OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR ANDEXERCISE BOOK.

OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR ANDEXERCISE BOOK.----PART I.----INTRODUCTION.----CHAPTER I.History.1.The history of the English language falls naturally into three periods; but these periods blend into one another so gradually that too much significance must not be attached to the exact dates which scholars, chiefly for convenience of treatment, have assigned as their limits. Our language, it is true, has undergone many and great changes; but its continuity has never been broken, and its individuality has never been lost.2.The first of these periods is that ofOld English, orAnglo-Saxon,1commonly known as the period offullinflections.E.g.stān-as,stones;car-u,care;will-a,will;bind-an,to bind;help-að(=ath),they help.It extends from the arrival of the English in Great Britain to about one hundred years after the Norman Conquest,—fromA.D.449 to 1150; but there are no literary remains of the earlier centuries of this period. There were four2distinct dialects spoken at this time. These were the Northumbrian, spoken north of the river Humber; the Mercian, spoken in the midland region between the Humber and the Thames; the West Saxon, spoken south and west of the Thames; and the Kentish, spoken in the neighborhood of Canterbury. Of these dialects, Modern English is most nearly akin to the Mercian; but the best known of them is the West Saxon. It was in the West Saxon dialect that King Alfred (849-901) wrote and spoke. His writings belong to the period of Early West Saxon as distinguished from the period of Late West Saxon, the latter being best represented in the writings of Abbot Ælfric (955?-1025?).3.The second period is that ofMiddle English, or the period ofleveled inflections, the dominant vowel of the inflections beinge.E.g.ston-es,car-e,will-e,bind-en(orbind-e),help-eth, each being, as in the earlier period, a dissyllable.The Middle English period extends fromA.D.1150 to 1500. Its greatest representatives are Chaucer (1340-1400) in poetry and Wiclif (1324-1384) in prose. There were three prominent dialects during this period: the Northern, corresponding to the older Northumbrian; the Midland(divided into East Midland and West Midland), corresponding to the Mercian; and the Southern, corresponding to the West Saxon and Kentish. London, situated in East Midland territory, had become the dominant speech center; and it was this East Midland dialect that both Chaucer and Wiclif employed.Note.—It is a great mistake to think that Chaucer shaped our language from crude materials. His influence was conservative, not plastic. The popularity of his works tended to crystalize and thus to perpetuate the forms of the East Midland dialect, but that dialect was ready to his hand before he began to write. The speech of London was, in Chaucer’s time, a mixture of Southern and Midland forms, but the Southern forms (survivals of the West Saxon dialect) had already begun to fall away; and this they continued to do, so that “Chaucer’s language,” as Dr. Murray says, “is more Southern than standard English eventually became.” See also Morsbach,Ueber den Ursprung der neuenglischen Schriftsprache(1888).4.The last period is that ofModern English, or the period oflost inflections.E.g.stones,care,will,bind,help, each being a monosyllable. Modern English extends fromA.D.1500 to the present time. It has witnessed comparatively few grammatical changes, but the vocabulary of our language has been vastly increased by additions from the classical languages. Vowels, too, have shifted their values.5.It is the object of this book to give an elementary knowledge of Early West Saxon, that is, the language of King Alfred. With this knowledge, it will not be difficult for the student to read Late West Saxon, or any other dialect of the Old English period. Such knowledge will also serve as the best introduction to the structure both of Middle English and of Modern English, besides laying a secure foundation for the scientific study of any other Germanic tongue.Note.—The Germanic, or Teutonic, languages constitute a branch of the great Aryan, or Indo-Germanic (known also as the Indo-European) group. They are subdivided as follows:Germanic|North Germanic: Scandinavian, or Norse.East Germanic: Gothic.|Old High German,(toA.D.1100,)|High GermanMiddle High German,(A.D.1100–1500,)|West Germanic|New High German,(A.D.1500–.)|Low German|Dutch,Old Saxon,|Frisian,English.1.This unfortunate nomenclature is due to the termAngli Saxones, which Latin writers used as a designation for the English Saxons as distinguished from the continental or Old Saxons. But Alfred and Ælfric both use the termEnglisc, not Anglo-Saxon. The Angles spread over Northumbria and Mercia, far outnumbering the other tribes. ThusEnglisc(=Angel+isc) became the general name for the language spoken.2.As small as England is, there are six distinct dialects spoken in her borders to-day. Of these the Yorkshire dialect is, perhaps, the most peculiar. It preserves many Northumbrian survivals. See Tennyson’sNorthern Farmer.----CHAPTER II.Sounds.Vowels and Diphthongs.6.The long vowels and diphthongs will in this book be designated by the macron (–). Vowel length should in every case be associated by the student with each word learned: quantity alone sometimes distinguishes words meaning wholly different things:fōr,he went,for,for;gōd,good,God,God;mān,crime,man,man.Long vowels and diphthongs:āas in father:stān,a stone.ǣas in man (prolonged):slǣpan,to sleep.ēas in they:hēr,here.īas in machine:mīn,mine.ōas in note (pure, not diphthongal):bōc,book.ūas in rule:tūn,town.ȳas in German grün, or English green (with lips rounded):1brȳd,bride.The diphthongs, long and short, have the stress upon the first vowel. The second vowel is obscured, and represents approximately the sound oferinsooner,faster(=soon-uh,fast-uh). The long diphthongs (ǣis not a diphthong proper) areēo,īe, andēa. The sound ofēois approximately reproduced inmayor(=mā-uh); that ofīein the dissyllabic pronunciation offear(=fē-uh). Butēa=ǣ-uh. This diphthong is hardly to be distinguished fromeainpear,bear, etc., as pronounced in the southern section of the United States (=bæ-uh,pæ-uh).7.The short sounds are nothing more than the long vowels and diphthongs shortened; but the student must at once rid himself of the idea that Modern Englishred, for example, is the shortened form ofreed, or thatmatis the shortened form ofmate. Pronounce these long sounds with increasing rapidity, andreedwill approachrid, whilematewill approachmet. The Old English short vowel sounds are:aas inartistic:habban,to have.æas in mankind:dæg,day.e,ęas in let:stelan,to steal,sęttan,to set.ias in sit:hit,it.oas in broad (but shorter):God,God.ǫas in not:lǫmb,lamb.uas in full:sunu,son.yas in miller (with lips rounded)1:gylden,golden.Note.—The symbolęis known asumlaut-e(§58). It stands for Germanica, whilee(without the cedilla) represents Germanice. The symbolǫis employed only beforemandn. It, too, represents Germanica. But Alfred writesmanigormonig,many;lamborlomb,lamb;handorhond,hand, etc. The cedilla is an etymological sign added by modern grammarians.The letters ę and ǫ were printed as shown in this e-text. The diacritic is not a cedilla (open to the left) but an ogonek (open to the right).Consonants.8.There is little difference between the values of Old English consonants and those of Modern English. The following distinctions, however, require notice:The digraphthis represented in Old English texts byðandþ, no consistent distinction being made between them. In the works of Alfred,ð(capital,Ð) is the more common:ðās,those;ðæt,that;bindeð,he binds.The consonantchad the hard sound ofk, the latter symbol being rare in West Saxon:cyning,king;cwēn,queen;cūð,known. When followed by a palatal vowel sound,—e,i,æ,ea,eo, long or short,—a vanishingysound was doubtless interposed (cf.dialectickyindforkind). In Modern English the combination has passed intoch:cealc,chalk;cīdan,to chide;lǣce,leech;cild,child;cēowan,to chew. This change (c>ch) is known as Palatalization. The letterg, pronounced as in Modern Englishgun, has also a palatal value before the palatal vowels (cf.dialecticgyirlforgirl).The combinationcg, which frequently stands forgg, had probably the sound ofdgein Modern Englishedge:ęcg,edge;sęcgan,to say;brycg,bridge.Initialhis sounded as in Modern English:habban,to have;hālga,saint. When closing a syllable it has the sound of Germanch:slōh,he slew;hēah,high;ðurh,through.9.An important distinction is that between voiced (or sonant) and voiceless (or surd) consonants.2In Old English they are as follows:Voiced.Voiceless.gh,cdtð,þ(as inthough)ð,þ(as inthin)bpf(= v)fs(= z)sIt is evident, therefore, thatð(þ),f, andshave double values in Old English. If voiced, they are equivalent toth(inthough),v, andz. Otherwise, they are pronounced asth(inthin),f(infin), ands(insin). The syllabic environment will usually compel the student to give these letters their proper values. When occurring between vowels, they are always voiced:ōðer,other;ofer,over;rīsan,to rise.Note.—The general rule in Old English, as in Modern English, is, that voiced consonants have a special affinity for other voiced consonants, and voiceless for voiceless. This is the law of Assimilation. Thus whendeis added to form the preterit of a verb whose stemends in a voiceless consonant, thedis unvoiced, or assimilated, tot:sęttan,to set,sętte(buttręddan,to tread, hastrędde);slǣpan,to sleep,slǣpte;dręncan,to drench,dręncte;cyssan,to kiss,cyste. See§126, Note 1.Syllables.10.A syllable is usually a vowel, either alone or in combination with consonants, uttered with a single impulse of stress; but certain consonants may form syllables:oven(=ov-n),battle(=bæt-l); (cf.also the vulgar pronunciation ofelm).A syllable may be (1) weak or strong, (2) open or closed, (3) long or short.(1) A weak syllable receives a light stress. Its vowel sound is often different from that of the corresponding strong, or stressed, syllable.Cf.weak and strongmyin “I want my lárge hat” and “I want mý hat.”(2) An open syllable ends in a vowel or diphthong:dē-man,to deem;ðū,thou;sca-can,to shake;dæ-ges,by day. A closed syllable ends in one or more consonants:ðing,thing;gōd,good;glæd,glad.(3) A syllable is long (a) if it contains a long vowel or a long diphthong:drī-fan,to drive;lū-can,to lock;slǣ-pan,to sleep;cēo-san,to choose; (b) if its vowel or diphthong is followed by more than one consonant:3cræft,strength;heard,hard;lib-ban,to live;feal-lan,to fall. Otherwise, the syllable is short:ðe,which;be-ran,to bear;ðæt,that;gie-fan,to give.Note 1.—A single consonant belongs to the following syllable:hā-lig,holy(nothāl-ig);wrī-tan,to write;fæ-der,father.Note 2.—The student will notice that the syllable may be long and the vowel short; but the vowel cannot be long and the syllable short.Note 3.—Old English short vowels, occurring in open syllables, have regularly become long in Modern English:we-fan,to weave;e-tan,to eat;ma-cian,to make;na-cod,naked;a-can,to ache;o-fer,over. And Old English long vowels, preceding two or more consonants, have generally been shortened:brēost,breast;hǣlð,health;slǣpte,slept;lǣdde,led.Accentuation.11.The accent in Old English falls usually on the radical syllable, never on the inflectional ending:bríngan,to bring;stā́nas,stones;bérende,bearing;ī́delnes,idleness;frḗondscipe,friendship.But in the case of compound nouns, adjectives, and adverbs the first member of the compound (unless it bege-orbe-) receives the stronger stress:héofon-rīce,heaven-kingdom;ǫ́nd-giet,intelligence;sṓð-fæst,truthful;gód-cund,divine;éall-unga,entirely;blī́ðe-līce,blithely. Butbe-hā́t,promise;ge-béd,prayer;ge-fḗalīc,joyous;be-sǫ́ne,immediately.Compound verbs, however, have the stress on the radical syllable:for-gíefan,to forgive;of-línnan,to cease;ā-cnā́wan,to know;wið-stǫ́ndan,to withstand;on-sácan,to resist.Note.—The tendency of nouns to take the stress on the prefix, while verbs retain it on the root, is exemplified in many Modern English words:préference,prefér;cóntract(noun),contráct(verb);ábstinence,abstaín;pérfume(noun),perfúme(verb).1.Vowels are said to be round, or rounded, when the lip-opening is rounded; that is, when the lips are thrust out and puckered as if preparing to pronouncew. Thusoanduare round vowels: add-ingto each, and phonetically you have added-wing.E.g. gowing,suwing.2.A little practice will enable the student to see the appropriateness of calling these consonants voiced and voiceless. Try to pronounce a voiced consonant,—dinden, for example, but without the assistance ofen,—and there will be heard a gurgle, orvocalmurmur. But int, often, there is no sound at all, but only a feeling of tension in the organs.3.Taken separately, every syllable ending in a single consonant is long. It may be said, therefore, that all closed syllables are long; but in the natural flow of language, the single final consonant of a syllable so often blends with a following initial vowel, the syllable thus becoming open and short, that such syllables are not recognized as prevailingly long.Cf.Modern Englishat all(=a-tall).----CHAPTER III.Inflections.Cases.12.There are five cases in Old English: the nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative, and the instrumental.1Each of them, except the nominative, may be governed by prepositions. When used without prepositions, they have, in general, the following functions:(a) The nominative, as in Modern English, is the case of the subject of a finite verb.(b) The genitive (the possessive case of Modern English) is the case of the possessor or source. It may be called theofcase.(c) The dative is the case of the indirect object. It may be called thetoorforcase.(d) The accusative (the objective case of Modern English) is the case of the direct object.(e) The instrumental, which rarely differs from the dative in form, is the case of the means or the method. It may be called thewithorbycase.The following paradigm ofmūð,the mouth, illustrates the several cases (the article being, for the present, gratuitously added in the Modern English equivalents):Singular.Plural.N.mūð=the mouth.mūð-as=the mouths.G.mūð-es2=of the mouth(=the mouth’s).mūð-a=of the mouths(=the mouths’).D.mūð-e=toorfor the mouth.mūð-um=toorfor the mouths.A.mūð=the mouth.mūð-as=the mouths.I.mūðe=withorby means of the mouth.mūð-um=withorby means of the mouths.Gender.13.The gender of Old English nouns, unlike that of Modern English, depends partly on meaning and partly on form, or ending. Thusmūð,mouth, is masculine;tunge,tongue, feminine;ēage,eye, neuter.No very comprehensive rules, therefore, can be given; but the gender of every noun should be learned with its meaning. Gender will be indicated in the vocabularies by the different gender forms of the definite article,sēfor the masculine,sēofor the feminine, andðætfor the neuter:sē mūð,sēo tunge,ðæt ēage=the mouth,the tongue,the eye.All nouns ending in-dōm,-hād,-scipe, or-ereare masculine (cf.Modern English wisdom, childhood, friendship, worker). Masculine, also, are nouns ending in-a.Those ending in-nesor-ungare feminine (cf.ModernEnglish goodness, and gerundial forms in-ing: seeingis believing).Thussē wīsdōm,wisdom;sē cildhād,childhood;sē frēondscipe,friendship;sē fiscere,fisher(man);sē hunta,hunter;sēo gelīcnes,likeness;sēo leornung,learning.Declensions.14.There are two great systems of declension in Old English, the Vowel Declension and the Consonant Declension. A noun is said to belong to the Vowel Declension when the final letter of its stem is a vowel, this vowel being then known as thestem-characteristic; but if the stem-characteristic is a consonant, the noun belongs to the Consonant Declension. There might have been, therefore, as many subdivisions of the Vowel Declension in Old English as there were vowels, and as many subdivisions of the Consonant Declension as there were consonants. All Old English nouns, however, belonging to the Vowel Declension, ended their stems originally ina,ō,i, oru. Hence there are but four subdivisions of the Vowel Declension:a-stems,ō-stems,i-stems, andu-stems.The Vowel Declension is commonly called the Strong Declension, and its nouns Strong Nouns.Note.—The terms Strong and Weak were first used by Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) in the terminology of verbs, and thence transferred to nouns and adjectives. By a Strong Verb, Grimm meant one that could form its preterit out of its own resources; that is, without calling in the aid of an additional syllable: Modern Englishrun,ran;find,found; but verbs of the Weak Conjugation had to borrow, as it were, an inflectional syllable:gain,gained;help,helped.15.The stems of nouns belonging to the Consonant Declension ended, with but few exceptions, in the lettern(cf.Latinhomin-em,ration-em, Greekποιμέν-α). They are called, therefore,n-stems, the Declension itself being known as then-Declension, or the Weak Declension. The nouns, also, are called Weak Nouns.16.If every Old English noun had preserved the original Germanic stem-characteristic (or final letter of the stem), there would be no difficulty in deciding at once whether any given noun is ana-stem,ō-stem,i-stem,u-stem, orn-stem; but these final letters had, for the most part, either been dropped, or fused with the case-endings, long before the period of historic Old English. It is only, therefore, by a rigid comparison of the Germanic languages with one another, and with the other Aryan languages, that scholars are able to reconstruct a single Germanic language, in which the original stem-characteristics may be seen far better than in any one historic branch of the Germanic group (§5, Note).This hypothetical language, which bears the same ancestral relation to the historic Germanic dialects that Latin bears to the Romance tongues, is known simply asGermanic(Gmc.), or asPrimitive Germanic. Ability to reconstruct Germanic forms is not expected of the students of this book, but the following table should be examined as illustrating the basis of distinction among the several Old English declensions (O.E. = Old English, Mn.E. = Modern English):{{Gmc.staina-z,(1)a-stemsO.E.stān,Mn.E.stone.I. Strongor VowelDeclensions{Gmc.hallō,(2)ō-stemsO.E.heall,Mn.E.hall.{Gmc.bōni-z,(3)i-stemsO.E.bēn,Mn.E.boon.{Gmc.sunu-z,{(4)u-stemsO.E.sunu,Mn.E.son.{(1)n-stems(Weak Declension){Gmc.tungōn-iz,O.E.tung-an,Mn.E.tongue-s.II. ConsonantDeclensions(2) Remnantsof otherConsonantDeclensions{{Gmc.fōt-iz,(a)O.E.fēt,Mn.E.feet.{Gmc.frijōnd-iz,(b)O.E.frīend,Mn.E.friend-s.{Gmc.brōðr-iz,{{(c)O.E.brōðor,Mn.E.brother-s.Note.—“It will be seen that if Old Englishēage,eye, is said to be ann-stem, what is meant is this, that at some former period the kernel of the word ended in-n, while, as far as the Old English language proper is concerned, all that is implied is that the word is inflected in a certain manner.” (Jespersen,Progress in Language, § 109).This is true of all Old English stems, whether Vowel or Consonant. The division, therefore, intoa-stems,ō-stems, etc., is made in the interests of grammar as well as of philology.Conjugations.17.There are, likewise, two systems of conjugation in Old English: the Strong or Old Conjugation, and the Weak or New Conjugation.The verbs of the Strong Conjugation (the so-called Irregular Verbs of Modern English) number about three hundred, of which not one hundred remain in Modern English (§101, Note). They form their preterit and frequently their past participle by changing the radical vowel of the present stem. This vowel change or modification is calledablaut(pronouncedáhp-lowt): Modern Englishsing, sang, sung;rise, rose, risen. As the radical vowel of the preterit plural is often different from that of the preterit singular, there are fourprincipal partsortense stemsin an Old English strong verb, instead of the three of Modern English. The four principal parts in the conjugation of a strong verb are (1) the present indicative, (2) the preterit indicative singular, (3) the preterit indicative plural, and (4) the past participle.Strong verbs fall into seven groups, illustrated in the following table:Present.Pret. Sing.Pret. Plur.Past Participle.I.Bītan,to bite:Ic bīt-e,I biteorshall bite.3Ic bāt,I bit.Wē bit-on,we bit.Ic hæbbe ge4-biten,I have bitten.II.Bēodan,to bid:Ic bēod-e,I bidorshall bid.Ic bēad,I bade.Wē bud-on,we bade.Ic hæbbe ge-boden,I have bidden.III.Bindan,to bind:Ic bind-e,I bind or shall bind.Ic bǫnd,I bound.Wē bund-on,we bound.Ic hæbbe ge-bund-en,I have bound.IV.Beran,to bear:Ic ber-e,I bearorshall bear.Ic bær,I bore.Wē bǣr-on,we bore.Ic hæbbe ge-bor-en,I have borne.V.Metan,to measure:Ic met-e,I measureorshall measure.Ic mæt,I measured.Wē mǣt-on,we measured.Ic hæbbe ge-met-en,I have measured.VI.Faran,to go:Ic far-e,I goorshall go.Ic fōr,I went.Wē fōr-on,we went.Ic eom5ge-far-en,I have(am)gone.VII.Feallan,to fall:Ic feall-e,I fallorshall fall.Ic fēoll,I fell.Wē fēoll-on,we fell.Ic eom5ge-feall-en,I have(am)fallen.18.The verbs of the Weak Conjugation (the so-called Regular Verbs of Modern English) form their preteritand past participle by adding to the present stem a suffix6withdort: Modern Englishlove,loved;sleep,slept.The stem of the preterit plural is never different from the stem of the preterit singular; hence these verbs have only three distinctive tense-stems, or principal parts:viz., (1) the present indicative, (2) the preterit indicative, and (3) the past participle.Weak verbs fall into three groups, illustrated in the following table:Present.Preterit.Past Participle.I.Fręmman,to perform:Ic fręmm-e,I performorshall perform.Ic fręm-ede,I performed.Ic hæbbe ge-fręm-ed,I have performed.II.Bodian,to proclaim:Ic bodi-e,I proclaimorshall proclaim.Ic bod-ode,I proclaimed.Ic hæbbe ge-bod-od,I have proclaimed.III.Habban,to have:Ic hæbbe,I haveorshall have.Ic hæf-de,I had.Ic hæbbe ge-hæf-d,I have had.19.There remain a few verbs (chiefly the Auxiliary Verbs of Modern English) that do not belong entirely to either of the two conjugations mentioned. The most important of them are,Ic mægI may,Ic mihteI might;Ic cǫnI can,Ic cūðeI could;Ic mōtI must,Ic mōsteImust;Ic scealI shall,Ic sceoldeI should;Ic eomI am,Ic wæsI was;Ic willeI will,Ic woldeI would;Ic dōI do,Ic dydeI did;Ic gāI go,Ic ēodeI went.All but the last four of these are known as Preterit-Present Verbs. The present tense of each of them isin origina preterit,in functiona present.Cf.Modern Englishought(=owed).1.Most grammars add a sixth case, the vocative. But it seems best to consider the vocative as only afunctionof the nominativeform.2.Of course our “apostrophe ands” (=’s) comes from the Old English genitive ending-es. Theeis preserved inWednesday(= Old EnglishWōdnes dæg). But at a very early period it was thought thatJohn’s book, for example, was a shortened form ofJohn his book. Thus Addison (Spectator, No. 135) declares’sa survival ofhis. How, then, would he explain thesofhis? And how would he dispose ofMary’s book?3.Early West Saxon had no distinctive form for the future. The present was used both as present proper and as future.Cf.Modern English “I go home tomorrow,” or “I am going home tomorrow” for “I shall go home tomorrow.”4.The prefixge-(Middle Englishy-), cognate with Latinco(con) and implying completeness of action, was not always used. It never occurs in the past participles of compound verbs:oþ-feallan,to fall off, past participleoþ-feallen(notoþ-gefeallen). Milton errs in prefixing it to a present participle:“What needs my Shakespeare, for his honour’d bones,The labour of an age in piled stones?Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hidUnder a star-ypointingpyramid.”—Epitaph on William Shakespeare.And Shakespeare misuses it in “Y-ravished,” a preterit (PericlesIII,Prologuel. 35).It survives in the archaicy-clept(Old Englishge-clypod, called). It appears asainaware(Old Englishge-wær), aseinenough(Old Englishge-nōh), and asiinhandiwork(Old Englishhand-ge-weorc).5.With intransitive verbs denotingchange of condition, the Old English auxiliary is usually some form ofto berather thanto have. See§139.6.The theory thatloved, for example, is a fused form oflove-didhas been generally given up. The dental ending was doubtless an Indo-Germanic suffix, which became completely specialized only in the Teutonic languages.----CHAPTER IV.Order of Words.20.The order of words in Old English is more like that of Modern German than of Modern English. Yet it is only the Transposed order that the student will feel to be at all un-English; and the Transposed order, even before the period of the Norman Conquest, was fast yielding place to the Normal order.The three divisions of order are (1) Normal, (2) Inverted, and (3) Transposed.(1) Normal order = subject + predicate. In Old English, the Normal order is found chiefly in independent clauses. The predicate is followed by its modifiers:Sē hwæl bið micle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas,That whale is much smaller than other whales;Ǫnd hē geseah twā scipu,And he saw two ships.(2) Inverted order = predicate + subject. This order occurs also in independent clauses, and is employed (a) when some modifier of the predicate precedes the predicate, the subject being thrown behind. Thewords most frequently causing Inversion in Old English prose areþāthen,þonnethen, andþǣrthere:Ðā fōr hē,Then went he;Ðonne ærnað hȳ ealle tōweard þǣm fēo,Then gallop they all toward the property;ac þǣr bið medo genōh,but there is mead enough.Inversion is employed (b) in interrogative sentences:Lufast ðū mē?Lovest thou me?and (c) in imperative sentences:Cume ðīn rīce,Thy kingdom come.(3) Transposed order = subject ... predicate. That is, the predicate comes last in the sentence, being preceded by its modifiers. This is the order observed in dependent clauses:1Ðonne cymeð sē man sē þæt swiftoste hors hafað,Then comes the man that has the swiftest horse(literally,that the swiftest horse has);Ne mētte hē ǣr nān gebūn land, siþþan hē frǫm his āgnum hām fōr,Nor did he before find any cultivated land, after he went from his own home(literally,after he from his own home went).21.Two other peculiarities in the order of words require a brief notice.(1) Pronominal datives and accusatives usually precede the predicate:Hē hine oferwann,He overcame him(literally,He him overcame);Dryhten him andwyrde,The Lord answered him. But substantival datives and accusatives, as in Modern English, follow the predicate.The following sentence illustrates both orders:Hȳ genāmon Ioseph, ǫnd hine gesealdon cīpemǫnnum, ǫnd hȳ hine gesealdon in Ēgypta lǫnd,They took Joseph, and sold him to merchants, and they sold him into Egypt(literally,They took Joseph, and him sold to merchants, and they him sold into Egyptians’ land).Note.—The same order prevails in the case of pronominal nominatives used as predicate nouns:Ic hit eom,It is I(literally,I it am);Ðū hit eart,It is thou(literally,Thou it art).(2) The attributive genitive, whatever relationship it expresses, usually precedes the noun which it qualifies:Breoton is gārsecges īgland,Britain is an island of the ocean(literally,ocean’s island);Swilce hit is ēac berende on węcga ōrum,Likewise it is also rich in ores of metals(literally,metals’ ores);Cyninga cyning,King of kings(literally,Kings’ king);Gē witon Godes rīces gerȳne,Ye know the mystery of the kingdom of God(literally,Ye know God’s kingdom’s mystery).A preposition governing the word modified by the genitive, precedes the genitive:2On ealdra manna sægenum,In old men’s sayings;Æt ðǣra strǣta ęndum,At the ends of the streets(literally,At the streets’ ends);For ealra ðīnra hālgena lufan,For all thy saints’ love. See, also,§94, (5).

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The history of the English language falls naturally into three periods; but these periods blend into one another so gradually that too much significance must not be attached to the exact dates which scholars, chiefly for convenience of treatment, have assigned as their limits. Our language, it is true, has undergone many and great changes; but its continuity has never been broken, and its individuality has never been lost.

The first of these periods is that ofOld English, orAnglo-Saxon,1commonly known as the period offullinflections.E.g.stān-as,stones;car-u,care;will-a,will;bind-an,to bind;help-að(=ath),they help.

It extends from the arrival of the English in Great Britain to about one hundred years after the Norman Conquest,—fromA.D.449 to 1150; but there are no literary remains of the earlier centuries of this period. There were four2distinct dialects spoken at this time. These were the Northumbrian, spoken north of the river Humber; the Mercian, spoken in the midland region between the Humber and the Thames; the West Saxon, spoken south and west of the Thames; and the Kentish, spoken in the neighborhood of Canterbury. Of these dialects, Modern English is most nearly akin to the Mercian; but the best known of them is the West Saxon. It was in the West Saxon dialect that King Alfred (849-901) wrote and spoke. His writings belong to the period of Early West Saxon as distinguished from the period of Late West Saxon, the latter being best represented in the writings of Abbot Ælfric (955?-1025?).

The second period is that ofMiddle English, or the period ofleveled inflections, the dominant vowel of the inflections beinge.E.g.ston-es,car-e,will-e,bind-en(orbind-e),help-eth, each being, as in the earlier period, a dissyllable.

The Middle English period extends fromA.D.1150 to 1500. Its greatest representatives are Chaucer (1340-1400) in poetry and Wiclif (1324-1384) in prose. There were three prominent dialects during this period: the Northern, corresponding to the older Northumbrian; the Midland(divided into East Midland and West Midland), corresponding to the Mercian; and the Southern, corresponding to the West Saxon and Kentish. London, situated in East Midland territory, had become the dominant speech center; and it was this East Midland dialect that both Chaucer and Wiclif employed.

Note.—It is a great mistake to think that Chaucer shaped our language from crude materials. His influence was conservative, not plastic. The popularity of his works tended to crystalize and thus to perpetuate the forms of the East Midland dialect, but that dialect was ready to his hand before he began to write. The speech of London was, in Chaucer’s time, a mixture of Southern and Midland forms, but the Southern forms (survivals of the West Saxon dialect) had already begun to fall away; and this they continued to do, so that “Chaucer’s language,” as Dr. Murray says, “is more Southern than standard English eventually became.” See also Morsbach,Ueber den Ursprung der neuenglischen Schriftsprache(1888).

The last period is that ofModern English, or the period oflost inflections.E.g.stones,care,will,bind,help, each being a monosyllable. Modern English extends fromA.D.1500 to the present time. It has witnessed comparatively few grammatical changes, but the vocabulary of our language has been vastly increased by additions from the classical languages. Vowels, too, have shifted their values.

It is the object of this book to give an elementary knowledge of Early West Saxon, that is, the language of King Alfred. With this knowledge, it will not be difficult for the student to read Late West Saxon, or any other dialect of the Old English period. Such knowledge will also serve as the best introduction to the structure both of Middle English and of Modern English, besides laying a secure foundation for the scientific study of any other Germanic tongue.

Note.—The Germanic, or Teutonic, languages constitute a branch of the great Aryan, or Indo-Germanic (known also as the Indo-European) group. They are subdivided as follows:

Old High German,(toA.D.1100,)

Middle High German,(A.D.1100–1500,)

New High German,(A.D.1500–.)

1.This unfortunate nomenclature is due to the termAngli Saxones, which Latin writers used as a designation for the English Saxons as distinguished from the continental or Old Saxons. But Alfred and Ælfric both use the termEnglisc, not Anglo-Saxon. The Angles spread over Northumbria and Mercia, far outnumbering the other tribes. ThusEnglisc(=Angel+isc) became the general name for the language spoken.2.As small as England is, there are six distinct dialects spoken in her borders to-day. Of these the Yorkshire dialect is, perhaps, the most peculiar. It preserves many Northumbrian survivals. See Tennyson’sNorthern Farmer.

2.As small as England is, there are six distinct dialects spoken in her borders to-day. Of these the Yorkshire dialect is, perhaps, the most peculiar. It preserves many Northumbrian survivals. See Tennyson’sNorthern Farmer.

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The long vowels and diphthongs will in this book be designated by the macron (–). Vowel length should in every case be associated by the student with each word learned: quantity alone sometimes distinguishes words meaning wholly different things:fōr,he went,for,for;gōd,good,God,God;mān,crime,man,man.

Long vowels and diphthongs:

as in father:stān,a stone.

as in man (prolonged):slǣpan,to sleep.

as in they:hēr,here.

as in machine:mīn,mine.

as in note (pure, not diphthongal):bōc,book.

as in rule:tūn,town.

as in German grün, or English green (with lips rounded):1brȳd,bride.

The diphthongs, long and short, have the stress upon the first vowel. The second vowel is obscured, and represents approximately the sound oferinsooner,faster(=soon-uh,fast-uh). The long diphthongs (ǣis not a diphthong proper) areēo,īe, andēa. The sound ofēois approximately reproduced inmayor(=mā-uh); that ofīein the dissyllabic pronunciation offear(=fē-uh). Butēa=ǣ-uh. This diphthong is hardly to be distinguished fromeainpear,bear, etc., as pronounced in the southern section of the United States (=bæ-uh,pæ-uh).

The short sounds are nothing more than the long vowels and diphthongs shortened; but the student must at once rid himself of the idea that Modern Englishred, for example, is the shortened form ofreed, or thatmatis the shortened form ofmate. Pronounce these long sounds with increasing rapidity, andreedwill approachrid, whilematewill approachmet. The Old English short vowel sounds are:

as inartistic:habban,to have.

as in mankind:dæg,day.

as in let:stelan,to steal,sęttan,to set.

as in sit:hit,it.

as in broad (but shorter):God,God.

as in not:lǫmb,lamb.

as in full:sunu,son.

as in miller (with lips rounded)1:gylden,golden.

Note.—The symbolęis known asumlaut-e(§58). It stands for Germanica, whilee(without the cedilla) represents Germanice. The symbolǫis employed only beforemandn. It, too, represents Germanica. But Alfred writesmanigormonig,many;lamborlomb,lamb;handorhond,hand, etc. The cedilla is an etymological sign added by modern grammarians.

The letters ę and ǫ were printed as shown in this e-text. The diacritic is not a cedilla (open to the left) but an ogonek (open to the right).

There is little difference between the values of Old English consonants and those of Modern English. The following distinctions, however, require notice:

The digraphthis represented in Old English texts byðandþ, no consistent distinction being made between them. In the works of Alfred,ð(capital,Ð) is the more common:ðās,those;ðæt,that;bindeð,he binds.

The consonantchad the hard sound ofk, the latter symbol being rare in West Saxon:cyning,king;cwēn,queen;cūð,known. When followed by a palatal vowel sound,—e,i,æ,ea,eo, long or short,—a vanishingysound was doubtless interposed (cf.dialectickyindforkind). In Modern English the combination has passed intoch:cealc,chalk;cīdan,to chide;lǣce,leech;cild,child;cēowan,to chew. This change (c>ch) is known as Palatalization. The letterg, pronounced as in Modern Englishgun, has also a palatal value before the palatal vowels (cf.dialecticgyirlforgirl).

The combinationcg, which frequently stands forgg, had probably the sound ofdgein Modern Englishedge:ęcg,edge;sęcgan,to say;brycg,bridge.Initialhis sounded as in Modern English:habban,to have;hālga,saint. When closing a syllable it has the sound of Germanch:slōh,he slew;hēah,high;ðurh,through.

An important distinction is that between voiced (or sonant) and voiceless (or surd) consonants.2In Old English they are as follows:

It is evident, therefore, thatð(þ),f, andshave double values in Old English. If voiced, they are equivalent toth(inthough),v, andz. Otherwise, they are pronounced asth(inthin),f(infin), ands(insin). The syllabic environment will usually compel the student to give these letters their proper values. When occurring between vowels, they are always voiced:ōðer,other;ofer,over;rīsan,to rise.

Note.—The general rule in Old English, as in Modern English, is, that voiced consonants have a special affinity for other voiced consonants, and voiceless for voiceless. This is the law of Assimilation. Thus whendeis added to form the preterit of a verb whose stemends in a voiceless consonant, thedis unvoiced, or assimilated, tot:sęttan,to set,sętte(buttręddan,to tread, hastrędde);slǣpan,to sleep,slǣpte;dręncan,to drench,dręncte;cyssan,to kiss,cyste. See§126, Note 1.

A syllable is usually a vowel, either alone or in combination with consonants, uttered with a single impulse of stress; but certain consonants may form syllables:oven(=ov-n),battle(=bæt-l); (cf.also the vulgar pronunciation ofelm).

A syllable may be (1) weak or strong, (2) open or closed, (3) long or short.

(1) A weak syllable receives a light stress. Its vowel sound is often different from that of the corresponding strong, or stressed, syllable.Cf.weak and strongmyin “I want my lárge hat” and “I want mý hat.”

(2) An open syllable ends in a vowel or diphthong:dē-man,to deem;ðū,thou;sca-can,to shake;dæ-ges,by day. A closed syllable ends in one or more consonants:ðing,thing;gōd,good;glæd,glad.

(3) A syllable is long (a) if it contains a long vowel or a long diphthong:drī-fan,to drive;lū-can,to lock;slǣ-pan,to sleep;cēo-san,to choose; (b) if its vowel or diphthong is followed by more than one consonant:3cræft,strength;heard,hard;lib-ban,to live;feal-lan,to fall. Otherwise, the syllable is short:ðe,which;be-ran,to bear;ðæt,that;gie-fan,to give.

Note 1.—A single consonant belongs to the following syllable:hā-lig,holy(nothāl-ig);wrī-tan,to write;fæ-der,father.

Note 2.—The student will notice that the syllable may be long and the vowel short; but the vowel cannot be long and the syllable short.

Note 3.—Old English short vowels, occurring in open syllables, have regularly become long in Modern English:we-fan,to weave;e-tan,to eat;ma-cian,to make;na-cod,naked;a-can,to ache;o-fer,over. And Old English long vowels, preceding two or more consonants, have generally been shortened:brēost,breast;hǣlð,health;slǣpte,slept;lǣdde,led.

The accent in Old English falls usually on the radical syllable, never on the inflectional ending:bríngan,to bring;stā́nas,stones;bérende,bearing;ī́delnes,idleness;frḗondscipe,friendship.

But in the case of compound nouns, adjectives, and adverbs the first member of the compound (unless it bege-orbe-) receives the stronger stress:héofon-rīce,heaven-kingdom;ǫ́nd-giet,intelligence;sṓð-fæst,truthful;gód-cund,divine;éall-unga,entirely;blī́ðe-līce,blithely. Butbe-hā́t,promise;ge-béd,prayer;ge-fḗalīc,joyous;be-sǫ́ne,immediately.

Compound verbs, however, have the stress on the radical syllable:for-gíefan,to forgive;of-línnan,to cease;ā-cnā́wan,to know;wið-stǫ́ndan,to withstand;on-sácan,to resist.

Note.—The tendency of nouns to take the stress on the prefix, while verbs retain it on the root, is exemplified in many Modern English words:préference,prefér;cóntract(noun),contráct(verb);ábstinence,abstaín;pérfume(noun),perfúme(verb).

1.Vowels are said to be round, or rounded, when the lip-opening is rounded; that is, when the lips are thrust out and puckered as if preparing to pronouncew. Thusoanduare round vowels: add-ingto each, and phonetically you have added-wing.E.g. gowing,suwing.2.A little practice will enable the student to see the appropriateness of calling these consonants voiced and voiceless. Try to pronounce a voiced consonant,—dinden, for example, but without the assistance ofen,—and there will be heard a gurgle, orvocalmurmur. But int, often, there is no sound at all, but only a feeling of tension in the organs.3.Taken separately, every syllable ending in a single consonant is long. It may be said, therefore, that all closed syllables are long; but in the natural flow of language, the single final consonant of a syllable so often blends with a following initial vowel, the syllable thus becoming open and short, that such syllables are not recognized as prevailingly long.Cf.Modern Englishat all(=a-tall).

2.A little practice will enable the student to see the appropriateness of calling these consonants voiced and voiceless. Try to pronounce a voiced consonant,—dinden, for example, but without the assistance ofen,—and there will be heard a gurgle, orvocalmurmur. But int, often, there is no sound at all, but only a feeling of tension in the organs.

3.Taken separately, every syllable ending in a single consonant is long. It may be said, therefore, that all closed syllables are long; but in the natural flow of language, the single final consonant of a syllable so often blends with a following initial vowel, the syllable thus becoming open and short, that such syllables are not recognized as prevailingly long.Cf.Modern Englishat all(=a-tall).

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There are five cases in Old English: the nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative, and the instrumental.1Each of them, except the nominative, may be governed by prepositions. When used without prepositions, they have, in general, the following functions:

(a) The nominative, as in Modern English, is the case of the subject of a finite verb.

(b) The genitive (the possessive case of Modern English) is the case of the possessor or source. It may be called theofcase.

(d) The accusative (the objective case of Modern English) is the case of the direct object.

(e) The instrumental, which rarely differs from the dative in form, is the case of the means or the method. It may be called thewithorbycase.

The following paradigm ofmūð,the mouth, illustrates the several cases (the article being, for the present, gratuitously added in the Modern English equivalents):

mūð=the mouth.

mūð-as=the mouths.

mūð-es2=of the mouth(=the mouth’s).

mūð-a=of the mouths(=the mouths’).

mūð-e=toorfor the mouth.

mūð-um=toorfor the mouths.

mūð=the mouth.

mūð-as=the mouths.

mūðe=withorby means of the mouth.

mūð-um=withorby means of the mouths.

The gender of Old English nouns, unlike that of Modern English, depends partly on meaning and partly on form, or ending. Thusmūð,mouth, is masculine;tunge,tongue, feminine;ēage,eye, neuter.

No very comprehensive rules, therefore, can be given; but the gender of every noun should be learned with its meaning. Gender will be indicated in the vocabularies by the different gender forms of the definite article,sēfor the masculine,sēofor the feminine, andðætfor the neuter:sē mūð,sēo tunge,ðæt ēage=the mouth,the tongue,the eye.

All nouns ending in-dōm,-hād,-scipe, or-ereare masculine (cf.Modern English wisdom, childhood, friendship, worker). Masculine, also, are nouns ending in-a.

Those ending in-nesor-ungare feminine (cf.ModernEnglish goodness, and gerundial forms in-ing: seeingis believing).

Thussē wīsdōm,wisdom;sē cildhād,childhood;sē frēondscipe,friendship;sē fiscere,fisher(man);sē hunta,hunter;sēo gelīcnes,likeness;sēo leornung,learning.

There are two great systems of declension in Old English, the Vowel Declension and the Consonant Declension. A noun is said to belong to the Vowel Declension when the final letter of its stem is a vowel, this vowel being then known as thestem-characteristic; but if the stem-characteristic is a consonant, the noun belongs to the Consonant Declension. There might have been, therefore, as many subdivisions of the Vowel Declension in Old English as there were vowels, and as many subdivisions of the Consonant Declension as there were consonants. All Old English nouns, however, belonging to the Vowel Declension, ended their stems originally ina,ō,i, oru. Hence there are but four subdivisions of the Vowel Declension:a-stems,ō-stems,i-stems, andu-stems.

The Vowel Declension is commonly called the Strong Declension, and its nouns Strong Nouns.

Note.—The terms Strong and Weak were first used by Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) in the terminology of verbs, and thence transferred to nouns and adjectives. By a Strong Verb, Grimm meant one that could form its preterit out of its own resources; that is, without calling in the aid of an additional syllable: Modern Englishrun,ran;find,found; but verbs of the Weak Conjugation had to borrow, as it were, an inflectional syllable:gain,gained;help,helped.

The stems of nouns belonging to the Consonant Declension ended, with but few exceptions, in the lettern(cf.Latinhomin-em,ration-em, Greekποιμέν-α). They are called, therefore,n-stems, the Declension itself being known as then-Declension, or the Weak Declension. The nouns, also, are called Weak Nouns.

If every Old English noun had preserved the original Germanic stem-characteristic (or final letter of the stem), there would be no difficulty in deciding at once whether any given noun is ana-stem,ō-stem,i-stem,u-stem, orn-stem; but these final letters had, for the most part, either been dropped, or fused with the case-endings, long before the period of historic Old English. It is only, therefore, by a rigid comparison of the Germanic languages with one another, and with the other Aryan languages, that scholars are able to reconstruct a single Germanic language, in which the original stem-characteristics may be seen far better than in any one historic branch of the Germanic group (§5, Note).

This hypothetical language, which bears the same ancestral relation to the historic Germanic dialects that Latin bears to the Romance tongues, is known simply asGermanic(Gmc.), or asPrimitive Germanic. Ability to reconstruct Germanic forms is not expected of the students of this book, but the following table should be examined as illustrating the basis of distinction among the several Old English declensions (O.E. = Old English, Mn.E. = Modern English):

I. Strongor VowelDeclensions

II. ConsonantDeclensions

Note.—“It will be seen that if Old Englishēage,eye, is said to be ann-stem, what is meant is this, that at some former period the kernel of the word ended in-n, while, as far as the Old English language proper is concerned, all that is implied is that the word is inflected in a certain manner.” (Jespersen,Progress in Language, § 109).

This is true of all Old English stems, whether Vowel or Consonant. The division, therefore, intoa-stems,ō-stems, etc., is made in the interests of grammar as well as of philology.

There are, likewise, two systems of conjugation in Old English: the Strong or Old Conjugation, and the Weak or New Conjugation.

The verbs of the Strong Conjugation (the so-called Irregular Verbs of Modern English) number about three hundred, of which not one hundred remain in Modern English (§101, Note). They form their preterit and frequently their past participle by changing the radical vowel of the present stem. This vowel change or modification is calledablaut(pronouncedáhp-lowt): Modern Englishsing, sang, sung;rise, rose, risen. As the radical vowel of the preterit plural is often different from that of the preterit singular, there are fourprincipal partsortense stemsin an Old English strong verb, instead of the three of Modern English. The four principal parts in the conjugation of a strong verb are (1) the present indicative, (2) the preterit indicative singular, (3) the preterit indicative plural, and (4) the past participle.

Strong verbs fall into seven groups, illustrated in the following table:

Ic bīt-e,I biteorshall bite.3

Ic bāt,I bit.

Wē bit-on,we bit.

Ic hæbbe ge4-biten,I have bitten.

Ic bēod-e,I bidorshall bid.

Ic bēad,I bade.

Wē bud-on,we bade.

Ic hæbbe ge-boden,I have bidden.

Ic bind-e,I bind or shall bind.

Ic bǫnd,I bound.

Wē bund-on,we bound.

Ic hæbbe ge-bund-en,I have bound.

Ic ber-e,I bearorshall bear.

Ic bær,I bore.

Wē bǣr-on,we bore.

Ic hæbbe ge-bor-en,I have borne.

Ic met-e,I measureorshall measure.

Ic mæt,I measured.

Wē mǣt-on,we measured.

Ic hæbbe ge-met-en,I have measured.

Ic far-e,I goorshall go.

Ic fōr,I went.

Wē fōr-on,we went.

Ic eom5ge-far-en,I have(am)gone.

Ic feall-e,I fallorshall fall.

Ic fēoll,I fell.

Wē fēoll-on,we fell.

Ic eom5ge-feall-en,I have(am)fallen.

The verbs of the Weak Conjugation (the so-called Regular Verbs of Modern English) form their preteritand past participle by adding to the present stem a suffix6withdort: Modern Englishlove,loved;sleep,slept.

The stem of the preterit plural is never different from the stem of the preterit singular; hence these verbs have only three distinctive tense-stems, or principal parts:viz., (1) the present indicative, (2) the preterit indicative, and (3) the past participle.

Weak verbs fall into three groups, illustrated in the following table:

Ic fręmm-e,I performorshall perform.

Ic fręm-ede,I performed.

Ic hæbbe ge-fręm-ed,I have performed.

Ic bodi-e,I proclaimorshall proclaim.

Ic bod-ode,I proclaimed.

Ic hæbbe ge-bod-od,I have proclaimed.

Ic hæbbe,I haveorshall have.

Ic hæf-de,I had.

Ic hæbbe ge-hæf-d,I have had.

There remain a few verbs (chiefly the Auxiliary Verbs of Modern English) that do not belong entirely to either of the two conjugations mentioned. The most important of them are,Ic mægI may,Ic mihteI might;Ic cǫnI can,Ic cūðeI could;Ic mōtI must,Ic mōsteImust;Ic scealI shall,Ic sceoldeI should;Ic eomI am,Ic wæsI was;Ic willeI will,Ic woldeI would;Ic dōI do,Ic dydeI did;Ic gāI go,Ic ēodeI went.

All but the last four of these are known as Preterit-Present Verbs. The present tense of each of them isin origina preterit,in functiona present.Cf.Modern Englishought(=owed).

1.Most grammars add a sixth case, the vocative. But it seems best to consider the vocative as only afunctionof the nominativeform.2.Of course our “apostrophe ands” (=’s) comes from the Old English genitive ending-es. Theeis preserved inWednesday(= Old EnglishWōdnes dæg). But at a very early period it was thought thatJohn’s book, for example, was a shortened form ofJohn his book. Thus Addison (Spectator, No. 135) declares’sa survival ofhis. How, then, would he explain thesofhis? And how would he dispose ofMary’s book?3.Early West Saxon had no distinctive form for the future. The present was used both as present proper and as future.Cf.Modern English “I go home tomorrow,” or “I am going home tomorrow” for “I shall go home tomorrow.”4.The prefixge-(Middle Englishy-), cognate with Latinco(con) and implying completeness of action, was not always used. It never occurs in the past participles of compound verbs:oþ-feallan,to fall off, past participleoþ-feallen(notoþ-gefeallen). Milton errs in prefixing it to a present participle:“What needs my Shakespeare, for his honour’d bones,The labour of an age in piled stones?Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hidUnder a star-ypointingpyramid.”—Epitaph on William Shakespeare.And Shakespeare misuses it in “Y-ravished,” a preterit (PericlesIII,Prologuel. 35).It survives in the archaicy-clept(Old Englishge-clypod, called). It appears asainaware(Old Englishge-wær), aseinenough(Old Englishge-nōh), and asiinhandiwork(Old Englishhand-ge-weorc).5.With intransitive verbs denotingchange of condition, the Old English auxiliary is usually some form ofto berather thanto have. See§139.6.The theory thatloved, for example, is a fused form oflove-didhas been generally given up. The dental ending was doubtless an Indo-Germanic suffix, which became completely specialized only in the Teutonic languages.

1.Most grammars add a sixth case, the vocative. But it seems best to consider the vocative as only afunctionof the nominativeform.

2.Of course our “apostrophe ands” (=’s) comes from the Old English genitive ending-es. Theeis preserved inWednesday(= Old EnglishWōdnes dæg). But at a very early period it was thought thatJohn’s book, for example, was a shortened form ofJohn his book. Thus Addison (Spectator, No. 135) declares’sa survival ofhis. How, then, would he explain thesofhis? And how would he dispose ofMary’s book?

3.Early West Saxon had no distinctive form for the future. The present was used both as present proper and as future.Cf.Modern English “I go home tomorrow,” or “I am going home tomorrow” for “I shall go home tomorrow.”

4.The prefixge-(Middle Englishy-), cognate with Latinco(con) and implying completeness of action, was not always used. It never occurs in the past participles of compound verbs:oþ-feallan,to fall off, past participleoþ-feallen(notoþ-gefeallen). Milton errs in prefixing it to a present participle:

“What needs my Shakespeare, for his honour’d bones,The labour of an age in piled stones?Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hidUnder a star-ypointingpyramid.”—Epitaph on William Shakespeare.

“What needs my Shakespeare, for his honour’d bones,

The labour of an age in piled stones?

Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hid

Under a star-ypointingpyramid.”

—Epitaph on William Shakespeare.

And Shakespeare misuses it in “Y-ravished,” a preterit (PericlesIII,Prologuel. 35).

It survives in the archaicy-clept(Old Englishge-clypod, called). It appears asainaware(Old Englishge-wær), aseinenough(Old Englishge-nōh), and asiinhandiwork(Old Englishhand-ge-weorc).

5.With intransitive verbs denotingchange of condition, the Old English auxiliary is usually some form ofto berather thanto have. See§139.

6.The theory thatloved, for example, is a fused form oflove-didhas been generally given up. The dental ending was doubtless an Indo-Germanic suffix, which became completely specialized only in the Teutonic languages.

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The order of words in Old English is more like that of Modern German than of Modern English. Yet it is only the Transposed order that the student will feel to be at all un-English; and the Transposed order, even before the period of the Norman Conquest, was fast yielding place to the Normal order.

The three divisions of order are (1) Normal, (2) Inverted, and (3) Transposed.

(1) Normal order = subject + predicate. In Old English, the Normal order is found chiefly in independent clauses. The predicate is followed by its modifiers:Sē hwæl bið micle lǣssa þonne ōðre hwalas,That whale is much smaller than other whales;Ǫnd hē geseah twā scipu,And he saw two ships.

(2) Inverted order = predicate + subject. This order occurs also in independent clauses, and is employed (a) when some modifier of the predicate precedes the predicate, the subject being thrown behind. Thewords most frequently causing Inversion in Old English prose areþāthen,þonnethen, andþǣrthere:Ðā fōr hē,Then went he;Ðonne ærnað hȳ ealle tōweard þǣm fēo,Then gallop they all toward the property;ac þǣr bið medo genōh,but there is mead enough.

Inversion is employed (b) in interrogative sentences:Lufast ðū mē?Lovest thou me?and (c) in imperative sentences:Cume ðīn rīce,Thy kingdom come.

(3) Transposed order = subject ... predicate. That is, the predicate comes last in the sentence, being preceded by its modifiers. This is the order observed in dependent clauses:1Ðonne cymeð sē man sē þæt swiftoste hors hafað,Then comes the man that has the swiftest horse(literally,that the swiftest horse has);Ne mētte hē ǣr nān gebūn land, siþþan hē frǫm his āgnum hām fōr,Nor did he before find any cultivated land, after he went from his own home(literally,after he from his own home went).

Two other peculiarities in the order of words require a brief notice.

(1) Pronominal datives and accusatives usually precede the predicate:Hē hine oferwann,He overcame him(literally,He him overcame);Dryhten him andwyrde,The Lord answered him. But substantival datives and accusatives, as in Modern English, follow the predicate.The following sentence illustrates both orders:Hȳ genāmon Ioseph, ǫnd hine gesealdon cīpemǫnnum, ǫnd hȳ hine gesealdon in Ēgypta lǫnd,They took Joseph, and sold him to merchants, and they sold him into Egypt(literally,They took Joseph, and him sold to merchants, and they him sold into Egyptians’ land).

Note.—The same order prevails in the case of pronominal nominatives used as predicate nouns:Ic hit eom,It is I(literally,I it am);Ðū hit eart,It is thou(literally,Thou it art).

(2) The attributive genitive, whatever relationship it expresses, usually precedes the noun which it qualifies:Breoton is gārsecges īgland,Britain is an island of the ocean(literally,ocean’s island);Swilce hit is ēac berende on węcga ōrum,Likewise it is also rich in ores of metals(literally,metals’ ores);Cyninga cyning,King of kings(literally,Kings’ king);Gē witon Godes rīces gerȳne,Ye know the mystery of the kingdom of God(literally,Ye know God’s kingdom’s mystery).

A preposition governing the word modified by the genitive, precedes the genitive:2On ealdra manna sægenum,In old men’s sayings;Æt ðǣra strǣta ęndum,At the ends of the streets(literally,At the streets’ ends);For ealra ðīnra hālgena lufan,For all thy saints’ love. See, also,§94, (5).

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