than invent and standardize
new classes or learn foreign conjugations, English speakers simply applied the weak
ending to the foreign bases.
The linguistic trends of borrowing foreign verbs and verbalizing nouns have greatly
increased the number of weak verbs over the last 1,200 years. Some verbs that were
originally strong (for example help, holp, holpen) have become weak by analogy;
most foreign verbs are adopted as weak verbs; and when verbs are made from nouns
(for example "to scroll" or "to water") the resulting verb is weak. Additionally,
conjugation of weak verbs is easier to teach, since there are fewer classes of
variation. In combination, these factors have drastically increased the number of
weak verbs, so that in modern English weak verbs are the most numerous and
productive form (although occasionally a weak verb may turn into a strong verb
through the process of analogy, such as sneak (originally only a noun),
where snuck is an analogical formation rather than a survival from Old English).
There are three major classes of weak verbs in Old English. The first class displays i-
mutation in the root, and the second class none. There is also a third class explained
below.
Class-one verbs with short roots exhibit gemination of the final stem consonant in
certain forms. With verbs in <r> this appears as <ri> or <rg>, where <i> and <g> are
pronounced [j]. Geminated <f> appears as <bb>, and that of <g> appears as <cg>.
Class one verbs may receive anepenthetic vowel before endings beginning in a
consonant.
Where class-one verbs have gemination, class-two verbs have <i> or <ig>, which is a
separate syllable pronounced [i]. All class-two verbs have an epenthetic vowel, which
appears as <a> or <o>.
In the following table, three verbs are conjugated. Swebban 'to put to sleep' is a class
one verb exhibiting gemination and an epenthetic vowel.Hǣlan 'to heal' is a class-one
verb exhibiting neither gemination nor an epenthetic vowel. Sīðian 'to journey' is a class-
two verb.
Conjugation Pronoun 'put to sleep' 'heal' 'journey'
swebban hǣlan sīðian
Infinitives tō hǣlann
tō swebbanne tō sīðianne
e
ic swebbe hǣle sīðie

Present Indicative þū swefest hǣlst sīðast
hē/hit/hēo swefeþ hǣlþ sīðað
wē/gē/hīe swebbaþ hǣlaþ sīðiað
ic swefede hǣlde sīðode
þū swefedest hǣldest sīðodest
Past Indicative
hē/hit/hēo swefede hǣle sīðode
wē/gē/hīe swefedon hǣlon sīðodon
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo swebbe hǣle sīðie
Present Subjunctive
wē/gē/hīe swebben hǣlen sīðien
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo swefede hǣlde sīðode
Past Subjunctive
wē/gē/hīe swefeden hǣlden sīðoden
Singular swefe hǣl sīða
Imperative
Plural swebbaþ hǣlaþ sīðiað
Present Participle swefende hǣlende sīðiende
Past Participle swefed hǣled sīðod
During the Old English period the third class was significantly reduced; only four
verbs belonged to this group: habban 'have', libban 'live', secgan'say',
and hycgan 'think'. Each of these verbs is distinctly irregular, though they share some
commonalities.
Conjugation Pronoun 'have' 'live' 'say' 'think'
Infinitive habban libban, lifgan secgan hycgan
Present
Indicative ic hæbbe libbe, lifge secge hycge
hæfst, segst,
þū lifast, leofast hygst, hogast
hafast sagast
hē/hit/hēo hæfð, hafað lifað, leofað segð, hyg(e)d,
sagað hogað
wē/gē/hīe habbaþ libbað secgaþ hycgað
(all hog(o)de,
Past Indicative hæfde lifde, leofode sægde
persons) hygde
Present (all
hæbbe libbe, lifge secge hycge
Subjunctive persons)
(all hog(o)de,
Past Subjunctive hæfde lifde, leofode sægde
persons) hygde
Singular hafa leofa sæge, saga hyge, hoga
Imperative
Plural habbaþ libbaþ, lifgaþ secgaþ hycgaþ
libbende,
Present Participle hæbbende secgende hycgende
lifgende
Past Participle gehæfd gelifd gesægd gehogod
Preterite-present verbs
The preterite-present verbs are a class of verbs which have a present tense in the form
of a strong preterite and a past tense like the past of a weak verb. These verbs derive
from the subjunctive or optative use of preterite forms to refer to present or future
time. For example, witan, "to know" comes from a verb which originally meant "to
have seen" (cf. OE wise "manner, mode, appearance"; Latin videre "to see" from the
same root). The present singular is formed from the original singular preterite stem
and the present plural from the original plural preterite stem. As a result of this
history, the first-person singular and third-person singular are the same in the present.
Few preterite present appear in the Old English corpus, and some are not attested in
all forms.
Note that the Old English meanings of many of the verbs are significantly different
than that of the modern descendants; in fact, the verbs "can, may, must" appear to
have chain shifted in meaning.
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 strong verbs
that is by gradation (vowel interchange) their past tense has all the peculiarities of the
weak verbs. It is just that peculiarity that makes them preterite (форма прошедшего
времени) (in form) and present (in the meaning). In general, past tense has a strong
tinge (оттенок)result in its meaning. A certain group of verbs preserves this strong
meaning of result and it turns into their dominant feature, they begin to render the
present result of the past action. So the past tense in structure like Ic cann swimman
meant and was perceived as the present state of mind of the speaker. However there
were situations in which the past tense was still required: one might want to know
that once there was a man who could swim. So there appeared the form : he cuðe
swimman. Participle II had the necessary meaning of result and some verbs
preserved it, formed by gradation and the suffix –en, while with some other the
pattern of weak verbs was used. The verbs of this group with overburdened system of
forms, started losing certain parts of their paradigm. Most preterite-present verbs are
classified according to the classes of gradation to which their present tense belongs.
'know, 'be
'be able 'be allowed
Conjugation Pronoun know obliged to, 'know' 'own' 'avail' 'dare' 'remember' 'need' to, may'
to, can'
how to' must'
'mote
'wit 'dow
Modern Descendant 'can' 'may' 'shall' 'owe' 'dare' -- -- (archaic),
(obsolescent)' (archaic)' must'
Infinitives cunnan magan sculan witan āgan dugan durran munan mōtan
ic cann mæg sceal wāt āh deah dearr man þearf mōt

Present
þū canst meaht scealt wāst āhst dearst manst þearft mōst
Indicative
hē/hit/hēo cann mæg sceal wāt āh deah dearr man þearf mōt
wē/gē/hīe cunnon magon sculon witon āgon dugon durron munon þurfon mōton
ic cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste āhte dohte dorst munde þorfte mōste
Past wissest,
þū cūðest meahtest sceoldest āhte dohte dorst munde þorfte mōste
Indicative wistest
hē/hit/hēo cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste āhte dohte dorst munde þorfte mōste
wē/gē/hīe cūðon meahton sceoldon wisson, wiston
Present þyrfe,
ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo cunne mæge scule wite āge dyge, duge durre myne, mune þurfe mōte
Subjunctive
wē/gē/hīe cunnen mægen sculen witaþ
Past ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste

Subjunctive
wē/gē/hīe cūðen meahten sceolden
Irregular verbs
Additionally there is a further group of four verbs which are irregular, the verbs
"want" (modern "will"), "do", "go" and "be". These four have their own conjugation
schemes which differ significantly from all the other classes of verb. This is not
especially unusual: "want", "do", "go", and "be" are the most commonly used verbs
in the language, and are very important to the meaning of the sentences in which they
are used. Idiosyncratic patterns of inflection are much more common with important
items of vocabulary than with rarely-used ones.
Dōn 'to do' and gān 'to go' are conjugated alike; willan 'to want' is similar outside of
the present tense. Home task to make up a table
Conjugation Pronoun 'do' 'go' 'will'
Infinitive – dōn gān willan
Present Indicative
ic dō gā wille
þū dēst gǣst wilt
hē/hit/hēo dēð gǣð wile
wē/gē/hīe dōð gāð willað
ic/hē/hit/hēo dyde ēode wolde

Past Indicative
þū dydest ēodest woldest
wē/gē/hīe dydon ēodon woldon
Present Subjunctive (all persons) dō gā wille
Past Subjunctive (all persons) dyde ēode wolde
Present Participle dōnde – willende
Past Participle gedōn gegān –
The verb 'to be' is actually composed of three different stems:
Conjugation Pronoun sindon bēon wesan
Infinitive – sindon bēon wesan
ic eom bēo wese

Present Indicative þū eart bist wesst
hē/hit/hēo is bið wes(t)
wē/gē/hīe sind(on) bēoð wesað
ic – – wæs
Past Indicative þū – – wǣre
hē/hit/hēo – – wæs
wē/gē/hīe – – wǣron
Present Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo sīe bēo wese

wē/gē/hīe sīen bēon wesen
Past Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo – – wǣre

wē/gē/hīe – – wǣren
Imperative (singular) – bēo wes

(plural) – bēoð wesað
Present Participle – bēonde wesende
Past Participle – gebēon –
The present forms of wesan are almost never used. Therefore, wesan is used as the
past, imperative, and present participle versions of sindon, and does not have a
separate meaning. The bēon forms are usually used in reference to future actions.
Only the present forms of bēon contrast with the present forms of sindon/wesan in
that bēon tends to be used to refer to eternal or permanent truths,
while sindon/wesan is used more commonly to refer to temporary or subjective facts.
This semantic distinction was lost as Old English developed into modern English, so
that the modern verb 'to be' is a single verb which takes its present indicative forms
from sindon, its past indicative forms from wesan, its present subjunctive forms
from bēon, its past subjunctive forms from wesan, and its imperative and participle
forms from bēon.
ME: All types existing in OE preserved in ME – strong, weak, irregular, preterit-
present. In each type we find changes due to phonetic developments of this period,
but the proportional value of the weak ones is greater and continues to grow. Some of
the former strong verbs are drifting in the direction of weak ones. The OE prefix Зe-
reduced to y-. Now it is mostly found in the second participle. In most dialects it
disappeared by the 14 th c. Non-finite forms have changed in the direction from
nominal (именной) to verbal parts of speech. The infinitive loses the category of case
and acquires a pre-infinitival particle to. The suffix an, ian changed into –en, n. To
written, to maken. But the tendency to lose final consonant is strong and finally they
lost –en, -n. Participle I – suffix –ende turns into –ung, which also was shifting
toward less distinct form –ynge/inge (liornunge – learning). Changes in strong and
weak verbs (Verba, 132-133) The categories: Tense – future tense appear and two
auxiliaries – shall/will (shal/wol). As well as Present and Past perfect with the
auxiliary to haven. The passive voice expressed by the combination ben + PII
expressing a state as well as an action is widely used in ME. The problem of aspect is
disputable one. The prefix Зу- was lost. And continuous new form was rising, but it
was not used in literary English. The category of mood retains the former subdivision
in the indicative, the imperative and the subjunctive. The category of mood was
enriched by analytical formations wolde +inf, and sholde +inf.
Speaking about Preterite-Present verbs we may say these verbs underwent multiple
changes in ME and ENE: phonetic and analogical changes which affected their
forms, and semantic changes which affected their functions. Several preterite-present
verbs died out. The surviving verbs lost some of their old forms and grammatical
distinctions but retained many specific peculiarities. In NE their paradigms have been
reduced to two forms or even to one. ME can (from OE cann) was used not only in sg
but also in the pl by the side of cunnen, the descendant of OE pl cunnon; the latter, as
well as the Subj. forms cunnen, cune died out by the end of the ME period. The past
tense Ind. And Subj. appears in ME in two variants: couth(e) and coud(e). Couth
became obsolete (устарелый) in NE but coud was preserved. The insertion of l in
spelling may be due to the analogy of should where l was etymologically justified. In
ME the verb can especially its past participle is still used in the original meaning
“know”. However can is much more common as a modal verb indicating physical or
mental ability.
NE: In this period it becomes more specialized in meaning. The loss of endings
greatly simplified the verbal paradigm. There were no longer endings marking the 1 st
person singular, plural present indicative and the infinitival suffix -an→en→e was
also lost. Personal ending of the 3d person singular in the present tense –th is
replaced by –s: hath – has, thinketh – thinks. The traditional classification of strong
and weak verbs gives way to division into regular and irregular. The verbs that are
derived from other parts of speech are all regular and form their past tense and PII by
adding –ed suffix now perceived as ending. All borrowed verbs form their past tense
in the same way, and so they are regular. Many traditionally strong verbs show the
tendency to change their former past pense forms to a more productive and more
widespread way of formation of past with the same ending. The tendency was so
strong that spme verbs became regular, though further development of the language
brought them back into the group of irregular. Irregular verbs include those former
strong verbs that preserved the vowel interchange in the root. (Verba, 178). Modal
verbs The changes in preterit-present are significant. Some verbs are lost altogether.
The rest lost the greater part of their paradigms and turned into a group of modal
(defective) verbs. Now they are almost all used as modal auxiliaries with the bare
infinive. The non-finite forms – infinitive, participle and gerund can hardly be called
the nominal parts of speech. The gerund becomes quite common, the use of it doesn’t
differ a lot from the present-day practice. So the categories of the ENE remain
basically the same – tense, voice, time correlation, mood.. The categories of number
and person are not so distinct. The moods are the same as they were in ME.
Pronoun. Adjective. Numerals. Adverb. (6th lectures)

Adjectives
Adjectives in Old English are declined using the same categories as nouns: five cases
(nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental), three genders
(masculine, feminine, neuter), and two numbers (singular, plural). In addition, they
can be declined either strong or weak. The weak forms are used in the presence of a
definite or possessive determiner, while the strong ones are used in other situations.
If the adjective follows a demonstrative pronoun, possessive adjective, or genitive
noun or noun phrase, one of the so-called “weak” endings is added to it; otherwise
it is given a “strong” ending. Strong and weak adjectives were still distinguished in
Chaucer’s English, and they are distinguished even now in German. The weak
adjectives are almost exactly the same as the weak nouns. Most of the strong
adjective endings resemble those of either the strong nouns or the demonstrative
pronouns. Indeed (though some Old English teachers may not approve of our
telling you so), you may find it possible to read Old English prose pretty well
without having put in a lot of work on adjectives. In a noun phrase like þæs
æðelan bōceres ‘the noble scholar’s’, you can get the information that the phrase
is genitive singular from either the demonstrative pronoun or the noun. The weak
adjective æðelan doesn’t tell you much.
The comparative adjective is made by adding -r- between the root syllable and the
inflectional ending, which is always weak regardless of context. The superlative is
made by adding -ost, which may be followed by either a weak or a strong inflection.
Examples:
heard ‘hard, fierce’ heardra heardost

milde ‘kind’ mildra mildost
hāliġ ‘holy’ hāliġra hālgost
sweotol ‘clear’ sweotolra sweotolost
Some adjectives have i-mutation in the comparative and superlative forms, and in
these cases the superlative element is usually -est. For example:
eald ‘old’ ieldra ieldest

ġeong ‘young’ ġinġra ġinġest
hēah ‘high’ hīera hīehst
A few adjectives have Anomalous Comparative and Superlative Forms; these are
still anomalous in Modern English, though sometimes in different ways:
gōd ‘good’ betera betst

lȳtel ‘small’ lǣssa lǣst
miċel ‘large’ māra mǣst
yfel ‘bad’ wiersa wierrest, wierst
The weak forms are identical to those for nouns, while the strong forms use a
combination of noun and pronoun endings:
The Strong Adjective Declension
Case
Nominative – -e – -u/– -u/– -e, -a
Accusative -ne -e – -u/– -e -e, -a
Genitive -es -ra -es -ra -re -ra
Dative -um -um -um -um -re -um
Instrumental -e -um -e -um -re -um
For the '-u/–' forms above, the distinction is the same as for strong nouns.
Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: gōd 'good'
Case
Nominative gōd gōde gōd gōd gōd gōde, -a
Accusative gōdne gōde gōd gōd gōde gōde, -a
Genitive gōdes gōdra gōdes gōdra gōdre gōdra
Dative gōdum gōdum gōdum gōdum gōdre gōdum
Instrumental gōde gōdum gōde gōdum gōdre gōdum
Example of the Weak Adjective Declension: gōd 'good'

Case
Nominative gōda gōdan gōde gōdan gōde gōdan
Accusative gōdan gōdan gōde gōdan gōdan gōdan
Genitive gōdan gōdena gōdan gōdena gōdan gōdena
Dative gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum
Instrumental gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum gōdan gōdum
Note that the same variants described above for nouns also exist for adjectives. The
following example shows both the æ/a variation and the -u forms in the feminine
singular and neuter plural:
Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: glæd 'glad'
Case
Nominative glæd glade glæd gladu gladu glade
Accusative glædne glade glæd gladu glade glade
Genitive glades glædra glades glædra glædre glædra
Dative gladum gladum gladum gladum glædre gladum
Instrumental glade gladum glade gladum glædre gladum
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -h:
Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: hēah 'high'
Case
Nominative hēah hēa hēah hēa hēa hēa
Accusative hēane hēa hēah hēa hēa hēa
Genitive hēas hēara hēas hēara hēare hēara
Dative hēam hēam hēam hēam hēare hēam
Instrumental hēa hēam hēa hēam hēare hēam
The following shows an example of an adjective ending with -w:
Example of the Strong Adjective Declension: gearu 'ready'
Case
Nominative gearu gearwe gearu gearu gearu gearwe
Accusative gearone gearwe gearu gearu gearwe gearwe
Genitive gearwes gearora gearwes gearora gearore gearora
Dative gearwum gearwum gearwum gearwum gearore gearwum
Instrumental gearwe gearwum gearwe gearwum gearore gearwum
ME: In this period the paradigm of an adjective is simplified drastically. So, main
changes: greatest inflectional losses; totally uninflected by end of ME period; loss of
case, gender, and number distinctions distinction strong/weak lost but they still exist
and used already with the articles appeared in OE (The and that are common
developments from the same Old English system. Old English had a definite article
se, in the masculine gender, seo (feminine), and þæt (neuter) more as
demonstrative pronouns. In Middle English these had all merged into þe, the
ancestor of the Modern English word the.) causes in loss of unstressed endings,
rising use of definite and indefinite articles
comparative OE -ra > ME -re, -er (by metathesis), superlative OE -ost, -est > ME
-est; beginnings of periphrastic comparison (French influence): swetter/more swete,
more swetter, moste clennest; more and moste as intensifiers

Adjectives in Middle English work much the same way as they do in Modern
English. These descriptive words come before the noun they modify: yong sone
young son. There is a Germanic twist, though. As in German and Icelandic,
Middle English differentiates between strong and weak adjectives.
Strong adjectives stand on their own before a noun, like the yong in yong sone.
They often do not have a final -e (schwa sound).
Weak adjectives come between the article the, the demonstratives (this, that, these,
those) or a possessive (his, Annes his, Anne's) and the modified noun. Such
adjectives have a final -e (schwa [Swa – нейтральный гласный]): the yonge man
and his sweete breeth the young man and his sweet breath.
With plural nouns, it's far easier: adjectives generally take -e, weak or strong
(yonge sones, the yonge children young sons, the young children).
In general the changes in ME and NE adjectives were so insignificant that you can
hardly find them in books.
Pronouns
Most pronouns are declined by number, case and gender; in the plural form most
pronouns have only one form for all genders. Additionally, Old English pronouns
reserve the dual form (which is specifically for talking about groups of two things, for
example "we two" or "you two" or "they two"). These were uncommon even then, but
remained in use throughout the period.
First Person
Case Singular Plural Dual
Nominative ic, īc wē wit
ūsic,
Accusative mec, mē uncit, unc
ūs
Genitive mīn ūre uncer
Dative mē ūs unc
Second Person
Case Singular Plural Dual
Nominative þū gē git
Accusative þēc, þē ēowic, ēow incit, inc
Genitive þīn ēower incer
Dative þē ēow inc
Third Person
Singular
Case Plural
Masc. Neut. Fem.
Nominative hē hit hēo hiē m., hēo f.
Accusative hine hit hīe hiē m., hīo f.
hiera m.,
Genitive his his hire
heora f.
Dative him him hire him
Many of the forms above bear strong resemblances to their contemporary English
language equivalents: for instance in the genitive case ēowerbecame
"your", ūre became "our", mīn became "mine".
Post-Conquest English inherits its pronouns from Old English, with the exception of the third
person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the original Old English form clashed with the third
person singular and was eventually dropped):
Personal pronouns in Middle English
Singular Plural
Subject Object Possessive Subject Object Possessive
First I me mi(n) we us oure
þou/tho
Second þee/thee þy/thy ye you your
u
Thir Impersonal hit it/him his he hem hir
d Masculine he him his þey/they þem/them þeir/their
Feminine sche hire hir
Personal pronouns
The first-person pronouns are quite similar to those of Modern English, especially
in prose, where you will generally see accusative singular mē rather than mec.
The second-person pronouns, on the other hand, have changed radically since the
Old English period Modern English does not distinguish number or any case but
the possessive; in fact there are now only two forms of the pronoun, you and your.
By contrast, the second-person pronouns of Old English look a lot like the first-
person pronouns, distinguishing number and at least three of the cases.
Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives are the pronoun-like forms we use with nouns to signal
possession:
my sword
the sword is mine
your shield
the shield is yours
her spear
the spear is hers
These are closely related to the genitive personal pronouns, but we call them
adjectives because they modify nouns. In Old English the third-person genitive
pronouns are used as possessive adjectives:
his hring
[his ring]
hire healsbēag
[her necklace]
hira fatu
[their cups]
These work like Modern English possessives in that they agree in gender and
number with their antecedents, not with the nouns they modify. To make first- and
second-person possessive adjectives, strong adjective endings are added to the
genitive pronoun forms; these agree with the nouns they modify, not with their
antecedents:
mīnum scipe
[my ship (dative)]
Demonstrative pronouns
There are two demonstrative pronouns, se/þæt/sēo and þes/þis/þēos. The first does
the job of Modern English that/those and also that of the definite article the. The
second does the same job as Modern English this/these. As with the third-person
pronouns, gender is distinguished only in the singular.
Interrogative pronouns
There are three common interrogative pronouns: hwā the ancestor of Modern
English who/what; hwelċ/hwilċ/hwylċ, which gives Modern English which; and
hwæþer ‘which of two’. Hwā has only a singular form; there is no distinction
between masculine and feminine. The instrumental form is the ancestor of Modern
English why, and is used to mean ‘why’.
There were also reflexive (The personal pronoun can be used by itself as a
reflexive, and self/sylf can be added for emphasis.) and relative (for which
demonstrative were used) pronouns.
ME: After the Conquest, English retained Old English pronouns, with the
exception of the third person plural, a borrowing from Old Norse (the original Old
English form clashed with the third person singular and was eventually dropped.
The first and second person pronouns in Old English survived into Middle English
largely unchanged, with only minor spelling variations. In the third person, the
masculine accusative singular became 'him'. The feminine form was replaced by a
form of the demonstrative that developed into 'sche', but unsteadily—'heyr'
remained in some areas for a long time. The lack of a strong standard written form
between the 13th and the 15th centuries makes these changes hard to map.
The overall trend was the gradual reduction in the number of different case
endings.
Pronouns in Middle English retain inflection, that is, endings which indicate what
their grammatical role is.
Along with some exotic words and spelling, notice that in Middle English you
could only be the second-person plural objective pronoun. In the other places we
use you today, Middle English speakers instead used ye, thou, and thee.
At the same time, as Middle English moved to Early Modern English, it developed
the same system of formal and informal pronouns that many other languages, still
have. One set of pronouns—in the case of English, thee, thou, and thine—was
used for formal address to others, while the you forms came into use in informal
address. With the passing of time, you and your became acceptable for use even in
formal situations, and with their wider use, the previous formal forms gradually
dropped out of use and eventually disappeared from our speech altogether.
The Old English Numeral.

It is obvious that all Indo-European languages have the general trend of
transformation from the synthetic (or inflectional) stage to the analytic one. At least
for the latest 1,000 years this trend could be observed in all branches of the family.
The level of this analitization process in each single language can be estimated by
several features, their presence or absence in the language. One of them is for sure the
declension of the numerals.
In Proto-Indo-European all numerals, both cardinal and ordinal, were declined, as
they derived on a very ancient stage from nouns or adjectives, originally being a
declined part of speech. There are still language groups within the family with
decline their numerals: among them, Slavic and Baltic are the most typical samples.
They practically did not suffer any influence of the analytic processes. But all other
groups seem to have been influenced somehow. Ancient Italic and Hellenic
languages left the declension only for the first four cardinal pronouns (from 1 to 4),
the same with ancient Celtic.
The Old English language preserves this system of declension only for three
numerals. It is therefore much easier to learn, though not for English speakers I guess
- Modern English lacks declension at all.
Here is the list of the cardinal numerals:

1 án 20 twentig
2 twá 21 twentig ond án
3 þríe 30 þrítig
4 féower 40 féowertig
5 fíf 50 fíftig
6 six, syx, siex 60 siextig
7 seofon, syofn 70 siofontig
8 eahta 80 eahtatig
9 nigon 90 nigontig
10 tien, týn 100 hundtéontig, hund, hundred
11 endlefan 110 hundælleftig
12 twelf 120 hundtwelftig
13 þríotíene 200 tú hund
14 féowertíene 1000 þúsend
15 fíftíene... 2000 tú þúsendu
And here is the declension of some of them:
1 án is declined just like a strong adjective, can be only singular, but has masculine,
neuter and feminine genders. It is the source of the future indefinite article 'a, an' in
Modern English. So 'a house' in fact means "one house", here -n disappeared before a
consonant. When at school, many of us thought that 'an' derived from 'a' and it
appeares vice versa.
2 twá:
So the genders have differences only in nominative and accusative cases, and
indirect cases (genitive and dative) have common forms for all three genders. No
number can be changed for it, and originally this numeral was dual, which seems
natural.
Strange is the following: while in the case of "two" the Modern English lost
masculine and neuter forms and picked up the feminine one for use ('two' < twá), here
we have another case, when the feminine and neuter were forgotten, and
today's three comes directly from the masculine þríe.
And the last is the numeral begen, bú, bá (both) which is declined the same way
as twá and is also dual.
Ordinal numerals use the suffix -ta or -þa, etymologically a common Indo-European

one (*-to-).

1 forma, fyresta 15 fíftéoþa
2 óþer, æfterra 16 sixtéoþa
3 þridda, þirda 17 siofontéoþa
4 féorþa 18 eahtatéoþa
5 fífta 19 nigontéoþa
6 siexta, syxta 20 twentigoþa
7 siofoþa 30 þrittigoþa
8 eahtoþa 40 féowertigoþa
9 nigoþa 50 fíftigoþa
10 téoþa 100 hundtéontiogoþa
11 endlefta
12 twelfta
13 þreotéoþa
14 féowertéoþa
The two variants for the word "first" actually mean different attributes: forma is
translated as "forward", and fyresta is "the farthest", "the first". Again double variants
for the second nominal mean respectively "the other" and "the following".
Mainly according to Old English texts ordinal numerals were used with the
demonstrative pronoun þá before them. This is where the definite article in 'the first',
'the third' comes from. To say "the 22nd", for example, you should combine the
following: either twá and twenigoþa (two and twentieth), or óþer éac
twentigum (second with twenty). So the order is different from the modern English,
but instead closer to Modern German where "the 22nd" sounds like zwei und
zwanzig (two and twenty).
At all, it is easy to notice that the words in English became much shorter, and
therefore simpler in pronunciation and learning. It is much easier to pronounce
"hundredth" than hundtéontiogoþa, "fourth" than féowertéoþa. Modetrn English
acquired words mainly having one or two syllables, but this was not the rule in the
Old English period.
Middle English. This part of speech develops with some changes. They are no longer
declined and lose the category of gender. Another innovation, or addition to the OE is
the word millioun of French origin. Ordinal numerals developed the suffix –th. And
the borrowing from French second replaced the former English æfter.
The Old English Adverb.
Just some words about the adverbs.
They can be either primary (original adverbs) or derive from the adjectives. In fact,
adverbs appeared in the language rather late, and eraly Proto-Indo-European did not
use them, but later some auxiliary nouns and pronouns losing their declension started
to play the role of adverbial modifiers. That's how the primary adverbs emerged.
In Old English the basic primary adverbs were the following ones:
þa (then)
þonne (then)
þæ'r (there)
þider (thither)
nú (now)
hér (here)
hider (hither)
heonan (hence)
sóna (soon)
oft (often)
eft (again)
swá (so)
hwílum (sometimes).
Secondary adverbs originated from the instrumental singular of the neuter adjectives
of strong declension. They all add the suffix -
e: wide (widely), déope (deeply), fæste(fast), hearde (hard). Another major sugroup
of them used the suffixes -líc, -líce from more complexed
adjectives: bealdlíce (boldly), freondlíce (in a friendly way).
Adverbs, as well as adjectives, had their degrees of comparison:
wíde - wídor - wídost (widely - more widely - most widely)
long - leng (long - longer)
feorr (far) - fierr
sófte (softly) - séft
éaþe (easily) - íeþ
wel (well) - betre - best
yfele (badly) - wiers, wyrs - wierst
micele (much) - máre - mæ'st
In middle English adverbs changed mostly phonetically. At this time there appears a
new and very productive way of forming adverbs – suffix –ly.
Syntax diachronic approach. Structure of the sentence. Simple sentence.

Complex/compound sentence. (7th lecture)
Syntax
The structure of the sentence in OE as well as in ME was the same. W-O is rather
liberal, and in some cases influenced by the French language. Post position of the
adjective which is characteristic for the French penetrates into the English syntax,
especially when the adjective is borrowed from French (weel she soong the service
dyvyne (she sang very well at divine service). The ties between words are practically
the same in both periods. But it lost some positions as compared with the OE. The
predicate of the sentence agrees with the subject, repeating the person and the number
of the noun or pronoun. This agreement is especially prominent with the third and the
second person singular. (Verba, 152). As the category of number is still preserved
adjectives and pronouns partly agree in number with the nouns they modify. ME
impersonal sentences still are used without formal subject. For negations negative
particle ne is used and such formations as nought/nat appeared. One predicate group
could contain several negative words.The structure of the sentence in ENE is
conditioned by the previous development of its morphology. With the practical loss
of endings by the nouns and adjectives, their position in the sentence becomes quite
relevant to the meaning they render – so the direct w-o prevails, the subject precedes
the predicate in non-emotional sentence. Agreement as a means of grammatical
connection of the words is limited to the demonstrative pronouns that preserve their
plural form. The predicate agrees with the subject when it is expressed by the verb to
be or the passive form. Joining (присоединение) becomes the main way of
connecting the words in the sentence.
The simple sentence: The connection between the parts of the sentence was shown by
the form of the words as they had formal markers for gender, case, number and
person. As compared with later periods agreement played an important role in the
sentence. The order of words was relatively free. The presence of formal markers
made it possible to miss out some parts of the sentence which would be obligatory in
an English sentence now. The formal subject was lacking in many impersonal
sentences (though it was present in others). One of the most important features was
multiple negation within a single sentence or clause. The most common negative
particle was ne, which was placed before the verb, it was often accompanies by other
negative words, nāht or nōht (which was later shortened to not)
Ne con īc nōht sinЗan… īc nāht sinЗan ne cūðe (I cannot sing (lit. cannot sing
nothing) I could not sing).
The sentence was made up of the same parts, except that those parts were usually
simpler. Attributive (определение) groups were short and among the parts of the
sentence there were very few predicative (предикатив, именная часть сказуемого)
constructions. In the course of history the structure of the simple sentence in many
respects became more orderly and more uniform. But the sentence came to include
more extended and complex parts. In ME and ENE with most of endings leveled or
dropped the relationship between the parts of the sentence were shown by their
relative position, semantic ties, prepositions and by a more rigid (жесткая) syntactic
structure. Every place in the sentence came to be associated with a certain syntactic
function. E.g. the pronoun hit (it) in OE (formal subject) was used only in impersonal
sentences indicating weather phenomena. In ME the subject it occurs in all types of
impersonal sentences. The subject of the sentence became more varied in meaning as
well as in the forms of expression. Some types of compound predicates had turned
into simple. Double negation went out of use.
Compound and complex sentences: they existed since the earliest times. Coordinate
clauses were mostly joined by and. Repetition of connectives at the head of each
clause was common in complex sentences: Þā hē Þær tō Зefaren wæs, Þa ēodon hīe tō
hīora scipum (then he came there, then they went to their ship). The pronoun and
conjunction Þæt was used to introduce object clauses (объектный оборот), and
adverbial clause (придаточное). Some clause are regarded as intermediate between
coordinate and subordinate. They are joined asyndetically (бессоюзно), and their
status is not clear. In ME and ENE differentiation between compound
(сложносочиненное) and complex (сложноподчиненный) became more evident.
Many new conjunctions and other connective words appeared during the ME period:
bothe…and, , numerous connectives developed from adverbs and pronouns – who,
what, which etc. In the 16-17 cs/ the structure of the sentence became more
complicated and was further perfected in the 18th c.
So, The syntax of Old English was much more flexible than modern English
because of the declensions of the nouns. But there were certain rules. Word-order
was not completely free. The case endings told the function of the word in the
sentence, so word order was not very important. But as the stress began to move to
the first syllable of words, the endings were not pronounced as clearly and began to
diminish from the language. So in modern English, word order is very important
because we no longer have declensions to show case distinctions. Instead we use
prepositions. The general word order was subject - verb - object, but it did vary in a
few instances:
1. When an object is a pronoun, it often precedes the verb.
2. When a sentence begins with an adverb, the subject often follows the verb.
3. The verb often comes at the end of a subordinate clause.
Let’s scan the examples:
SVO order:
He (S) hæfde (V) þa (O) [i.e. Hamtunscire] oþ he (S) ofslog (V) þone aldormon
(O).
(He had it [i.e. Hampshire] until he killed the ealdorman)
VSO order:
Þa geascode (V) he (S) þone cyning (O)
(Then he discovered the king)
OSV order:
Hiene (O) þa (S) on Andred adræfde (V)
(Cynewulf then drove him into [the forest] Andred)
VOS order:
Ða on morgenne gehierdun (V) þæt (O) þæs cyninges þegnas (S)
(Then in the morning the kings thegns heard that)
Thus you can find that word-order wasn’t free. The sentences were structured.
You can see the development of word-order in Old English. And structure SVO was
distinct in Middle English, because in that period there were fewer inflections to
mark the function of words in a sentence, there was less variation of standard patterns
than in Old English. Though writers of verse had more freedom than prose writers to
alter the word order for stylistic or metrical effects, provided that the relationship
between the words was clear from grammatical form or context. In any way English
syntax changed drastically during the Middle English period. The changes in syntax
were hastened by the aftermath of the Norman Conquest, but they were not a result of
contact with the French language, and they did not happen overnight.
The English language vocabulary. Dialects. Borrowings. (8th lecture)
Old English should not be regarded as a single monolithic entity just as Modern
English is also not monolithic. It emerged over time out of the many dialects and
languages of the colonising tribes, and it was not until the later Anglo-Saxon period
that they fused together into Old English. Even then it continued to exhibit local
language variation, the remnants of which continue to be found in dialects of Modern
English. Thus it is misleading, for example, to consider Old English as having a
single sound system. Rather, there were multiple Old English sound systems. Old
English has variation along regional lines as well as variation across different times.
For example, the language attested in Wessex during the time of Æthelwold of
Winchester, which is named Late West Saxon (or Æthelwoldian Saxon), is
considerably different from the language attested in Wessex during the time of Alfred
the Great's court, which is named Early West Saxon (or Classical West Saxon or
Alfredian Saxon). Furthermore, the difference between Early West Saxon and Late
West Saxon is of such a nature that Late West Saxon is not directly descended from
Early West Saxon (despite what the similarity in name implies).
The four main dialectal forms of Old English were Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish,
and West Saxon. Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom
on the island. Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the
Vikings during the 9th century. The portion of Mercia that was successfully defended
and all of Kent were then integrated into Wessex.
After the process of unification of the diverse Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 878 by
Alfred the Great, there is a marked decline in the importance of regional dialects.
This is not because they stopped existing; regional dialects continued even after that
time to this day, as evidenced both by the existence of Middle and Modern English
dialects later on, and by common sense—people do not spontaneously adopt another
dialect when there is a sudden change of political power.
However, the bulk of the surviving documents from the Anglo-Saxon period are
written in the dialect of Wessex, Alfred's kingdom. It seems likely that with
consolidation of power, it became necessary to standardise the language of
government to reduce the difficulty of administering the more remote areas of the
kingdom. As a result, documents were written in the West Saxon dialect. Not only
this, but Alfred was passionate about the spread of the vernacular, and brought many
scribes to his region from Mercia to record previously unwritten texts.
The Church was affected likewise, especially since Alfred initiated an ambitious
programme to translate religious materials into English. To retain his patronage and
ensure the widest circulation of the translated materials, the monks and priests
engaged in the programme worked in his dialect. Alfred himself seems to have
translated books out of Latin and into English, notably Pope Gregory I's treatise on
administration, Pastoral Care.
Because of the centralisation of power and the Viking invasions, there is little or no
written evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after Alfred's
unification.
Thomas Spencer Baynes claimed in 1856 that, due to its position at the heart of the
Kingdom of Wessex, the relics of Anglo-Saxon accent, idiom and vocabulary were
best preserved in the Somerset dialect.
During the Middle English period (roughly 1100–1500) the English language is
characterized by a complete lack of a standard variety. By contrast, during much of
the Old English period, the West Saxon dialect had enjoyed a position as a written
standard, and the transition to Early Modern English is marked by the emergence of
the middle class dialect of London as the new standard variety of the language.
The lack of a written standard in Middle English is a natural consequence of the low
status of English during this period. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the ruling
classes spoke (Norman) French, while English lived on as the spoken language of the
lower classes. In the absence of a high-prestige variety of English which might serve
as a target for writers of English, each writer simply used his own variety of the
language.
The Middle English dialects can be divided into five major groups:
 South-Western (SW) (or simply Southern), a continuation of OE West
Saxon;
 South-Eastern (SE) (or Kentish, though it extended into neighbouring
counties as well), a continuation of OE Kentish;
 East Midland (EM), in the eastern part of the OE Mercian area;
 West Midland (WM), in the western part of the OE Mercian area;
 Northern (N), north of the Humber.
In general, southern Middle English dialects tend to be more conservative (i.e.
preserve more of the phonological and morphological features of Old English) and
northern dialects more progressive. The same difference can be discerned between
the southern and northern parts of the East and West Midland dialect areas. This is
particularly noticeable in the case of the West Midland dialect, which is primarily
preserved in two major text groups. One of these is early (c. 1220) and from the
southern part of the West Midland area (represented here by Ancrene Riwle); the
other one is later (c. 1375) and from the northern part of the West Midland area
(represented here by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight). The language variants of the
two text groups differ in many respects, the early group having much in common
with the South-Western dialect, the later group having more in common with the
Northern dialect.
Middle English dialect differences can be of three types:
 phonological: the recognition of the Middle English dialects listed above is
primarily based on phonological differences, i.e. on the extent to which various
sound changes took place before or during the Middle English period in
different parts of England.
 morphological: clear dialect differences can be found in the forms of the
verb be, in present tense verb inflexion, and in various pronominal forms.
 lexical: the proportion of words of Scandinavian origin varies considerably,
being highest in texts from areas with Scandinavian settlements during the Old
English period (the Danelaw), i.e. chiefly the East Midland and Northern areas.
By contrast, French loanwords, which entered the English language on a large
scale only after the upper classes started using English again, do not serve to
distinguish Middle English dialects. Instead, the proportion of such words
varies with time, being higher in later texts. Information about the origin of
individual words in the texts will be found in the glossaries.
Speaking about borrowings. Borrowings
OE: loan-words were not so frequent in OE. They are Celtic and Latin. Celtic
element is not very significant and is mainly reduced to the following: dūn (down)
dun (dun – настойчивый, тускло-коричневый), binn (bin – мусорное ведро).
These may occur as separate words, but a great many are found only as elements of
place-names, and some common names of people are of Celtic origin – Arthur
(noble), Donald (proud), Kennedy (ugly head). Latin words in OE are usually
classified into two layers. Some were taken into Germanic languages in pre-British
period, these words are found in many Germanic languages, and are so assimilated
now that only a specialist can trace their origin: cealc – chalk – Lat. Calcium, castel-
castle – Lat. Castellum, disc – dish – Lat. Discus . Traditionally to this first layer we refer
the place names containing Latin stems: cester – Lat. Castra (camp) – Chester, Manchester… The
second layer of the Latin borrowings is connected with the introduction of Christianity, and denotes
religious notions plus some notions connected with the cultural and social phenomena which
appeared in society after this event. A significant portion of religious terms are not specifically
Latin, for they were borrowed into it from Greek:
OE NE Latin Greek
apostol apostle apostolus Apostolos
deofol devil diabolus diabolos
Some borrowed stems came easily into the word-building system of the language,
forming The Hybrids. (Lat)Biscop-(Germ)hād – bishophood. (епископство,
духовенство), translation-loans are also found in the names of days of the week.
Nowadays all the grammatical terms in English are replaced by words of Latin origin.
ME: The changes were mainly quantitative . this is the period when new words and
new morphemes were actively borrowed and promptly assimilated grammatically.
This made the vocabulary of the late ME quite different from that of the Germanic
languages. French borrowings were especially numerous. Some spheres of life were
for years controlled by French speaking elite. In some cases the borrowings ousted
(вытеснять) native English words, but frequently they coexisted. (bailiff – судебный
пристав, council, attorney, crime, army, lieutenant, victory, confession etc.) These
were the words of such spheres as: town crafts, school, leisure and pleasure (carol,
charm), military terminology, religious terminology, words of everyday usage: aunt,
cousin etc. The names of domestic animals remain of native origin, for they lived in
the country and English shepherd take care of them but the names of meat of these
animals were borrowed mutton, pork, beef, even butcher. Actually words of French
origin were found practically everywhere. French borrowings have the status of
literary words. But no matter how drastic were the innovations, the majority of the
everyday words remain native.
Written records. The national literary language. (9th lecture)

Lectures History of English

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Lectures History of English

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1. The object of the History of English. History of English as a science.

1. The object of the History of English. History of English as a science. Periods

2. English phonetics diachronic approach. Word-stress. Vowels. Consonants.

e →eo, a→ea, æ→ea

2) Palatal mutation – back sound (for example a or o) changes its quality if

(sandian →sendan (to send) sallian →sellan (to sell)).

6) Contraction (сжатие) h interfered with the development of sounds. When H

So the most significant change was monophthongization of OE diphthongs.

Consonants (3d lecture)

The writing system changed dramatically in Middle English:

 þ and ð were replaced by th (and sometimes y, as in ye meaning the)

Noun (4th lecture)

Masculine Neuter Feminine

Nominative -- -as -- -u / -- -u / -- -a, -e

Genitive -es -a -es -a -e -a

Dative -e -um -e -um -e -um

-Accusative -- -as -- -u / -- -e -a, -e

Stone- stān (m) Ship – scip (n) tale – talu (f)

Masculine Neuter Feminine

Masculine Neuter Feminine

Nominative -a -an -e -an -e -an

Genitive -an -ena, -a -an -ena, -a -an -ena, -a

Dative -an -um -an -um -an -um

Accusative -an -an -e -an -an -an

Example declension of nama 'name', ēage 'eye', and tunge 'tongue'

Masculine Neuter Feminine

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

Conjugation Pronoun 'steal'

Imperative Singular stel

Past Participle stolen

ic swebbe hǣle sīðie

ic cann mæg sceal wāt āh deah dearr man þearf mōt

wē/gē/hīe cūðon meahton sceoldon wisson, wiston

Past ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo cūðe meahte sceolde wisse, wiste

ic/hē/hit/hēo dyde ēode wolde

ic eom bēo wese

Present Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo sīe bēo wese

Past Subjunctive ic/þū/hē/hit/hēo – – wǣre

Imperative (singular) – bēo wes

Pronoun. Adjective. Numerals. Adverb. (6th lectures)

heard ‘hard, fierce’ heardra heardost

eald ‘old’ ieldra ieldest

gōd ‘good’ betera betst

Example of the Weak Adjective Declension: gōd 'good'

Ordinal numerals use the suffix -ta or -þa, etymologically a common Indo-European

Syntax diachronic approach. Structure of the sentence. Simple sentence.

Written records. The national literary language. (9th lecture)

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