The others up totwęntiġare generally indeclinable. Those in-tiġare sometimes declined like neuter nouns, sometimes like adjectives, and are often left undeclined. When not made into adjectives they govern the genitive.
Hundandþūsendare either declined as neuters or left undeclined, always taking a genitive:—eahta hund mīla(eight hundred miles),fēower þūsend wera(four thousand men).
Units are always put before tens:—ān and twęntiġ(twenty-one).
The ordinals are always weak, exceptōþer, which is always strong.
PERSONAL.
There are no reflexive pronouns in O.E., and the ordinarypersonal pronouns are used instead:—hīe ġe·samnodon hīe(they collected themselves, assembled);hīe ā·bǣdon him wīf(they asked for wives for themselves).Selfis used as an emphatic reflexive adjective agreeing with its pronoun:—swā swā hīe wȳsċton him selfum(as they wished for themselves).
POSSESSIVE.
Mīn(my),þīn(thy),ūre(our),ēower(your), and the dualuncerandincerare declined like other adjectives. The genitiveshis(his, its),hiere(her),hiera(their) are used as indeclinable possessives.
INTERROGATIVE.
Hwelc(which) is declined like a strong adjective: it is used both as a noun and an adjective.
DEMONSTRATIVE.
Seis both a demonstrative and a definite article. It is also used as a personal pronoun:—hē ġe·hīerþ mīn word, and wyrċþ þā(he hears my words, and does them).Sēas a demonstrative and pers. pronoun has its vowel long.
Other demonstratives, which are used both as nouns and as adjectives, arese ilca(same), which is always weak,swelc(such), which is always strong.
RELATIVE.
The regular relative is the indeclinableþe, as inǣlc þāra þe þās mīn word ġe·hīerþ(each of those who hears these my words). It is often combined withsē, which is declined:—sē þe= who, masc.,sēo þe, fem., &c.Sēalone is also used as a relative:—hēr is mīn cnapa, þone ic ġe·ċēas(here is my servant, whom I have chosen); sometimes in the sense of 'he who':—hēr þū hæfst þæt þīn is(here thou hast that which is thine).
INDEFINITE.
Indefinites are formed withswāand the interrogative pronouns, thus:—swā hwā swā,swā hwelċ swā(whoever),swā hwæt swā(whatever).
Ānandsum(some) are used in an indefinite sense:—ān mann,sum mann= 'a certain man,' hence 'a man.' But the indefinite article is generally not expressed.
Ǣlċ(each),ǣniġ(any),nǣniġ(no, none), are declined like other adjectives.
Ōþer(other) is always strong:—þā ōþre męnn.
Man, another form ofmann, is often used in the indefinite sense of 'one,' Frenchon:—his brōþor Horsan man of·slōg(they killed his brother Horsa).
There are two classes of verbs in O.E.,strongandweak. The conjugation of strong verbs is effected mainly by means of vowel-gradation, that of weak verbs by the addition ofd(-ode, -ede, -de) to the root-syllable.
The following is the conjugation of the strong verbbindan(bind), which will serve to show the endings which are common to all verbs:—
For the pluralbindaþ, both indicative and imperative,bindeis used when the personal pronoun follows immediately afterthe verb:—wē bindaþ(we bind), butbinde wē(let us bind); so alsogāþ!(go plur.), butgā ġē!(go ye).
The present participle may be declined like an adjective. Its declension when used as a noun is given above, p.10.
The past participle generally prefixesġe-, as inġe·bunden,ġe·numenfromniman(take), unless the other parts of the verbs have it already, as inġe·hīeran(hear),ġe·hīered. It is sometimes prefixed to other parts of the verb as well. Noġeis added if the verb has another prefix, such asā-,be-,for-; thusfor·ġiefan(forgive) has the past participlefor·ġiefen. The past participle may be declined like an adjective.
Traces of an older passive voice are preserved in the formhāt-tefromhātan(call, name), which is both present 'is called,' and preterite 'was called':—se munuc hātte Abbo(the monk's name was Abbo).
STRONG VERBS.
In the strong verbs the plural of the pret. indic. generally has a different vowel from that of the sing. (ic band,wē bundon). The 2nd sing. pret. indic. and the whole pret. subj. always have the vowel of the preterite plural indicative (þū bunde, ic bunde, wē bunden.)
The 2nd and 3rd persons sing. of the pres. indic. often mutate the root-vowel, thus:—
The full ending of the 3rd pers. sing. pres. indic. is-eþ, which is generally contracted, with the following consonant-changes:—
Double consonants become single, as inhē fielþfromfeallan.
Before the-stof the 2nd pers. consonants are often dropt, as inþū cwistfromcweþan,þū ċīestfromċēosan; anddbecomest, as inþū bintstfrombindan.
For the changes betweensandr,þandd,gandh, see p.7.
Some verbs, such assēon(see), drop thehand contract before most inflections beginning with a vowel:—ic sēo,wē sēoþ,tō sēonne; buthē sihþ.
There are seven conjugations of strong verbs, distinguished mainly by the different formation of their preterites. The following lists comprise all the strong verbs that occur in the texts given in this book, together with several others of the commoner ones.
I. 'Fall'-conjugation.
The pret. sing. and pl. hasēoorē, and the past partic. retains the original vowel of the infinitive.
II. 'Shake'-conjugation.
Verbs ina(ea) andę(ie).Ōin pret. sing, and pl.,a(æ) in partic. pret.Standandrops itsnin the pret. The partic. pret. ofswęrianis irregular.
The presents of these verbs are inflected weak, so that their imperative sing. ishęfeandswęre, like that ofwęnian(p.32).Swęrianhas indic.swęrige,swęrest, likewęnian;hębbanhashębbe,hęfst, &c. likehīeran(p.30).
III. 'Bind'-conjugation.
I(ie,e,eo) followed by two consonants, one or both of which is nearly always a liquid (l,r) or nasal (m,n) in the infin.,a(æ,ea) in pret. sing.,uin pret. pl.,u(o) in ptc. pret.Findanhas a weak preterite.
IV. 'Bear'-conjugation.
Verbs ine(i), followed by a single consonant, generally a liquid or nasal; inbrecanthe liquid precedes the vowel.A(æ) in pret. sing.,ǣ(ā) in pret. pl.,o(u) in ptc. pret.Cumanis irregular.
V. 'Give'-conjugation.
Verbs ine(i,eo,ie) followed by single consonants, which are not liquids or nasals. This class differs from the last only in the ptc. pret. which keeps the vowel of the infinitive.
VI. 'Shine'-conjugation.
Verbs inī, with pret. sing, inā, pl.i, ptc. pret.i.
VII. 'Choose'-conjugation.
Verbs inēoandū, with pret. sing.ēa, pl.u, ptc. pret.o.Flēonandtēoncontract.
WEAK VERBS.
There are three conjugations of weak verbs—(1) in-an, pret.-de(hīeran,hīerde, 'hear'); (2) in-ian, pret.-ede(węnian,węnede, 'wean'); (3) in-ian, pret.-ode(lufian,lufode, 'love'). The verbs of the first two conjugations nearly all have a mutated vowel in the present and infinitive, which those of the third conjugation very seldom have.
I.an-verbs.
This class of weak verbs has the same endings as the strong verbs, except in the pret. and past partic., which are formed by adding-deand-edrespectively, with the following consonant changes.
The past partic. is generally contracted in the same way:—sęnd,mētt,tǣht, but some of them often retain the uncontracted forms:—fylled,dypped. When declined like adjectives they drop theirewhere practicable:—fylled, plur.fylde;hīered,hīerde.
The 2nd and 3rd pres. sing. ind. are contracted as in the strong verbs.
(a) 'Hear'-class.
Further examples of this class are:—
(b) 'Seek'-class.
In this class the mutated vowels lose their mutation in the preterite and past partic., besides undergoing other changes in some verbs.
Those in double consonants (andċġ) simplify them in the contracted 2nd and 3rd sing. pres. indic.:—sęlle,sęlst,sęlþ;sęċ[,g]e,sęġst,sęġþ; also in the imperative, which is formed as in Conj. II:—sęle,sęġe,byġe, &c.
II.'Wean'-conjugation.
So are conjugated all weak verbs with a short mutated root syllable, such asfęrian(carry),węrian(defend),ġe·byrian(befit). There are not many of them.
III.'Love'-conjugation.
So alsoāscian(ask),macian(make),weorþian(honour), and many others.
Irregularities.
Some verbs are conjugated partly after I, partly after III. Such arehabban(have) andlibban(live).
Habbanhas pres. indic.hæbbe,hæfst,hæfþ;habbaþ, subj.hæbbe,hæbben, pret.hæfde, imper.hafa,habbaþ, particc.habbende,hæfd.
Libbanhas pres.libbe,leofast,leofaþ;libbaþ, subj.libbe, pret.leofode, imper.leofa,libbaþ, particc.libbende,lifiende;leofod.
Fętian(fetch) has pret.fętte.
STRONG-WEAK VERBS.
The strong-weak verbs have for their presents old strong preterites, from which new weak preterites are formed. Note the occasional second person sing. int.
The other most important weak-strong verbs are given below in the 1st and 2nd sing. pres. indic., in the plur. indic., in the pret., in the infin. and partic. pret. Of several the last two forms are doubtful, or do not exist.
Āh (possess), āge, āgon; āhte; āgen (only as adjective)[4].
Cann (know) canst, cunnon; cūþe; cunnan; cūþ (only as adjective.)
Dearr (dare), durre, durron; dorste.
Ġe·man (remember), -manst; -munde; -munan.
Mæġ (can), miht, magon, mæġe (subj.); mihte.
Mōt (may), mōst, mōton; mōste.
Sċeal (shall), sċealt, sculon, scyle (subj.); scolde.
Þearf (need), þurfon, þyrfe (subj.); þorfte; þurfan.
ANOMALOUS VERBS.
(1) Willan (will) shows a mixture of subj. forms in the pres. indic. sing.:—
Similarlynyllan(will not):—
(2) Wesan (be).
The contracted negative forms are:—neom,neart,nis;næs,nǣre,nǣron;nǣre,nǣren.
(3) Dōn (do).