Word-order in Old English

Adam Knott, 2006

Because Old English was an infected language this meant word-order was free. You could
put a word almost anywhere and everything would mean the same, because the infections
told you who was doing what to the other things or people in the same context. The same
thing happens in Modern German (Modge), only less. The free word-order shows that Old
English was also a German language.
There are several elements that can be part of word-order. One is the Subjective of
the sentence, the other is the Objective, and another is a Compliment. Users of OE were very
fond of Compliments. If Compliments occurred, they came first in the sentence, and were
followed by a Subjective and possibly by a Verb, although Verbs could also be optional.
Objectives, which in some ways were the most important elements, came between other
items of structure, and were also optional. Subjectives also could be optional, but usually
werent.
All this meant that Old English had three specific types of word-order (WO): SVO,
SVOC, CSVO, VOC, VOCS, S((O((V)), (V)(C)((O)(S)), and one or two others. In
statements, Objectives usually came first. In questions, however, Compliments always came
first because the Anglo-Saxons valued politeness. The word Tha indicated how to ask a
question politely, and after tha had occurred the Subjective always came next. Tha cwam
heo, for instance. One complication is that pronouns could also be either Subjectives or
Objectives, depending on where they were in the sentence, and also there were some other
function words which could come at the end of things. If they came at the end they were
stressed, but if they came early they were pronounced in a murmur because this was a stressfree environment. In the sentence In Sweden, for example, since in comes early it almost
disappears. But you could also say Sweden in, in which case in would be stressed. This is
called effacement.
The role played by function words in OE sentences is very important, although it
wasnt as important as it would later become, largely because the infections could also
indicate things like possession, only not always, which is why the Anglo-Saxons also used
conjunctions and other elements of sentence structure. These were also optional.
Another complicating factor is sex. The Anglo-Saxons had three sexes, and all of
them were very strict. Bishops, for instance, were usually feminine, while queens were
neuter. The same thing happens in Modge today, only less, while in present-day Dutch,
which is another German language, there are only relics.
Pronouns could belong to any sex, although they were also infected to show where
they were in the sentence (or clause). The first person pronoun you for instance was in
Anglo-Saxon pronounced ik. This was later replaced in low-stress environments by a
Viking loan-word, because it was easier to say. Pronouns were invariably Compliments,
though sometimes they could also belong to the Ejectives.
When Old English lost its infections things became very rigid, and Subjectives
became compulsory, though they still occurred after Verbs, and possibly also after
Compliments depending on whether it was a question or not. After the Norman Conquest
everybody in England was influenced by French, which had rigidity but few infections, and
therefore less capacity for having complicated sentence patterns, although Anglo-Norman,
which was how they spoke English only with a French accent, still had braces. Evidence
here, however, is scanty because there isnt much written down except some poems, all of
which contain an excessive number of Compliments. This was the age of Courtly Love.