Camelia Bejan

Old and Middle

English
A Linguistic Introduction

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Referenţi ştiinţifici:
Prof. univ. dr. Hortensia Pârlog
Prof. univ. dr. Florica Băncilă

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 Table of contents

Part I. OLD ENGLISH (ca. 500 – 1100)

1. Introduction ……..…………………………………………..11
1.1. Language change ………………………………….. …12
1.2. Periodization ………………………………………. …12
1.3. The family of Germanic languages ……………… . ….13
1.4. The dialects of Old English ………………………... …13
1.5. A guide to spelling and pronunciation …………….. …15
2. The Vocabulary of Old English ………………………….. . 23
2.1. Word formation: derivation and compounding ……… 23
2.2. Foreign influences on the vocabulary of Old English . ..26
2.2.1. The Celtic influence ……………………….. …26
2.2.2. The Latin influence ………………………….. 28
2.2.3. The Scandinavian influence …………………. 30
3. The Nominal Inflections ……………………………………. 35
3.1. The definite determiner ……………………………….. 35
3.2. Grammatical vs. natural gender…………………….. . . 35
3.3. The declensional paradigms …………………………. . 36
4. Modifiers …………………………………………………46
4.1. Adjectives ……………………………………………. 46
4.2. Adverbs ………………………………………………. 48
4.3. Numerals …………………………………………….. . 49
5. The Pronominal System …………………………………… 52
6. The Verbal Inflections ……………………………………. . 60
6.1. Verb classes ………………………….……………….. 60
6.2. Tense and mood in Old English ……………………… 66
7. Grammatical Relations ……………………………………. .74
7.1. The subject …………………………..………………. 74
7.2. Impersonal constructions …………………………….. 75
7.3. Subject omission ……………………………………… 76
7.4. The object …………………………………………….. 77
7.5. Case and thematic roles ………………………………. 78
7.6. The apposition ……………………………………….. 82

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 8. Types of Clauses ………………………………………….. ...86
8.1. Question-formation …………………………………… 86
8.2. Negative sentences ……………………………………. 87
9. Word Order at Phrase Level …………………………….. 91
9.1. Word order in the NP …………………………………. 91
9.2. Word order in the VP …………………………………..95
10. Word order at Clause Level … …………………………. 98
10.1. Verb-second …………………………………………. 98
10.2. Verb-last …………………………………………… 100
10.3. OV vs. VO word orders………………………….…..101
10.4. Phrasal verbs ……………………………………….. 103
10.5. Word order in coordinate clauses ………………….. 104
11. Subordinate Clauses ……………………………………. . 108
11.1. Complement clauses ……………………………….. 109
11.2. Relative clauses …………………………………….. 109
11.3. Adverbial clauses ……………………………………110

Part II. MIDDLE ENGLISH (ca 1100 – 1500)

1. Historical Background ………………………………………115

1.1. The rise of French …………………………………….115
1.2. The re-establishment of English (1200 – 1500) ……. 115
1.3. The dialects of Middle English ……………………… 116
1.4. The rise of Standard English ………………………… 118
1.5. A guide to spelling and pronunciation ………………..119
2. The Vocabulary of Middle English ………………………….125
2.1. French borrowings ……………………………………125
2.2. Latin borrowings ……………………………………..126
3. From a Synthetic to an Analytic(al) Language ………… …129
3.1. The decline of the inflectional morphology …………..129
3.2. The reduction of word order sequences ……………... 132
4. The Obligatory Subject …………………………………….. 138
4.1. The generalization of the formal subject …………. …138
4.2. The demise of the impersonal constructions ………… 140
5. The Verbal System ………………………………………… 144
5.1. The verbal inflectional system ..……………………. ..144
5.2. Tense and mood ……………….……………………. 147
5.3. The rise of the auxiliary do ………….…………….. ...149
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 5.4. The emergence of modals …………….………………150
5.5. Quasi-modals ………………………………………... 151
5.6. The rise of aspect ………………………………….. ...153
5.7. Passive voice ……….……………………………….. 154
6. Word order at Phrase Level ……………………………….157
6.1. Word order in the NP ……………………………… ..157
6.2. Word order in the VP ……………………………….. 159
7. Word Order at Clause Level ……………………………… 161
7.1. Declarative sentences ……………………………….. 161
7.2. Question formation ………………………………….. 161
7.3. Negative sentences ………………………………….. 162
8. Subordination ……………………………………………….165
8.1. Complement clauses .…………………………………166
8.2. Relative clauses …….………………………………...168
8.3. Adverbial clauses …………………………………….170
Key to Exercises ………………………………………………. 175
Glossary of Linguistic Terms.. ……………………………….. 179
References ……………………………………………………. 185
Glossaries to Old English Texts ...…………………………….. 194

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 List of abbreviations

Languages
EMnE Early Modern English OE Old English
G German OF Old French
Gmc Germanic ON Old Norse
ME Middle English WS West Saxon
ModE Modern English OTA Oxford Text Archive
OED Oxford English Dictionary
MED Middle English Dictionary
CMEPV Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
ww word-for-word translation

Grammar
A Adjective Acc Accusative
Adv Adverb Dat Dative
Aux Auxiliary Gen Genitive
D/Det Determiner Nom Nominative
N Nominal / Noun
P Preposition O Object
Poss Possessor DO Direct Object
Refl Reflexive IO Indirect Object
Subj. Subjunctive PO Prepositional Object
θ-role Thematic role S Subject
V Verb

AP Adjective Phrase m. masculine

AdvP Adverb Phrase f. feminine
DP Determiner Phrase n. neuter
GenP Genitive Phrase sg. singular
IP Inflection Phrase pl. plural
NP Noun Phrase pers. person
PP Preposition Phrase Ø deleted element
VP Verb Phrase
// slashes identify spoken sounds using the symbols of the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
[] square brackets identify phrases
‹› caret brackets identify written letters of the alphabet
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 Preface

This book is a linguistic introduction to Old and Middle English; it

signals and examines the main phenomena that characterize these
earlier stages in the development of the language.
The aim of this coursebook is to guide undergraduate students
through the earlier history of the language in their quest for
knowledge of and insight in the historical development of English.
This is an important step in understanding present-day English, and
the tendencies affecting the language today.
The coursebook is organized in two main sections, which are
descriptive overviews of the most important features of the
vocabulary, morphology and syntax of Old and Middle English,
respectively. Each section contains several chapters that cover a wide
range of topics. A selection of sentences and excerpts from earlier
texts, annotated with glosses and present-day English transcriptions,
illustrate the progressive transformations in the language.
To encourage students observe, describe and possibly explain
linguistic phenomena, we have designed a number of simple,
practical activities that reinforce the topics discussed. The illustrative
passages at the end of several sections can be used in many ways to
demonstrate the structure of English at various periods in its history.
The key to exercises permits easy-checking and provides short
analytical commentaries for some of the tasks suggested.
The glossary of linguistic terms that we placed at the end of
the book is meant to lend students adequate theoretical support in
manipulating the data correctly.
The materials presented here have been derived from many
sources. Specific acknowledgements have been made wherever
possible, and reference is provided to the fuller original treatments.

The Author

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Part one

Old English

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1.

Introduction

The development of the English language has been a subject of

research during a long and prolific linguistic tradition (Jespersen
1909-49, Mustanoja 1960, Visser 1963-73, among others). In recent
decades there has been a growing interest in the generative historical
linguistics, due to the seminal work of Lightfoot (1999), van
Gelderen (1993), van Kemenade (1987), Roberts (1993), Fischer
(2000) and many others.
The discussion of the vocabulary and of the inflectional
system of Old English and Middle English draws on the traditional
approach, while the presentation of the syntactic phenomena is in
line with the results of the generative research. The phenomena that
are central to this coursebook are presented in a simplified,
accessible manner.

1.1. Language change

The English language, like all living languages, is in a continuous

state of variation across time. The language of one generation of
speakers will differ slightly from another. Changes take place at
every level of language: lexical, semantic, syntactic and phonological.
Traditional grammarians argue for an interpretation of the
linguistic phenomena in terms of reanalysis caused by structural
ambiguity.
Within the generative framework, there is some dispute as to
how these changes come about. According to Lightfoot (1999),
changes occur during the process of language acquisition. When
speakers in a community change their speaking habits, if they use
some constructions less or more often, for instance, this has
repercussions on the way the children in the community acquire their
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language. Depending on the kind of spoken language he hears, the
child may not see a construction which was formerly perfectly
grammatical, although not very frequent, as grammatical anymore. A
linguistic change has then taken place.
There are other views on the locus of language change as well.
One of them is that it is directly linked to the linguistic environment
of speakers all through their lives; they perceive as grammatical what
many other speakers of the same variety say, and when this changes,
their sense of grammaticality changes. In this view, changes in the
language of adults and infants alike are due to language contact and
social factors (cf. Fischer et al. 2000: 19-25).
Kroch (1989) argues that grammatical change takes place via
competing grammars. If speakers have two separate grammatical
options in competition, a next generation will choose the one that is
used often enough and delete the one that is not used often enough
anymore (cf. Lighfoot 1999: 91-101). He proves this as well, for
several changes, his most detailed account covering the rise of
periphrastic do in late Middle English and early Modern English.
This model can be applied to other diachronic syntactic changes.

1.2. Periodization

The evolution of English in the fifteen hundred years of its existence

in England has been continuous. Within this development, however,
it is possible to recognize three main periods.
The period from 450 to 1100 is known as Old English. It is
sometimes described as the period of full inflections, since during
most of the period the endings of the noun, adjective and the verb are
preserved more or less unimpaired.
From 1150 to 1500, the language is known as Middle English.
During this period the inflections, which had begun to break down
towards the end of the Old English period, became greatly reduced,
and it is consequently known as the period of levelled inflections.
The language since 1500 is called Modern English. It is a
stage in the development of the language when a large part of the
original inflectional system has disappeared entirely and that is why
this stage is known as the period of lost inflections. The progressive

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decay of inflections is only one of the developments, which mark the
evolution of English in its various stages.

1.3. The family of Germanic languages

English developed as a branch of the family of Germanic languages,

which are different historical developments of a single earlier parent
language, Proto-Germanic. Since no written records of the parent
language exist, much of its structure can be deduced by the
comparative method of reconstruction.
The languages descended from Proto-Germanic fall into three
main groups: East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic.
The principal language of East Germanic was Gothic. It is
the only old Germanic language for which there is extensive
information.
North Germanic is found in Scandinavia and Denmark. In its
earlier form, the common Scandinavian language is known as Old
Norse.
West Germanic is the group to which English belongs. It is
divided into two branches, High and Low German, by the operation
of a Second (or High German) Sound-Shift analogous to Grimm’s
Law. This change, by which West Germanic p, t, k, d, etc. were
changed into other sounds, occurred about AD 600 in the southern or
mountainous part of the Germanic area, but did not take place in the
lowlands to the north. Accordingly in early times we distinguish as
Low German tongues Old Saxon (the essential constituent of modern
Low German or Plattdeutsch), Old Low Franconian (the basis of
modern Dutch and Flemish), Old Frisian (surviving in the Dutch
province of Friesland) and Old English. High German, especially as
spoken in the midlands, has gradually established itself as the literary
language of Germany.

1.4. The dialects of Old English

Old English was not an entirely uniform language. From the

beginning it had its own local varieties, just as today the English of
California differs from the English of London.

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 Not only are there differences between the language of the
earliest written records (about AD 700) and that of the later literary
texts, but the language differed somewhat from one locality to
another.
Four dialects can be distinguished in Old English times:
Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish. Of these
Northumbrian and Mercian are found in the region north of the
Thames settled by the Angles. Since they possess features in
common, they are sometimes collectively known as Anglian.
Little is known about them since they are preserved mainly in
charters, runic inscriptions, a few brief fragments of verse and some
interlinear translations of some portions of the Bible. Kentish is
known from still scantier remains, as is the dialect of the Jutes. The
only dialect in which there is an extensive collocation of texts is
West Saxon, which was the dialect for the West Saxon kingdom in
the southwest. Nearly all of Old English literature is preserved in
manuscripts transcribed in this region. With the ascendancy of the
West Saxon kingdom, the West Saxon dialect attained something of
the position of a literary standard until the Norman Conquest reduced
all dialects to a level of unimportance. And when in the Middle
English period a standard English once more began to arise, it was
on the basis of a different dialect.

Figure 1. Old English Dialects

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1.5. A guide to spelling and pronunciation

Old English seems strange to the modern reader due to differences in

spelling and pronunciation.

1.5.1. Written Old English

The writing system for the earliest English was based on the use of
signs called runes, which were devised for carving in wood or stone
by the Germanic peoples of Northern Europe.
After the establishment of the church and the building of
monasteries in the 7th century, the monks wrote manuscripts in Latin,
the language of the Church. Therefore the Roman alphabet was used
to represent Old English sounds, with the same phonetic values as
those used to represent Latin in contemporary pronunciation.
However, since no Roman letters were available for some OE
sounds, runic symbols were added to this alphabet: þ ‘thorn’, w
‘wynn’, ð ‘eth’, æ ‘ash’ (a symbol taken over from Latin but named
after the rune OE æsc with the same value); another feature of the
Insular script was a special form of the Roman letter g, written ʒ
(called yogh’). The letters þ and ð tended to be interchangeable, and
did not separately represent the voiced or voiceless consonant. The
sign 7 was used as shorthand for and, like the ampersand (&) today.
The Old English alphabet therefore consisted of:

Vowel letters: a æ e i o u y w
Consonant letters: b c d f ʒ h l m n p r s/ʃ t þ/ ð w x
k q z were rarely used
g j and v were not yet in use

Punctuation and capitalization were rare and unsystematic in Old

English writings. Capital letters were sometimes very large and
strictly ornamental.

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1.5.2. Pronunciation

The Old English vowels were short and long. The number of OE
single vowels was fourteen, twice the number of vowel-letter used in
the OE alphabet. The mark of length with vowels was a macron
placed above the vowel or at times doubling indicated length. The
position of vowels in the vowel chart is given below (cf. Freeborn
1992: 27):

Figure 2. Old English Vowels

short long short long

/a/ /ā/ habban ‘have’, assa ‘ass’ gāst ‘spirit’, hām ‘home’
/æ/ /æ/ bæc ‘back’, fæder ‘father’ dæd ‘deed’, lædan ‘lead’
/e/ /ē/ etan ‘eat’, here ‘army’ dēman‘deam’, mētan‘meet’
/i/ /ī/ bindan ‘bind’, sittan ‘sit’ bītan ‘bite’, wrītan ‘write’
/o/ /ō/ boden ‘offer’, hopu ‘hope’ bōc ‘book’, mōdor ‘mother’
/u/ /ū/ sunu ‘son’, up ‘up’ brūcan ‘need’, cū ‘cow’
/y/ /y/ fyllan ‘fill’, cynn ‘kin’ bryd ‘bride’, mys ‘mice’

The vowels /a/, /e/, /o/ were pronounced /ə/ in unstressed syllables as in
China. The habit of neutralizing final vowels led to the simplification of
the English inflectional grammar. (see section II.3.1.1.)

Note:
1. The rounded front vowel /y/ is pronounced like German ü, and
/oe/ like German ö.
2. As the sound originally written īē in early WS had already become
/i/, /i:/ in some words, and /y/, /y:/ in other words, by king Alfred’s

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 time manuscripts show spelling inconsistencies of the following kind,
e.g. hīran or hyran for hīēran ‘to hear’.
2. The vowel long i was frequently spelt –ig, because the consonant
g was vocalised after front vowels in late O.E. e.g. bigleofa for
bīleofa ‘food’.

Besides single vowels, the vocalic system of the language included

diphthongs transcribed as ‹ea›, ‹eo›, ‹ie› which could be short or
long:
‹ea› /εə/ bearn ‘child’, eald ‘old’
‹ēā› gēār ‘year’, nēāh ‘near’
‹eo› /eə/ heofon ‘earth’, leornian ‘to learn’
‹ēō› dēōp ‘deep’, frēōnd ‘friend’

Thus we may conclude that Old English was characterized by

long and short monophthongs and diphthongs; in unstressed syllables
there were no long vowels and no diphthongs, and the short vowels
had a tendency to grow weaker.

Semivowels. The initial sounds in your and wagon, /j/ and /w/ are
semivowels or consonants with a vowel-like quality. The semivowel
/w/ in Old English is represented by the letter w (in earlier periods by
runic w ‘wynn’ and the semivowel /j/ is commonly represented in
OE spelling by the letters: g, ge, gi, i or ig (or j).

Consonants. The following consonants had much the same value as

they have in Modern English orthography: b, d, l, m, n, p, t, w, f, s,
þ/ ð ; they were voiceless fricatives initially and finally. Medially
they were voiced between vowels, when followed by a voiced
consonant and when preceded by liquids:

voiceless voiced
The letter f /f/ /v/
fīf ‘five’ /fi:f/ ofer ‘over’ / ?vər/
lifde ‘lived’ /livdə/
The letter s /s/ /z/
sittan ‘to sit’ genesan ‘to be saved’
bōsm ‘bosom’

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The letter ð/ θ /θ/ /ð/
þencean ‘to think’ ōþer / ōðer ‘other’
sceþþan ‘to damage’ wyrþig ‘worthy’

When doubled no voicing occurred: Offa /ff/, blissian ‘to be glad’

/ss/.
‹h› initially an aspirate, was much as it is in Modern English,
but medially or finally it became a palatal or velar fricative according
to the front or back quality of the proximate vowel and was
pronounced like ch in Germ. ich /ç/ or ach /χ/ velar:

/h/ hūs ‘house’ hwīt ‘white’

ich sound /ç/ dehter ‘daughter’.D.sg. niht ‘night’
ach sound /χ/ brōhte ‘brought’ rūh ‘rough’

The letter k is rarely found, the symbol c being used instead.

The letter c is pronounced as the plosive consonant /k/ or the
affricate /tʃ/ as in the following words:

/k/ candel ‘candle’, cōl ‘cool’, cniht ‘boy’

/tʃ/ cēāp ‘good’, cild ‘child’, cyrice /tʃyritʃe/

An exception to this is cēpan ‘to keep’ /kepan/, because the root

vowel was a mutated back vowel.
The OE letter g was pronounced as:
a. the plosive consonant /g/
initially before consonants and back vowels or front vowels
representing mutated back vowels in the combination ng
when doubled, as illustrated below: gnornian ‘to mourn’, gāt
‘goat’, gēs ‘geese’ (e is due to the mutation of a back vowel),
hring ‘ring’, dogga ‘dog’
b. the vowel-like consonant /j/
in all positions, when the proximate vowel had front quality
gif ‘if’ /jif/, þegen ‘thane’ /θεjən/, dæg ‘day’ /dæj/
c. the velar fricative /γ/
after or between back vowels and after the consonants r and l
agan ‘to own’ /a:γan/, bugan ‘to bend’, sorg ‘sorrow’,
folgian ‘to follow’
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 The letter z was very rare, it sometimes occurred in loan-
words, and may have sounded as /ts/ or /dz/ according to position as
in: bæ(d)zere ‘baptist’, dracontse-draconze ‘dragonwort’
Each sound was usually represented by one letter in
OldEnglish, but some digraphs were also used. The bilateral cg was
the symbol for the voiced affricate /dʒ/: secgan ‘to say’ /sedʒan/, ecg
‘edge’ /edʒ/. The bilateral sc had come to represent the single
consonant sound /ʃ/ as in: scip ‘ship’, scēap ‘sheep’, etc. The
diagraph cw was used for the sound /kw/ now represented by qu.
The OE group ng is generally the symbol of two sounds, the velar
nasal /ŋ/ followed by the voiced plosive /g/ like in ModE finger
/fiŋgə/. Similarly, nc gives /ŋk/ as in: singan ‘to sing’ /siŋgən/,
drincan ‘to drink’ /driŋkən/
Concluding on Old English pronunciation, we may say that
normally no letters are to be left unsounded in reading Old English.
Thus the letter ‹w› of wrītan ‘to write’, the letter ‹c› of cnāwan ‘to
know’, the letter ‹g› of gnornian ‘to mourn’ and the letter ‹h› in ‹hw›
hwæt ‘what’ should be clearly heard before the following consonant.
Nevertheless there was a tendency to do away with the
difficulty of pronouncing certain consonant clusters. Sometimes one
of the consonants was left out: el(n)boga ‘elbow’, fæs(t)nian ‘to
fasten’.
The doubling of consonants between vowels indicated that the
consonants were long; they were pronounced with a fresh impulse in
the middle: spinnan ‘to spin’, swimman ‘to swim’, habban ‘to have’,
etc. In Old English long consonants may be found after long vowels
and short consonants after short vowels.
Stress in Old English came to be fixed, as in other Germanic
languages, on the root syllable which is generally the first syllable.
However, when the first syllable was a prefix, usage varied:
nouns and adjectives stressed the prefix, verbs did not: n. ′foregenga
‘leader’, ‘forerunner’, vb. fore′gangan ‘to go before’, to take the
lead’. The prefixes ge- and be- were never stressed.

Further reading

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For a detailed presentation of the family of Indo-European languages, see
Baugh and Cable (1993: 16-42). Crystal (2000: 6-29) gives an outline of
the characteristics of Old English texts and language. For more details on
pronunciation and spelling see Schmidt (1978: 21-34).

Activities
1. Practice Old English pronunciation by reading the following text.
Check your pronunciation against the phonetic transcription:

The following excerpt is a historical translation of the story of

Peter’s denial from the New Testament, St Matthew’s Gospel,
chapter 26, vv. 60-75, written in Late West Saxon Old English
c. 1050 (the verses of the chapter are numbered).

69 Petrus soðlice sæt ute on þam cafertune. þa com to hym an

þeowen 7 cwæð . 7 þu wære myd þam galileiscan hælende.
70 7 he wyðsoc beforan eallum 7 cwæð. nat ic hwæt þu segst.
71 þa he ut eode of þære dura. þa geseh hyne oðer þynen. 7 sæde
þam ðe þar wæron. 7 þes wæs myd þam nazareniscan
hælende.
72 7 he wyðsoc eft myd aðe þæt þæt he hys nan þyng ne cuðe.
73 þa æfter lytlum fyrste genealæhton þa ðe þær stodon. 7
cwædon to petre. Soðlice þu eart of hym. 7 þyn spræc þe
gesweotolað.
74 þa ætsoc he 7 swerede. þæt he næfre þone man ne cuðe. 7
hrædlice þa creow se cocc. 75 ða gemunde petrus þæs
hælendes word þe he cwæð. ærþam þe se cocc crawe. þrywa
ðu me wyðscst. 7 he eode ut 7 weop byterlice.

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 Pɛtrʊs soːθliːtʃə sæt uːtə cn ðaːm kaːvərtuːnə. ðaː coːm toː hɪm aːn
θɛːəwən and kwæθ, ‘and θuːwæːrə mɪd θaːm ɡalɪleːɪʃən hæːləndǃˈ
and hɛː wɪθsoːk bɛvoːrən æələm and kwæθ ˈnaːt ɪtʃ hwæt θuːsɛɪstˈ
θaː heː uːt eːədə ɔf ðæːrə dʊrə. θaː jəzej hɪnə oðər ðyːnəˌ and zæːdə
θaːm ðɛ ðaːr wæːrənˌ ˈaːnd ðɛs wɛs mɪd ðaːm nazarenɪʃən hæːlɛndeˈ
and heː wɪðsoːk ɛft mɪd ɑðə θæt heː hɪs nɑːn ðiŋɡ nə kuːðə. ðɑː
æftər lyːtləm fɪrstə jənɛːəlæːçtən ðɑː ðɛ ðæːr stoːdənˌ and kwæːdən
toː pɛtrəˌ ˈsoðliːtʃə ðuː æərt ɔf hɪmˌ and ðiːn sprætʃ ðeː jəsweətəlaθˈ
ðɑː ætsoːk heː and swɛrədə ðæt heː nævrə ðɔnə mɑn nɛ kuːðəˌ and
hrædliːtʃə ðɑːkreːəw sɛ kɔk. ðɑːjəmʊndə pɛtros ðæs hæːləndəs wərd
ðɛ heː kwæːθˌ ˈæːrðam ðɛ sɛ kɔk krɑːwəˌ ðryːwa ðuːmeː wɪðzækstˈ
and heː eːədə uːt and weːəp bɪterliːtʃə.

ww
69 Peter truly sat out(side) in the courtyard. then came to him a
servant & said. & thou wast with the galilean saviour.
70 & he denied before all & said. ne-know I what thou sayest.
71 then he out went of the door, then saw him other servant. & said
to-them that there were. & this (man) was with the nazarean saviour.
72 & he denied again with oath that he of-him no thing ne-knew.
73 then after little time approached them that there stood. & said to
peter. Truly thou art of him. & thy speech thee shows.
74 then denied he & swore. that he never the man ne knew. &
immediately then crew the cock.
75 then remembered peter the saviour’s words that he spoke.
before that the cock crows thrice thou me deniest. & he went out
& wept bitterly.

2. Read the following excerpt from the Old English translations of

the Bible:
Đa ferdon hig hrædlice fram þære byrgene mid ege and
Then went they hurriedly from the tomb with fear and

mid myclum gefean, and urnon and cyðdon hyt hys

21
with much joy and ran and told it to-his

leomingcnihton. And efne þa com se hælynd ongean hig

disciples. And behold then came the Lord against them

and cwæð,‘Hale wese ge’. Hig genealæhton and genamon

and said, ‘Well be you.’ They approached and took

hys fet and to him geeaðmeddon. Đa cwæð se hælynd to

his feet and to him worshipped. Then said the Lord to

heom, ‘Ne ondræde ge eow.Farað and cyþað minum

them, ‘Not fear ye you. Go and tell my

gebroþrum þæt hig faron on galileam. Þæt hig geseoþ me’.

brethren that they go into Galilee. There they will see me.’
(OE Gospels (Matthew 28: 8-19) Freeborn 1998: 61)

22
2.

The Vocabulary of Old English

English is not merely the product of the dialects brought to England

by the Jutes, Saxons and Angles. These formed the basis of the
grammar and the source of the largest part of the vocabulary.
In the course of the seven hundred years of its existence,
English was brought into contact with three other languages, the
languages of the Celts, the Romans, and the Scandinavians. Each of
these languages has added new items to the vocabulary of English.

2.1. Word formation: derivation and compounding

The language at this stage shows great flexibility, a capacity for

bending old words to new uses by means of derivation and
compounding.

a. Affixation
By means of prefixes and suffixes a single root is made to yield a
variety of derivatives (cf. Baugh & Cable 1993: 64-66). Old English
suffixes included:

Noun forming suffixes:

-nes mōdignes ‘pride’
-dōm cyningdōm ‘kingdom’, earldōm ‘earl’s estate’
-end būend ‘dweller’, cīepend ‘seller’
-ere denoting agent wrītere ‘writer’
-had cildhād ‘childhood’
-ing in patronymics Ecgbryhting ‘son of Ecgbryht’
-ung dagung ‘dawn’
-scipe freondscipe ‘friendship’
Adjective forming suffixes:
-en ‘made of’ gylden ‘golden’, stænen ‘of stone’
-ig /ij/ hālig ‘holy’, mihtig ‘mighty’

23
 -full weorþfull ‘honourable’
-leas ārlēas ‘dishonoured’
-sum hīersum ‘obedient’
Adverb forming suffixes:
-lice mōdiglice ‘boldly’
Verb forming suffixes:
-ian fullian ‘to consecrate’

The use of prefixes was a fertile source in word-building, as well.

There are about a dozen prefixes that occur with great frequency,
such as: ā-, be-, for-, fore-, ge-, mis-, of-, ofer-, on-, tō-, un-, under-,
and wiþ-. Thus, with the help of these, Old English could make out
of a simple verb like: settan (to set) new verbs like:

āsettan ‘place’, besettan ‘appoint’, forsettan ‘obstruct’,

foresettan ‘place before’, gesettan ‘people’, ‘garrison’,
ofsettan ‘afflict’, onsettan ‘oppress’, tōsettan ‘dispose’,
unsettan ‘put down’, and wiþsettan ‘resist’.

By prefixation the resources of the English verb were

increased almost tenfold, and enough such verbs survive (to beset ‘to
threaten’, to overset ‘to overcome’, to offset ‘to compensate with’, n.
onset ‘the beginning’) to give us a realization of their employment in
the Old English vocabulary.

b. Compounding
The flexibility of the language in forming new words will be
illustrated by taking as an example the noun mōd meaning ‘mood’
from which more than a hundred words are formed by means of
derivation and compounding. To illustrate here are a few derived
words belonging to various lexical categories:

mōd n. ‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘boldness’, ‘courage’

sometimes ‘pride’, ‘haughtiness’.
mōdig adj. ‘spirited’, ‘bold’, ‘high-minded’,‘arrogant’
mōdfull adj. ‘haughty’
mōdleas adj. ‘spiritless’
mōdiglic adj. ‘magnanimous’
24
 mōdiglīce adv. ‘boldly’, ‘proudly’
mōdignes n. ‘magnanimity’, ‘pride’
mōdigian vb. ‘to bear oneself proudly or exultantly’

The root may combine with other words meaning ‘mind’ or

‘thought’ to form compound nouns with a resulting intensified
meaning of the root: mōdsefa, mōdgeþanc, mōdgeþot, mōdgemynd
‘mind’, thought’, ‘understanding’
Some sharpening of the concept is obtained in the following
compounds:

mōdcræft n. ‘intelligence’
mōdcræftig adj. ‘intelligent’

But the root lent itself naturally to combination with other words to
indicate various mental states, such as the following compound
nouns:
glædmōdnes ‘kindness’
mōdlufu ‘affection’ (lufu = love)
unmōd ‘despondency’
mōdcaru ‘sorrow’ (caru = care)
mōdleast ‘want of courage’
mādmōd ‘folly’
ofermōd ofermōdigung ‘pride’
ofermōdig ‘proud’
heahmōd ‘proud’, ‘noble’
mōdhete (hete=hate)

By a similar process of combination a number of adjectives were

formed:
micelmōd ‘magnanimous’
swiþmōd ‘great of soul’ (swiþ ‘strong’)
stiþmōd ‘resolute’,’obstinate’ (stiþ ‘stiff, strong’)
guþmōd ‘warlike’ (guþ ‘war’, ‘battle’)
torhtmōd ‘glorious’ (torht ‘bright’)
mōdleof ‘beloved’ (leof ‘dear’)

25
It is thus obvious that a part of the flexibility of the Old English
vocabulary comes from the generous use made of prefixes and
suffixes to form new words from old words or to modify or extend
the root idea.
Old English had a considerable number of self-explaining
compounds (just like Modern German), i.e. compounds of two or
more native words whose meaning in combination is either self-
evident or has been rendered clear by association and usage.

leohtfæt ‘lamp’ (leoht ‘light’ + fæt ‘vessel’)

medu-heall ‘mead-hall’
ealohūs ‘alehouse’
earhring ‘earring’
eorþcræft ‘geometry’, and many more.

Such compounds have been replaced in Modern English by a

borrowed word or a word made up of elements derived from Latin
and Greek: steamboat, railroad, warning light, one-way street, etc.
As a result of the capacity to form self-explaining compounds,
Old English seems never to have been at a loss for a word to express
even the abstractions of science, theology and metaphysics, which it
came to know through contact with the church and Latin culture.

2.2. Foreign influences on the vocabulary of Old English

From the Anglo-Saxon migrations of the fifth century to some time

after the Norman invasion of 1066, when the language underwent a
major and dramatic transition, Old English assimilated some aspects
of the languages with which it came in contact, such as the Celtic
languages and the dialects of Old Norse from the invading Vikings,
who were occupying and controlling large tracts of land in northern
and eastern England.

2.2.1. The Celtic influence

Celtic was the first Indo-European tongue to be spoken in England.
After the conquest of the Celtic population by the Anglo-Saxons few
Celtic words survived (due to extermination or absorbtion by the new
inhabitants) in the language chiefly in place-names.
26
 The kingdom of Kent, for example, owes its name to the Celtic
word Canti or Cantion, the meaning of which is unknown, while the
two ancient Northumbrian kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia derive
their designations from Celtic tribal names. Moreover, a number of
important centers in the Roman period have names in which Celtic
elements are embodied. The name London itself most likely goes
back to a Celtic designation. The first syllable of Winchester,
Salisbury, Exeter, Gloucester, Lichfield is traceable to a Celtic source,
while the name York is originally Celtic (cf. Baugh & Cable 1993:
72-104).
But it is in the names of rivers, hills and places in the
proximity of these that the greatest number of Celtic words survive.
Thus the Thames is a Celtic river name, and various Celtic words for
river or water are preserved in the names Avon, Exe, Esk, Usk, Dover,
and Wye. Celtic words meaning ‘hill’ are found in place names like
Barr (cf. Welsh bar ‘top’, ‘summit’), Bredon (cf. Welsh bre ‘hill’),
Bryn Mawr (cf. Welsh bryn ‘hill’ and mawr ‘great’). Certain other
elements occur more or less frequently such as cumb (a deep valley)
in names like Duncombe, Holcombe, Winchcombe; torr (high rock,
peak) in Torr, Torcross, Torhill, etc.
Outside of place-names, the influence of Celtic upon English
is almost negligible. A few words are of popular character and were
learnt by the Anglo-Saxons through every day contact with the
natives: binn (basket, crib), bratt (cloak), and brocc (brock or
badger), geographical names: crag, luh (lake), cumb (valley) and torr
(projecting rock), as well as words introduced by the Irish
missionaries in the north (trying to spread Celtic Christianity):
anchor (hermit), dry (magician), cine (a gathering of parchment
leaves), cross, clugge (bell), gabolrind (compas), mind (diadem) and
perhaps stær (history) and cursian (to curse), came into at least
partial use in Old English. The influence of the Celtic was slight,
because the relation of the Celt to the Anglo-Saxon was that of a
submerged race, i.e. because the Celt was not in a position to make
any notable contribution to Anglo-Saxon civilization.

2.2.2. The Latin influence

Latin was the language of a higher civilization, a civilization from
which the Anglo-Saxons had much to learn. There were three distinct
27
occasions on which borrowing from Latin occurred before the end of
the Old English period.

a. Latin borrowings on the continent

The first Latin words to find their way into the English language
owe their adoption to the early contact between the Romans and the
Germanic tribes on the continent. The number of Germans living
within the empire by the fourth century is estimated at several
million. The adopted words naturally indicate the new conceptions
which the Teutons acquired from this contact with a higher
civilization. Next to agriculture the chief occupation of the Germans
in the empire was war, and this experience is reflected in words like
camp (battle), segn (banner), pīl (pointed stick, javelin), weall (wall),
strat (road, street), mil (mile). More numerous are the words
connected with trade: ceap (bargain), mangian (to trade), with
derivatives mangere (monger), mangung (trade, commerce), pund
(pound), mynet (coin) from which Old English formed mynetian (to
mint or coin); wine trade: wīn (wine), must (new wine), flasce (flask,
bottle). A number of words relate to domestic life and designate
household articles, foods,: cytel (kettel), cycene (kitchen), cuppe
(cup), līnen (flax), cīese (cheese), pipor (pepper), butere (butter),
plūme (plum), minte (mint).

b. Latin borrowings during the Roman occupation

The military conquest of Britain by the Emperor Claudius in A.D.
43 was inevitably followed by the Romanization of the province. The
introduction of the Roman habits of life was accompanied by the use
of the Latin language. Latin did not replace the Celtic language in
Britain. There were certainly many people in Roman Britain who
habitually spoke Latin or upon occasion could use it. But the use of
Latin was not sufficiently widespread to cause it to survive, as the
Celtic language survived, the upheaval of the Germanic invasions.
Few elements can be really proved to owe their presence in English
to the Roman occupation of Britain: port (harbour, gate, town), munt
(mountain), wīc (village). The word ceaster from the Latin castra
(camp) is a common designation in Old English for a town or an
enclosed community. It appears in English place-names: Chester,

28
Colchester, Dorchester, Manchester, Winchester, Lancaster,
Doncaster, Gloucester, Worcester.

c. Latin borrowings after the introduction of Christianity

The greatest influence of Latin upon Old English was occasioned
by the introduction of Christianity into Britain in 597. Churches and
monasteries were built and schools were established in most of them.
A few words relating to Christianity such as church and bishop were
borrowed earlier, but the great majority of words in Old English
having to do with the church and its services were borrowed at this
time: abbot, alms, altar, angel, anthem, ark, candle, canon, chalice,
cleric, cowl, deacon, epistle, hymn, litany, manna, martyr, mass,
minster, noon, nun, offer, organ, pall, palm, pope, priest, provost,
psalm, psalter, relic, rule, shrift, shrine, shrive, stole, subdeacon,
synod, temple, tunic. But the church also exercised a profound
influence on the domestic life of the people: articles of clothing and
household: cap, sock, silk, purple, chest, mat, sack, foods: beet, pear,
radish, oyster, lobster, names of plants: pine, fennel, lily, hyssop,
myrrh, savory, plant.
The decline of the church life began with the Danish invasions
in the 8th century when many churches and monasteries were
plundered and continued with the decline of the moral fiber of the
clergy who indulged in a life of abundance. In the 10th century when
the restoration of monasteries began, the general reformation of
morals brought about something like a religious revival in the island
and much attention started to be paid to the establishment of schools
and the encouragement of learning among the monks and the clergy.
At the close of the century the monasteries were once more centres
of literary activity where manuscripts both in Latin and the
vernacular were copied and preserved. The words borrowed at this
time expressed more often ideas of scientific and learned character.
A considerable number of Christian borrowings have to do
with religious matters: alb, Antichrist, apostle, canticle, cantor, cell,
cloister, collect, creed, demon, idol, prophet, sabbath, synagogue.
Literary and learned words predominate: accent, decline (as a term
of grammar), history, paper, title; a great number of names of plants
and trees: coriander, cucumber, ginger, cedar, cypress, fig, laurel.

29
 The English did not always adopt a foreign word (here Latin)
to express a new Christian concept. Often an old word was applied to
a new thing and by a slight adaptation made to express a new
meaning. For example, they did not borrow the Latin word deus,
since their own word God was a satisfactory equivalent. Patriarch
was rendered literally by hēahfæder (high father). Instead of
borrowing the Latin word predicare (to preach) the English
expressed this idea with words of their own, such as læran (to teach)
or bodian (to bring a message). Instead of the Latin baptizare, the
English adopted a native word fullian (to consecrate), while its
derivative fulluht renders the noun ‘baptism’ and is part of numerous
compounds, such as: fulluht-bæþ (font), fulwere (baptist), fulluht-
fæder (baptizer), fulluht-nama (Christian name), fulluht-stōw
(baptistry), fulluht-tīd (baptism time), and others. Many of these
words are translations of their Latin equivalents. It is important to
recognize that the significance of a foreign influence is not to be
measured simply by the number of foreign words introduced but is
revealed also by the extent to which it stimulates the language to
independent creative effort and causes it to make full use of its native
resources.

2.2.3. The Scandinavian influence

Near the end of the Old English period English underwent a third
foreign influence, the result of the contact with another important
language, the Scandinavian. The Scandinavian invasions had as an
important consequence the settlement of large numbers of Danes in
England. Often they became permanent settlers especially in the
north and east of England, in the district of the Danelaw, and
accepted Christianity.
The similarity between Old English and the language of the
Scandinavian invaders makes it at times very difficult to decide
whether a given word in Modern English is a native or a borrowed
word. Many of the commoner words of the two languages were
identical, and if we had no Old English literature from the period
before the Danish invasions, we should be unable to say that many
words were not of Scandinavian origin. In certain cases, however,
certain tests can be very helpful.

30
 The most reliable depend upon differences in the development
of certain sounds in the North Germanic and West Germanic. One of
the simplest to recognize is the development of the sound sk. In Old
English this was early palatalized to sh (written sc), except possibly
in the combination scr, whereas in the Scandinavian countries it
retained its hard sk sound. Consequently, while native words like
ship, shall, fish have sh in Modern English, words borrowed from the
Scandinavians are generally still pronounced with sk: sky, skin, skill,
scrape, scrub, bask, whisk. The Old English scyrte has become shirt,
while the corresponding Old Norse form skyrta gives us skirt. In the
same way the retention of the hard pronunciation of the k and g in
such words as kid, dike, get, give, gild and egg is an indication of
Scandinavian origin.
A large number of places bear Scandinavian names ending in -
by (the Danish word for ‘farm’ or ‘town’): Grimsby, Whitby, Derby,
Rugby. Other names contain the Scandinavian words:
-thorp (village): Althorp, Bishopsthorpe, Gawthorpe, Linthorpe;
-thwaite (an isolated piece of land): Applethwaite, Braithwaite
-toft (a piece of ground): Brimtoft,Langtoft, Lowestoft, Nortoft.
More than 1,400 Scandinavian place-names have been counted in
England.
Similarly, a high percentage of Scandinavian personal names:
Orm Gamalsuna ending in -suna/-son, have been found in the
medieval records, the equivalent Old English patronymic being -ing,
Ælfred Æþelwulfing ‘Ælfred, son of Æþelwulf’. These patronymic
suffixes have survived in MnE in family names like Stevenson,
Johnson, Browning, etc.
The Scandinavian elements that entered the English language
are related to every day life: band, bank, birth, boon, booth, bull,
crook, dirt, egg, fellow, gait, gap, girth, guess, kid, leg, link, loan,
race, root, scales, score, scrap, seat, sister, skill, skin, skirt, sky,
slaughter, snare, steak, swain, thrift, trust, want, window. Among
adjectives: awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, muggy, odd, rotten,
rugged, scant, sly, tight, weak. There are also many common verbs
among the borrowings: to bask, call, cast, crave, crawl, die, gape,
gasp, get, give, glitter, kindle, lift, nag, raise, rid, scare, screech,
sprint, take, thrive, thrust. In many cases the new words could have
supplied no real need in the English vocabulary.
31
 The Scandinavian and the English words were being used side
by side for two centuries, and the survival of one or another must
have often been a matter of chance.
Where there were differences of form, the English word often
survived: burn, drag, fast, gang, scrape, thick.
In the words sister (ON syster, OE sweostor), boon (ON bōn,
OE bēn), egg (ON egg, OE ey), loan (ON lān, OE læn), weak (ON
veikr, OE wāc) the Scandinavian form lived. Old English had several
words for anger (ON angr), including torn, grama and irre, but the
Old Norse word prevailed. Occasionally, both the English and the
Scandinavian words were retained with a difference of meaning or
use, as in the following pairs (the English word is given first): no –
nay, rear – raise, craft – skill, sick – ill.
The intimate relation between the two languages is revealed by
the presence of classes of words which are not normally transferred
from one language into another: pronouns (þeir, þeirra, þeim, ‘they’,
‘their’, ‘them’ - replacing the OE forms hie, hira, him), prepositions
(till, fro), conjunctions (though the ON equivalent of OE þēah),
adverbs (aloft, athwart, aye (ever) and seemly, heþen (hence) and
hweþen (whence). Finally part of the verb to be is also of
Scandinavian origin in the present plural are.
The Scandinavian influence affected not only the vocabulary
but also the grammar. Inflections are seldom transferred from one
language to another, however, the -s of the third person singular,
present indicative and the participial ending -and (bindand),
corresponding to -end and -ind in the Midlands and South, and now
replaced by –ing have been attributed to the Scandinavian influence.
In many words the English and the Scandinavian languages
differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word
was so nearly the same in the two languages that only the endings
would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. These
endings must have led to much confusion, tending gradually to
become obscured and finally lost. The tendency towards the loss of
inflections accelerated and resulted after the Norman Conquest in the
simplifying of the English grammar.

Conclusion. The vocabulary of Old English is almost purely

Germanic. When the Norman Conquest brought French into England,
32
as the language of the higher class, much of the Germanic
vocabulary of Old English (85%) died out and was replaced later by
words borrowed from French and Latin. Those that survived are
basic elements of the vocabulary, and by the frequency with which
they recur make up a large part of any English sentence. They
express fundamental concepts like mann (man), wif (wife), cild
(child), hus (house) benc (bench), mete (meat, food), gærs (grass),
leaf (leaf), fugol (fowl, bird), gōd (good), strang (strong), etan (eat),
drincan (drink), slæpan (sleep), libban (live), feohtan (fight).

Further reading

See Poruciuc (2004: 46-49) on Old English means of lexical enrichment,

and Hughes (2000: 65-108) on the Anglo-Saxon core of common words in
English.

Activities

1. Look at vocabulary and identify Old English words that are still
part of the present-day English, though sometimes considerably
changed in their spelling. Notice which Old English words appear to
have been lost.
This is a passage from the beginning of the parable of The Prodigal
Son from St Luke’s Gospel, chapter 15, written in Late Saxon Old
English c. 1050.

11 He cwæð. Sōðlice sum mann hæfde twēgen suna.

12 þā cwæð se gingra tō hys fæder. fæder syle mē mynne dæl
mynre æthe. þe mē tō gebyreð. þā dælde hē hym hys æhta.
13 Đa æfter fēawum dagum eall hys þyng gegaderode se gingra
sunu 7 fērde wræclice on feorlen ryce. 7 þær forspylde hys
æhta lybbende on hys gælsan.
ww
11 He quoth (spoke). soothly (truly) some (a certain) man had
two sons.
12 then quoth the younger to his father. father sell (give) me my
deal (part) of my property. that me to belongs. then dealed
(gave) he him his property.

33
13 then after few days all his things gathered the younger son &
fared abroad in far-off country. & there spilled (wasted) his
property living in his luxury.

2. Here is a selection of words borrowed from Latin before the

Anglo-Saxon settlement in Britain. Group words according to their
meaning into household articles, domestic life, food, building arts,
trade, plants and animals.

Latin OE MnE Latin OE MnE

butyrum butere butter moneta mynet mint (money)

cattus catt cat mulus mul mule
caseus ciese cheese piper pipor pepper
cuppa cuppe cup pondo pund pound
discus disc dish Saturni (dies) Sæternes(dæg) Saturday
furca forca fork strata stræt street
catillus cetel kettle telonium toll toll (tax)
cucina cycene kitchen vallum wall wall
milea mil mile vicus wic -wick (town)

3. Latin words adopted during the Anglo-Saxon period. Arrange the

following words in meaning groups:
a) religion and the Church; b) education and learning;
c) household and clothing; d) plants, herbs and trees; e) foods

Latin OE MnE Latin OE MnE

angelus engel angel nonna nunne nun
apostolus apostol apostle pinus pin pine
cappa cæppe cap pira pere pear
credo creda creed planta plante plant
discipulus discipul disciple presbyter preost priest
missa mæsse mass schola scol school
magister mægester master versus fers verse

34
3.

The Nominal Inflections

The noun, the adjective, the pronoun and the numeral (partly) share
the categories of gender, number and case. These categories were
independent in the noun, whereas in the adjective and the pronoun
they were dependent showing agreement with the corresponding
noun.

3. 1. The definite determiner

Like German, its sister language of today, Old English possessed a

fully inflected definite article:

Singular Plural
masc. fem. neut. All genders
N. sē sēo þæt þā
G. þæs þære þæs þāra
D. þæm þære þæm þæm
A. þone þā þæt þā
I. þy þon þy þon

While the ordinary meaning of se, seo, ðæt is ‘the’, the word
is really a demonstrative pronoun and survives in the Modern
English demonstrative that. Its pronominal character appears also in
its use as a relative pronoun (=who, which, that) and as a personal
pronoun (=he, she, it). The indefinite determiner is much less used
than in ModE. To introduce particular persons or objects ān or sum
may be used.

3. 2. Grammatical vs. natural gender

As in Indo-European languages generally the gender of Old English

nouns is not dependent upon considerations of sex. While nouns

35
designating males are generally masculine (sē mann ‘the man’) and
females feminine (sēō dohtor ‘the daughter’), those indicating
neuter objects are not necessarily neuter. Thus OE bōc ‘book’ is
feminine. Stān ‘stone’ is masculine, mōna ‘moon’ is masculine, but
sunne ‘sun’ is feminine, as in German.
Often the gender of Old English nouns is quite illogical.
Words like mægden ‘girl’, wīf ‘wife’ and bearn and cild ‘child’,
which we should expect to be feminine or masculine, are in fact
neuter, while wīfmann ‘woman’ is masculine because the second
element of the compound is masculine.
Grammatical gender can be recognized by the gender of the
definite determiner and to some extent by the form of the noun, i.e.
several word-building suffixes formed nouns of a certain gender:
1. All nouns ending in –a are masculine: sē mona ‘the moon’
2. Nouns ending in –dōm, -hād, -scipe are masculine: sē
wisdōm ‘the wisdom’, sē childhād ‘the childhood’, sē
frēōndscipe ‘the friendship’.
3. Nouns derived from adjectives by suffixation in –nes, -þu, -u,
-ung are feminine: sēo rihtwīsnes ‘the righteousness’, sēo
strengþu ‘the strength’, sēo bieldu ‘the boldness’, sēo
scotung ‘shooting’.
4. Compounds follow the gender of their last element: sē
wīfmann ‘the wife’.

Towards the end of the Old English period attempts may be

observed to adjust the gender of nouns to semantics, replacing
grammatical gender by natural gender in Middle English. The
decline of the grammatical gender was accelerated by the levelling of
endings. In contrast, the simplicity of Modern English gender
appears as a chief asset of the language.

3. 3. The declensional paradigms

The Old English noun has two numbers: singular and plural and only
four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive and
instrumental whose endings vary with different nouns, but fall into
certain broad categories or declensions. The instrumental case
disappeared during the Old English period.
36
 Number and case together are expressed by one inflectional
ending. There are thus at most 8 different endings for any given noun.
The inflection of the Old English noun indicates distinctions
of number (singular and plural) and case. There is a vowel
declension and a consonant declension also called strong and weak
declensions, according to whether the stem ended in Germanic in a
vowel or a consonant, and within each of these types there are certain
subdivisions. If the original stem suffix ended in a vowel a, ō, i, u,
the declension was strong; if the original stem suffix ended in -n
preceded by a, ō, i, the declension was weak. In addition there are a
few minor declensions with stems ending in -nd or -r, as well as
athematic stems.
Their nature may be gathered from the following examples.
The weak declension included masculine, feminine and neuter
nouns:
Masc.sg. se nama ‘the name’ pl. þā naman ‘the names’

Singular Plural
N. sē nama N. þā naman
G. þæs naman G. þāra namena
D. þæm naman D. þæm namum
A. þone naman A. þā naman

All nouns in -a belong to the weak declension are: cnapa ‘boy’, foda
‘food, gefera ‘companion’, geleafa ‘belief’, gewuna ‘habit’, guma
‘man’, mona ‘moon’, steorra ‘star’, tima ‘time’, þeowa ‘servant’,
wyrhta ‘worker’, hunta ‘hunter’, wita ‘ councillor’, etc.

Feminine sēō sunne ‘the sun’ þā sunnan ‘the suns’

Singular Plural
N. sēo sunne N. þā sunnan
G. þære sunnan G. þāra sunnena
D. þære sunnan D. þæm sunnum
A. þā sunnan A. þā sunnan

37
 Other feminine nouns belonging to the weak declension are:
cirice ‘church’, eorþe ‘earth’, heorte ‘heart’, mæss ‘mass’, nædra
‘snake’, tunge ‘tongue’, hlæfdīge ‘ lady’, wise ‘manner’, etc.

The strong declension included masculine, feminine and neuter

nouns:
Masculine nouns: sē stan ‘the stone’ þā stanas ‘the stones’

Singular Plural
N. sē stān N. þā stānas
G. þæs stānes G. þāra stāna
D. þæm stāne D. þæm stānum
A. þone stān A. þā stānas

Other masculine nouns belonging to the strong declension are: āþ

‘oath’, beorg ‘hill’, cniht ‘youth’, dæl ‘part’, dōm ‘judgement’, eorl
‘nobleman’, fisc ‘fish’, gāst ‘spirit’, geard ‘enclosure’, hām ‘home’,
prēōst ‘priest’, cyning ‘king’, hlāford ‘lord, þeow ‘servant’, weg
‘way’, wisdom ‘wisdom’, etc.

Feminine nouns: sēō giefu ‘the gift’ þā giefe ‘the gifts’

Singular Plural
N. sēo giefu N. þā giefe
G. þære giefe G. þāra giefa/ giefena
D. þære giefe D. þæm giefum
A. þā giefe A. þā giefa

Other feminine nouns belonging to the strong declension are:

andswaru ‘answer’, lufu ‘love’, scamu ‘shame’, talu ‘tale’, wicu
‘week’, etc.

Neuter nouns ðæt scip ‘the ship’ þā scipu ‘the ships’

Singular Plural
N. þæt scip N. þā scipu
G. þæs scipes G. þāra scipa
D. þæm scipe D. þæm scipum
38
 A. þæt scip A. þā scipu

Other neuter nouns belonging to the strong declension are: hūs

‘house’, bearn, cild ‘child’, dēōr ‘wild beast’, flod ‘flood’, folc ‘folk’,
gold ‘gold’, gear ‘year’, land ‘land’, mōd ‘mood’, sceap ‘sheep’,
þing ‘thing’, wīf ‘wife’, word ‘word’, etc.
Certain cases are identical in form (syncretism): the Acc is the
same as the Nominative in all plurals and in the singular of all
neuters and all strong masculines. The genitive plural ending is
always -a and the dative plural -um.
Irregular (or root) declensions included nouns which had
mutated plurals: mann ‘man’- menn, fot ‘foot’- fet (also regular fotas),
gos ‘goose’- ges, toð ‘tooth’- teð.
The declension of the proper names varies with their origin.
If persons names are of native origin, they are declined like common
nouns of the strong declension:

Masculine Feminine
N Ælfred N. Ēadburg
G. Ælfredes G. Ēadburge
D. Ælfrede D. Ēadburge
A. Ælfred A. Ēadburge

Foreign personal names sometimes follow the analogy of

native names: Crīst, Salomon, have Gen. Crīstes, Salomones, Dat.
Crīste, Salomone. Sometimes they are declined as in Latin,
especially those in –us; but very often with a mixture of English
endings and Latin endings, used somewhat loosely.
Many names of countries and districts are compounds, formed
from the name of the inhabitants followed by land. The first element
is commonly in the Gen.pl.: Englaland ‘land of the English,
England’, Norþhymbraland ‘Northumbria’, etc.
These few paradigms illustrate clearly the marked synthetic
character of English in its earliest stage. The relative importance of
the declensions was not the same, some of the declensions were
represented by large numbers of nouns, whereas others were
confined to several words; certain types of declension influenced the
other types.
39
 Historically speaking the most interesting types are those
which extended or survived in later periods. In this respect especially
significant are the paradigms of a- stems, n- stems and root stems
whose traces are found in Modern English.

The plural markers. The plural ending -as (a stems, masculine,

N./A.) and the ending -es (a-stems, masculine, G. sg) began to be
added in Old English to nouns originally belonging to other
declensions. Thus only in Middle English the N. A. pl. -es (from OE
-as) ousted the other case forms of the plural.
It should be taken into consideration that unlike masculine
nouns, the neuter a- stems did not take -as in the plural (generally
those with a short root vowel took u, e.g. limu. Others had dropped
the ending in prerecorded OE so that their form did not change for
the plural. Modern English nouns such as deer, sheep, swine, yoke,
score have the same form for the singular and the plural because in
Old English they were neuter, and all neuter monosyllabic nouns had
the same form for both numbers whenever the root-vowel was long
or when they ended in two consonants.
Another important group is that of the root stems with vowel
interchange as a regular means of form-building. Thus the
prerecorded * fōtiz (N.pl) and *fōti (D. sg) became *fētiz and *fēti
being both shortened to fēt after the loss of the endings.
Sound alternations sometimes occur in the other stems as
well. Thus nouns ending in fricatives had a regular alternation
between a voiced and a voiceless consonant depending on the
position in the word, i.e. whether it was followed by a vowel or stood
at the end of the word:

OE wulf [f] N. sg wulfas [v] N.A.pl. (a-stems masculine)

OE muð [θ] muðas [ð] ‘mouth – mouths’

Old English case remnants in present-day English may be

found in the ‘genitive of measure’: five foot tall, ninety-mile journey
(the OE G. pl –a was preserved in Middle English as e [ə] being
dropped later). The D pl. has been transmitted in seldom, the D. sg
in –e has been preserved in spelling in the word alive (OE ‘on life’).

40
The OE feminine Gen. without –s is preserved in Lady Chapel ( i.e.
our Lady’s Chapel), Lady day, lady-bird.
The OE plural of cild was cildru, which became ME childre
or childer. In one dialect childer was given an additional –en suffix
chideren, which has become the Standard English children.

Further reading
For fuller presentations of case usage see Quirk & Wrenn (1957: 59-68) and
Mitchell (1985: §§1240-1427).

Activities
1. Give the declensional paradigm of the following nouns:
Weak declension:
masc. sē guma ‘man’, sē hunta ‘hunter’
fem. sēo tunge ‘tongue’, sēo nædra ‘snake’
Strong declension:
masc. sē giefu ‘gift’, sē prēost ‘priest’
fem. sēo giest ‘guest’, sēo lufu ‘love’
neut. ðæt sunu ‘son’, ðæt cild ‘child’, ðæt wif ‘wife’
2. Read the following phrases and decide which is the indicator of
gender in each case choosing from:
a. meaning (sexual gender)
b. the determiner
c. the indefinite determiner
d. the demonstrative
e. agreement between pronoun and noun
f. agreement between the indefinite determiner and noun

Masculine Feminine Neuter

se wīfmann sēo hlæfdige þæt wīf
‘the woman’ ‘the lady’ ‘the woman’
se æppel sēo eorthe þæt ealu
‘the apple’ ‘the earth’ ‘the ale’

þes wīfmann þēos hlæfdige þis wif

‘this woman’ ‘this lady’ ‘the woman’
þes æppel þēos eorthe þis ealu
‘the apple’ ‘this earth’ ‘the ale’

41
 sum æppel sumu hlæfdige sum ealu
‘a certain apple’ ‘a certain lady’ ‘a certain ale’

(Ic seah) sumne (Ic seah) sume (Ic seah) sum wīf
wīfmann hlafdige ‘(I saw) a certain
‘(I saw) a certain ‘(I saw) a certain woman’
woman’ lady’

se wīfmann… hēo is gōd sēo hlæfdige …hēo is þæt wif … hēo is

se æppel… he is gōd gōd gōd
sēo eorthe …hēo is þæt ealu … hit is
gōd gōd

(Algeo & Pyles 1966: 112)

3. Use brackets to identify NPs in the following examples from

Freeborn (1998:68). The markers of the nominal grammatical
categories of gender, number and case have already been underlined.
Say what they indicate (Ø shows zero-marking):

a. Seo næddre cwæþ g. hi gehyrdon his stemne

The serpent said they heard his voice

b. he asende ut þone hræfn-Ø h. he genam hi in to þam arce

he sent out the raven he took her into the ark

c. þæt wif-Ø andwyrde i. ofer þære eorþan bradnysse

the woman answered over the earth’s broadness
(=surface)
d. God-Ø cwæþ to þam wife j. þa wæteru adruwodon
God said to the woman the waters dried up

e. se hræfn-Ø fleah þa ut k. he abad oþre seofan dagas

the raven flew then out he waited (an)other seven days

f. God-Ø cwæþ to þære næddran

God said to the serpent

42
4. Read the following text and comment on the morphological
marking of case on nouns and determiners:

This is an excerpt from the Old English translation of Bede’s

Ecclesiastical History, which tells the story of the missionaries to
England under St Augustine in 597 .
1.
Đā wæs æfter manigum dagum þæt sē cyning cōm tō
Then was after many days that the king came to
Then it was after many days that the king came to
2.
þæm ēalande, and hēt him ūte setl gewyrcean;
the island and commanded him out seat make;
the island and ordered (them) to make him a seat in the open air;
3.
and hēt Augustinum mid his gefērum þider tō his spræce
and bade Augustine with his companions thither to his consultation
and he bade Augustine with his companions to come thither to (his)
4.
cuman. Warnode hē him þy læs hīe on hwelc hūs tō him inēoden;
come. Guarded he him lest they in same house to him enter;
consultation. He guarded himself lest they should enter in thesame
5.
brēac ealdre hēalsunga, gif hīe hwelcne drycræft hæfden
used old precaution, if they any sorcery had
house with him; he employed an old precaution in case they had
6.
þæt hīe hine oferswīðan and beswīcan sceolden.
that they him overcome and besiege should.
any sorcery with which they should overcome and get the better
of him.
7.
Þā hēt sē cyning hīe sittan, and hīe swā dydon; and hīe sōna
Then bade the king them sit, and they so did; and they soon
Then the king bade them to sit, and they did so;and they soon
8.
him līfes word ætgædere mid eallum his gefērum þe þær æt
him life-gen word together with all his companions that thereat

43
 to him the word of life together with all his companions that were
9.
wæron, bodedon and lærdon. Þā andswarode sē cyning and
were, preached and taught. Then answered the king and
there preached and taught. Then the king answered and
10.
þus cwæð:“Fæger word þis sindon and gehāt þe gē brōhton
thus quoth: Fair words these are and promises that ye brought
thus said: Fair words these are and promises that you have
8.
and ūs secgað. Ac forðon hīe nīwe sindon and uncūðe, ne
and us say. But since they new are and unknown, not
brought and said to us. But since they are new and unknown we
9.
magon wē nū gēn þæt þafian þæt wē forlæten þā wīsan þe
may we yet to that consent that we give (up) the ways that
may not yet consent to it that we give up the ways that
10.
wē langre tīde mid ealle Angelþēode hēoldon. Ac forðon þe gē
we long time with all English held. But since ye
we long time with all the English (have) held. But since you
11.
hider feorran elþēodige cōmon and, þæs þe mē geþūht is and
hither afar strangers came and, that it me thought is and
from afar as strangers (have) come and, as it seems to me and
12.
gewesen, þā þing, ðā ðe [gē] sōð and betst gelīefdon, þæt
appears, the thing, that ye true and best believed, that
appears, the things that you believed true and best, that
13.
ēac swelce wilnodon ūs þā gemænsumian, nellað wē forðon ēow
likewise (ye) wished us them impart, will-not we therefore you
likewise (you) wished to impart them to us, we will not therefore
14.
hefige bēon. Ac wē willað ēow ēac fremsumlīce on giestlīðnesse
heavy be. But we will you also kindly in hospitality
on you be heavy. But we will also kindly receive you in

44
15.
onfōn and ēow andleofne sellan and ēowre þearfe forgiefan.
receive and you food give and your needs provide for.
hospitality and give you food and for your needs provide.
16.
Ne wē ēow beweriað þæt gē ealle, ðā þe gē mægen, þurh ēowre
Nor we you forbid that ye all that ye may, through your
Nor do we forbid you that you all (those) that you may through
17.
lāre tō ēowres gelēafan æfæstnesse geðīeden and gecierren.”
teaching to your-gen faith religion join and convert.
your teaching to your faith (the) religion may join and convert.
(Baugh & Cable 1993: 63)

5. Modern survivals of the Old English inflections on nouns. Two

Old English inflectional endings have survived into Modern English,
the genitive and the plural. Other inflections still survive but only in
petrified forms. In the following examples match the modern forms
of the nouns in italics with the Old English inflections:

__ They found a bird’s nest. __ The boats were at sea.

__ He took a five-day trip. __ The oxen follow the plow.
__ The mice are hiding for fear. __ It seldom snows.
__ There were three hundred men. __ The boy is five foot tall.
__ The sheep are in the field. __ These kind are oak trees.
__ There is hardly a native alive. __ The deer were frightened.
__ The feast of the Annunciation is called Lady Day.

a. N - A plural ending -as

b. N - A plural ending -an
c. N - A plural ending -ru
d. N - A plural ending with mutation of the stem vowel.
e. N - A plural identical in form with N-A singular
f. G. singular ending -es
g. G. singular without -s
h. D. singular ending in -e
i. D. plural ending -um

45
4.

Modifiers
4.1. Adjectives

An important feature of the Germanic languages is the development

of a twofold declension of the adjective. In Old English adjectives
were inflected as nouns, in agreement with the noun modified.

4.1.1. The adjectival inflections

The strong declension or indefinite declension for the most part

corresponds with strong nominal declensions. This declension is
used when an adjective is used predicatively, or when it is a modifier
of an indefinite NP: gōd mann ‘good man’.
The weak or definite declension corresponds with the weak
nominal declensions and is used when the attributive adjective
follows a demonstrative or a possessive pronoun: se gōda mann ‘the
good man’.

Strong declension
Many endings of strong declension on adjectives differ from those of
nouns: cwic ‘alive’

masculine feminine neutre

singular N. cwic cwicu cwic
G. cwices cwicre cwices
D. cwicum cwicre cwicum
A. cwicne cwice cwic

plural N. cwice cwica,-e cwicu

G. cwicra cwicra cwicra
D. cwicum cwicum cwicum
A. cwice cwica, -e cwicu

46
Adjectives with a short root syllable are declined like cwic: til ‘good’,
sum ‘some, a certain’, and the compounds ending in -lic and –sum:
faerlic ‘suden’, gehiersum ‘obedient’, etc.

Weak declension
The endings of the weak declension are the same as those of the
nouns, except that the G.pl. usually ends in -ra instead of -ena, as in
the strong declension:

singular masc. fem. neuter plural

N. gōda gōde gōde gōdan
G. gōdan gōdan gōdan gōdra(-ena)
D. gōdan gōdan gōdan gōdum
A. gōdan gōdan gōde gōdan

This elaboration of inflection in the Old English adjective contrasts

with the complete absence of inflection from the adjective in Modern
English.

4.1.2. Agreement
Adjectives agree with their nouns in gender, number and case, not
only when used attributively, but also when the adjective follows the
noun, either predicatively or in apposition:

a) þā menn sind gōde

‘the men are good’

b) hīe ofslōgon ānne geongne Brettiscne mannan, swīthe æþelne

they killed a young Briton, so noble
‘they killed a young Briton, of very noble birth’
(Sweet 1978: 43)

c) ne ābyhþ næfre Ēadmund Hinguare, hæþnum heretogan

not submit never Edmund Hinguar.Dat, heathen.Dat general.Dat
‘Edmund will never submit to Hinguar, the heathen general’
(Sweet 1978: 48)

47
4.1.3. Comparison
The regular formation of a comparative of Old English adjectives is
by adding -ra to the stem. The comparative is declined according to
the weak declension;
masc. fem. pl.
lēof ‘dear’ lēofra lēofre lēofran

The superlative normally ends in -ost and may be declined

both strong and weak: leofost.
A number of adjectives have mutated vowels in comparative
and superlative:

eald ‘old’ ieldra ieldest

geond ‘young’ gingra gingest
hēah ‘high’ hīerra hīehst
lang ‘long’ lengra lengest
sceort ‘short’ scyrta scyrtest
strang‘strong’ strengra strengest

The following adjectives form comparative and superlative form

roots different from those of the positive:

gōd ‘good’ betera, betra betst

yfel ‘bad’ wiersa wier(re)st
micel ‘great’ māra mæst
lytel ‘little’ læssa læst

4.2. Adverbs

The comparative of adverbs is formed by adding -or, the superlative

by adding -ost, instead of the usual positive ending -e:

swīþe ‘greatly’ swīþor swīþost

blīþelīce ‘joyfully’ blīþelicor blīþelicost

Like the corresponding adjectives, the following adverbs form the

comparative and the superlative from roots different form those of
the positive:
48
 wel ‘well’ bet bet(e)st
yfle ‘badly’ wiers wier(re)st
micle ‘much’ mā mast
lyt ‘little’ las last

4.3. Numerals

The Old English cardinal and ordinal numerals are given below:

cardinal ordinal cardinal ordinal

1 ān ‘one’ forma ‘first’ 11 en(d)leofon en(d)leofta
2 twā ōþer 12 twelf twelfta
3 þrēo þridda 13 þrēotīene þrēotēoþa
4 fēower fēorþa
5 fīf fīfta
6 siex siexta
7 seofon seofoþa
8 eahta eahtoþa
9 nigon nigoþa 19 nigontīene nigon tēoþa
10 tīen tēoþa
20 twentig twentigoþa
30 þrītig þrītigoþa
40 fēowertig fēowertigoþa
50 fīftig fīftigoþa
60 siextig siextigoþa
70 hundseofontig
80 hundeahtatig
90 hundnigontig
100 hund, hundred
110 hundendleofontig ‘a hundred and ten’
1000 þūsend ‘thousand’

The first three cardinal numerals, ān, twā, þrēo, were usually
declined, indicating gender, while other numerals from fēower to
nigontīene are generally undeclined except when they stand alone.

49
 The cardinal numerals from 13-19 were formed by adding
-tyne, and from 20-90 by -tig suffixed to basic forms of 2-9 numerals.
70, 80 and 90 had hund attached as a prefix that anticipates 100.
Cardinal numerals like 21 or 35 observed the Germanic pattern:
ān and twentig, fīf and þrītig. When not used as adjectives, numerals
take nouns in the genitive case:

eahta hund mila ‘eight hundred miles’

fēower þūsend wera ‘four thousand men’

Ordinal numerals, except the first two, were formed from

cardinals by means of the suffix -d/ta /-þa. They were declinable,
except ōþer.

Activities

1. Write the strong declensional paradigm of the monosyllabic

adjective glæd ‘glad’.

2. Modern survivals of the Old English inflections on adjectives and

adverbs:
__ a colder winter __ the narrowest road
__ an elder daughter __ the eldest son
__ He slept days. __Mondays they come home early.
__ He has a lot to do besides. __ They called once.
__ He drives slower in town. __ the foremost painter
__And feed deep upon her peerless eyes. __ he drives slower in town.
__ Why lives thou, dead dog, a lenger day?(Spencer)

a. adverb formed with the suffix -e

b. genitive singular used adverbially
c. adverb comparative ending -or
d. adjective comparative ending -ra
e. adjective superlative ending -est (from earliest -ist)with
mutation
f. adjective comparative ending -ra (from earlier -ira) with
mutation
50
 g. adjective superlative ending -ost
h. adjective double superlative ending

3. Read the following excerpt from Byrthferth’s Enchiridion that

calculates the number of the weeks of the year and write using
figures:

[Efne] seofon beoð sufon;

twia seofon beoð feowertyne;
þriwa seofon beoð an & twentig;
feower siðon seofon beoð eahta & twentig;
fif siðon seofon beoð fif & þrittig;
syx siðon seofon beoð twa & feowertig;
seofon siðon seofon beoð nigon & feowertig;
eahta siðon seofon beoð syx & fiftig;
nigon siðon seofon beoð þreo & syxtig;
tyn siðon seofon beoð hundseofontig;
twentig siðon seofon beoð an hund & feowertig;
þrittig siðon seofon beoð twa hundred & tyn;
feowertig siðon seofon beoð twa hundred & hundeahtatig;
fiftig siðon seofon beoð þreo hundred & fiftig.
(Byrthferth’s Manual, Crawford 1929: 148.9)

Vocabulary: Efne: once; bēoð: are, twia: twice.

51
5.

The Pronominal System

Old English pronouns fall under the same classes as present-day
English pronouns: personal, demonstrative, interrogative, possessive,
relative, (the two latter classes were as yet not so distinctly separate
and so well developed as the former), indefinite.

5.1. Personal pronouns

The personal pronoun in all languages preserves a fairly complete

system of inflections. Old English has distinctive forms for
practically all genders, persons and cases, and it preserves in addition
to the ordinary two numbers, singular and plural, a set of forms for
two people or two things – the dual number, representing an isolated
archaic trait in the grammar system:

Singular
N. ic ðū hē (he) hēo(she) hit (it)
G. mīn ðīn his hi(e)re his
D. mē ðē him hi(e)re him
A. mē (mec) ðē(ðec) hine hīe hit

Dual N. wit (we two) git (ye two)

G. uncer incer
D. unc inc
A. unc inc

Plural N. wē gē hīe
G. ūser (ure) ēower hi(e)ra
D. ūs ēow him
A. ūs (usic) ēow (eowic) hīe

Besides the singular and plural number, there is the relatively

infrequent dual form. There are four cases. There is a gender
52
distinction only in the third person singular. The nominative-
accusative distinction is made in all persons and numbers except the
third person neuter and the third person plural. The dative-accusative
distinction is made in the third person paradigms, both singular and
plural.
The personal pronoun forms in Old English are used for
pronominal reference, and for co-reference with or without emphatic
self, thus:
ic bletsige me
I bless myself
(van Kemenade 1994: 121)
hie gesamnodon hie
they collected themselves
‘they assembled’
(Sweet 1978: 23)
The personal pronoun also displayed the function of the later
reflexive pronoun:

Hē hine restan wolde

He him(self) rest wanted
‘He wanted to rest himself’
(Schmidt 1978: 63)
Sometimes the adjective self (seolf, sylf) ‘self, same, own’ was used
to intensify the meaning of the personal pronoun:

Ic sylf hit eom

I self it am
‘It is I myself’
(Lk. Skt., 24, 39; Bosworth and Toller 1898: 860)
He hit sylf negeseah
He it self not-saw
He did not see it himself
(Schmidt 1978: 63)
The personal pronouns are not the only pronouns used for
pronominal reference, demonstrative pronouns can be used as well.
The forms of the personal pronoun survived into the Middle
English period with minor changes (ic was often reduced to I, the
dual number disappeared, the personal pronoun for the Nom.fem she
was adopted at different times in different parts of the country, the
53
plural forms of Scandinavian origin their, them were recorded from
early 13th century).

5.2. Possessive pronouns

The genitives of all the personal pronouns were used as possessives,

and to some extent also the general 3rd person form sīn ‘his, her,
their’, an old reflexive.

5.3. Demonstrative pronouns

Old English had two series of demonstrative pronouns: a simple

demonstrative and an emphasized (compound) demonstrative. The
simple demonstrative originally meant ‘that’. Its paradigm is that of
the definite article (see section I.3.1.). Its meaning was often
weakened and then it had the function of the definite article and was
unstressed. Sē, sēō were replaced by þē, þēō in late OE.
The emphasised demonstrative corresponds to ‘this’. Its
paradigm is the following:
sg pl
masc. neuter fem. all genders
N. þes þis þēos, þios þās
G. þisses þisses þisse þissa
D. þissum þissum þisses þissum
A. þisne, þysne þis þās þās

Functionally the two kinds of demonstratives differed. The

simple demonstrative sē, (þæt, sēō) displayed all the functions
performed by the and that today. O.E sē however, underlies the
Modern English definite article the. There was no indefinite article,
the numeral ān displayed its function.
The demonstrative series serves three functions:
a. It is used as a definite determiner for definite descriptions
b. It can also be used for pronominal reference
c. It serves as a relative pronoun, with or without the relative
complementizer þe (see the relative pronoun:5.6.)

54
5. 4. Interrogative pronouns

They were simple, compound and disjunctive. The simple

interrogative pronoun had no plural. The Old English interrogative
pronouns hwā ‘who’ has only masculine and neuter singular forms,
which are declined for case:

masc. neuter
N. hwā ‘who’ hwæt ‘what’
G. hwæs ‘whose’ hwæs
D. hwæm ‘whom’ hwæm
A. hwone ‘who’ hwæt

The compound interrogative pronoun was declined like a

strong adjective: hwelc, hwilc ‘which’. The disjunctive interrogative
pronoun, hwæðer, hweðer ‘which of the two’:

hwæðer dara twegra dyde daes faeder willan,

whether of them twain did the will of his father?
(Mt. Kmbl., 21, 31; Bosworth & Toller 1898: 571)

The pronoun hwæt sometimes referred to persons: Hwæt syndon gē?

‘Who are you?’ Hwæs, hwæm sometimes referred to things:

Lyt đu gemudest to hwam đinre sawle Þing siððdan wurde,

little thou mind to what thy soul’s condition would come,
(Soul Kmbl. 39; Bosworth and Toller 1898: 571)

Two further interrogative pronouns, hwæðer ‘which (of

two)’ and hwelc/ hwylc ‘which (of many)’ are declined as indefinite
adjectives. They combine with swā to mean ever-compounds:
swā hwā swā ‘whoever’
swā hwæt swā ‘whatever’
swā hwelc swā ‘whichever’

In contrast to Modern English, the interrogative pronouns are

not used as relative pronouns. All three interrogative pronouns could
be used as indefinite pronouns or quantifiers: ‘anyone’, ‘anything’.
55
5. 5. Indefinite pronouns

Some indefinite pronouns are: (e)all ‘all’, sum ‘some’(mostly used in

affirmative sentences), ān ‘one, a certain’, ænig ‘any’(used in
interrogative negative and conditional clauses), nænig, nān ‘none’,
swelc, swylc ‘such’; (n)āwuht, (n)ōwuht, (n)ōht ‘nought, not, gehwilc,
æghwilc, ælc ‘each’, gehwæþter, ægþter ‘either’.
Many forms of indefinite pronouns were built on the basis of
the interrogative pronouns: āhwā, āhwæðer, āhwelc ‘anyone,
anything’. The addition of the prefix ge- changes the sense of some
indefinites from ‘any’ to ‘every’: gehwā, gehwylc ‘each/ every one’,
etc.
Other indefinite pronouns include ælc ‘each’, ænig ‘any’
nænig ‘no, none’, swelc ‘such’, þyllic ‘such’, all declined as
indefinite adjectives.
An and sum are sometimes used indefinitely: ān mann , sum
mann ‘a certain man’ or simply ‘a man’. Man, a form of mann, is
often used in the indefinite sense of ‘one’ (French on, German man):

his brōþor Horsan man ofslōg

his brother Horsan one killed
‘they killed his brother Horsa’
(Sweet 1978: 24)
5. 6. Relative pronoun

There is no separate relative pronoun in Old English. The relative

pronoun occurred under three forms:
- as the demonstrative sē, þæt, sēō
- as sē, þæt, sēō + þa; þæt + þe became þætte, later þæt ‘that’
- as uninflected þe alone

Relative clauses could even be added without any introductory word.

The commonest relative is the particle þe, which is
indeclinable and serves for all genders and numbers:

ælc þāra þe þās mīn word gehīerþ

56
 everyone who these my words hears
‘everyone who hears these words of mine’
(Sweet 1978: 24)
It is often combined with sē, which is declined: sē þe ‘who’ masc.,
sēo þe fem., etc. Sē alone is also used as a relative:

se wære leoda cyning se þe ær was folce þeow

he was of-people king.Nom who.N before was people.Dat servant
‘he would be th king who had been in bondage to the people’
(Or 4.6.95.32; Fischer et al 2000: 59)

The number of relative pronouns decreased in the Middle English

period.

5.7. Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns

Personal pronouns in Old English also express reflexive and

reciprocal relations. Reflexivity is expressed by the accusative,
dative and genitive forms of the personal pronoun with an antecedent
in the same clause:

Simon to ðisum wordum hine gebealh

Simon at these.Dat words.Dat himself angered
‘Simon got angry at these words’
(Kemenade 1994: 127)

where the antecedent of the pronoun in the accusative case, hine, is

the subject of the sentence, Simon.
The element self may be added to the reflexive pronoun for
emphasis, but self is not generally a reflexive marker:

Hwaet he me self bebead…

What he me self bade..
(Bosworth & Toller 1898: 860)
Similarly the reciprocal relationship can be expressed by the
plural form of the personal pronoun, optionally emphasized. An
example of this is:

57
 and hie æt Tharse ðære byrig hie gemetton
and they at Tarsus the city each other met
‘and they met each other at the city of Tarsus’
(Kemenade 1994: 127)
Additionally, there are a number of expressions that have a meaning
equivalent to the present-day English reciprocal pronoun each other:
ægðer, naþer, oþer, æghwylc, ælc, gehwa, gehwylc, ænig used in
combination with oþer:

WređiaÞ fæste ægwilc oþer

support firmly each other
‘each support the other firmly’
(Bt. Met. Fox 11, 69, Met. 11, 35; Bosworth & Toller 1898: 12)

Further reading
For a generative account of the history of reflexive pronouns see Gelderen
(2000).

Activity
1. Give a word-for-word translation of the following excerpt
from Ælfric's Colloquy using the glossary to the text.
2. Write the paraphrase of this fragment in present-day English.
3. Identify pronouns and comment upon them.

Ælfric "the grammarian" (955-1010) was abbot of Eynsham. He

wrote Colloquy in Latin as a dialogue for young monks and novices.
Some time later another teacher added an Old English gloss to one
manuscript between the lines of the Latin. In the first part the
members of the class are practitioners of the different occupations of
Anglo-Saxon village and town life: a plowman, a hunter, a merchant,
a leathercraftsperson, and so on. They are interrogated by the
teacher on the nature and (later) worth of their work.

1 [The teacher:] Hwæt hæfst þu weorkes?

2 [Pupil A:] Ic eom geanwyrde monuc, ond sincge ælce
dæg seofon tida mid gebroþrum, ac þeahhwæþere ic
wolde betwenan leornian sprecan on leden gereorde.
3 [The teacher:] Hwæt cunnon þas þine geferan?

58
4 [Pupil A:] Summe synt yrþlincgas, sume scephyrdas,
sume oxanhyrdas, sume eac swylce huntan, sume
fisceras, sume fugleras, sume cypmenn, sume
scewyrhtan, sealteras, bæceras.
5 [The teacher:] Hwæt sægest þu, yrþlingc?
Hu begæst þu weorc þin?
6 [Pupil B:] Eala, leof hlaford, þearle ic deorfe. Ic ga ut
on dægræd þywende oxan to felda, ond iugie hie to syl;
nys hit swa stearc winter þæt ic durre lutian æt ham for
ege hlafordes mines, ac geiukodan oxan, ond
gefæstnodon sceare ond cultre mid þære syl, ælce dæg
ic sceal erian fulne æcer oþþe mare.
7 [The teacher:] Hæfst þu ænigne geferan?
8 [Pupil B:] Ic hæbbe sumne cnapan þywende oxan mid
gadisene,
þe eac swilce nu has is for cylde ond hreame
………….
12 [The teacher:] Sceaphryde, hæst Þu ænig gedeorf?
13 [Pupil C:] Gea, leof, ic hæbbe. On forewerdne morgen
ic drife sceap mine to hira læse ond stande ofer hie on
hæte ond on cyle mid hundum, þy læs wulfas
forswelgen hie, ond ic agenlæde hie on hira loca, ond
melke hie tweowa on dæg, ond hira loca ic hæbbe, ond
þærto ge cyse ge buteran ic do, ond ic eom getrywe
hlaforde minum.
(adapted from McGillivray: 2004)

59
6.

The Verbal Inflections

Old English distinguished only two simple tenses by inflection, a

present and a past. It recognized the indicative, subjunctive and
imperative moods and had the usual two numbers and three persons.

6.1. Verb classes

A peculiar feature of the Germanic languages was the division of the

verb into two great classes, the weak and the strong, often known in
Modern English as regular and irregular verbs. The strong verbs, like
sing, sang, sung, which represent the basic Indo-European type, are
so-called because they have the power of indicating change of tense
by a modification of their root vowel. In the weak verbs, such as
walk, walked, walked, this change is effected by the addition of a
‘dental’, sometimes of an extra syllable.

6.1.1. Strong verbs

In Old English if we exclude compounds, there were only a few over
three hundred of irregular verbs, and even this small number falls
into several classes. Nowadays these verbs, generally speaking, have
different vowels in the present tense, the past tense and the past
participle. In Old English the vowel of the past tense often differs in
the singular and in the plural, as well; or to be more accurate, the first
and third person singular have one vowel while the second person
singular and all persons of the plural have another.
Old English strong verbs, therefore, have four forms: the
infinitive, the preterite singular (first and third person), the preterite
plural and the past participle. In Old English the strong verbs can be
grouped in six general classes, to which a seventh may be added, the
reduplicating verbs.

60
 Ablaut classes of the strong verbs:

infinitive pret. sg. pret. pl. past participle

I. drīfan (drive) drāf drifon gedrifen
II. cēosan (choose) cēas curon gecoren
III. drinkan (drink) dranc druncon gedruncen
IV. beran (bear) bær bæron geboren
V. sprecan (speak) spræc spræcon gesprecen
VI. faran (fare, go) fōr fōron gefaren
VII. feallan (fall) fēōll fēōllon gefeallen

The complete conjugation of a typical strong verb, bindan ‘bind’ is

given below:
Present
Indicative 1 sg. ic binde
2 sg. þu bindest
3 sg. he/ heo/ hit bindeþ
1-3 pl.we/ ge/ hi bindaþ
Subjunctive 1-3 sg. ic/ þu/ etc. binde
1-3 pl.we/ ge/ hi binden
Imperative sg. bind
pl. bindaþ
Participle bindende
Past
Indicative 1-3 sg ic/ he etc. band
2 sg þu bunde
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi bundon
Subjunctive 1-3 sg ic/ þu/ he bunde
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi bunden
Participle gebunden
Infinitive bindan
Inflected infinitive to bindenne

6.1.2. Weak verbs

An important group of verbs in Old English form their past tense by
adding -ede, -ode, or -de to the present stem, and their past
participles by adding -ed, -od, or -d.

61
Thus fremman ‘to perform’ has a preterite fremede and a past
participle gefremed; lufian ‘to love’- lufode - gelufod; libban ‘to
live’- lifde - gelifd.
The personal endings except in the preterite singular are
similar to those of the strong verbs. It is important to note, however,
that the weak conjugation has come to be the dominant one in our
language. Many strong verbs have passed over to this conjugation,
and practically all new verbs added to our language are inflected in
accordance with it:

Weak verbs class I class II

Infinitive fremman ‘to perform’ lufian ‘to love’
Present
Indicative 1 sg. ic fremme lufie
2 sg. þu fremest lufast
3 sg. he/ heo/ hit fremeþ lufaþ
1-3 pl.we/ ge/ hi fremmaþ lufiaþ
Subjunctive 1-3 sg ic/ þu/ etc. fremme lufie
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi fremmen lufien
Imperative sg fremme lufa
pl fremmaþ lufiaþ
Participle fremmende lufiende

Past
Indicative 1-3 sg ic/ he etc. fremede lufode
2 sg þu fremedest lufodest
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi fremedon lufodon
Subjunctive 1-3 sg ic/ þu/ he fremede lufode
1-3 pl we/ ge/ hi fremeden lufoden
Participle gefremed gelufod
Infinitive fremman lufian
Inflected infinitive to fremmenne to lufienne

Like lufian ‘love’ are: andswarian ‘answer’, āscian ‘ask’, blissian

‘rejoice’, endian ‘end’, leornian ‘learn’, macian ‘make’, etc.

The present indicative singular generally has a first-person ending

-e, a second-person ending -(e)st, a third-person ending -e(ð), and a
62
general plural ending -að. The second and third person singular in
the strong verbs have an umlauted root vowel, since the ending
originally contained an i:

Infinitive 2nd, 3rd pers sg. pres. ind.

cnāwan (know) cnæwð (he / she knows)
cumin (come) cymð
drīfan (drive) drīfþð
drinkan (drink) drincð
faran (go) fræð
sprecan (speak) spricð
seoþan (boil) syþþ

The past indicative first and third person singular of the strong
verbs have a separate stem. The stem receives no ending for the first
and third persons, and –e for the second:

1st, 3rd sg 2nd sg. all pl

draf drife drifon ‘drove’

For the indicative of the weak verbs, the endings are –e for the first
and third person singular, -est for the second person singular and –
edon for the plural, thus:

class I sg. fremede, fremedest pl. fremedon

class II sg. lufode, lufodest pl. lufodon

The past subjunctive singular ending is, like that of the indicative
first and third person singular, -e; the plural ending is -en.

The infinitive is formed by adding -an to the stem.

The past participle of the weak verbs has the dental suffix; that of
the strong verbs an -en suffix attached to the past plural ablaut stem.
All past participles have a prefix ge-, thus weak: gefremed, gelufod,
strong: gedrifen.

63
6.1.3. Irregular verbs
Furthermore there is a small group of highly frequent, but very irregular
verbs: beon/ wesan ‘be’, willan ‘wish. will’, don ‘do’, gan ‘go’. Here is
the conjugations of the verb wesan/ bēon ‘be’:

Present
Indicative 1 sg. ic eom bēo
2 sg. þu eart bist
3 sg. he/ heo/ hit is biþ
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi sind/ sindon bēoþ
Subjunctive 1-3 sg. ic/ þu/ etc. sie bēo
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi sien bēon
Imperative sg. wes bēo
pl. wesaþ bēoþ
Participle wesende
Past
Indicative 1-3 sg. ic/ he etc. wæs
2 sg. þu wære
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi wæron
Subjunctive 1-3 sg. ic/ þu/ he wære
1-3 pl. we/ ge/ hi wæren
Infinitive wesan bēon

6.1.4. Preterite-present verbs

In addition to the verb classes mentioned so far, there is a class of so-
called preterite-present verbs, i.e. verbs for which a new consonantal
preterite developed in Germanic because the old vocalic preterite had
acquired a present meaning. This class includes the modals sceal
‘shall’, maeg ‘may, cunn ‘can’, mōt ‘must’, and some semi-nodals:
witan ‘know’, þurfan ‘need’, durran ‘dare’, munan ‘remember’,
dugan ‘avail’, agan ‘own’.
Modal verbs in Old English, and to a large extent in Middle
English as well, had a number of morphosyntactic properties that
made them look more like main verbs than auxiliaries, both from a
morphological and from a syntactic point of view.
The Old English inflectional morphology of modals shows
that they had some range of verb inflections, certainly more than the
present/past distinction in Modern English: two different person
endings in the present as well as the preterite; a singular/plural

64
distinction in the present and preterite. The paradigm of cunnan is
the following:

Indicative Present Preterite

1, 3 sg. can(n) cūðe
2 sg. canst cūðest
1- 3 pl. cunnon cūðon
Subjunctive sg. and pl. cunne(n) cūðe(n)
Participle cunnen

The modals, however, do not have a participial form and their

infinitival form occurs very rarely. The sparse use of infinitival
forms indicates that we cannot consider them to be simply lexical
verbs.
Syntactically, modal verbs behave more like lexical verbs than
like auxiliaries. Just like lexical verbs, modals can have an agentive
subject, they can occur without an accompanying infinitive and with
a direct object as in (a) or with a tensed clause complement as in (b):

a. and ne drincð nan man eald win & wylle sona þæt niwe
and not drinks no man old wine and wants soon the new
(Lk(WSCp) 5.39; Visser 1963-73: §§548-73)

b. ic wolde ðæt ða ongeaten ðe.. hwelc mildsung

I would that they perceived who.. what blessing
siððan wæs, siððan se cristendom wæs
since was, since the Christianity was.
‘I would want those who..to perceive what blessing
there has been since the rise of Christianity’
(Or 38.10; Denison 1993: 308)

Another property that seems to be characteristic of main verb

syntax is that modal verbs enter into verbal clusters similar to those
of the modern continental West Germanic languages:

for his micclan wundrum þe eft he gedon habban wolde

for his great wonders that afterwards he done have.Inf would
‘for his great wonders which afterwards He willed to do’
(LS 24(Seven Spleeper)I 23.254; Mitchell 1985:§922)

65
 ðeh hie æt ðæm ærran gefeohte him ne mehten to cuman
though they at the earlier fight him not could to come
‘though they could not get him at the earlier fight’
(Kemenade 1994: 128)

meaning ‘they could not penetrate through the battlefield and reach
him’.
On the other hand some uses of the modals indicate no lexical-
verb properties, but typically auxiliary behaviour. Already in Modern
English shall and will are analysed as auxiliaries for future:

Gif me seo godcunde geofu in ðære stowe forgifen beon wile

If me.Dat the divine gift in that place granted be will
‘If the divine gift is granted to me in that place…’
(Bede 4.29.366.4; Denison 1993: 304)

wenen and wilnian þæt ge lange libban scylan her on worulde.

think and want that you long live shall here on world
‘think and wish that you will live long in this world’
(van Kemenade 1994: 129)

Thus, it seems fair to conclude that in Old English, modals are a

class with mixed properties and they will continue to behave
similarly in Middle English (see II.5.4.).

6.2. Tense and mood in Old English

Although Modern English also has a two-tense system, present and

past both indicative and subjunctive in Old English were far more
general in meaning.
The present tense referred the action to any time (except the past),
i.e. to the present or future (sometimes with a time adverb):

Þonne ðū ðā in bringst, hē yt and blētsaþ þe

Them you then in bringst, he eats and blesses you
‘when thou bringst them, he will eat and bless you’
(Schmidt 1978: 76)

66
The past tense (indicative or subjunctive) referred the action to the
past only without discriminating between priority or non-priority of
an action on the one hand, or its connection with the present on the
other hand. So it indicated either a past action having no connection
with the present (a), a past action related to the present (b) or a past
action accomplished before another past action (c):

a. þā þā menn slēpon, þā cōm his fēonda sum

while men were sleeping, came his enemies one’
‘while men were sleeping, one of his enemies came’
(Sweet 1978 :50)
b. we … hlāford þine … sēcean cwōmon
we lord your … seek came
‘we have come to seek thy Lord’
(Schmidt 1978: 77)
c. ðā sende… ærendwrecan and onbēad þæt hē of Rōme cōme
then sent ..messenger and announced that he from Rome came
then sent messenger and announced that he from Rome (had)
come
(Bede’s Ecclesiastical History; Baugh & Cable 1993: 62)

Periphrastic tenses (present and past perfect) developed late in the

Old English period and were formed by means of two different
auxiliaries similarly to Modern German:
a. habban - hæfde were used with transitive verbs
b. beon - wesan with intransitive verbs

Ic hæbbe gestriened Ic hæfde gestriened

I have gained I had gained

He is gecumen he wæs gecumen

he is come he was come
‘he has come’ ‘he had come’

A late Old English construction corresponding to the present perfect

was sometimes employed for actions with no relation to the present.
Evidence is provided by parallelism with a past or by occurrence

67
with an adverbial of definite past tense:

Annania, deofol bepæhte ðine heortan, and ðu hæfst alogen

þam Halgan Gaste.
Ananias devil seduced your heart and you have lied-to the
Holy Ghost
(Æc Hom I 22.316.26; Denison 352)

Another late Old English construction consisting of hæfde + past

participle, also denoting the resultative aspect was employed for a
past action performed before another past action; it may be regarded
as the beginning of the past perfect:

þa hi eten haæfdon, hi wunedon þær

when they ate had, they remained there
‘after they eaten had, they remained there’
(Gen 31.54; Denison 1993: 350)

The past participle is left uninflected in the later language; but earlier
it was put in the accusative because it was regarded not as part of the
verb but as an adjective agreeing with the noun or pronoun object of
habban. Both constructions may appear in the same text.

& heo hæfdon utamærede þa bigengan þisses ealondes

and they had expelled.Acc.pl.the inhabitants.Acc.pl.this island.Gen
‘and they had expelled the inhabitants of this island’
(Bede1 12.54.7; Mitchell 1985: §710)

hafde se cyning his fierd on tu tonumen

had the king his army in two divided
‘The king had divided his army in two’
(ChronA 84.31 (894); Denison 1993: 347)

The future meaning was coveyed by verbs used in the present and
occasionally by sculan and willan in association with the infinitive,
besides this use sculan expressed the idea of debt or obligation and
willan that of wish or intention:

68
 agief þæt þū me scealt
repay that thou me shalt
‘repay that which thou owest me’
(Schmidt 1978: 76)

wen is, þæt hi us lifigende lungre wyllen/ sniome forsweolgan

expectation is that they us living quickly intend at-once
swallow-up
‘It is likely that they will swallow us up at once’
(PPs 123.2; Denison 1993: 299)

The subjunctive, which was widely used in Old English, especially

in subordinate clauses, must have presented actions or events as
unreal or probable. In main clauses it expressed wish or command.
In embedded clauses it was used in indirect speech, conveying the
speaker’s uncertainty:

Ic wēne ðætte nōht monige begeondan Humbre næren

I think that not many beyond Humber not-were
and āscode hine hwæt ðæt wære
and asked him who that be
‘I think that not many were beyond the Humber’
(Schmidt 1978: 77)
(note the use of hwæt with the meaning of modern who)
The subjunctive was used after verbs of desire and command:

þæs ic gewilnige and gewysce mid mōde, þæt ic āna ne belīfe

this I desire and wish with heart, that I alone not remain
‘this I desire and wish in my heart, that I may not remain alone’
(Sweet 1978:53)

It was also preferred in clauses of purpose introduced by þæt ‘so

that’, comparison swelce ‘as if’ or concession þēah ‘though’, and in
clauses of condition introduced by gif or būtan, wiþ þæm þe ‘on
condition that’, ‘provided that’.
As to the non-finites, the infinitive and the participle, it
should be pointed out that their verbal characteristics were as yet less
developed than their nominal characteristics.

69
 The infinitive had no verbal categories at all. In fact there
was the simple infinitive ending in –an, presumably derived from the
nominative, accusative of a neuter noun (a) and the inflected or
prepositional infinitive consisting of the preposition to and the
dative case of the verbal noun ending in –anne or –enne (b); the later
was used to denote direction, purpose or intention:

(a) he ongan singan

‘he began (to) sing’
(b) sell us flæsc to etanne
‘give us meat to eat’

At the beginning the simple infinitive was more frequently used. In

time, however, the endings of both kinds were levelled and lost, and
to came to be used with the infinitive, losing its initial meaning. The
simple infinitive is still used with modals (can, may, must, etc.) and
with the verbs: do, let, make, see.
The participle, as a verbal adjective, had both verbal and
nominal categories. The two participles were opposed through voice
and tense differences. The present participle was present and active,
the past participle denoted a state resulting from an accomplished
past action and was passive in meaning when formed form transitive
verbs: maciende ‘making’, āgan ‘gone’, (ge)macod ‘made’.
Like adjectives they could be declined as weak and strong
ones having case, number and gender distinctions; thus being
grammatically dependent on the noun they modified. As a
predicative, however, the participle wavers between uninflected and
inflected forms:

wurdon VIII folcgefeoht gefohten (uninflected)

were eight battles fought

wæron ofslægene IX eorlas and an cyning (inflected: N.masc.

were slain nine earls and one king pl.strong)

As to voice, Old English shows relics of synthetic medio-passive

forms, which together with the active forms may have constituted the
category of voice in Common Germanic:
70
 Ofer þā ēā hātte Araxis
over the river named Araxis
‘over the river (that was) called Araxis’
(Schmidt 1978: 77)

With a meaning that may be defined as medio-passive. Yet in Old

English new analytical forms with a passive meaning began to
develop. They consisted of beon ‘be’ and ‘weorðan’ ‘become’ + past
participle of verbs:

wurdon gefohten wæron ofslægene

‘were fought’ ‘were slain’

There was no passivization of indirect objects or prepositional

objects.
Old English used a construction equivalent in meaning with
a passive. It often used the indefinite pronoun man, one, with a verb
in the active voice:

hine man ofslōg,

one killed him, i.e. he was killed.
(Brook 1995: 90)
The passive voice constructions were consolidated in the Middle
English period.
Yet only during Middle English such constructions became
analytical forms proper. Although Old English was not characterized
by true analytical forms, certain features of this kind may already be
identified in this remote period.
Concluding we may say that although the Old English verb
was inflected, a certain decay of this system may already be noticed.

Further reading
Visser (1963-73) focuses on the study of Old English verbs. Mitchell (1985)
and Denison (1993) devote large sections to modal and auxiliary verb
patterns. For details on the use of the subjunctive and indicative mood see
Sweet (1978: 50-55).

71
Activities

1. The following verbs are given in their infinitive and preterite

singular form. Decide which of them are weak verbs and which are
strong:
__brengan – brōhte ‘bring’ __ hyngran – hyngrede ‘hunger’
__ gifan – geaf ‘give’ __ lōcian – lōcode ‘look’
__ habban – hæfde ‘have’ __ scīnan – scān ‘shine’
__ hyran – hyrde ‘hear’ __ steppan – stōp ‘step’
__ hōn – hēng ‘hang’ __ tæcen – tāhte ‘teach’

2. Read the following text and find instances of morphological

marking of tense and mood on verbs. Underline verbs in the word-
for-word transcription and compare the use of tenses in OE to that
in MnE.
1.
Đā hē þā sē cyning þās word gehīerde, þā hēt hē hīe bīdan
When he the king these words heard, then bade he them to bide
When the king heard these words, then he bade them to bide
2.
on þæm ēalande þe hīe ūp cōmon; and him þider hiera þearfe
on the island that they upon came; and them thither their need
on the island that they had come upon; and them thither their need
3.
forgēaf, oð þæt hē gesāwe hwæt hē him dōn wolde. Swelce
provided, until that he saw what he them do would. Likewise
provided, until that he saw what he would do with them. Likewise
4.
ēac ær þæm becōm hlīsa tō him þære crīstenan æfæstnesse,
ere that came fame to him of-the Christian religion,
before that had come to him the fame of the Christian religion,
5.
forþon hē crīsten wīf hæfde, him gegiefen of Francena
since he Christian wife had, him given from the Franks
since he had a Christian wife, given him from the royal family
6.
cyningcynne, Beorhte wæs hāten. Þæt wīf hē onfēng fram
royal family, Bertha was named. That wife he received from
72
 of the Franks,(who) was named Bertha.That wife he received from
7.
hiere ieldrum þære ārædnesse þæt hēo his lēafnesse hæfde
her elders the condition. ?? that she his permission had
her parents on the condition that she should have his permission
8.
þæt hēo þone þēaw þæs crīstenan gelēafan and hiere æfæstnesse
that she the practice the.Gen Christian faith and her religion
that she the practice of the Christian faith and her religion
9.
ungewemmedne healdan mōste mid þy biscope, þone þe hīe hiere
unimpaired held must with the bishop, whom they her-dat
unimpaired might hold with the bishop, whom they to her
10.
tō fultume þæs gelēafan sealdom, þæs nama wæs Lēodheard.
for help her.Gen faith gave, the-gen name was Leodheard
for the help of (her) faith had given, whose name was Leodheard.

(Bede’s Ecclesiastical History; Baugh & Cable 1993: 62)

73
7.

Grammatical Relations
Grammatical relations in Old English are encoded partly through
word order, and partly by means of morphological case marking.
Although Old English is an SOV language, the word order varies
within certain limits.

7.1. The subject

In many languages, including Modern English, the subject phrase has

a set of syntactic properties that serve to identify it as such. Among
these are the following:
- the subject is nominative
- the verb agrees with the subject
- the subject acts as an antecedent for a reflexive.
Even in Old English, the subject had all these properties,
however, the subject was not always in the nominative case. There is
one set of constructions, the impersonal constructions, in which the
subject is in the dative, also known as dative or quirky subject. The
prototypical verb in OE is lician ‘like’ (cf. Allen 1995), which could
be used with a nominative Cause argument (indicating the source of
pleasure) and a dative Experiencer argument:

ge noldon Gode lician Nom.- Dat.

you.Nom not-would God.Dat please
‘you would not please God’.
(Allen 1995)
Since Old English was a verb-second language, the dative
could also appear in first position, followed by the finite verb:

ac gode ne licode na heora geleafleast Dat.- Nom.

but God.Dat not please not their faithlessness.nom
‘but their faithlessness did not please God’
(Allen 1995)

74
 In the 15th century the preposed dative was reinterpreted as a
nominative, thus ousting the construction with the nominative Cause
argument in initial position.

7. 2. Impersonal constructions
Impersonal constructions contain verbs that describe a certain
cognitive/mental experience of being unvolitionally involved in a
situation. They are also called psych verbs. Syntactically such
constructions lack an agent subject and have the verb in the 3rd
person singular.
The literature on the evolution of the impersonal constructions
(Băncilă 1991, Allen 1995, Fischer et al. 2000, among others) clearly
shows that psych verbs could frequently occur in configurations in
which they had two internal arguments and no external one. The two
arguments, the Experiencer and the Theme, could be realised in the
following core case configurations:
()
a. EXPERIENCER- dative THEME-nominative
b. EXPERIENCER- nominativeTHEME-genitive
c. EXPERIENCER- dative THEME-genitive

a. Þa ofhreow ðam munece þæs hreoflian mægenleast

Then was-pity the monk.Dat the leper’s weakness
‘ Then the leper’s feebleness caused pity in the monk’
(ÆCHom I, 23.336.10; Anderson 1986; Denison 1993: 63)

b. Se mæssepreost þæs mannes ofhreow

The priest.Nom the man.Gen was-pity
‘The priest took pity on the man’
(ÆLS(Oswald) 262); Anderson 1988; Fischer et al. 2000: 23)

c. Him ofhreow þæs mannes

Him/them.Dat was-pity the man.Gen
‘He felt pity for the man’
(ÆCHom I, 13.192.16; Anderson 1986; Denison: 1993: 63)

The pattern in (a), Dative – Nominative is by far the most frequent,

while the last configuration is attested with considerable less
75
frequency than the two alternative types. The class of psych verbs in
Old English includes: abelgan ‘irritate’, hreowan ‘rue’,
(ge)sceamian ‘shame’, ofþyncan ‘displease’, (ge)lician ‘like’,
onhyrian, ‘envy’, cweman ‘please’, (mis)lician ‘(dis)please’,
(ge)lystan ‘desire’, langian ‘long’, lustfullian ‘please’, etc.
The Experiencer is always a NP with Nominative of dative
case, while the Theme is a NP with Nominative or Genitive case.
The selection of the morphological genitive case is justified by
its semantics: it expresses origin or source understood in a very
general sense. With psych verbs: fægnian ‘rejoice’, hrewsian ‘rue’,
sceamian ‘shame’, benugan ‘enjoy’, etc., the genitive is often used
to denote the object of various emotions and mental states.
However, the Theme may be alternatively realized as a clause:

and me ofhrew þæt hi ne cuþon … þa godspellican lare

and me.Dat regretted that they not knew the evangelical doctrines
‘and I regretted that they knew not..the evangelical doctrines’
(ÆCHom I, (Pref)2.7; Fischer et al. 2000: 45)

Impersonal constructions without a nominative subject continued to

be productive into the 15th century. (see II.4.2.)

7 .3. Subject omission

There are various forms of subject omission in early English.

a. Conjoined subject deletion is the most frequently occurring one.

Omission of the subject is allowed in conjoined sentences, when the
identity of the subject is obvious from the first coordinated clause:

And him comon englas to, and him ðenodon

And him came angles to, and him served Ø
‘and angels came to him, and served him’
(ÆCHom I, 11.174.17; Fischer et al. 2000: 39)

The omitted subject marked by Ø is identical in reference with the

subject of the first conjoined sentence, englas.

76
 The subject can also be omitted in narratives which describe a
series of actions performed by the same person:

He swanc ða git swiðor. Wolde geswutelian his mihte

He laboured then even harder. Ø Wanted (to) make clear his
power (van Kemenade 1994: 127)

The omitted subject Ø is identified under coreference with the

subject he.
The deletion of identical conjoined subjects is still found in
Modern English, while omission of the subject in narratives is still
possible in colloquial Modern English.

b. Impersonal constructions
Old English has a very Germanic form of subject omission in
impersonal contexts in which there is no nominative subject, and no
insertion of a dummy subject it. This phenomenon is sometimes
noticeable with weather verbs:

and swa miclum sniwde swelce micel flys feolle

and so heavily Ø snowed as if much fleece fell
and it snowed so heavily, as if a lot of snow were falling’
(van Kemenade 1994: 126)

Subject deletion regularly appears in impersonal passives:

…ðætte forðy to ungemetlice ne sie geliðod ðæm scyldgan

that therefore Ø too greatly not be let-off the guilty.Dat
‘…that therefore it must not be let off too greatly to the guilty’
(CP 20.149.24; Fischer et al 2000: 39, 4)

This type of subject omission seems to have been largely lost by

1500.

7. 4. The object.

The Object which is the NP constituent within the VP, is not

necessarily adjacent to the verb as in present-day English. The

77
grammatical relation of Object is signalled through morphological
case marking. The objects can be marked for accusative, dative or
genitive case:

Hwi wolde God swa lytles þinges him forwyrnan

Why would God such little thing.Gen him.Dat deprive
‘why would God deprive him of such a thing?’
(van Kemenade 1994: 132)

Very often the Object occupies a preverbal position, although the

post verbal position is also attested due to the relative free word
order in the VP. The demise of the OV order in prose texts takes
place in the first half of the 16th century (see I.9.2)

7. 5. Case and thematic roles

Old English nouns assigned genitive case not only to the left but also
to the right. Lightfoot (1999: 117) provides evidence for that with
following examples from Ælfric Catholic Homilies (II.602.12):

a. Ælfric’s Godes lof

Ælfric.Gen God.Gen praise
‘Ælfric’s praise of God’

Cristes læwa
Crist.Gen betrayer
‘betrayer of Christ’

b. Lufu godes and manna

Love God.Gen and men.Gen
‘Love of God and men’

This property of nouns accounts for the existence of discontinuous

genitive constructions (see section I.7.3.)
Furthermore Lightfoot (1999:126) shows that Old English
verbs, adjectives and perhaps prepositions were also able to assign
thematic roles and inherent case to a dependent NP/DP, and the

78
inherent case might be realized as a morphological genitive or dative
case as shown below:

…deaðes onfoð Gen.– V

death.Gen receives
‘…(he) suffers death’
(Ælfric, Catholic Homilies, I, 21.308.2)
Ac ge onfoþ þæm mægene Halges Gastes V – Dat.
But you receive the power.Dat Holy Ghost.Gen
‘But you receive the power of the Holy Ghost’
HomS 46 (Blickling Homilies 11), 49)
Þeh hie þæs wyrþe næron Gen.- Adj
Though they that.Gen worthy not-were
‘Though they weren’t worthy of that’
(Orosius 104, 5)
Monige sindon me swiðe onlice Dat. – Adj
Many are me.Dat very similar
‘Many are very similar to me.’
(Cura Pastoralis, 24, 7)
…neah þære tide. P – Dat.
…near this hour.Dat
(Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, IV, ch.24)
Micele hundas … ræsdon wið Petres weard. P – Gen
Huge dogs rushed towards Peter.Gen
‘Huge dogs rushed towards Peter’
(Ælfric, Catholic Homilies, I, 376.33)

Prepositions usually precede their objects when the object is a

noun, but they often follow the object if it is a personal pronoun:

on gehwæþere hand
‘on both sides’ (Sweet 1978: 56)

hiera mægas him mid wæron Pron – P

their relatives them with were
‘their relatives were with them’

Old English case endings still correspond fairly closely to

specific semantic roles.
79
 The Nominative case can be used for the Agent subject, but
also for the Patient in a passive sentence or for the Experiencer in
sentences with a psychological verb such as lician ‘like’, hreowna
‘rue’.
Predicative adjectives take NP complements in the dative or
in the genitive case. The cases correspond roughly to the same
semantic roles as with verbs: dative for the Experiencer:

þeah hit þam cynge ungewill wære

though it the king.Dat displeasing was
‘though it was displeasing to the king’
(van Kemenade 1994: 133)
ðæt he bið deađes scyldig
that he is death.Gen guilty
‘that he is guilty of causing death’
(L. In. 5; Th. I, 104,13; Bosworth and Toller, 1898: 847)

The Dative is regularly used for roles such as Goal in (a), Recipient
in (b) and Experiencer in (c):

þeos worold is on ofste, and hit nealæcð þam ende

‘this world is in haste and it approaches the end.Dat’
(van Kemenade 1994: 132)
Ic eow meaht giefe
I you.Dat might give
I will give you might
(Exon. 14b; Th. 30,II; Cri. 478; Bosworth and Toller, 1898: 474)
Him nan yfel ne hriwþ
Him.Dat no evil not grieves
‘No evil grieves him’
(Băncilă 1991:44)
The Genitive case with nouns
The genitive was mostly employed when a noun modified another
noun. The genitive usually expresses relations between nouns. The
most frequent and important is the relation of possession:

þæs cyninges broþur

that.Gen king.Gen brother
‘that king’s brother’
80
The genitive may also define time spans or extent of space:

on Agustes monþe
in August. Gen month
‘in the month of August’

twa hund mila brad

two hundred miles.Gen wide

The quantifier fela ‘many’ and numerals are followed by a genitive

NP: fela wundra ‘many miracles’, fiftig wintra ‘fifty winters’.
With verbs, the NP in the genitive case functions as an Object
and it often denotes the object of various emotions and mental states,
such as joy, desire, gratitude, concern:

þegnas on ða tid þarle gelyste gargewinnes

thanes.Acc in that time exceedingly enjoyed spearfight.Gen
‘thanes exceedingly enjoyed spearfight in that time’
(Judith: Whitelock, 23/307; Bancila 1991: 54)
The Genitive Object disappeared early in the Middle English period.

Accusative
The accusative is primarily the case of the direct object. It is also
used with some impersonal verbs, e.g. geweorðan ‘please’and
adverbially, especially to express duration of time:

hwy stande ge her ealne dæg idle?

why stand you here all.Acc day.Acc ? idle?
‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’
(Sweet 1978: 45)
The accusative case generally expresses the Patient role:

Ic eow lære Godes ege

I you.Acc teach God.Gen fear
‘I will teach you the fear of God’
(Ps. Th, 33, II; Bosworth and Toller 1898: 611)

With the decay of the system of morphological case in the

course of the early Middle English period, the correspondence
81
between case endings and semantic roles went with it. Thus in the
13th and 14th centuries, the earlier relation between verb or adjective
and the dative or genitive object, came to be expressed by means of
prepositions: to for the earlier dative and of for the genitive. As a
result case assignment by adjectives was lost altogether. The
distinction between dative and accusative was lost: both came to
appear as ‘objective’ case.

7. 6. The apposition

Two nouns or NPs have an appositive relation when one specifies or

modifies the other. A frequently occurring type of apposition is that
of an appellative in combination with a title: Sidroc eorl se gioncga,
Sidroc earl the young, ‘the young earl Sidroc’, Ælfred kyning, King
Alfred. In Old English the name usually precedes the title. Middle
English displays more variation in this respect.
Old English allows several NPs in apposition within one
group, as is evident from the following example:

[NP heahfæderas], [NP eawfæste and wuldorfulle weras on

patriarchs, religious and glorious men in
heora life],[NP witegena fæderas], ða ra gemynd ne bið forgiten
their lives, prophets fathers, whose memory not be forgotten

‘patriarchs, religious and glorious men in their lives, the

prophets’ fathers, whose memory not be forgotten’
(Kemenade 1994: 126)

With the reduction of the morphological marking of nouns, word

order becomes essential in distinguishing grammatical relations at
clause level.

Further reading
Denison (1993: 66-73) gives an extensive list of impersonal verbs in all
structural patterns in OE and ME. Allen (1995) concentrates on the history
of the verb like.

82
Activity

1. Identify the Experiencer argument of the following psychological

verbs and discuss the case configuration:

a) ðonne ofðyncð him ðæs ilcan ðe he ær forbær

then displeases him.Dat the same.Gen that he before endured
‘then he regrets what he endured before’
(CP 33.225.18; Fischer at al. 2000: 44)

b) þæt we þurh þæt ealle Gode lician

that we.Nom through that all God.Dat please
‘that we all please God with that’
(HomU 20 (B1Hom 10) 42; Fischer et al. 2000: 45)

c) Hwæt þa se mæssepreost þæs mannes ofthreow

Lo then the priest.Nom the man.Gen pitied
‘Lo then the priest had pity on the man’
(ÆLS(Oswald) 262); Fischer at al. 2000: 45)

d) Gode swiþe oflicað heora ceorung

God.Dat highly displeases their complaint.Nom
‘Their complaint is highly displeasing to God’
(Băncilă, 1991: 56)

e) Gelustfullodon ðe dohtra cyninga

Delighted-pl thee.Dat daughters.Nom (of) kings
‘The daughters of kings delighted you’
(Băncilă, 1991: 56)

2. In earlier English we find many examples in which subjects are

missing. Subjectless constructions like impersonal constructions
were frequently used in Old English.
Match the subjectless constructions below with one of the
following types of verbs: verb of physical state, psychological verb,
weather verb, psychological adjective:

a. norþan sniwde
from the north snowed
83
 ‘snow came from the north’
(Seafarer 31, Osawa 1996: 366)
b. Siððan him hingrode
afterwards him (dat.) hungered
‘afterwards he hungered’
(Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I 166/12, Osawa 1996: 366)

c. nu þyncþ me
now seems me.Dat
now it seems to me
(Sweet 1978: 46)
d. him ofhreow þæs mannes
him was sorry the man (gen.)
‘he was sorry for the man’
(Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I 192/16; Osawa 1996: 366)

e. him gelicade hire þeawas

him (dat.) pleased their customs (gen.)
‘he was pleased with their customs’
(The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle D 201/32; Osawa 1996: 366)

3. Comment on the position of the head in the following PPs and

state whether these PPs are head-first or head-last:

a. þæs cyninges þegnas þe him beæftan wærun

The king’s thegns who him behind were.
‘The king’s thegns who were behind him.’
(Mc Gillvray 2004)
b. þa gatu him to belocen hæfdon
the gates them against locked had
‘had locked the gates against them’
(Mc Gillvray 2004)
c. ymb twā gēar þæs hē on Francum cōm
about two years that he to France went
‘about two years after he went to France’
(Sweet 1978: 56)

84
8.

Types of Clauses
Interrogative and negative-initial sentences document subject-verb
inversion, as a verb-fronting strategy in Old English.

8.1. Question-formation

Question formation in Old English is somewhat different from its

counterpart in the present-day language. The two types of questions,
yes-no questions and wh-questions, share the prominent syntactic
feature of subject-verb inversion, also known as verb-fronting:

Hæfst þu hafoc?
Have you hawks?

Ond hwæt will ge?

And what want you?
(Ælfric's Colloquy Coll 22.23; Mc Gillivray 2004)

In wh-questions a constituent is questioned by fronting an

interrogative pronoun or adverb, such as hwelc ‘which’, hwær
‘where’, hwy ‘why’ and hwa ‘who’:

Hwæt sægest þu, mancgere?

What say you, merchant?
(Ælfric's Colloquy Coll 22.23; Mc Gillivray 2004)

The word order in both types of questions is inverted: finite verb –

subject. The main difference with present-day English is that
inversion is not restricted to auxiliaries; all lexical finite verbs are
inverted.
When the question word is part of a PP, the preposition is
fronted with its complement. There is no ‘P-stranding’ equivalent to

85
the present-day ‘who did you give the book to?’:

To hwæm locige ic buton to ðæm eaðmodum…?

To whom look I except to the humble
‘to whom do I look except to the humble…?’
(CP 41.299.18; Fischer et al. 2000: 53)

There are also independent questions introduced by hwæþer, which

are different from the yes-no and wh-questions. The wh-word is
always hwæþer, inversion does not take place and the verb is always
in the present subjunctive:

7 cwæð: Hwæþer þu nu fullice ongite forhwy hit þonne swa sie?

and said whether you now fully understand.Subj why it then so
is.Subj?
‘and said:Do you now understand why it is so?’
(Bo 33.74.25; Fischer et al. 2000: 54)

The subject-verb order, the use of the subjunctive and the frequency
of OV word orders are all characteristics of subordinate clauses (see
I.1.1.). This betrays the origin of this type of question as an indirect
question, hwæþer as a conjunction.

8.2. Negative sentences

Old English is a negative concord language: any negative sentence

can contain multiple negative elements, but the meaning conveyed is
that of one single logical negation:

Ne of al þet eauer wa is ne schal ham neauer wontin

Nor of all that ever woeful is not shall.3.sg them.Dat never lack
‘nor wil they ever be in want of anything that is woeful’
(c1225 (SWard 152; Denison 70)

An essential element in Old English is the negative particle ne,

which always occurs on the immediate left of the finite verb. In
sentence negation, ne alone is used in the vast majority of cases:

Ne læt þu þin ferhð wesan sorgum aslæead

86
 Not let you your spirit be.Inf sorrows.Dat bound
‘Do not let you spirit be bound with sorrows’
(GenA.B 2196; Mitchell 1985: §3742)

He ne andwyrde ðam wife æt fruman

He not answered the woman at first
‘He didn’t answer the woman at first’
(ÆCHom II, 8.68.45; Fischer et al. 2000: 124)

Occasionally, two negation elements are employed to express

sentence negation. In such cases, the element na or no is used as the
second negative element, although noht and nawiht are also attested:

Ne bi na se leorningcniht fur or onne his lareow

Not is not the apprentice further than his master
‘The apprentice is not ahead of his master’
(ÆHom 14.134; Fischer et al. 2000: 55)

Constituent negation is usually expressed by prefacing the relevant

constituent with na or a phonological variant of it. In the example
below nan is a contraction of na an:

þær næs eac nan geðafung

There not-was also no consent
‘there was also no consent’
(ÆCHom I, 11.176.7; Fischer et al 2000: 55)

The negative particle ne and the finite verb are frequently contracted,
næs is the contracted form of ne wæs; nabbað in the example below
is the contracted form of ne habbað:

Stanas sind gesceafta, ac hi nabbað nan lif

Stones are created things but they not-have no life
‘Stones are created, but they have no life’
(ÆCHom I, 21.302.13; Fischer et al. 2000: 57)

Old English had a wider range of verb fronting strategies

than late Middle English. In all those contexts in which the present-
day language still has fronting of the auxiliary only, i.e. questions

87
and negative-initial senteces, all finite verbs could be fronted in Old
English.
This option of fronting finite lexical verbs in questions and
negative-initial sentences was lost in the course of the early Modern
English period, as the modal auxiliaries achieved their modern status,
and do-support came to be used regularly.

Further reading
See Tieken-Boon van Ostade et al. (1999) for a presentation of negation
structures in Old English.

Activity

1. Read the following passage from Ælfric's Colloquy with the help
of the glossary. Comment on the structure of questions:

86 [The teacher:] Hwæt sægst þu mancgere?

87 [Pupil H:] Ic secge þæt behefe ic eom ge cyngce ond
ealdormannum ond weligum ond eallum follce.
88 [The teacher:] Ond hu?
89 [Pupil H:] Ic astige min scyp mid hlæstum minum, ond
rowe ofer sælice dælas, ond cype mine þingc, ond bicge
dyrwyrþe þingc þa on þisum lande ne beoþ acennede
ond ic hit togelæde eow hider mid micclan plihte ofer
sæ, ond hwilum forlidenesse ic þolie mid lyre ealra
þinga minra, uneaþe cwic ætberstende.
90 [The teacher:] Hwilce þinc gelædst þu us?
91 [Pupil H:] Pællas ond sidan, deorwyrþe gymmas ond
gold, selcuþe reaf ond wyrtgemangc, win ond ele,
ylpesban ond mæstlingc, ær ond tin, swefel ond glæs,
on þylces fela.
92 [The teacher:] Wilt þu syllan þingc þine her eal swa þu
hi gebohtest þær?
93 [Pupil H:] Ic nelle. Hwæt þænne me fremode gedeorf

88
 min? Ac ic wille hira cypen her [deoror] þonne gebicge
ic hig þær, þæt sum gestreon ic me begyte, þanon ic me
afede ond min wif ond minne sunu.
94 [The teacher:] Þu, sceowyrhta, hwæt wyrcst þu us
nytwyrþnessæ ?
95 [Pupil I:] Is, witodlice, cræft min behefe þearle eow ond
neodþearf.
96 [The teacher:] Hu?
97 [Pupil I:] Ic bicge hyda ond fell, ond gearkie hig mid
cræfte minon, ond wyrce of him gescy mistlices cynnes,
swyftleras ond sceos, leþerhosa ond butericas,
bridelþwancgas ond geræda, flaxan, pinnan ond
higdifatu, spurleþera ond hælftra, pusan ond fætelsas;
ond nan eower nele oferwintran buton minon cræfte.
(Mc Gillvray 2004)

2. Discuss word order in the following negative sentences:

a. Hie ne namon ele

They took no oil
(Sweet 1978: 58)
b. Ne sende se deofol ða fyr of heofenum, þeah þe hit ufan come
Not sent the devil then fire from heavens though that it from
above came
‘The devil did not send fire from heaven, though it came
from above’
(ÆCHom I, (Pref)6.13; Fischer et al. 2000: 55)

c. Nis na se halga gast wuniende on his gecynde swa swa he

gesewen wæs
Not-is not the holy ghost existing in his nature as he seen was
‘The Holy Ghost is not existing in his nature as he was seen’
(ÆCHom I,22.322.17; Fischer et al 2000:125)

89
9.

Word order at the phrase level

9.1. Word order in the NP

Word order in the NP in Old English is to a great extent similar to

that of present-day English.

9.1.1. Premodification.

The preferred word order in the NP is for all modifiers to precede the
head noun, an ordering not very different from that of Modern
English:
quantifier, demonstrative pronoun/ possessive pronoun,
numeral, oþer, adjective (one or more), genitive noun,
head.

Obviously, NPs with all these modifiers are not attested, but NPs
with fewer modifiers as illustrated below:

[NP anum unwisum cyninges þegne]

an unwise king.Gen thane
Det AP Gen.P head N
‘an unwise thane of the king’
(ChronA(Plummer) 874.5; Fischer et al 2000: 46)
[NP mænig oþer god man]
many another good man
QP oþer AP head N
(van Kemenade 1994: 125)
[NP þisses ieglandes bigengan]
this island.Gen inhabitants
Gen.P head N
(Sweet 1978: 59)
There are certain exceptions to the ordering of constituents in
premodification. For instance monig ‘many’ can follow a

90
demonstrative pronoun, oþer can precede a quantifier. (cf. van
Kemenade 1994: 125):

[NP þara monegena gewinna]

the many battles
Det QP head N

[NP oþre fela bisceopas ]

other many bishops
oþer QP head N
(van Kemenade 1994: 125)
9.1.2. Postmodification by the same modifers is also attested,
though much more frequent in poetry than in prose. All the
individual modifiers can follow the head:

þegne monegum
thanes many
‘many thanes’

þa scipo alle
the ships all
‘all the ships’
(ChronA(Plummer) 885.7; Fischer et al. 2000: 47)
Examples like these are not very frequent and some of them are
restricted to poetry. Somewhat more frequent are noun phrases with
both demonstrative and modifying adjective in postposition. In these
cases the demonstrative precedes the adjective:

cycle þone grymmestan

cold the grimmest
‘the grimmest cold’
(HomS17(B1Hom5) 136; Fischer 2000: 47)
Certain constituents like prepositional modifiers and relative clauses
always follow the rest of the NP:

a. ane boc be cyrclicum ðeawum

‘a book about ecclesiastical customs’
(van Kemenade 1994: 125)

91
b. to þam ylcan campdone þe heora fæderas on waron
to the same military service which their fathers in were
‘to the same military service which their fathers had been in’
(ÆLS(Martin) 31; van Kemenade 1994: 125)

9.1.3. Discontinuous phrases

NPs may be discontinuous in Old English in two constructions:

when they are coordinated or in apposition.
a. Coordinated NPs functioning as subjects and objects are often
treated quite differently than in Modern English. The coordinate
subject is divided and only the first NP is considered a subject for the
verb:

Her Cynewulf benam Sigebryht his rices & West Seaxna

Here Cynewulf deprived Sigebryht his kingdom.G & WestSaxons
‘Here (in this year) Cynewulf and the council of the West Saxons
wiotan for unryhtum dædum.
council for bad deeds.
deprived Sigebryht of his kingdom for bad deeds.’
(AS Chron.890 (Laud Peterborough) [E] 1122; Lightfoot 1999: 90)

Notice that the verb agrees with the subject in the singular. Likewise,
a compound object can also be separated by one or more other
sentence constituents:

Hie …þone æþeling ofslogon, & þa men þe him mid wærun.

They… the prince killed and the men who him with were
‘They… killed the prince and the men who were with him.’
(AS Chron.890 (Laud Peterborough) [E] 1122; Lightfoot 1999: 92)

Those elements that may occur as post-modifiers at the end of the NP

may also be moved outside the NP, to a position separated from the
rest of it:
maran cycle ic geseah, and wyrsan
greater cold I saw, and worse
‘I have seen a greater and worse cold’
(ÆCHom II, 23.202.107; Fischer et al. 2000: 48)

92
 Wearþ Sidroc eorl ofslgen se aldra
was Sidroc earl slain the elder
‘Earl Sidroc the elder was slain’
(AS. Chron. 871; Lightfoot 1999: 118)

Discontinuous phrases may also involve relative clauses separated

from the antecedent (with which they form otherwise a complex NP):

manegum wæron his wundra cuþe þe god worhte þurh hine

many.D were his miracles known that God performed through
him
[the miracles that God wrought through him] were known to many
noun + relative clause (van Kemenade 1994: 126)

Coordinated attributes. OE nouns assigned genitive case not only

to the left but also to the right (see section I.4.4.). This accounts for
the discontinuous genitive constructions, i.e. constructions in which
the head noun takes two genitive phrases, one on each side:

Inwæres broþur ond Healfdenes

Inwær.Gen brother and Healfden.Gen
‘Inwær’s and Healfden’s brother’
(AS Chron. 878; Lightfoot 1999: 117)
If the second genitive is conjoined, i.e. coordinated with and, then
the usual word order is for the second genitive to be separated and
placed after the head noun (cf. Jespersen 1909: 300).
b. Appositional elements, i.e. two NPs in apposition, also occur on
either side of the head noun (cf. Lightfoot 1999: 118):

Ælfredes gosune cyninges

Alfred.Gen godson king.Gen
‘King Alfred’s godson’
(AS Chron.890 (Laud Peterborough) [E] 1122)
Þæs cyninges dagum herodes
the king.Gen days.Dat Herod.Gen
‘(in the) days of Herod the king’
(West Saxon Gospels (MS A), Matt. 2:1)

93
Conjoined pre-modifiers, with or without demonstrative or even a
governing preposition, can also follow the head:

berenne kyrtel oððe yterenne

bearskin garment or otterskin
‘a garment of bearskin or otterskin’
(Or 1.15.17; Fischer et al. 2000: 47)

liflice onsagednysse and halige and God andfenge

living sacrifice and holy and God acceptable
‘living and holy sacrifice, and acceptable to God’
(ÆCHom I, 32.482.8; van Kemenade 1994: 125)

9.2. Word order in the VP

Very often Old English VPs have objects on the left of the
lexical verb, this is known as the OV order:

ond he his feorh generede, ond þeah he wæs oft gewundad

and he his life saved and yet he was often wounded
‘and he saved his life, although he was often wounded’
(ChronA (Plummer) 137.11; Fischer et al. 2000: 138)

Nevertheless word order inside the verb phrase is not so rigid, it is

relatively free, i.e. objects and adverbial modifiers can easily occur
to the the right of the verb:

þæt we ure ælmessan sellan earmum mannum

that we our alms.Acc give poor people.Dat
That we give our alms to poor people
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)

Þæt þu Drihtne brohtest micel gestreon haligra sawla

that you God.Dat brought a great treasure (of) holy souls.Acc
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)

In both positions (preverbal and postverbal) the relative order of the

dative and the accusative objects is more or less free. There are,
however, several restriction concerning the position of the object

94
pronouns. Object pronouns nearly always precede nominal objects,
and very often precede all other VP constituents. Two pronominal
objects can only occur in a fixed order: Acc – Dat.

Ic hit þe þonne wile getæcan

I it you then will teach
‘then I want to teach it to you’
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)

The Old English tendency to put the Object before the verb is
gradually given up, and the SVO order has become firmly
established by the beginning of the Middle English period.

Further reading
For a survey of the descriptive literature on word order patterns in the VP,
the reader is referred to Denison (1993: 27-58).

Activities
1. Comment on premodification in the following Old English NPs:

a. Ealle his woruldlican æðelborennysse

‘all his worldly nobility’
(ÆCHom II, 9.73.36; Fischer et al 2000: 46)
b. þas min word
these my words
‘these words of mine’
(Sweet 1978: 48)
c. monige oþre cyninges þegnas
many other of-king thanes
‘many other thanes of the king’
(ChronA(Plummer) 894.85; Fischer et al. 2000: 46)

d. ealle his leofan halgan

all his dear saints
(Kemenade 1994: 125)

2. Discuss postmodification in the following NPs:

95
a. mægwinne mine
kinsmen-dear my
‘my dear kinsmen’
(Beo 2479; Fischer et al. 2000: 47)
b. þa roda þreo
the roods three
‘the three roods’
(El 867; Fischer et al. 2000: 47)
c. alle Cent eastwearde
all Kent eastward
‘all eastern Kent’
(ChronA(Plummer) 865.1; Fischer et al. 2000: 47)
d. tamra deora unbebohtra syx hund
tame.Gen animals.Gen unsold.Gen six hundred
‘six hundred unsold tame animals’
(Or 1.15.8; Fischer et al.200: 47, 22c)

3. Identify the types of discontinuous constituents: coordinated

subjects or objects, appositions in the following examples:

a. Wearþ Heahmund bisceop ofslægen ond fela godra monna

Was Heahmund bischop slain and many good men
‘Bishop Heahmund and many good men were slain’
(AS Chron. 871; Lightfoot 1999: 118)

b. Ond he hine miclum ond his geferan mid feo weorðude

And he him much and his companions with money honored
‘And he much honored him and his companions with money’
(AS Chron. 878, Lightfoot 1999: 118)

c. Iohannes dagum fulwihteres

John.Gen days.Dat bapstist.Gen
‘(from the) days of John the Baptist’
(West Saxon Gospels (MS A), Matt. 11: 12, Lightfoot 1999: 118)

96
10.

Word Order at Clause Level

Word order at the clause level in Old English differs in major

respects from that of Modern English. Old English word order is best
analysed as basically SOV, i.e. verb-last. This is the typical word
order in the embedded clause, from which the word order of the main
clause is derived by means of the verb-second rule.

10.1. Verb-second

A typical declarative clause with one finite verb allowed the verb to
appear in second position. This phenomenon is known as the verb-
second principle, i.e. the verb was always the second constituent, as
indicated in the following hypothetical example:

The king defeated the enemy at the bridge.

The enemy (obj) defeated the king (subject) at the bridge.
At the bridge defeated the king the enemy.

S + V + O + AM
O + V + S + AM
AM + V + S + O

The initial position in the sentence was occupied either by the subject
or by another constituent (objects or adverbial modifiers). When the
sentence-initial position was already occupied, then the subject
immediately followed the verb
When the predicate consists of a finite verb (auxiliary or
modal) and a non-finite verb (infinitive or participle), then the rule of
verb second entails that the finite verb is preposed to second
constituent position, while the non-finite verb occurs at the end of the
sentence:

The king will the enemy at the bridge defeat.

97
 The enemy will the king at the breidge defeat.
At the bridge will the king defeat the enemy.

S + finite V + O + AM + non-finite V
O + finite V + S + AM + non-finite V
AM + finite V + S + O + non-finite V

The objects and adverbial modifiers were moved to front position in

the sentence, i.e. to topic position.

Though it has been said that Old English is of the SOV word
order type, in reality there is a good deal of variation. The word order
of quite a few Old English main clauses with one finite verb is like
that of the present-day language. An example is a subject-initial main
clause with one verb:

We habbað hwæðere þa bysne on halgum bocum

We have, nevertheless, the examples in holy books
(ÆCHom I, 31.474.33; Fischer et al. 2000: 49)

In other sentence types, however, there are important

differences: main clauses introduced by question words, negatives
and topics have subject-verb inversion:

. . . God, hwæt gifsts þu me?

God,what do you give me?
( Bt. 27, 2; Fox.96,12; Boswoth and Toller: 1075)

An important difference between inversion contexts in Old English

and their counterparts in present-day English is that the phenomenon
is not restricted to auxiliaries in Old English; all finite main verbs
may undergo inversion.
However main clauses introduced by a constituent other than
the subject do not always invert the verb with the subject. Inversion
takes place when the subject is nominal, but a pronominal subject is
not inverted, i.e. it remains in preverbal position:

a. On ðam dæge worhte God leoht, and merigen, and æfen

98
 On that day made God light and morning and evening
‘On that day God made light, morning, and evening
(ÆCHom I, 6. 100.5; Fischer et al 2000: 50)

b. æfter þissum hē fērde to Philistēa lande

‘after this he went to the land of the Philistines’
(Sweet 1978: 60)
Thus in most cases nominal subjects are inverted, while pronominal
subjects are not.

10.2. Verb-last

Word order in embedded clauses is different from that of the present-

day language. Constituents in an embedded clause are arranged
according to the principle verb-last, i.e. the verb occupies the final
position in the clause. In a hypothetical example, word order would
be the following:

He said [that the king at the bridge the enemy defeated].

…conj. + S + AM + O + V

When the embedded clause contained a finite and a non-finite verb,

then the principle verb-last would require both verbs to be clustered
at the end, the finite in final position and the non-finite immediately
preceding it:

… [that the king at the bridge the enemy defeat would].

…conj. + S + AM + O + non-finite vb. + finite vb.

Such word orders produce verb clustering at the end of the embedded
clause (a phenomenon characteristic of Modern Dutch and Modern
German):

þæt he Saul ne doreste ofslean

that he Saul not dared murder
‘that he didn’t dare to murder Saul’
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)

99
 In general, inversion with front position of the finite verb
does not occur. However evidence shows (cf. Fischer at al. 2000: 50)
that there was a form of fronting of the finite verb in embedded
clauses. In the following examples, the finite verb sculon is moved
from the final position to the left:

þæt we ealle sculon ænne geleafn habban

Su fin.vb DO non-finite vb
that we all must one faith have
‘that we all must have one faith’
(Or 5.14.131.13)

There are also a few examples with fronting of finite verb

from a verb-particle combination, as in (a) below, where the particle
remains in clause-final position, as compared with (b), where the
auxiliary, but not the non-finite verbs, is fronted:

a. þæt he wearp þæt sweord onweg

‘that he threw the sword away’
(Bede 1.7.38.18)

b. gif hio ne bið hrædlice aweg adrifen

if she not is quickly away driven
‘if it is not quickly driven away’
(CP 13.79.23)

The kind of verb fronting in embedded clauses differs in

several ways from that in main clauses. Firstly specially fronted
constituents such as topics and question elements do not occur in
subordinate clauses of this type. The constituent preceding the finite
verb is always the subject (nominal or pronominal), except in special
constructions such as passives. Moreover, verb fronting in main
clauses is vastly more frequent than in subordinate clauses.

10.3. OV vs. VO word orders

It has often been said that English changed from an OV language to a

VO language, a tendency which becomes noticeable as early as Old
English. Already in Old English there was great variation between
100
OV and VO word orders. As Fischer at al. (2000:51) convincingly
show, objects can appear on the left or on the right of the non-finite
verb in main clauses (a) and in embedded clauses (b):

a. þes mann nolde cyðan ðam syngigendum heora synna

verb IO
this man not-wanted make-known the sinning their sins
‘this man would not make known to the sinning their sins’
(ÆCHom II, 22.194.148)
Se mæssepreost sceal mannum bodian þone soþan geleafan
IO verb
The masspriest must people preach the true faith
‘the masspriest must preach the true faith to the people’
(Ælet2 (Wulfstan I) 175)

b. þe geearnian wile ece myrhðe æt ðam soðan Gode

verb DO
who earn wants eternal joy from the true God
‘who wants o earn joy from the true God’
(WHom 7.221)

þæt hi urum godum geoffrian magon ðancwurðe onsægednysse

IO verb
that they our gods offer may grateful sacrifice
‘that they may offer a grateful sacrifice to our gods’
(ÆCHom I, 38.592.31)

þæt hy syððan faran scoldon geond ealne middneard

verb PP
that they afterwards go must throughout all world
‘that they must afterwards travel throughout the world’
(WHom 7.78)

Nominal objects and PPs are the constituents whose position is

variable with respect to the non-finite verb; the position of the other
element is rather fixed. Personal pronouns almost always appear
somewhere left of the non-finite verb, adverbs, including negation

101
markers and stranded prepositions and particles are usually
immediately left of the non-finite verb.

10.4. Phrasal verbs

The verb-particle combinations of Old English differ from those of

present-day English. The relative ordering of verb and particle differs
sharply between main clauses and embedded clauses, as shown
below:

main clause S + V + ………...+ Part

embedded clause conj. + S + ……...+ Part. + V

In main clauses the particle nearly always follows the verb, with no
clear restrictions on the number and type of constituents intervening,
and subjects often intervene in V2 contexts, as the following
examples (a, b) taken from van Kemenade (1994: 31) seem to
demonstrate:

a. Þa ahof Drihten hie up

Then raised the Lord them up
‘then the Lord raised them up’

b. aslat þa þa tunas ealle ymb þa burg onwæg

destroyed then the villages all around the city away
‘and the destroyed all the villages around the city’

In embedded clauses the particle usually immediately precedes the

verb, which occurs in final position:

Þa idlan word Þe he ær unrihtlice ut forlet

the idle words that he before wickedly out let
‘the idle words to which he wickedly gave utterance before’
(van Kemenade 1994: 31)
Where the particle follows the verb, there are severe limitations on
the number and types of constituents that may intervene between
verb and particle.

102
 Van Kemenade (1994: 130 -132) accounts for this asymmetry
between word order in main and embedded clauses with verb particle
constructions by assuming that Old English has a basic SOV order
and a rule preposing the finite verb to second position in main
clauses: the verb-second rule. Since V2 applies in main clauses only,
and it usually leaves the particle behind in the base position of the
verb. The asymmetry is so clearly marked in Old English because the
base position for the verb is at the end of the sentence: Old English is
SOV. This base word order changed to Middle English SVO. The
changes in the position of particles in relation to the verb correlate
with the change from SOV to SVO.

10.5. Word order in coordinate clauses

Main clauses generally have verb-second. By analogy, we would

expect coordinate main clauses to exhibit verb-second phenomena,
have topics, show inversion and have the word orders typical of main
clauses. But very often they do not. The number of coordinate main
clauses that lack verb-second is great and they have the verb-final
word orders usually associated with subordinate clauses:

7 þa ongeat se cyning þæt 7 he on þa duru eode 7 þa unheanlice

hine werede
& then perceived the king that & he on the door went & then
nobly himself defended
‘and then the king perceived this and he went to the door and then
nobly defended himself’
(ChronA(Plummer) 755.13; Fischer et al 2000: 53)

The first coordinate clause shows inversion after þa, which is

characteristic of main clauses, but the second coordinate clause has
no Verb-Second and the finite verb follows the PP on þa duru, while
the third coordinate clause does not repeat the subject and again has
the verb in clause-final position.
Though coordinate in nature, they have a strong tendency to
show a verb-last word order typical of subordination.

103
Further reading
Van Kemenade (1987) is a major generative study on word order in OE and
ME. Coordinate ond ‘and’ clauses are discussed in Mitchell (1985). See
Fischer et al. (2000: 104-137) for an account on the position of the finite
verb in OE and ME and a detailed discussion of the rise of phrasal verbs
(180-210) in current theoretical terms.

Activity

1. Discuss word order and comment on the position of the subject in

the following examples:

a. on ðisum wræcfullum life we sceolon earmra manna helpan

in this life of exile we should poor people help
in this life of exile we should help poor people
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)
b. hwæt wille we eow swiðor secgan be ðisum symbeldæge
what will we you more say about this feast day
what more shall we say to you about this feast day
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)
c. Đas ðreo ðing forgifð God his gecorenum
These three things gives God his chosen
‘These three things God gives to his chosen’
(ÆCHom I, 18.250.12; Fischer et al. 2000: 50)
d. Be ðæm we magon suiðe swutule oncnawan ðæt…
By that we may very clearly perceive that..
‘By that, we may perceive very clearly that..’
(CP 26.181.16; Fischer et al. 2000: 50)
e Forðon we sceolan mid ealle mod & mægene to Gode gecyrran
Therefore we must with all mind and power to God turn
‘Therefore we must turn to God with all mind and power’
(HomU 19 (B1Hom8) 26; Fischer et al. 2000: 50)

2. Discuss verb-fronting in the following embedded clauses:

a. Þæt he wisdom mæge wið ofermetta æfre gemengan

that he wisdom may with pride ever mingle
‘that he may ever combine wisdom with pride’
(van Kemenade 1994: 136)

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b. Þæt hi mihton swa bealdlice Godes geleafan bodian
that they could so boldly God’s faith preach
‘that they could preach God’s faith so boldly’
(ÆCHom I, 16.232.23; Fischer et al. 2000: 50, 36a)

3. Read the following excerpt from Bede’s Ecclesiastical History.

a. Use pairs of brackets to identify main and subordinate
clauses
b. State what principle governs word order in each clause:
1.
Đa wæs on þā tid Æþelbeorht cyning hāten on Centrice,
Then was in that time Æthelberht king named in Kent,
‘Then (there) was in that time a king named Æthelberht in Kent,
2.
and mihtig: hē hæfde rīce oð gemæru Humbre strēames,
and mighty he had dominion to confines Humber river-gen,
and (a) mighty (one) he had dominion up to (the) confines of the
Humber river,
3.
sē tōscādeþ sūtfolc Angelþēode and norðfolc. Þonne is
which separates south folk (of) English and north folk. Now is
which separates the south folk of the English and the north folk.
4.
on ēasteweardre Cent micel ēaland, Tenet, þæt is siex hund
in eastward Kent large island, Thanet, that is six hundred
Now (there) is in eastward Kent a large island, Thanet, that is six
5.
hīda micel æfter Angelcynnes eahte…On þyssum ēalande cōm
hides large after English-gen reckoning …On this island came
hundred hides large after the reckoning of the English. On this
6.
ūp sē Godes þēow Augustinus and his gefēran;
up the God-Gen servant, Augustine, and his companions;
island came up the Servant of God, Augustine, and his companions;
7.
wæs hē fēowertiga sum. Nāmon hīe ēac swelce him wealhstodas
was he one of forty some. Took they likewise them interpreters

105
he was one of forty. They likewise took with them interpreters
8.
of Franclande mid, swā him Sanctus Gregorius bebēad.
from Frank-land with, as them Saint Gregory bade.
from Frank-land, as them Saint Gregory bade.
9.
And ðā sende to Æþelbeorhte ærendwrecan and onbēad
And then sent to Æthelberht messenger and announced
And then (Augustine) sent to Aethelberht a messenger and
10.
þæt hē of Rōme cōme and ðæt betste ærende lædde;
that he from Rome came and that best message led;
announced that he from Rome (had) come and the best message
brought (led);
11.
and sē þe him hīersum bēon wolde, būton twēon hē gehēt
and he who to-him obedient be would, without doubt he promised
and he who(if any) would be obedient to him, without doubt he
12.
ēcne gefēan on heofonum and toweard rīce būton ende mit
eternal happiness in heaven and future kingdom without end with
promised eternal happiness in heaven and a future kingdom
13.
þone sōþan God and þone lifigendan.
the true God and the living .
without end with the true God and the living (God).
(excerpt from Baugh & Cable 1993: 63)

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11.

Subordinate Clauses
Subordinate clauses are usually divided into relative clauses,
complement clauses and adverbial clauses. Old English indicates
subordination by means of conjunctions, word order or subjunctive
marking on the verb:

a. Forðy me þinkþ better gif iow swe þinkþ

Therefore me seems better if you so seems
Therefore it seems to me better if it seems to you
(at. Pref; Sweet 7,5; Bosworth & Toller 1898: 474)

b. We ælþweodige wæron siððon se æresta ealdor Godes

bebodu abræc
we exiled were, since Adam broke God’s commands.
we have been exiled, since Adam broke God’s commands.
(Blikl. Homl. 23,4; Bosworth & Toller 1898: 879)

c. secgað eowrum hlaforde þæt unforht sy

say your lord that fearless be (subj)
‘Say your lord that he should be fearless’
(ÆCHom I, 37.568.30; Fischer et al. 2000: 57)

The word order in (a) is SVO (frequent in main clauses), but gif
clearly marks it as a subordinate clause. In (b) siððan could be an
adverb or a conjunction, but in this case the OV word order is
decisive for interpreting it as a conjunction. Finally, the subjunctive
sy combines with OV word order in marking (c) as subordinate.
Subordinate marking is achieved by the interplay of various signals
then and readers usually have little trouble recognizing subordinate
clauses because of these signals, in conjunction with the wider text.
Besides siððan which can be interpreted either as a
conjunction or as an adverb, there are other ‘ambiguous’
adverbs/conjunctions, the most prominent among them þa,
‘then/when’, used at a goodly rate in practically all Old English texts.
It appears often in so-called correlative constructions:
107
 Đa ða Landfranc crafede fæstnunge his gehersumnesse mit
When Landfranc craved pledge his submission with
aðswerunge, þa forsoc he. & sæde þæt he hit nahte to donne.
oath-swearing then refused he and said that he it not-had to do.

‘When Landfranc demanded a pledge of his obedience on oath,

he refused and said that he did not have to do it’
(ChronA 204.9 (1070); Mitchell 1985:§§932-3)

The OV word order in the first clause suggests a subordinate clause,

while the VS word order in the second clause is typical of main
clauses.

11.1. Complement clauses

Complement clauses are those clauses which function as complement

to a verb, adjective or noun. They can be finite or non-finite.
The finite complement clause is typically introduced by þæt
‘that’. The subordinating conjunction is sometimes omitted if the
verb is one of saying, such as cwean, secgan ’say’, where the clause
reports what is being said:

þeah þe nu þince þæt ðu deorwyrðe feoh forloren habbe

Though to-you now seems that you precious good lost have
‘though it may seem to you that you have lost precious goods’
(Bo 20.48.17; Fischer et al. 200: 62)

The most important type of non-finite complementation in

Old English is the infinitival clause, however it was used less
frequently and in fewer environments than in Modern English.

11.2. Relative clauses

Relative clauses are adjectival in the sense that they modify a noun.
Three major types of relative clauses can be distinguished on the
basis of the relative word that introduces them:

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se relatives, where se is a form of the demonstrative pronoun used
as a relative pronoun:

þæm cyninge, se wolde geagnian him þa læssan Asiam

the king who wanted usurp to-himself the lesser Asia
‘the King, who wanted to usurp Asia Minor’
(Or 5.4 118.1; Fischer et al. 2000: 58)

se þe relatives, combining a form of the demonstrative se with the

indeclinable relative þe:

se arwurða bisceop, ðone ðe God sylf geceas

the worthy bishop, whom (that) God himself chose’
(van Kemenade 1994: 138)
þe relatives, introduced by the declinable relative þe:

þæt gewrit þe hit on awriten wæs

the writ that it in written was
‘the writ that it was written in’
(van Kemenade 1994: 138)

Finally relatives can be used without a relative pronoun. This

happens primarily when the relative clause contains the verb hatan
and the relative corresponds with the subject:

Him þa andswarode his ealdorbisceop, Cefi wæs haten

Him then answered his high priest Ø Cefi was called.
‘The high-priest, who was called Cefi, then answered him’
(Bede 2.10.134.11; Fischer et al. 2000: 61)

The word order patterns in relative clauses are the patterns which
occur in subordinate clauses in general.

11. 3. Adverbial clauses

A wide range of subordinating conjunctions is available, depending
on the type of clause. Clauses of time can be introduced by þa
‘when’, þonne ‘when’, nu ‘now’, siððan ‘after’, and a hwile ‘while’ .
Old English adverbial clauses may be introduced by ‘compound’
conjunctions, which disappear from English later on. They take the
109
form of a preposition followed by the appropriate form of se (usually
the dative or instrumental) and then the relative particle se
(occasionally t). Some combinations are:

for þæm / þon þe ‘for that which’ (= because)

mid þæm þe ‘with that which’ (= when)
ær þæm þe ‘before that which’ (= before)

Adverbial clauses of condition, purpose and concession take a verb

in the subjunctive mood:

Gif þu her andwerd wære, nære ure broðer forðfaren

If you here present were not-was.Subj our brother departed
‘If you had been preent here our brother would not have died’
(ÆCHom I 8.130.5; Visser 1963 -73:§§815, 861)

and behyddon þæt heafod…þæt hit bebyrged ne wurde

and hid the head so that it buried not were
‘and hid he the head so that it would not be buried’
(ÆCHom I, 1.20.4; Fischer et al. 2000: 64)

Subordination in Old English was marked syntactically by

means of the different word order of a subordinate clause in
comparison with a main clause and by means of the subjunctive
mood.
In Old English subordination was strongly marked
syntactically by means of the different word order of a subordinate
clause in comparison with a main clause and by means of the
subjunctive.

Further reading
Detailed discussions of subordinate clauses can be found in Mitchell (1985,
vol. II)

Activity

1. The following text is an excerpt from Bede's account of the

conversion of King Edwin. Translate the text with the help of the

110
glossary. Identify adverbial clauses and discuss subordination
marking:

Bede (ca. 672-735), usually known as "the venerable Bede," is the

author of the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical
History of the English People), an account of English history from
the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the island to Bede’s own time,
focussing on the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Written in Latin, it
was completed about 731. The extract is an account of the
conversion to Christianity of king Edwin, who after some hesitation,
Edwin agreed in 627 to convert after consultation with his
witenagemot (or council). The passage given here describes the
discussions in council and the subsequent desecration of his former
temple by Cefi, the pagan chief priest.

Þa se cyning þa þas word gehyrde, þa andswarode he him &

cwæð, þæt he æghwæþer ge wolde ge sceolde þam geleafan onfon þe
he lærde. Cwæð hwæþere, þæt he wolde mid his freondum & mid his
wytum gesprec & geþeaht habban, þæt gif hi mid hine þæt geþafian
woldan, þæt hi ealle ætsomne on lifes willan Criste gehalgade wæran.
Þa dyde se cyning swa swa he cwæð,& se bisceop þæt geþafade.
Þa hæfde he gesprec & geþeaht mid his witum & syndriglice
wæs fram him eallum frignende, hwylc him þuhte & gesawen wære
þeos niwe lar & þære godcundnesse bigong, þe þær læred wæs. Him
þa andswarode his ealdorbisceop, Cefi wæs haten: Geseoh þu,
cyning, hwelc þeos lar sie, þe us nu bodad is. Ic þe soðlice andette,
þæt ic cuðlice geleornad hæbbe, þæt eallinga nawiht mægenes ne
nyttnes hafað sio æfæstnes, þe we oð ðis hæfdon & beeodon. Forðon
nænig þinra þegna neodlicor ne gelustfullicor hine sylfne
underþeodde to ura goda bigange þonne ic; & noht þon læs monige
syndon, þa þe maran gefe & fremsumnesse æt þe onfengon þonne ic,
& in eallum þingum maran gesynto hæfdon. Hwæt ic wat, gif ure
godo ænige mihte hæfdon, þonne woldan hie me ma fultumian,
forþon ic him geornlicor þeodde & hyrde. Forþon me þynceð wislic,
gif þu geseo þa þing beteran & strangran, þe us niwan bodad syndon,
þæt we þam onfon

111
112
Part two

Middle English

113
114
1.

Historical Background

In 1066, Duke William of Normandy defeated King Harold at

Hastings and became King William I of England. One of the most
important consequences of the Norman conquest was the
introduction of a new nobility. For several generations after the
Conquest the important positions in the state and in the church and
the great estates were almost always held by Normans or by men of
foreign blood.

1.1. The rise of French

The new ruling class continued to use their native language, Norman
French, for two centuries, showing indifference to English which
remained the language of the lower social classes. Political and
economic interests made French for them more useful. French
culture became so important in England in the 12th century that an
important body of literature could be written in French, under the
direct patronage of the court. English survived for a considerable
time in some monasteries, which is proved by the fact that at
Peterborough the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was continued until 1154.
The closer social contacts led to a fusion of the French with the
English people and a considerable number of people came to have
some understanding of both languages so that the country was to
some extent bilingual just like modern Belgium (where Flemish
prevailing in the north is the language of the working class, while
French is spoken in the southern part by the upper classes).

1.2. The re-establishment of English 1200 – 1500

In 1204 Normandy was lost and the families who had estates on both
sides of the Channel were compelled to give up one or the other (of
their estates). Family branches separated, the Norman nobility
115
gradually lost its continental connections and started to consider
itself English.
The 13th century must be viewed as a period of shifting
emphasis upon the two languages spoken in England. The upper
classes continued to speak French, not because it was the mother
tongue inherited from the Norman ancestors but because it was a
cultivated tongue supported by social custom, business and
administrative convention. Meanwhile English made steady
advances being gradually adopted by the upper classes. At this time
the adoption of French words into the English language assumes
large proportions. The transference of words occurs when those who
know French and have been accustomed to use it try to express
themselves in English. At the close of the century French was still
used in parliament, in the law courts, in public negotiation generally,
but the hostility with France during the Hundred Years’ War (1337 –
1453) contributed to the disuse of French, as the language of an
enemy country.
The English language regained its former prestige with the
rise of the middle class, the craftsmen and the merchant class.
Those who could speak French in the 14th century were
bilingual. Kings and nobility used French on official occasions and
English when they addressed the people. Documents prove that in
the 14th century English was again the mother tongue of all England.
English became the language of all legal proceedings and the
language of school, replacing French which had been taught in
schools since shortly after the Conquest. Lastly, English managed to
displace Latin and French in private and official writing in the 15 th c
and became a literary medium in a period of outstanding literary
creation whose chief names are: Chaucer, Shakespeare, William
Langland, John Wycliff, and many others. They carry on the
tradition of literary English into the Renaissance.

1.3. The dialects of Middle English

There were four main dialect areas of Old English – West Saxon,
Kentish, Mercian and Northumbrian. In Middle English, they remain
roughly the same, except that the Mercian Midlands of England
show enough differences between the eastern and western parts for
116
there to be two distinct dialects. Thus the five main dialects of
Middle English are usually referred to as: Southern, Kentish (or
South East), East Midland, West Midland, Northern. The dialect of
Northern English spoken in what is now southern Scotland was
known as Inglis until about 1500, when writers began to call it
Scottis, present-day Scots.

Figure 3. Middle English dialects

In the Middle English period no single dialect of the

language was used for writing throughout the country in the way that
West Saxon dialect had become an OE written standard in the 10th
and 11th centuries. After the Conquest, the language of the Norman
ruling class was Old Northern French. The language of the English
court in the 12th century was Parisian French, which carried more
prestige than Anglo-Norman and other varieties. The language of

117
instruction in English schools was French until the second half of the
14th century. English started to be used in the law courts and
Parliament instead of French in 1362.
By the end of the 14th century the educated language of
London was beginning to become the standard form of writing
throughout the country, although the establishment of a recognised
Standard English was not completed for several centuries.
In Middle English there were only dialects, and writers and
copyists used the forms of speech of their own region. Chaucer
noticed the lack of a standard language and the diversity of forms of
English at the end of his poem Troilus and Criseyde, written about
1358:

And for ther is so gret diversite

In Englissh and in writyng of oure tonge,
(Chaucer, Troylus & Crissede, 1793; Bensons: 584)

1..4. The rise of Standard English

Towards the end of the fourteenth century a written variant of

English emerged out of the variety of Middle English dialects, which,
in the course of the following century became the accepted standard.
Several factors contributed to the prominence of the East Midland
dialect (cf. Baugh & Cable 1993: 192-195).
First, the Midland dialect occupied an intermediate, position
between the divergent Northern and Southern dialects, sharing
sounds and inflections with them.
Then, Midland was the most populous region of the country,
as well as the most prosperous, and politically, the most influential,
thus contributing to the spreading of the dialect.
A third factor was the presence of the Universities, Oxford
and Cambridge, which had developed into important intellectual
centers, gradually replacing the monasteries in the dissemination of
learning. Cambridge exerted a greater influence in support of the east
Midland dialect, while the Oxford dialect showed certain Southern
characteristics.
The crucial factor, however, in the rise of Standard English
was London, the capital of England, the seat of the court and the

118
heart of the country’s economic system. In the latter half of the 15 th
century, the London Standard came to be accepted not only in the
regions neighbouring London, but also in other parts of the country,
particularly in writing. This, however, did not destroy the variety of
Middle English dialects, which continued to develop. In
correspondence and local records, there was marked tendency to
conform to the London standards.
A factor whose contribution to the standardization of English
was highly significant was printing, introduced in 1476. London
became the first center of book publishing in England, where Caxton,
the first English printer, published a number of religious and secular
works, using the current speech of London.

1. 5. A guide to spelling and pronunciation

Although the scribes who copied texts wrote Middle English in a

variety of different forms, their spelling generally keeps closer to the
sounds of words than does that of Modern English.
The long vowels are illustrated in the following words:
/a:/ save caas
/e:/ lene heath
/e:/ nede sweete
/i:/ fine shyne
/o:/ holy oon
/o:/ foot mone
/u:/ hous lowed

Middle English scribes followed Latin usage, going back to

the time when Anglo-Saxon was first written in the Latin alphabet.
However, a series of changes, known as the Great Vowel Shift,
affected all the English sounds during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
By the end of the 18th century, long vowels were pronounced as
shown in the following:
/a:/ became /e:/ and later /ei/ as in ‘name’
/ε:/ became /e:/ or more often /i:/ as in ‘heath’
/e:/ became /i:/ as in ‘see’
/i:/ became /ai/ as in ‘time’
/o:/became /o:/ as in ‘boat’
119
 /o:/ became /u:/ as in ‘moon’
/u:/ became the diphthong /au/ as in modern ‘house’

Short vowels were pronounced as in Modern English words.

The letters e and i or y were pronounced as in hell and pit.
The letter æ signified either /a/ or /e/.
The letter u was pronounced /u/ as in put.
The letter o as in ‘God’, but also /u/ in words such as yong or love.
The unstressed final –e was pronounced /ə/ as in China. There was,
however, a tendency for the final /ə/ to be lost in unstressed positions,
especially in more northerly dialects.

Diphthongs are pronounced as they are written:

ai /a/+/u/
au /a/+/u/
eu, ew /e/+/u/
but ei originally pronounced /e/+/i/ became /a/+/i/ in the 13th century.
oi /o/+/i/, but also /u/+/i/
ou, ow /o/+/u/, but also /u/ in house

‹ea› and ‹eo› spellings do not represent diphthongs in ME, though

they had done so in OE. The OE diphthong has become a single
vowel while retaining the two-letter spelling.
The spoken language continued to change, but the written or
printed language assumed a standardized forms. Three consonant
symbols are still unfamiliar to modern readers: ð (known as ‘eth’), þ
(‘thorn’) and 3 (‘yogh’).
ð and þ represent ‘th’ sounds. The two letter spelling th was
adopted after 1400. The letter ð went out of fashion earlier than
‘thorn’. 3 (‘yogh’) is the descendant of the Anglo-Saxon letter form g.
Middle English scribes tended to use modern g for the stop
consonant as in ‘good’, reserving 3 for other purposes. It corresponds
to modern consonantal y in words such as 3ong ‘young’, and to
modern gh in words such as ri3t ‘right’ (in which case it represents
sounds heard in Scots ‘licht’ and ‘loch’.

120
 The main rule governing word stress in ME is to place the
primary stress on the first syllable in the word, unless that syllable is
an unstressable prefix. Stressing on the first syllable was a general
rule in Germanic languages, which therefore governed Scandinavian
borrowings in Middle English as well as native words. The rule in
medieval French, however, was almost the opposite: to stress a word
on its last syllable unless that syllable is an unstressable /ə/. English
has borrowed many words from French, and in most cases these now
conform to the Germanic rule; but in ME such words commonly vary
between French and native stressing – thus natúre beside náture.
Burrow & Thurville-Petre (1992: 13) illustrate this with a line of
Chaucer’s: ‘In dívers art and in divérse figures’.

Further reading
For more details on the spelling and pronunciation of Middle English see
Baugh & Cable (1993: 107-157), Schmidt (1978: 90-106), Crystal (2000:
40-43), Poruciuc (2004: 65-68).

Activity
1. The following text is an illustration of the East Midland dialect
of English. Read the text paying attention to the pronunciation of
long and short vowels:
The book called Ormulum was written in the 12th century
by Orm, a monk who lived in northern Lincolnshire and wrote in
an East Midland dialect of English like the Peterborough
Chronicle continuations.
His aim was to teach the Christian faith in English and the
verses were to be read aloud. So he devised his own system of
spelling, in order to help the reader to pronounce the words
properly. He wanted his readers and listeners to distinguish clearly
between long and short vowels, so he marked long vowels (or
diphthongs) with a single final consonant letter, short vowels with
double consonant letters. Consequently he wanted any copier of
Ormulum to follow his spelling system exactly.
The following excerpt is a transcription in verse of Orm’s
description of his book.

121
ME ww
þiss boc iss nemmned Orrmulum this book is called Ormulum
θɪs boːk ɪs nɛmnəd ɔrmʊluːm
forrþi þatt Orrm itt wrohhte… because Orm it wrought (made)
fɔrðiː ðɑt ɔrm ɪt wrɔxtə
Icc hafe wennd inntill ennglissh. I have turned into English
ɪk hɑːvə wɛnd ɪntɪl ɛnɡlɪʃ
goddspelles halljhe lare. (the) gospel’s holy lore,
ɡɔdspɛləs hɑljə lɑːrə
Affterr þatt little witt þatt me. after that little wit that me
ɑftər θɑt lɪtlə wɪt θɑt mɛː
min Drihhtin hafeþþ lenedd… my Lord has lent (granted)…
miːn drɪçtɪn hɑvɛθ leːnɛd
annd wha-se wilenn shall þiss boc. And who intend shall this book
and hwɑːse wiːlən ʃɑl θɪs boːk
efft oþerr siþe writenn. again another time write,
ɛft oːðər siːðə wriːtən
himm bidde icc þat he’t write rihht. him ask I that he it copy right,
hɪm bɪd ɪk θɑt heːt wriːtə rɪçt
swa-summ þiss boc himm tæcheþþ. in the same way (that) this book
swɑsʊm θɪs boːk hɪm tæːtʃɛθ him teaches
all þwert-ut affterr þatt itt iss. entirely after (the way) that it is,
ɑl θwɛrtuːt ɑftɛr θɑt ɪt ɪs
uppo þiss firrste bisne. according to this first example,
ʊpoː θɪs firstə biːznə
wiþþ all swills rime alls her iss sett. with all such rhyme as here is set,
wɪθ ɑl swɪlk riːm ɑls heːr ɪs sɛt
wiþþ all þe fele wordess. with all the many words.
wɪθ ɑl θə feːlə woːrdɛs
annd tatt he loke wel þatt he. And (I ask) that he look well that he
ɑnd tɑt heː loːkə weːl θɑt heː
an bocstaff write twijjess. a letter writes twice.
ɑːn boksɑf wriːtə twɪjəs
ajjwhær þær itt uppo þiss boc Everywhere it in this book
ɛjhwær θæːr ɪt ʊpoː θɪs boːk
iss writenn o þatt wise. is written in that way.
ɪs wriːtən ɔ θɑt wiːzə.
loke he well þatt he’t wrote swa. (Let him) Look well that he it wrote

122
loːk heː wɛl θɑt heːt wroːtə swɑː so,
forr he ne majj nohht elless. for he must not else (otherwise)
fɔr heː nɛ maj niçt ɛləs
onn Ennglissh writenn roihht te word .in English write correctly the
ɔn ɛnɡliʃ wriːtən rɪiçt tə woːrd word
þatt wite he wel to soþe. That (should) know he well for sure.
θɑt wiːt heː wɛl toː soːðə
(Ormulum, Preface, 1; CMEPV, vol.1, unumbered)

2. Read the following text written in the South East dialect of Kent.
Check your pronunciation against the phonetic transcription:

Michael of Northgate, amonk of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, finished

a translation from a French original of Aynbyte of Inwyt ‘the remorse
of conscience’. The manuscript provides good evidence for the
South East dialect of Kent at that time.

Efterward Saint Gregory telþ þet Saint Boniface uram þet he

wes child he wes zuo piteous þet he yaf ofte his kertel and
his sserte to þe poure uor God, þaʒ his moder him byete ofte
þeruore. þanne bevil þet þet child yseʒ manie poure þet
hidden mezeyse. He aspide þet hedden his moder nes naʒt
þer. And haste he yarn to þe ɡerniere, and al þet his moder
hedde yɡadered uor to pasi þet yer he hit yaf to þe poure. And
þo his moder com and wyste þe ilke dede, hy wes al out of
hare wytte. þet child bed oure Lhorde, and þet ɡernier wes
an haste al uol.
ww
Afterward Saint Gregory tells that Saint Boniface from that
he was child he was so piteous that he gave often his coat
and his shirt to the poor for God, though his mother him beat
often therefore. Then befell that that child saw many poor
that had suffering. He espied that his mother ne-was not there.
In haste he ran to the granary, and all that his mother had
gathered for to last the year he it gave to the poor. And
when his mother came and learned the same deed, she was
all out of her wit. The child prayed to our Lord, and the
granary was in haste all full.

123
 (Extract from Freeborn 1998: 173)

ɛftəward zaɪnt ɡrɛɡɔrɪ tɛlθ ðɛt zaɪnt bonifas vram ðɛt heː wɛs tʃiːld
heː wɛs zwɔː pitɛjus ðɛt heː jaf əftə his kɛrtəl and his ʃɛrtə tɔ ðə puːrə
vor ɡod, ðɑx hɪs moːdər him bjɛːtə ɔftə ðɛːrvɔːrə. ðanə bɛvil ðɛt ðɛt
tʃiːld izeːj maniːə puːrə ðɛt hɛdən mɛzɛːjzə. heː aspiːdə ðɛt hɪs moːdər
nɛs naxt ðəːr. an hɑːstə heː jarn tɔ ðə ɡɛrnɛːrə, and al ðɛt hɪs moːdər
hɛdə ɪɡɑdərɛd vɔr tɔ pazi ðɛt jeːr heː hit jaf tɔ ðə puːrə. and ðɔː hɪs
moːdər coːm and wɪstə ðə ilkə deːdəˌ heː wɛs ɑl ut ɔf harə wɪtə. ðɛt
tʃiːld beːd urə hlɔːrdə, and ðɛt ɡɛrnɪɛːr wɛs an hɑːstə ɑl vɔl.

124
2.

The Vocabulary of Middle English

While Old English mainly relied on word-formation processes

(composition and derivation) to enrich the vocabulary, Middle
English borrowed an impressive number of foreign words which
gradually replaced much of the Old English word-stock.

2.1. French borrowings

As a result of William’s victory and the subsequent political and

social effect of his action, a large number of French words found
their way into the English language.
Not surprisingly, English borrowed lots of words related to
governing and the administration of the country, as well as
institutions characteristic of the feudal system: allegiance, alliance,
authority, baron, count, countess, court, crown, demesne, duchess,
duke, governor, homage, majesty, manor, marquis, marshal, mayor,
minister, parliament, prince, princess, reign, revenue, royal, sceptre,
servant, sovereign, squire, state, subject, treaty, vassal.
French was the language of the law courts and, consequently,
the terminology of French law was adopted: assize, banish, bar,
blame, condemn, crime, decree, evidence, indictment, judge, juror,
justice, pardon, petition, plead, proof, punishment, sue, suit, verdict.
The higher clergy, who held an important position in the
kingdom’s organization, was recruited from among the Anglo-
Normans, religious service was conducted mainly in French, which
explains the important number of words of French origin associated
with the ritual, the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the fundamental
concepts of Catholicism, which entered English: abbey, baptism,
cardinal, chantry, clergy, communion, confession, crucifix,
damnation, faith, homily, incense, ordain, passion, pastor, penance,

125
penitence, prayer, preach, prelate, religion, sermon, theology, trinity,
vicar.
For the next two centuries, the ruling class was of French
extraction and, naturally, a number of French borrowings form this
period reflect their social life and fashion: apparel, blue, brooch,
brown, cape, cloak, collar, embroidery, frock, fur, garment, garter,
gown, kerchief, petticoat, rove, ruby, topaz, veil.
Words pertaining to literature, the arts, architecture and
learning in general (medicine, science) mirror the intellectual and
cultural interests of the new ruling class: art, beauty, cathedral,
chamber, choir, colour, column, image, logic, malady, mansion,
medicine, music, painting, palace, pillar, poet, porch, prose, pulse,
romance, sculpture, study, tragedy. French borrowings added relish
refinement to the austere Saxon table habits and dishes: bacon, beef,
cinnamon, grape, herb, jelly, lemon, lettuce, mackerel, mustard,
mutton, oyster, peach, pigeon, plate, pork, poultry, salad, salmon,
sardine, sausage, sole, spice, sugar, to boil, to fry, to grate, to roast,
to stew, venison.
In England, the Middle Ages was a period of continuous
warfare, of intercine conflicts, of military rivalry with its neighbours,
France in particular. Much of the fighting was done in France and,
consequently a significant number of terms entered the English
language: ambush, arm, banner, captain, combat, defence, enemy,
garrison, guard, lance, lieutenant, moat, navy, retreat, siege, soldier,
spy, to array, to besiege, to brandish, to defend, to harness.
The impact of French was not restricted to a few domains of
social and political life, as these examples may suggest. Practically,
there was no zone of the English vocabulary that was not affected, so
rich and diverse this influence was.

2.2. Latin borrowings

Latin was the lingua franca of the European Aevum Medium; it was
the most widely used instrument of communication among
ecclesiasts and men of learning, and continued to be the language of
law and of administration. When, in the late 14th century, Wycliffe
translated the Bible into English, he was faced with shortage of
expressive means of English, and had to coin more than a thousand
126
new terms in English. However, the number of Latin words that
passed directly into English is relatively small. Most of them are
terms relating to theology, sciences and literature: allegory,
conspiracy, custody, frustrate, gesture, history, infinite, incarnate,
incredible, index, individual, inferior, intellect, legal, lunatic, minor,
moderate, necessary, ornate, picture, popular, private, prosecute,
prosody, pulpit, rational, rosary, scripture, secular, subdivide,
subordinate, summary, supplicate, temporal, testify, testimony.
Some of the Latin words borrowed into English retained their
original inflections: abacus, et caetera, genius, memento, prima
facie.
The most important consequence of the assimilation of
Latin words was that Middle English developed synonymy on three
levels in many areas of vocabulary:

Anglo-Saxon Norman French Latin

book volume text
fair beautiful attractive
rise mount ascend

By the end of the Middle English period, the bulk of the Old English
vocabulary had become obsolete and some ten thousand French
words had been borrowed into English. Foreign borrowing remained
the main source for subsequent extensions of the vocabulary.

Further reading
See Hughes (2000: 109-145) for a discussion on the Norman elite and the
new language of power in England.

Activity
Describe some of the differences you can observe in the following
two version of the same text, which is the beginning of the parable of
The Prodigal Son from St Luke’s Gospel, chapter 15 (the verses of
the chapter are numbered).
Notice which Old English words appear to have been lost.

127
Text 1 – Late West Saxon Old English c. 1050

11 He cwæð. Soðlice sum man hæfde twegen suna.

12 þa cwæð se gingra to hys fæder. fæder syle me mynne dæl
mynre æthe. þe me to gebyreð. þa dælde he hym hys æhta.
13 þa æfter feawa dagum ealle hys þyng gegaderode se gingra
sunu 7 ferde wræclice on feorlen ryce. 7 þær forspylde hys
æhta lybbende on hys gælsan.
ww
11 He quoth (spoke). soothly (truly) some (a certain) man
had two sons.
12 then quoth the younger to his father. father sell (give) me my
deal (part) of my property. that me to belongs. then dealed
(gave) he him his property.
13 then after few days all his things gathered the younger son &
fared abroad in far-off country. & there spilled (wasted) his
property living in his luxury.

Text 2 – Late 14th century Middle English, South Midlands

11 And he seide, A man hadde twei sones;

12 and the ʒonger of hem seide to the fadir, Fadir, ʒyue me the
porcioun of catel, that fallith to me. And he departide to hem
the catel.
13 And not aftir many daies, whanne alle thingis weren gederid
togider, the ʒonger sone wente forth in pilgrymage in to a fer
cuntre; and there he wastide hise goodis in lyuynge
lecherously.

128
3.

From a Synthetic to an Analytic(al) Language

The Norman Conquest had the most profound effects on the country
and on the language, and the English texts from the 12th century
onwards reveal changes at each level of the language: spelling and
vocabulary, word form and grammar.
Throughout this period changes in grammar reduced English
from a highly inflected language to an extremely analytic one.
Changes in the vocabulary involved the loss of a large part of the Old
English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from
French and Latin. Two important changes affected the structure of
the English language in the early Middle English period:

- the decline of the inflectional morphology

- the parallel reduction of word order sequences.

3.1. The decline of the inflectional morphology

In the transition from Old English to Middle English the system of

morphological marking on nouns, adjectives and verbs is
dramatically diminished.

3.1.1. The reduction of the nominal morphology

The Old English declensional system of the noun collapsed owing to

phonological reasons. But why did the Old English inflectional
endings decay?
The most obvious explanation is that it became increasingly
difficult to hear them, because of the way words had come to be
stressed during the evolution of the Germanic languages. The
ancestor language of Germanic, Indo-European, had a ‘free’ system
of accentuation, in which the stress within a word moved according
to intricate rules. In Germanic, this system changed and most words
129
came to carry the main stress on their first syllable. This is the
system found throughout OE. As always there were exceptions, the
ge- prefix is never stressed.
Having the main stress at the beginning of a word can readily
give rise to an auditory problem at the end. This is especially so
when there are several endings which are phonetically very similar,
such as -en, -on and -an. In rapid speech it would have been difficult
to distinguish them.
The weakening of the vowel segments occurring in post-stress
position led to the loss of the vocalic declensional sets. The early loss
of final –n in the areas under Scandinavian influence and its gradual
spread to the other dialects does away with the weak declension of
nouns as well. In parallel the ending –s originally attached only to
nouns belonging to the a-stems, is analogically extended to
practically all English nouns, as a marker of the genitive singular and
of the plural.
The fact the nouns in the Nom and Acc had the same form, a
phenomenon known as syncretism, in most declensional sets in Old
English is generalized to all nouns both in the singular and in the
plural. Thus the opposition Subject – Object comes to be expressed
only by the position of the NP versus the verb.
Similarly the dative-accusative syncretism apparent in part of
the declensional system of the noun spreads to all nouns and persons
with the result that the DO and the IO functions are no longer
marked at the inflectional level. The genitive proved to be more
resistant and survived as an inflectional category throughout the ME
period.
By the end of the 15th century plural nouns regularly took the
ending –s, a result of the overall simplification of the original OE
system, which had a variety of plural markers.
Prepositions in OE selected either a noun in the dative or in
the accusative case and rarely even the genitive case (NPs in the
Genitive case functioned as Genitive Objects). In ME the system was
much simplified, since all prepositions were now followed by the
Objective case.
In short, according to the traditional view, the loss of
inflections is caused by a change in the system of stress-rules, which
would have caused the last syllable, originally strong, to become
130
weak. Accordingly, the inflection situated in the last syllable was
levelled from a distinctive vowel to schwa, via phonological
processes.

3.1.2. The reduction of the verbal morphology

Verbal inflections also undergo further reduction in Middle English.
The categories expressed inflectionally on the verb in Old English
were person, number, tense (present, past) mood (indicative,
subjunctive, imperative). The final consonant was gradually
weakened and lost with the result that the sg./pl. opposition was
neutralised for all persons except the 3rd, where the ending -s has
survived down to the present.
Tense distinctions continued to be formally marked on all verbs
during the Middle English period, but the marking of the other
categories underwent further reductions due to phonological erosion,
which resulted in the survival of just a handful of surface inflections
by the end of the period:
-(e)st for the 2nd person, singular survived into the 16th c.:

Thow comest hoom as drunken as a mous

(Chaucer Wife of Bath 246; Benson 1987: 108)

-(e)th for the 3rd person, singular, present indicative of all main
verbs was later replaced by the modern ending –(e)s
originally found in the northern dialects of Britain.

This Frere bosteth the he knoweth helle

This friar boasts that he know hell
(Chaucer Summoner 1672; Benson 1987: 128)

-(e)n was used to mark the plural:

The grettest clerkes been noght wisest men

The greatest clerks are not wisest men
(Chaucer Reeve 40547; Benson 1987: 80)

3.1.3. The reduction of the adjectival morphology

131
The most spectacular changes in morphological structure are those
affecting the adjective and the demonstrative. The earliest Middle
English texts show that the declensional systems of the adjectives
and of the demonstrative have been simply thrown overboard. This
extreme simplification is not the result of phonological factors (as is
the case with the declension of nouns) but the result of language
contact. During the period of the Danelaw the contact between
English and Scandinavian would have led to the emergence of a
pidgin-like variety of speech between the two cultures. As with
pidgins everywhere, there would have been a loss of word endings
and a greater reliance on word order. Gradually this pattern would
have spread until it affected the whole of the East Midlands area –
from which Standard English was eventually to emerge.
The Middle English reduction in verbal morphology is
paralleled in the disappearance of the nominal and adjectival
morphology

3.2. The reduction of word order sequences

Word order in Old English was governed by two basic principles:

verb-second in main clauses and verb-final in subordinate clauses.
As inflections decayed, so the reliance on word order became critical,
resulting in a grammatical system which is very similar to that found
today.

3.2.1. The loss of verb-second

The loss of the inflectional case-marking at the NP level led to a

more rigid ordering of the NP constituents of the sentence: thus the
subject NP becomes firmly fixed in preverbal position, while the
other sentence constituents i.e. the objects, adverbial modifiers are
excluded from this position in basic declarative sentences.
Middle English, like Old English, continued to exhibit two
types of V2.
One type of V2 was obligatory in ordinary declarative clauses,
however, sentences containing unstressed pronouns were apparently
able to violate the V2. It is this type of V2 that was lost in the history
of English:
132
 a. þanne wolde he make hem to drynken of a certeyn drynk.
‘Then he would make them drink of a certain drink.’
(Mossé 1968: 279; Santorini & Kroch 2006: ch.14)

c. þan wolde he schewe hem his entent.

‘Then he would show them his intent.’
(Mossé 1968: 279; Santorini & Kroch 2006: ch.14)

Some further examples from the Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey

Chaucer (ca. 1340-ca. 1400) are:

a. Wel koude he rede a lessoun or a storie.

‘He could read a lesson or a story well.’
(Chaucer, General Prologue; Benson: 1987)

b. This tresor hath Fortune unto us yeven.

‘This treasure, Fortune has given us.’
(Chaucer, Pardoner’s Tale; Benson 1987: 200)

c. Into the blisse of hevene shul ye gon.

‘You will enter the bliss of heaven.’
(Chaucer, Pardoner’s Tale; Benson 1987: 201)

The other type characterized direct questions, imperatives,

certain clauses with negative force, and clauses introduced by certain
adverbs. These clause types turn out to be exactly the ones in which
modern English has preserved verb second.
In Middle English, evidence has recently been found of two
syntactic dialects with respect to V2 (cf. Kroch and Taylor 1997),
characteristic of the south and north of England. The southern dialect
basically maintained the Old English distinction between two types
of V2: one for ordinary declarative clauses and one for special clause
types like questions and so on. In the northern dialect, on the other
hand, which was influenced by Scandinavian, this distinction was not
made. Apparently, speakers of the northern dialect misanalyzed
southern V2 declaratives as non-V2 (see Kroch, Taylor, and Ringe
2000). Thus the northern speakers produced clauses that were truly
non-V2. This development might have brought about the loss of V2

133
in ordinary declarative clauses that is attested during the Middle
English period and that resulted in the non-V2 character of ordinary
declarative clauses in modern English.

3.2.2. The loss of verb-last

The characteristic word order SOV in subordinate clauses is lost due

to the convergence of several factors:
a. The spread of the SVO order to the domain of the
subordinate must have been facilitated by the ambivalence of the
asymmetric and-clause, which represented an intermediate stage
between coordination and subordination. (see section I.10.3) The Old
English word order in coordinate clauses is schematically
represented below:

[ S V O ] and [ S O V ] and [ S O V ]

It can be noticed that the first of the conjoined clauses is governed by

the V2 principle (typical of main clauses), while the and-clauses are
organized according to the principle V-last (characteristic of
subordinate clauses).
The and-clauses were frequently used to express sequences of
events in time. The SOV order in and-clauses is abruptly abandoned
in the 14th century so that from then on, compound sentences have
the structure:

[S V O ] and [ S V O ] and [ S V O ]

b. SOV order continued to mark subordination for two

centuries in early written ME, but in the 14th century it was suddenly
given up probably due to the interference coming from French,
which was undergoing stabilization of the basic SVO order in all
types of clauses during the same period.

Further reading

134
For a comparison of the inflectional forms of Modern English with those of
late Middle English (the dialect of Chaucer), see Moore (1969: 141-176).

Activity

1. Analyze the structure of the following V2 declarative clauses.

Examples (a,b) are from The travels of Sir John Mandeville, a
bestselling travel book from the 1300s and examples (c, d, e) from
the Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1340-ca. 1400):

a. After that 3it scholde he putten hem in a fayrere paradys ...

‘Yet after that he would put them in a more beautiful paradise..’
(Mossé 1968: 279; Santorini & Kroch 2006: ch.14)

b. þere scholde þei dwellen with the most fairest damyselles …

‘There they would dwell with the fairest damsels ….’
(Mossé 1968: 279; Santorini & Kroch 2006: ch.14)

c. Thy profit wol I telle thee anon.

‘I will tell you right away what’s in it for you.’
(Chaucer, Pardoner’s Tale; Benson 1987: 200)

d. Thanne shal al this gold departed be…bitwixen me and thee.

‘Then all this gold will be divided up between me and you.
(Chaucer, Pardoner’s Tale; Benson 1987: 201)

e. Thanne may we bothe oure lustes all fulfille.

‘Then both of us can fulfill all our desires.’
(Chaucer, Pardoner’s Tale; Benson 1987: 201)

2. Vestiges of V2 in Modern English

Examples of vestigial V2 in the sentences that begin with a
non-subject negative phrase require a modal or a form of do in
second position:

a. Never in my life have I seen such a disaster.

b. Under no circumstances will I vote for him.
c. Not a single verse has he written in all that time.

135
V2 in modern English is also triggered by only-phrases:
d. Only in Holland have I seen such tulips.
e. Only a single book has he written in all that time.
f. Only under exceptional circumstances will I accept that.

Rearrange the constituents of these sentences in such a way as to

avoid using vestigial V2 in favor of the ordinary subject-initial word
order.

3. Make a contrastive analysis of the two versions of the following

text, illustrating the main changes that have taken place since the Old
English period in vocabulary, spelling, morphological marking and
sentence structure:

The following excerpts are historical translations of the same story of

Peter’s denial from the New Testament, St Matthew’s Gospel,
chapter 26, vv. 69-75, from Freeborn (1998: 410-413).

Late West Saxon Old English c. 1050

‘þyn spræc þe gesweotolað’

69 Petrus soðlice sæt ute on þam cafertune. þa com to hym an
þeowen 7 cwæð. 7 þu wære myd þam galileiscan hælende. 70
7 he wyðsoc beforan eallum 7 cwæð. nat ic hwæt þu segst. 71
þa he ut eode of þære dura. þa geseh hyne oðer þynen. 7 sæde
þam ðe þar wæron. 7 þes wæs myd þam nazareniscan
hælende.
72 7 he wyðsoc eft myd aðe þæt he hys nan þyng ne cuðe.

ww
69 Peter truly sat out(side) in the courtyard. then came to him a
servant & said. & thou wast with the galilean saviour.
70 & he denied before all & said. ne-know I what thou sayest.
71 then he out went of the door, then saw him other servant. &
said to-them that there were. & this (man) was with the
nazarean saviour.
72 & he denied again with oath that he of-him no thing ne-knew.

136
14th- century S Midlands dialect (The Wycliffe Bible)

‘thi speche makith thee knowun’

69 And Petir sat with outen in the halle; and a damysel cam to
hym, and seide, Thou were with Jhesu of Galilee.
70 And he denyede bifor alle men, and seide, Y woot not what
thou seist.
71 And whanne he ʒede out at the ʒate, another damysel say
hym, and seide to hem that weren there, And this was with
Jhesu of Nazareth.
72 And eftsoone he denyede with an ooth, For I knewe not the
man.

137
4.

The Obligatory Subject in Middle English

Sentences

The disappearance of the inflectional morphology and the reduction

of word order sequences resulted in the stabilization of English as a
rigid SVO language type with obligatory overt subjects. Thus the
preverbal position becomes the territory of the Subject.

4.1. The generalization of the formal subject

The fact that the subject becomes firmly fixed in sentence initial
position has as a syntactic consequence the generalization of the use
of the formal Subjects in those structures in which their use had been
optional in earlier stages of development of the language
Verbs in earlier English had the potential for subjectless use,
whereas no verb in present-day English may be used without a
subject in ordinary declarative clauses.

4.1.1. Subjectless constructions involving weather verbs as well as

statements of time, space, are eliminated:

OE Now es day, now es night

Now Ø is day, now Ø is night

ME Now it shyneth, now it reyneth faste

(Cahucer, Knight’s Tale, 1535; Benson 1987: 46)
Intransitive verbs which take a that complement clause or an
infinitival clause as an argument also occurred without a subject:

if so be that eny of the Kyngys hows com in-to Norwyche.

(Paston letters, Part I, To Margaret Paston 1471, 07,22: CMEPV)

138
 And happed so, they coomen in a toun.
And it so happened (that) they came to a town.
(Chaucer, The Nun's Priest's Tale, 4177: CMEPV

In both constructions the pronoun it is introduced to serve as a formal

Subject

4.1.2. The formal Su in existential constructions expressed by the

expletive pronoun there was well established in the 14th c. It had
developed from the locative adverbial there, which was allowed in
preverbal position due to the V2 rule, and which came to be
reinterpreted as a formal Subject in existential constructions:

swyðe manig burh bið þær

very many fortresses are there
Su V2 Adv.Mod.

þær bið swyðe manig burh

there are very many fortresses
Adv.Mod V2 Su

þær bið swyðe manig burh

there are very many fortresses
formal Su V2 real/ logical Su
(existential construction)

Gradually there lost the adverbial meaning, became a subject filler

and took on subject properties (for instance, inversion in questions),
while the real subject lost some of its properties (agreement with the
verb). The examples below show that there was no agreement in
person and number between the verb and the logical subject:

There is sg.3rd pers. but we two pl.1st pers.

If there wassg. twentypl. I should kill them all.

Modern English has maintained the existential pattern in which the

semantic subject controls agreement with the verb, while the pronoun
there is analysed as a formal subject.

139
4.2. The demise of the impersonal constructions

Impersonal constructions without a nominative subject remained

productive into the 15th century.
Old English impersonal verbs were allowed to occur in three
configurations in which the verbs was invariably in the 3rd person
singular (see section I. 2.2.2.):

EXPERIENCER THEME
Dative Nominative
Nominative Genitive
Dative Genitive

Fischer (2000: 74-77) argues that early in the Middle English

period the possibility to mark with genitive case an argument of a
verb disappeared. The use of the genitive was restricted to functions
inside the NP, most typically indicating the possessive (the man’s
weapon) Instead, the Theme argument came to be expressed by the
objective forms or by a prepositional phrase, a possibility that in fact
occurred (alongside the genitive) in Old English as well:

a. Ic hit 3ierne
I it.Obj yearn
‘I yearn for it’
(Vices&V 59.27; Allen 1995: 128)
b.…yonge men … yurnes to gaumes
…young men … yearn to games
‘…young men like games’
(Destr.Troy 2937; Fischer et al. 2000: 75)

The syncretism of the dative and the accusative had an

important effect on impersonal verbs. The Experiencer in the dative
was reinterpreted as an Experiencer in the accusative:

Sche him pleseth of suche wordes as sche spekth

She him.Obj pleases by such words as she speaks
‘she pleases him by the words that she speaks’
(Gower Confession Amantis 1.1698; CMETV: 82)

140
These two changes affecting genitive and dative resulted in the Old
English patterns being converted into the present-day patterns:

EXPERIENCER Nom THEME Acc

EXPERIENCER Acc THEME Nom

Impersonals were also used until the end of the Middle English
period in the pattern with an accusative Experiencer and a clausal
Theme:

Me marvaylyyth mychil why God 3euyth wyckyd men swych power

Me.Acc marvels much why God gives wicked men such power
‘I wonder a lot why God gives wicked people such power’
(Dives&Pauper I.1.336.2; Fischer et al. 2000: 76)

Such patterns co-existed with sentences in which the Experiencer

was in the nominative:

I merveyll that I here no tidyngges from yow

I.Nom marvel that I hear no news from you
‘I wonder why I don’t hear any news from you’
(Paston Letters, To Margaret Paston 1465.08.07; CMEPV: 140)

The disintegration of the impersonal sentence type was

interpreted differently by grammarians. The traditionalists argued for
a reanalysis of the preverbal NP as the Subject of the sentence
(Jespersen 1909-49: iii208-12), the generativists laid more emphasis
on the simplification of the word order patterns.
Reanalysis is argued to have taken place in three distinct
stages (cf. Hrafnbjargarson 2004). At the first stage subjects can be
dative and objects nominative. At the second stage, subjects can still
be dative but objects that were nominative at the previous stage have
been replaced by accusative objects. At stage three, dative subjects
have been replaced by nominative subjects and objects are accusative
as at stage two:

Dat – Nom → Dat – Acc → Nom – Acc

141
 On the other hand, the rigidification of the word order forced
the lexicalization of the Subject, and this resulted in the
disappearance of the impersonal constructions.
Kemenade (1987) suggests that in the late 10th century, the
decline of the morphological case system led to an intolerably
marked situation. The syncretism of the Nom, Dat and Acc case
forms obscured the relationships holding between the zero-case
marked nouns and the co-occurring impersonal verbs. The sentence
initial position came to be increasingly identified with the domain of
the subject and word order became crucial for the identification of
subjects and objects.
However, all these changes were not as radical as it might
seem. Poutsma (1924) showed that some of the older structures were
still in use in Chaucer’s time when there was a sort of blending of no
less than three constructions:

Us liketh (as a 3rd person sg with no object)

us.Dat pleases

Us lyken ye. (the old construction, where like means

Us.Dat please.pl you ‘to please’)

We lyken yow (the modern use whose continuation

we.Nom like.pl you would be ‘and we have always liked
you’)

The verb like underwent a historical change from a reverse to a direct

construction, i.e. from a construction in which the Cause argument is
mapped onto the Su position to a construction in which the
Experiencer is placed in that position.

Thus the disappearance of morphological case-marking and

the rigidification of word order led to the lexicalization of the
preverbal Subject position which was occupied by a NP in the
nominative case. The preverbal position had to be occupied by a NP
which functioned either as a formal Subject (in sentences about
weather and time and in existential constructions) or by a semantic or
142
real subject in all other sentences. The disappearance of the
impersonal construction is connected to the rise of lexical subjects.

Further reading
For a detailed account of impersonal constructions in Old and Middle
English see Bancilă (1991) and Allen (1995); for a discussion of the
discontinuous constituents, (also known as ‘split’ expressions) see Lightfoot
(1999: 117-125).

Activity

1. Find the ModE equivalent genitive construction for the following

ME split genitives quoted from Lightfoot (1999, 119, 13b-e):

a. The Prologe of the Wives’s Tale of Bath

(Chaucer, Troilus &Cressida, I, 2; Benson 1987: 195)
b. Kyng Priamus sone of Troy
(Chaucer, Troilus & Cressida, III, I, 2; Benson 1987: 473)
c. This kynges sone of Troie
(Chaucer, Troilus &Cressida, III, 1715; Benson 1987: 536)

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5.

The Verbal System

5.1. The verbal inflectional system

The categories expressed inflectionally on the verb in OE were

person, number, tense and mood (indicative, subjunctive and
imperative). In the indicative mood, verbs may distinguish in form
between the first, second and third persons of the singular, but all
verbs have one form throughout the plural. However, there are
considerable variations according to dialect. The subjunctive has just
one form throughout the singular to which it adds -n throughout the
plural.
The great majority of verbs are weak, and their numbers
steadily increased, since most newly formed or introduced verbs
were weak; there was also a tendency for verbs that were strong in
OE to become weak in ME
Weak verbs form their past tense by adding –ed(e), -d(e) or
–t(e), while strong verbs change their stem vowel. The past tense of
the weak verb heren ‘to hear’ in the language of Ancrene Wisse:
indicative
sg. 1 ich herde
2 þu hardest
3 he herde
pl. we, 3e, ha herden
subjunctive
sg. ich, þu, he herde
pl. we,3e, ha herden
past participle iherd

Strong verbs form their past tense by changing the stem

vowel. The traditional seven classes of Germanic vocalic verbs were
still distinguishable in ME, but the tendency towards fewer distinct
stem-forms is obvious:
144
 infinitive (pres.) past 1st, 3rd past pl. past participle
Class I ride(n) rod(e) riden riden
II freese(n) frees(e) frozen frozen
III drinke(n) dronk drunken drunken
IV come(n) cam camen comen
V ete(n) at eten eten
VI shake(n) shok shoken shaken
VII holde(n) held helden holden

Gradually the two vowels of the past tense were reduced to one,
sometimes setting on the stem vowel of the singular, sometimes on
that of the plural, but this took place quite unsystematically, leaving
doublet forms even in the same text: e.g. in Gawain there are the past
tense plural forms ran and runnen. In Modern English doublet forms
are: sunk and sank. All strong verbs are conjugated as illustrated
below with the verb to drive:

Indicative sg. 1 ich draf

2 þu drive
3 he draf
pl. we, 3e, ha driven

subjunctive sg. Ich, þu, he drive

pl. we, 3e, ha driven
past participle idriven

Forms of the past tense were progressively simplified, so that in the

language of the Gawain manuscript the past tense often has the same
form throughout the singular and the plural, indicative and
subjunctive drof for ‘drove’.
The verb beon ‘be’ has wide variation in form in different regions:
present indicative past indicative
st
1 am , beo wes
2nd art, bist were
3rd is, bið wes

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 Pl beoð weren

present subjunctive past subjunctive

sg. beo were
pl. beon weren
past participle ibeon

Modal verbs in Middle English include the following: cunnen

‘to know how to’, (modern ‘can’); mahen ‘to be able to’, have
the ability’, ‘may’; moten ‘to be allowed to, compelled to’ (its past
tense gives modern ‘must’); schulen ‘to have to, shall’; witen ‘to
know’. In the language of Ancrene Wisse they are conjugated like
this:

present indicative
sg.1 can mei mot schal wat wulle
2 canst math most schalt wast wult
3 can mei mot schal wat wule
pl. cunnen mahen moten schule(n) witen wulleð

subjunctive
sg. cunne mahe mote schule wite wulle
past indicative
sg.1.3.cuðe mahte moste schulde wiste walde
(the conjugation continues as for weak verbs)

Participle has two forms: present and past. The present participle
varies according to dialect: -ing in Southern and Midland, -and in
Northern, -inde in South-West Midland, -ende in East. In the South
and south-West Midlands the past participle has the prefix i- or y-,
derived from the OE ge-.

Infinitive
In Southern dialects the infinitive ends in –i(e)n or –i(e): makien,
lokien, luvie. The infinitive form is used on its own, with to or with
for to. The short infinitive is used after modal verbs such as shall,
will, can, may, mot, and others such as dare and let:

146
 Ich nolde don
I not-would do
‘I would not do’
(The Owl and the Nightingale 159; ETCUVL: 18)
his hors he lette irnen
his horse he let run
‘he let his horse run’
(La3amon: Brut 60; ETCUVL: 553)
In coordinated infinitives, the first may be short while the second is
long:

lovede wel fare/ And no dede to do

loved well live and no deed to do
‘loved to live well and do nothing’
(Langland Piers Plowman 8-9; ETCUVL: 553)

5. 2. Tense and mood

The present tense in the indicative mood expresses habitual action

and general truths:

Þu chaterest so doþ on Irish prost

You chatter so does an Irish priest
‘you chatter like an Irish priest’
(The Owl and the Nightingale 322; ETCUVL: 32)
Wel fi3t þat wel fli3t
‘well fights that well flees’(proverbial)
(The Owl and the Nightingale 176; ETCUVL: 92)

The simple present is also used with the meaning of the Modern
English present progressive or future:

al dares for drede

all stay-hidden for fear
‘they are all cowering for fear’
(Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 315; Burrow & Turville-Petre 1992: 45)
We foure rayse it no3t right to-yere
We four raise it not upright this-year
147
 ‘the four of us will not raise it upright this year’
(The York Play of the Crucifixion 164; ETCUVL: 320)

The historic present, not found in Old English, becomes common in

the later 14th century, particularly in narrative lines:

Þer hales in at þe halle dor an aghlich mayster

‘there comes in at the hall door a fearsome knight’
(Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 136; ETCUVL: 6)

The past tense is similarly used to express both simple and

progressive aspects:

þo al þo þat þerin sete/ þat it was King Orfeo under3ete

then all that therein sat/ that it was King Orfeo understood
‘then all those who were sitting there understood that it was
King Orfeo’ (Sir Orfeo 575-6; TEAMS)

The present subjunctive is used for wishes and commands in main

clauses:

Drihten us fulsten!
God us help.Subj
‘may God help us!’
(La3amon: Brut 46; ETCUVL: 553)
In subordinate clauses the subjunctive mood generally signals that
the action or state specified by the verb is the object of a wish, a hope,
or a fear, a command or request, a conjecture, belief or hypothesis, or
is for some other reason unreal:

Forðy ic wolde ðætte hie ealneg æt ðære stowe wæren . . . .

Therefore I prefer that they always at that place would-be.Subj
‘Therefore I prefer that they always would be at that place.’
(Mc Gillivray, M. 2004.)

The Subjunctive mood collapsed by the time the English modal verbs
were introduced (cf. Roberts 1985).

148
5.3. The rise of the auxiliary do

It is generally assumed that all auxiliary verbs derived historically

from full verbs with complex complementation. The order by date of
grammaticalization is different: probably modals / perfect have, then
do, passive be, progressive be, passive get.
In Old English do was a lexical verb used either transitively,
meaning ‘perform, ‘accomplish’ or ‘put’, ‘place’, or intransitively
with the meaning ‘act’. The following examples are taken from
Denison 1993: 256):

þis he dyde eall for þes biscopes luuen

This he did all for the bishop’s love
‘This he did all for love of the bishop’
(c1123 Peterb.Chron.1123.73)
Me dide cnotted strenges abuton here hæued
One put knotted strings about their head
‘Knotted strings were tied around their heads’
(c1155 Peterb.Chron. 1137.23;)

Y most do as hothyr men dothe, ar ellys Y most kepe stylle.

I must do as other men do or else I must be inactive
‘I must do as other men do or else I must be inactive’
(1478 Let. Cely 22.34; Denison 1993: 256)

Already in Old English do could be used as a proform for verbs,

copying their tense, person and number:

He miccle ma on his deaðe acwealde, ðonne he ær cucu dyde

He many more in his death killed, than he earlier alive did
‘He killed many more in death than he did before [when he
was] alive’ (van Kemenade 1994: 131)

Þær he wunede eallriht swa drane doþ on hiue

there he dwelt alright as drone does in hive
‘there he lived exactly as a drone does in a hive’
(c1127 Peterb. Chron. 1127.55; Denison 1993: 272)

149
The verb do was also used as a causative verb in Old English:

þe biscop of Wincestre …dide heom cumen þider

the bishop of Winchester … caused them come thither.
‘the bishop of Wincester …had them come there’
(c1155 Peterb.Chron.1140.22; Denison 1993: 257)

It is more or less generally accepted that causative do is the precursor

of periphrastic do For one thing this is the construction in which do
is followed by an infinitive. Also do+ infinitive in Middle English is
often ambiguous between a causative and a non-causative
interpretation:

A noble churche heo dude a-rere

(van Kemenade 1994: 131)
is ambiguous between: ‘she built a noble church’ and ‘she had a
noble church built’.
Periphrastic do is first found in declarative sentences in 13th century,
and in negative and interrogative sentences in the 14th c:

His sclauyn he dude dun legge

His pilgrim’s-cloak he did down lay
‘He laid down his pilgrim’s cloak’
(c1300 Horn 1057; Denison 1993: 264)

How dost þow, harlot, þyn errand bede?

How do you rascal your message deliver
‘What kind of message are you delivering, rascal?’
(c1380 Firumb.(1) (Ashm) 3889; Denison 1993: 256)

By the end of the ME period, do had become an auxiliary in

some of its uses. Like the other verbal periphrases, do was
grammaticalized as such in the early Modern English period.

5.4. The emergence of modal verbs

Modal verbs in Middle English are still a class with mixed properties.
As lexical verbs, modals had transitive uses: they could have their
150
own subject and direct object as in (a) and tensed clause
complements as in (b):

a. She koude muchel of wandrynge by the weye.

‘She could (= knew) much of wandering by the day.’
(Chaucer, General Prologue, 467; Benson 1987: 30)
c. And seyde he moste unto Italye
‘And said the faith that I shal (=owe) Priam of Troy’
Chaucer, House of Fame, 187; Benson 1987: 350)

The modal verbs in Middle English also had non-finite forms (past
participles), which they no longer have in present-day English:

But Pandarus, if godly hadde he myght…

but Pandarus if goodly had he might (= been able to)
(Chaucer, Tr. And Cr. 2. 1430; Benson: 508)
These possibilities disappear in the 16th century from Standard
English, although they survive in some dialects.
Modals appear in longer verb clusters with two infinitival forms:

þatt I shall cunnen cwemenn Godd

that I shall can please God
‘that I will be able to please God’
(Ormulum, Jun. 1, 2858: MED)
On the other hand, modals are increasingly used as auxiliary verbs in
Middle English.
The decay of the system of verbal endings in the 14th century
led to the disappearance of the subjunctive mood, which was
gradually replaced by uses of the modals as auxiliaries: may/might to
express possibility, can/ could for possibility, must for logical
necessity. Modals lost their non-finite forms completely and in the
late 15th and early 16th century modals largely lost their lexical verb
properties.

5.5. Quasi-modals

A number of periphrastic verb forms developed in the Middle

English period: be going to, be able to, have to, which are also

151
known as quasi-modals. In general, quasi-modals acquired some
modal meaning during the Old English or early Middle English
period. They were used to express modality and aspect, but they
occur in main-verb contexts.
Be going to originates in Old English gangan ‘go’. It usually
referred to movement in some direction, but it could also be followed
by an infinitive or gerund of purpose, and in such contexts its
meaning comes close to the Modern English future meaning:

Ic geongo to cunnanne þa ilca

I go to know the same
‘I am going to find that out’
(van Kemenade 1994: 130)

This use was consolidated in the Middle English period.

Be able to has been employed with a modal sense expressing
ability from the time that it was borrowed from French, from the 14 th
century:

I truste to God I shall be able to withstonde youre malyce.

‘I trust God, I shall be able to withstand your malice’.
(Malory, Works (Win-C); MED)
The quasi-modal have…to was predominantly possessive in Old
English, it acquired a modal sense of obligation quite early:

hæfst þu æceras to erigenne?

have you fields to plough?
‘do you have fields to plough/ have to plough fields?
(van Kemenade 1994: 130)

Even in the early 13th century, this quasi-modal was used with the
meaning of obligation:
. . . se deorewurðliche to witen hit
. . . respectfully, you have to know it
(a1250 HMaid.(Tit D.18); MED
This use was consolidated in the course of the Middle English period,
and have to came to clearly express obligation in addition to must.

152
 Another modal periphrasis is be to in its modal meaning of
obligation/ destination. The modal meaning appears in Old English
and develops more firmly in Middle English:

Þe discrasie þat lefte stil bihynd is to be alterate.

The dyscrasy that [is] left behind has to be altered.
(?a1425 *Chauliac(1) (NY 12); MED: 162a/a)

Other examples are offered by Kemenade (1994: 130):

early ME ic wot al þat to cumen is

I know all that to come is

late ME he wist what he was to do

he knew what he was to do

The modal periphrasis be to differs from the quasi-modals in one

important respect: it came to be used as a finite verb only, like the
core modals.

5. 6. The rise of aspect

Old English does not have a fully grammaticalized aspectual contrast:

progressive aspect was optionally expressed by means of a form of
be followed by the present participle with -ende. During the late Old
English period confusion arose between the present participle in -
ende and the verbal noun then ending in -ung. The verbal noun came
to be used with adverbial adjuncts and in the Middle English period
it replaced the older present participle in -ende.
Throughout the Old English and Middle English periods the
use of the present participle and later the gerund as a means of
marking progressive aspect was optional:

he com ridan he wæs on huntunge

he came ride he was ahunting
‘he came riding’

153
Gradually, all these constructions were replaced by the be+-ing form.
It was in the early Modern English period that the progressive be was
grammaticalized as an obligatory marker of progressive aspect. This
was also when its frequency increased dramatically.
The perfect aspect is regularly used in Middle English. The
auxiliary verbs are: have with transitive verbs and be with
intransitives and the verb become:

If I hadde ytaken for to write The armes of this ilke worthi

man, Than wolde ich of his batailles endite.
Chaucer TC (Benson-Robinson) 5.1766: MED

Secundus Miles: He is gone. Tercius Miles: Alas, wha?

Secundus Miles: He has gone . . .
(Towneley Pl.(Hnt HM 1) 319/439: MED)
He is bicumen hunte
‘he has become a huntsman’
(Lay. Brut (Clg A.9), 10648: MED)
All types of verbs in the be perfect have been gradually moving over
to the have perfect, a process effectively completed in the 19th
century (cf. Denison 1993: 359).

5.7. Passive voice

The OE passive auxiliaries are preserved in ME: be ‘be’ and worthe

‘be’, ‘become’, the latter until the end of the 14th century, particularly
with a future tense meaning:

þou worst wiþ us yborn

you be with us carried
‘you shall be carried off with us’
(Sir Orfeo 174; Burrow & Thurville-Petre 1992: 51)
In þe foli þou worst itake.
‘You were taken by madness’
(7 Sages(1) (Auch) 61/1324: MED)
He Was flowen fro the ground so hye That al the world..No
more semed than a prikke.
(Chaucer HF (Benson-Robinson), 907: MED)

154
 The prototypical Old English passive had a nominative
subject corresponding to an accusative object in the active sentence:

þonne he bið west gewesen, þonne tacnað he æfen

when it-NOM is westward seen, then signifies it evening
‘when it [the evening star] is seen in the west, it signifies evening’
(Bo 39.135.32; Fischer et al. 2000: 77)

Passives of this type continue throughout the Middle English period,

but in addition to this simple type, two new types of passives began
to appear in the Middle English period: the prepositional passive as
in (a) and the recipient passive as in (b):
a)
no prophete is so mychel leten of in his owene cuntre
no prophet is so much[=well] thought of in his own country
(c 1400 Pep. Gosp.44.9; Denison 1993: 127)
b)
Whan he was gyvyn the gre be my lorde kynge Arthure
When he was given the prize by my lord king Arthur
‘when he was given the prize by my lord King Arthur’
(Malory Works 699.19; Denison 1993: 111)

In such constructions the passive subject corresponds to the object of

the preposition or to the indirect object in the active sentence. The
prepositional passive appears in a greater number in texts written
after 1300, whereas the recipient passive is a later development: the
first examples appear around 1375 but it was still not frequent even
in the 15th century. It is believed that it appeared as a result of the
fixing of word order in active sentences with ditransitive verbs.
The loss of morphological case leads to the emergence of the
prepositional and indirect passives. Prepositional passives (John was
spoken to) became productive in the 13th century and indirect
passives like John was given a book in the 15th century.

Further reading
See Denison (1993: 253-446) for a detailed account of the rise of the
auxiliaries and modals.

155
Activity

1. Decide whether the verb do is used as a lexical, causative,

auxiliary (emphatic, substitute verb):

a. Þe þurst him dede more wo/ þen heuede raþer his hounger do.
the thirst him caused more woe than had earlier his hunger done
(1300 Fox & W. 67; Denison 1993: 273)
b. Þe king þe maiden dede rise
The king the maiden did rise
‘the king made the maiden rise’
(van Kemenade 1994: 131)
c. ha ne trust nawt on hire ahne wepnen, ah deð o Godes grace
‘she not trusts not in her own weapons but does in God’s grace’
(c1225 SWard 208; Denison 1993: 272)
d. Beryn …doist þow sclepe, or wake?
‘beryn… are you sleeping, or awake?’
(c 1460 Beryn 2148; Denison 1993: 265)
e. Do sei me qþ þe meiðen hwa sende þe to me
‘do tell me said the maiden who sent you to me’
(c 1225 St. Juliana (Bod) 35.381; Denison 1993: 268)
f. uton …don hine on þone ealdan pytt
let us do him in that old well
‘let us put him in the old well’
(van Kemenade 1994: 131)
2. Comment upon the mixed (lexical or modal) properties of modal
verbs in the following examples:

a. And by that feith that I shal Priam of Troye.

‘And by that faith that I shall (= owe) Priam of Troy.’
(Chaucer TC (Benson-Robinson) 3.791: MED)

b. ...yow moste haue greet bisynesse.

(Chaucer, CT.Mel.(Manly-Rickert) B.2826: MED)
c. wultu kastles and kinedomes?
will-you castles and kingdoms?
‘Do you want castles and kingdoms?
(van Kemenade 1994: 129)

156
6.

Word Order at Phrase Level

6.1. Word order in the Noun Phrase

In the Middle English period NP internal word order becomes more

restricted towards the Modern English norm, though several
exceptions are still found.
With regard to the determiner system, there were only
some minor differences in terms of combinability, in the sense that
quantifiers like many or each could precede the determiner, (they
could not do so in OE and cannot do so any more in present-day
English):

Ich aue hy go [NP mani amyle]

I have gone many a-mile
‘I have travelled many a mile’
(King Horn (Ld) 66.1215; ETCUVL: 553: 68)
þurh out [NP vch a toune]
throughout each a town
‘throughout every town’
(King Horn (Hrl) 12.218; ETCUVL: 16)

To some men he hath done in lyke wyse aboff thair merites.

(Fortescue Gov.E.(LdMisc 593) 136: MED)

Determiners can be combined in a genitive relationship:

hare ba re luue
their both love
‘the love of both of them’
(van Kemenade 1994: 126)
Quantifier+personal pronoun are ordered more freely: we alle or all
we.

157
 The split genitive constructions, analyzed as discontinuous
expressions, are also available in Middle and Early Modern English
(cf. Lightfoot 1999:117-125):

The clerkes tale of Oxenford

(Chaucer, Clerk’s Tale, Prologue; Benson 1987: 137)

meaning ‘the clerk of Oxford’s tale’, i.e. the rightmost element

Oxford is not related to the head noun tale, instead it is related to the
leftmost element of the genitive the clerk:

[ the clerk of Oxford ]’s tale

This type of split genitive is different from those of Old English

grammar because the rightmost element is neither a conjunct nor
appositional (see I).
The splitting genitives are replaced by the group genitive,
which is first attested in the late 14th century, in the language of
Chaucer:

The grete god of Loves name

‘The great god of love’s name’
(Chaucer House of Fame 1489; Benson 1987: 32)

The emergence in the Middle English of N of NP/DP forms is a

consequence of the loss of the morphological case system. The
preposition of was introduced to assign case to an NP which was no
longer case-marked morphologically. It is important to note that the
ME discontinuous expressions only involve of-phrases.
Attributive adjectives in ME were usually in prenominal
position. However, they were allowed to follow the noun especially
in poetry with single adjectives borrowed from French or with
coordinated adjectives:

[NP Schame eternal] schule be my mede

Shame eternal should be my reward
‘eternal shame would be my reward’
(Lydgate Troy Bok 1.2476; Fischer et al. 2000: 80)

158
 It was also possible for one adjective to precede and one to
follow the head noun:

King Pandyones [NP fayre doughter dere]

King Pandion’s fair daughter dear
‘King Pandion’s beautiful beloved daughter’
(Chaucer Legend 2247; Benson 1987: 624)

From the 13th century on, the second adjective was sometimes
preceded by and and a determiner:

[NP A trewe swynkere] and [NPa good] was he

A true labourer and a good was he
‘He was a good and faithful labourer
(Chaucer, Gen. Pro. 531; Benson 1987:32)

In present-day English the pronoun one would be needed in this

construction: ‘he was a good labourer and a faithful one.’

6. 2. Word order in the VP

The transition to Middle English brought about a number of changes

as far as word order in the VP is concerned. Early Middle English
and Late Middle English had sentences with one or more objects
preceding the lexical verb, as in Old English:

a. Hi hadden him manred maked and athes sworen….

They had him homage done and oaths sworn
‘they had done him homage and sworn oaths’
(ChronE (Plummer) 1137.11; Fischer et al 2000: 138)

b. …that thou ne mayst nat thyn owene conseil hyde,

that you not can not youe own conseil hide
‘that you cannot hide your own counsel…
(Chaucer Melibee 1147; Benson 1987: 222)

These examples show that OV remained possible throughout the

Middle English period. It continued to appear in prose writing until
the 16th century and in verse well into the 19th century.

159
 But although OV word orders are found frequently well into
the Middle English period, clauses with VO order begin to vastly
outnumber those with OV order.
The shift from OV to VO was completed around 1200 and VO
patterns became absolutely predominant. This change allowed
prepositional passives to be introduced (see II.5.7).
In close connection with the change from OV to VO is the
change in the position of the particle in sentences with phrasal verbs
(cf. van Kemenade 1987)

Further reading
For an account of the loss of OV word orders in current theoretical terms
see Fischer et al. (2000:138-179)

Activities

1. Analyze NP internal word order in the following examples:

a. Alle othere lyvynge beestes

‘all other living beasts’
(Chaucer Bo.(Benson-Robinson), 2.pr.5.17 3: MED)

b. lyouns all white

lions all white
‘lions which are all white’
(Kemenade 1994: 126)

160
7.

Word Order at Clause Level

7.1. Declarative clauses

In the Old English period declarative clauses were governed by the

principle verb-second (van Kemenade 1994: 137). The verb-second
character remained fairly stable until well into the 14th century, when
topicalization of a constituent other than the subject regularly led to
subject-verb inversion of a nominal subject:

thus may thine instrument last perpetuel

If the subject is a pronoun, Kemeade argues, inversion does not take

place, as was the rule in Old English:

bi bis ypocrisie bei wolen bringe in

From the middle of the 14th century nominal subjects

increasingly behave like pronominal ones. They occur before the
finite verb, even if the topic is a non-subject. The verb-second rule
remained only in sentences with a wh-word or with a negative
element as the first constituent. These two types of sentences are still
characterized by inversion in present-day English.
English lost its verb-second character at the close of the
Middle English period. Later on in the early Modern English period,
lexical verbs could no longer be preposed, and only auxiliaries could
take part in subject-verb inversion.

7. 2. Question formation

Question formation in Middle English is not different from the Old

English period. Concerning the two main types of questions (yes-no

161
questions and wh-questions), inversion of the subject and finite verb
was still the rule in main clauses as shown in:

Woot ye nat where ther stant a litel toun . . . ?

Know you not where there stands a little town
‘Don’t you know where this little town is.?’
(Chaucer Manciple 1; Benson 1987: 282)

Why make ye youreself for to be lyk a fool?

Why make you yourself for to be like a fool
‘Why do you allow yourself to behave like a fool?’
(Chaucer Malibee 980; Benson 1987: 217)

The interrogative auxiliary do did not occur before 1400. A

negative question has VS order with ne before the verb:
Why ne dy3ttez þou me to di3e?
Why not condemn you me to die’
‘why don’t you condemn me to die?’
(Patience 488; Burrow & Thurville-Petre 1992: 52)

In Old English questions addressed to a prepositional object,

the preposition had to move along with the object in the so-called
pied-piping construction. This began to change in early Middle
English. In the 13th century, in Layamon’s Brut, there appear the first
instances of preposition-stranding in wh-questions:

nuste nan kempe, whæm he sculde slæn on

not-knew no soldier whom he should hit on
‘No soldier knew whom he should strike at’
(Layamon’s Brut (Clg) 13718-19; ETCVUL: 720)

Around the same time, preposition stranding also began to occur in

wh-relatives and passives.

7. 3. Negative sentences

In the transition from Old to Middle English some important changes

took place in the system of sentence negation. In Old English the

162
negative adverb was ne. It was possible to combine ne with na
‘never’ or naht (coming from nawiht ‘nothing’) in the sequence:

…ne – verb – na/ naht ….

The combination with naht often had an emphatic meaning

‘by no means’, ‘not at all’. Na disappeared quite quickly and the
emphatic ne…naht began to be used more frequently and could no
longer be considered to be truly emphatic.
In early Middle English naht had also acquired a fixed position after
the finite verb. In the course of the Middle English period, ne …naht
became the regular negator. Ne could be cliticized to an auxiliary,
especially is, to form nys ‘not-is’:

Ther nys nat oon kan war by other be.

There not-is not one can aware by other be
‘There is not a single person who learns from the mistakes of
others.’ (Chaucer Troilus I 203; Benson 1987: 476)

In late Middle English ne was gradually dropped. Its

disappearance precipitated the erosion of multiple negation later in
the Modern English period. From the 14th century it became common
to negate the verb with not alone, usually following the verb: I know
not þe ‘I know not you’.
It was still normal in Middle English, when two or more
indefinite pronouns or adverbs were present for all these to be
negative:

But nevere gronte he at no strook but oon

‘But never groaned he at no blow but one’
(Chaucer Monk 2709; ETCVUL: 161)

where present-day English would prefer ‘but he never groaned at any

of the blows except one’.

163
Further reading
For a detailed account of negation patterns in Middle English see Tieken-
Boon van Ostade et al. (1999).

Activity

1. Comment upon the structure of the following questions (Chaucer):

What is better than a good woman? (B 2298)

Who herd ever of swich a thing or now (D 2229
“Who artow [art thou]?” “It am I, Absolon.” (A 3766)
Whos is that faire child that stondeth yonder? (B 1018)
This carpenter answerede, “What seystow [sayest thou]?”
(A 3490)

2. Comment upon multiple negation in the following negative

sentences:

a. Never him nas wers for noþing

Never he not-was distressed for nothing
‘he was never more distressed about anything’
(Sir Orpheo 98; TEAMS)

b. Ne isæh nævere na man selere cniht nenne

Not seen never no one better knight no.masc.acc.sg
‘no one had ever seen a better knight’
(La3amon: Brut 28; ECTVUL: 552)

164
8.

Subordination

Old English had several elements that could function either as an

adverb or as a subordinating conjunction: þa ‘when’, þonne ‘then’,
swa ‘so’ so that often it was the word order that would signal
whether a specific clause was main or subordinate. The only
unambiguously subordinating particle was þe.
Some of the OE correlative constructions like: þa…þa…,
þonne…þonne…, ‘then…when…’ and swa…swa…, ‘so…so…’
survived in early Middle English, but they were quickly replaced by
distinct conjunctions signalling specific types of clause. In early texts
Old English conjunctions were still encountered:

a. Đat oþer dei þa he lai an slep in scip, þa þestrede þe

dæi ouer al landes
the other day when he lay in sleep in ship then darkened the
day over all lands
‘the next day, when he lay asleep in the boat, (then) it
became dark everywhere in the country’
(ChronE(Plummer) 1135.2; Fischer et al. 2000: 88)

b. þanne he com þenne he were bliþe

when he came then they were glad
‘When he came, they were glad’
(Havelok 778; CMEPV: 25)

In example (a), the main clause still shows V2 as in Old English, but
in example (b) the main clause
In later texts however, the correlative adverb was often
dropped or one of the two conjunctions was replaced by a
conjunction different in form.

165
8.1. Complement clauses

A finite complement clause was normally introduced by that if it

was a statement, but as in present-day English, it was possible for
that to be omitted. Omission was mainly found after seyn, thinken,
witen, when the clause reports more or less directly the actual words
spoken or thought.
The most frequent type of non-finite complement in ME was
the infinitival construction. There had been many new developments
concerning the infinitive construction since the OE period. First,
there was a difference in the infinitive marker: this could be zero
(bare infinitive) or to as in OE, but the innovative form for to also
appeared. Other ME innovations concern the much wider use of the
passive infinitive, also preceded by to which is never found in OE.
The presence or absence of an infinitive marker depended on
the grammatical function the infinitive had within the clause. Thus,
variation (between a bare and a to-infinitive might occur when the
infinitive functioned as a subject or object complement, but the (for)
to infinitive was the rule after nouns and adjectives and in adverbial
function.
Thus when the activities expressed by the main predicate and
the infinitive took place at the same time, the bare infinitive was used
especially after modals and verbs of perception:

Ther saugh I pleye jugelours

There saw I play jugglers
‘There I saw jugglers performing
(Chaucer House of Fame 1259; Benson 1987: 363)

When the infinitival predicate has independent time

reference, the to-infinitive occurs. In the example below the to-
infinitive clearly refers to some future event in relation to the activity
denoted by the main verb:

How that the popeas for his peoples reste/ Bad hym to wedde
another if hym leste
How that the pope asked him to marry another if him pleased

166
 ‘How the Pope asked him to marry someone else if he
wanted to’
(Chaucer Clerk 741; Benson 1987: 147)

Middle English infinitives allowed two negative structures:

not-to-verb order and to-verb-not order:

(a) .. nowth To helpe myself in no doynge.

…no to help myself into not doing
(Castle Persev.(Folg V.a.354) 290: MED)

(b) to sorow noght for hys syn as he sulde do

to sorrow not for his sin as he should do
(Rolle’s Form of Living 99.260; Myashita 2000)

The order to-verb-not further accounts for negative infinitives

followed by a participle or by a direct object: to-verb-not-participle
and to-verb-not- object;

(a) For which thing I deme hem..for to be not vnquyetid or

disesid [L inquietari]
(WBible(1) (Dc 369(2)) Deeds 15.19)
(b) and to spille not oure tyme, be it short be it long at Goddis
ordynaunce.
and to waste not our time, be it short be it long at God’s
ordinance
(Purvey’s Prologue to the Bible I,56.73; Han & Kroch 2000)

The most interesting development in ME is the extension of

the accusative + infinitive constructions. In OE only causative
verbs and verbs of physical perception could take an acc + infinitive.
In ME this possibility is extended to certain object-control verbs
(command, require, warn) and to the so-called verba declarandi et
cogitandi (expect, believe, etc). Thus the following clause types were
new in ME:

he ded of hys crowne and commaunded the crowne to be

sett on the awter

167
 ‘he took off his crown and commanded the crown to be
placed upon the altar’
(Malory Works 908.11; CMEPV)

..that namyth hym-self Paston and affermith hym vntrewely

to be my cousyn
‘..who names himself Paston and affirms himself wrongfully
to be my cousin’
(Paston Letters, To An Indentified Lawyer in Rome,1425, 11, 05;ECTVUL)

Another new development is the perfect infinitive which

becomes frequent from the 14th c onwards. In present-day English
the perfect infinitive usually refers to an action that has taken place
before the moment of speaking. However, most of the Middle
English examples do not concern an action in the past; most often it
expresses the non-realization of an action, unreality:

And on hir bare knees adoun they falle /

And wolde have kist his feet
And on their bare knees down they fell /
and would have kissed his feet..
‘They fell down on their bare knees
and wanted to kiss his feet…’
(Chaucer, Knight 1758; Benson 1987: 47)

Here the perfect infinitive suggests that the action of ‘kissing’ did not
take place, as the further context of this excerpt indeed makes clear.

8. 2. Relative clauses

The Old English relative system collapsed in Middle English, due to

the gradual loss of the particle þe and the replacement of the
paradigm se, seo, þæt by the indeclinable that. In the Northern
dialect in Ormulum, þat was the usual form. From the North, þat
rapidly spread to the other dialects, and in the 13th century þat was
the rule everywhere.
In the 13th century that was practically the only relativizer,
being used in restrictive as well as non-restrictive clauses, with

168
animate as well as inanimate antecedents. That was gradually
replaced by what in early ME and by which in late ME when the
antecedent was a clause. The wh-relative pronouns (who(m), whose,
what, which) began to be used at the beginning of the ME period but
they were very rare in the 12th and 13th century. Which began to
replace that only in the 15th century. Chaucer still used that in 75 %
of all cases.
There was sometimes no relative pronoun at all. Zero relatives
were most common in subject position in ME, as was the case in OE:

I know no knyght in this contrey [0] is able to macche him

‘…I know no knight in this country [who] is able to match him.’
(Malory Works 377.35-6; CMEPV)

Omission of the relativizer was only possible when the finite verb of
the relative clause is a stative verb or to be. These zero-subject
relative constructions therefore closely resemble the zero-type still
acceptable in colloquial present-day English, which is introduced by
there is or it is, as in: There is a woman [0] wants to see you.
Zero-object relative clauses also begin to appear in Middle
English, usually involving the verb clepen ‘call’ or callen:

Of Northfolk was this Reve of which I telle,

‘From Norfolk was this Reeve I am telling you about,

Beside a toun [0] men clepen Baldeswelle

close to a town people call Baldeswelle.’
(Chaucer Gen. Prol. 619; Benson 1987: 33)

A new construction in Middle English is the infinitival relative

clause with a wh-form:

She has no wight to whom to make hir mone

She has no creature to whom to make her moan
‘She has no one to whom she can complain’
(Chaucer Man of Law 656; Benson 1987: 96)

169
This type of non-finite relative clause appeared in the 14th century.
Previously, the to-infinitive had been used by itself, without a
relative pronoun.

8. 3. Adverbial clauses

In Middle English the language began to develop more specific

markers for each type of subordinate clause. According to Fischer et
al. (2000: 101), three main developments may be observed.
The OE correlative pairs disappear; the conjunctions are
distinguished from the adverbs. Thus, þa…þa… becomes when …
then …, and nu …nu becomes now that…now. At the same time
inversion begins to disappear as a marker of the relation between
main and subordinate clause.
The old phrasal conjunctions, which consisted of a preposition
and a noun, are replaced by more explicit subordinators. Thus, the
OE þe hwile þe becomes whilst that and later whilst, and the phrasal
conjunction by the cause that develops into because.
That begins to be seen as a general indicator of subordination,
used after original prepositions (after that, for that, till that), and
adverbs (so that, now that, siþ that). Because that served as a
subordinator in a number of different subordinate clauses (temporal,
causal, final or consecutive), it is not always clear what type of
subordinate clause we have under analysis (temporal in (a) or
concession in ( b):

a. Þat Troilus…þis torfer beheld…/ He lyght doun full lyuely

leuyt his horse…
That Troilus… this harm beheld. He alighted down very
quickly left his horse…
‘When Troilus saw this harm afflicted…, he alighted very
quickly of his horse…
(Destr. Troy 7435; Fischer et al. 2000: 102)
b. But that science is so fer us biforn,/ We mowen nat…/
It overtake, it slit awey so faste
But that science is so far us before we can not…
it overtake it slips away so fast

170
 ‘But because science [i.e. alchemy] is so far beyond us, we
cannot catch up with it, it slips away so fast’
(Chaucer Canon’s Yeoman 680; Benson 1987: 271)

Similarly the conjunction for is ambiguous between purpose or

clause, till that may combine final (or consecutive) and temporal
aspects and so (that) can be both conditional and consecutive.

Conclusion. In the transition from Old English to Middle English,

the marking of subordination underwent crucial changes.
In Old English subordination was strongly marked
syntactically by means of the different word order of a subordinate
clause in comparison with a main clause and by means of the
subjunctive.
In Middle English, subordination was marked lexically
because word order was no longer distinctive in subordinate clauses
(all clauses had the same SVO order) and the subjunctive form
gradually fell out of use.
In Old and Middle English the written language appears to
have been closer to the spoken language, which has always made
heavier use of parataxis (coordination) than of hypotaxis
(subordination). It is only at the end of the Middle English period,
with the development of a written standard, that the written language
began to make more extensive use of complex structures under the
influence of both French and Latin prose styles.

Further reading
For an overview of the current research into the developments in infinitival
constructions in ME, see Fischer et al. (2000: 211-283)

Activity

1. Discuss the position of the negative marker in infinitive

constructions:

(a) that they..(are)..worthy of pite wel more worthy nat to ben hated
that they .. are.. worthy of pity even more worthy not to be hated
(Chaucer’s Boethius 449.C2.379; Han & Kroch 2000)

171
(b) And herfore monye men vson wel to come not in bedde
and therefore many men are-accustomed well to come not in bed

with schetis,but be hulude aboue the bed

with sheets but be covered above the bed
(Wycliffite Sermons I,479.641; CMEPV)

(c) Ha! What it es mykell to be worthi lovyng and be noght loved!

ha what it is much to be worth loving and be not loved
(Rolle’s Form of Living 88.52; Han & Kroch 2000)

(d) to conforme noght his will to Gods will, to gyf noght entent till
hes prayers
to conform not his will to God’s will, to give not heed to his
prayers (Rolle’s Form of Living 99.263; Han & Kroch 2000)

2. Read the following ME examples and decide whether þa is an

adverb or a conjunction:
a.
þa þe king Stephne to Englaland com, þa macod he his gadering
when the king Stephen to England came, then made he his council
‘when King Stephen came to England, (then) he held his council’
(The Peterborough Chron.56; Burrow & Thurville-Petre 1992: 53)
b.
Þa he hafden al his iweden, þa leoþ he on his steden
When he had gear, then leapt he on his steed
‘when he had his gear, (the) he leapt on his steed’
(La3amon: Brut 25; Burrow & Thurville-Petre 1992: 53)

3. Comment upon the structure of the following relative clauses

selected from Chaucer:

Thise riotoures thre, of which I telle. (C 661)

All thinges whiche that I have sayd. (2245)
He which that hath no wyf, I hold hym shent [ruined].(E 1320)
Smale houndes hadde she that she fedde. (A 146)

172
4. Make a contrastive study of the language, giving evidence for the
main changes that took place in the transition from the Old English
to the Middle English period. Discuss pronunciation and spelling,
vocabulary, morphological marking and word order:

The following extracts are historical translations of the story of

Peter’s denial from the New Testament, St Matthew’s Gospel,
chapter 26, vv. 60-75.

Late West Saxon Old English c. 1050

69 Petrus soðlice sæt ute on þam cafertune. þa com to hym

an þeowen 7 cwæð. 7 þu wære myd þam galileiscan
hælende.
70 7 he wyðsoc beforan eallum 7 cwæð. nat ic hwæt þu segst. 71
þa he ut eode of þære dura. þa geseh hyne oðer þynen. 7 sæde
þam ðe þar wæron. 7 þes wæs myd þam nazareniscan
hælende.
72 7 he wyðsoc eft myd aðe þæt þæt he hys nan þyng ne cuðe.

ww
Peter truly sat out(side) in the courtyard. then came to him
a servant & said. & thou wast with the galilean saviour.
70 & he denied before all & said. ne-know I what thou sayest. 71
then he out went of the door, then saw him other servant. &
said to-them that there were. & this (man) was with the
nazarean saviour. 72 & he denied again with oath that he of-
him no thing ne-knew.

Pɛtrʊs soːθliːtʃə sæt uːtə cn ðaːm kaːvərtuːnə. ðaː coːm toː hɪm aːn
θɛːəwən and kwæθ, ‘and θuː wæːrə mɪd θaːm ɡalɪleːɪʃən hæːləndǃ’
and hɛː wɪθsoːk bɛvoːrən æələm and kwæθ ˈnaːt ɪtʃ hwæt θuː sɛɪstˈ
θaː heː uːt eːədə ɔf ðæːrə dʊrə. θaː jəzej hɪnə oðər ðyːnəˌ and zæːdə
θaːm ðɛ ðaːr wæːrənˌ ˈaːnd ðɛs wɛs mɪd ðaːm nazarenɪʃən hæːlɛnde’
and heː wɪðsoːk ɛft mɪd ɑðə θæt heː hɪs nɑːn ðiŋɡ nə kuːðə.

173
14th-century S Midlands dialect (The Wycliffite Bible)

69 And Petir sat with outen in the halle; and a damysel cam to
hym, and seide, Thou were with Jhesu of Galilee.
70 And he denyede bifor alle men, and seide, Y woot not what
thou seist.
71 And whanne he ʒede out at the ʒate, another damysel say hym,
and seide to hem that weren there, And this was with Jhesu of
Nazareth.
72 And eftsoone he denyede with an ooth, For I knewe not the
man.

And pɛːtər sæt wɪð uːtən ɪn ðə halə and a daməzel caːm to hɪm and
sɛːidəˌ ‘ðuː weːrə wɪð ʒeːzʊ ɒv gælileː’ and heː dəniədə bivoːr al
mɛn, and sɛidə, ‘iː woːt nɒt hwat ðuː seist’, and hwanə heː jeːdə uːt
æt ðə jɑːtə, anoːðər daməzel sai hɪm, and sɛːdə to hɛm ðat wɛːrən
ðeːrə, and ðɪs was wɪð ʒeːzuː ɒv næzærɛθˈ. And ɛftsoːnə heː
dəniədə wɪð an ɔːθ, ‘fɔr iː kneːwə nɒt ðə man’.

174
 Key to Exercises
Old English

1. Introduction
2. The vocabulary of Old English
A.1. The forms that have survived are few. Those which are clearly
identical in form and meaning are: mann, to his, he, him, me,
æfter, þyng.
There is a larger group of words whose relationship to their
present forms is obscured by changes in phonetics, spelling,
grammar and sematics: hæfde (had), twēgen (two), suna (sons),
gingra (young), fæder (father), mynne (my), fēawum (few),
gegaderode (gathered), eall (all), þær (there), lybbende
(living).
Finally there are words which have died out, or become
archaic: cwæð, sōðlice, mann, þā, æthe, gebyreð, wræclice,
ryce, forspylde, gælsan.

3. The nominal inflections

A.1. sg pl sg pl
N. guma guman tunge tungen
G. guman gumena tungan tungena
D. guman gumum tungan tungum
A. guman guman tungan tungan
sg pl
N. giest giestas
G. giestes giesta
D. gieste giestum
A. giest giestas
A.2. b, d, c, f, e.
A.3. a) sg Nom fem; b) sg Acc masc; c) sg Nom neuter; d) sg Dat
neuter; e) sg Nom masc; f) sg Dat fem; e); g) sg Acc fem; h)
sg Dat masc; i) sg Gen fem; j) pl Nom neut; k) pl Acc masc.
A.4.
Đā wæs æfter manigum dagum þæt sē cyning cōm tō

175
 þæm ēalande, and hēt him ūte setl gewyrcean;…
dagum inflectionally marked for dat. plural
sē cyning zero-inflection, preceded by definite
determiner in the Nom case
þæm ēalande case-marked by means of the Dat sg
inflection –e and definite determiner in the
Dat. case
4. Modifiers
Strong declension Masc neuter feminine
Nom. glæd glæd gladu, -o
Gen. glades glades glædre
Dat. gladum gladum glædre
Acc. glædne glæd glade
Instr. glade glade
Pl.
Nom. glade gladu, -o, -e glada, -e
Gen. glædra glædra glædra
Dat. gladum gladum gladum
Acc. glade gladu, -o, -e glada, -e

6. The verbal inflections

7. Grammatical relations
A. 1.
a) him Experiencer: Dat.- Gen.
b) we Experiencer: Nom.- Gen.
c) se mæssepreost Experiencer: Nom.- Gen.
d) God Experiencer: Dat.- Nom.
e) ðe Experiencer: Dat.- Nom.
A.3.
a. NP – Prep; b. NP – Prep, c. prep – NP. PPs are head last in a. and
b., i.e. the preposition follows its complement; head-first in c.
9. Word order at phrase level
A.1. a. quantifier + possessive + adjective + N
b. demonstrative + possessive + N
c. quantifier + oþre + adjective + N
d. QP + Poss.P + AP + head N
A.2. a. N+poss; b.N+num; c.N+modifier (-weard); d.N+num;
e. N+dem +Adj
176
A. 3. a. coordinated Subjects
b. coordinated Objects
c. apposition

11. Subordination
A.1.
a. adverbial modifier + pron. Su + finite verb + IO + non-finite verb
Although the clause is organized according to the V2
principle, the pronominal subject is allowed to appear in
preverbal position (in contrast, nominal subjects can only
appear in postverbal position).
b. interr.pron. + fin.verb + pron.Su + IO + DO + non-fin.verb +PO
The pronominal subject is inverted with the finite verb
because of the verb-fronting requirement in wh-questions
A.2. a. the finite verb mæge is moved from final position to the left
to a position where it takes a DO on its left side and a PO on
the right
b. the finite verb mihton is fronted to the left to a position
immediately following the subject.

Middle English

1. Introduction
3. The transition from a synthetic to an analytic language
A.1.
a. adverbial + finite verb + Subj + non-finite + adverbial
b. adverbial + finite verb + Subj + non-finite + PO
c. topicalized DO + finite verb + Subj + non-finite + IO + adverbial
d. adverbial + finite verb + Subj + non-finite …+ Po
e. adverbial + finite verb + Subj + DO + non-finite
A.2. a. I have never in my life seen such a disaster.
b. I will vote for him under no circumstances.
c. He has written not a single verse in all that time.
d. I have seen such tulips only in Holland.
e. He has written only a single book in all that time.
f. I will accept that only under exceptional circumstances.
If this tendency were to become more pronounced over time, then
vestigial V2 would eventually die out in usage.
177
4. The Obligatory Subject
A.1.
a. [The Wife of Bath]’s tale
b. [King Priam of Troy]’s son
c. [this king of Troy]’s son
d. [The Archbishop of York]’s grace
5. The verbal system
A.1. a. substitute, b. causative, c. substitute, d. auxiliary, e. emphatic
auxiliary, f. lexical.
A.2. a. lexical vb.+ DO ‘that faith’; b. auxiliary with a deleted
infinitive of a verb of motion; c. lexical vb. + DO
6. Word order at phrase level
A1. a. poss + det + noun + adjective
b. noun + quantifier + adjective
7. Word order at clause level
A1. a. Negation is marked three times:
negative adverb in sentence-initial position
contracted negative form of the verb be
constituent negation: negative pronoun
b. sentence negation marked by ne in preverbal position
constituent negation twice:
arked by na + indefinite pronoun one
arked by the adjective nenne in postnominal position
(agreeing in gender, number and case with the noun
it modifies)
8. Subordination
A1. a. passive infinitive: not-to-verb order
b. active infinitive: to-verb-not order
c. passive infinitive: (to)-be-not-verb (past part)
d. active infinitives: to-verb-not
A.2. þa is an adverb because the main clause is governed by the V2
principle

178
 GLOSSARY OF LINGUISTIC TERMS

ablaut [Ger.,=off-sound] a vowel variation (as in English sing, sang, sung,

song ) caused by former differences in syllabic accent.
affix an affix is a bound morpheme which adds lexical or grammatical
information to a root or stem. An affix may be a prefix or a suffix.
affricate (or semiplosive) a consonant sound that begins as a stop (sound
with complete obstruction of the breath stream) and concludes with
a fricative (sound with incomplete closure and a sound of friction).
Examples of affricates: the ch sound in English chair; the j sound
in English jaw.
agreement a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence
or phrase. Agreement happens when one word changes in form
depending on which other words it is being related to.
analytic language a language in which the grammatical function of a word
is conveyed by its auxiliaries and word order.
apposition a grammatical construction in which two noun phrases, are
placed side by side, with one of them serving to define or modify
the other. The two noun phrases are said to be in apposition, e.g. in
the phrase my friend John the name John is in apposition with the
word friend). Each of the two component noun phrases involved is
also called an appositive.
aspect a grammatical marking in the verb that indicates whether the action
or state denoted by a verb is still in progress (progressive aspect) or
completed (perfect/perfective aspect).
back vowel a type of vowel sound whose defining characteristic is that the
tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without
creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.
base any form to which affixes are appended in word formation
borrowing adoption of linguistic elements, such as morphemes or words of
another language.
comparative linguistics (originally comparative philology) a branch of
historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in
order to establish their historical relatedness. Languages may be
related by convergence through borrowing or by genetic descent.
compound a word that is made up of two (or more) roots: yardstick
(compound noun), a panic-driven child (compound adjective).

179
compound subject or coordinate subject, consists of two or more nouns or
pronouns joined by a conjunction or preposition, which together
form the subject of a single verb.
conjugation the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts
by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar).
Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense,
aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories. Conjugated
forms of a verb which show a given person, number, tense, etc. are
called finite forms. In many languages there are also one or more
several non-finite forms, such as the infinitive or the gerund.
conjugation is also the traditional name of a group of verbs that share a
similar conjugation pattern in a particular language (a verb class).
conjugation table or a verb paradigm a table giving all the conjugated
variants of a verb in a given language.
determiner a word that expresses the reference of a noun, i.e, ‘determines’
the meaning of the noun. The class includes the definite article (the)
and the indefinite article (a/an), demonstrative adjectives
(this/these, that/those), possessive adjectives (my/your/her/his/our
/their), and quantifiers (few, little);
conjoining linking together of words, phrases or clauses which are of equal
status
compound word is a word made of two or more words, e.g. bookish from
the noun book is a denominal adjective
co-reference is the reference in one expression to the same referent in
another expression. In the following sentence, both you's have the
same referent: “You said you would come.”
derivation is a word-formation process that is used to create new
vocabulary items, e.g. by adding suffixes as in walk -> walker.
digraph, bigraph or digram is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a
sequence of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters
combined. When digraphs do not represent a special sound, they
may be relics from an earlier period of the language when they did
have a different pronunciation, or represent a distinction which is
made only in certain dialects, like wh in English. They may also be
used for purely etymological reasons, like rh in English.
fricative a consonant produced by narrowing the gap between the
articulators so that there is audible turbulence as the air squeezes
through the narrow gap left for it, e.g. /s/ in see.
front vowels are the vowels that are articulated near the front of the oral
cavity, e.g. /i/, /e/, /æ/

180
gender (grammatical/ natural) in common usage refers to the sexual
distinction between male and female. Some languages have a
system of grammatical gender, a type of noun class system: nouns
may be classified as "masculine" or "feminine", or may even also
have a "neuter" grammatical gender.
glottal stop a consonant produced with a narrow or closed glottis.
glottis the space between the vocal cords in the larynx.
gloss a note made in the margins or between the lines of a book, in which
the meaning of the text in its original language is explained,
sometimes in another language. As such, glosses can vary in
thoroughness and complexity, from simple marginal notations of
words one reader found difficult or obscure, to entire interlinear
translations of the original text and cross references to similar
passages.
grammaticalization is the attribution of grammatical character to a lexical
word. The best-known example of grammaticalization in the
history of English is the sequence of changes through which modal
verbs were transformed from main verbs to auxiliary verbs.
impersonal construction are roughly defined as sentences which have no
nominative subject and whose verb is in the 3 rd person singular.
Indo-European the language reconstructed by linguists which is assumed
to be the ancestor of most European languages (e.g. English, Latin,
French, German, Russian) and some Asian languages (e.g.
Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian).
inflection the changes in the form of a word to express grammatical
function and meaning. Some classes of word have preserved their
system of inflection better than others in Modern English; verbs, for
example, distinguish tense, past (-ed) from present, and third person
(-es/-s) from other persons; nouns distinguish number, singular from
plural (-s). The inflectional system to distinguish case has for the
most part been greatly simplified. Only the genitive marker (’s) has
been preserved.
Latinate is an adjective referring to words borrowed from classical
languages and from Romance languages, especially French.
loan word is a word adopted from another language.
macron a short straight line placed above a vowel to indicate that it is
pronounced long.
mutated vowel is a vowel affected by i-mutation. It is typically the only
indication that the i-mutation has taken place; the /i/ or /j/ that
triggered the change disappeared before the OE period

181
i-mutation (also referred to as i umlaut) is a sound change that involved the
modification of a stressed vowel due to influence from the
presence of /i/ or /j/ in the following syllable. In Modern English it
is reflected in the plural forms of certain nouns: foot - feet, goose -
geese, man - men, tooth - teeth.
nasal a sound like /m/, /n/, /n/ which is made with the soft palate lowered
so that air goes out through the nose.
palatalization generally refers to the effect that front vowels and the palatal
approximant /j/ frequently have on consonants. As a phonetic
description, the secondary articulation of consonants by which the
body of the tongue is raised toward the hard palate during the
articulation of the consonant.
phrase a syntactic constituent headed by a lexical category, i.e. a noun,
adjective, verb, adverb, or preposition.
pidgin a language which develops as a contact language when groups of
people who speak different languages try to communicate with one
another on a regular basis. A pidgin usually has a limited
vocabulary and a reduced grammatical structure.
pied-piping is movement of the preposition to front position in wh-
questions and relative clauses
plosive a sound produced by complete closure of the oral passage and sub-
sequent release accompanied by a burst of air, as in the sound (p)
in pit or (d) in dog.
preposition stranding the preposition remains in situ in wh-questions and
relative clauses
preterite (also praeterite, is the grammatical tense expressing actions
which took place in the past.
pro-verb a verb form that may be used instead of a full verb phrase, e.g. do
psychological verbs express emotional states. They take two arguments, an
Experiencer and a Theme (of emotion) in two configurations:
Experiencer - Theme (admire, love, hate, like, etc.)
Theme - Experiencer ( amaze, please, surprise, etc.)
‘quirky’ subject is a linguistic phenomenon of the Icelandic language
whereby verbs constrain the cases of their subjects, e.g. a NP in the
Dative case functioning as a subject in a sentence.
reduplication is a morphological process by which the root or stem of a
word, or only part of it, is repeated.
root the lexical morpheme at the core of a word to which affixes are
added, which cannot be divided into smaller units. Such a
morpheme is always a member of a lexical category, i.e. noun,

182
 verb, etc. It can function as a stem, and it may combine with
derivational and inflectional affixes.
root clause is main clause
schwa a short vowel in unaccented syllables, whose phonetic symbol is / ə/
semivowel is a sound that has the quality of one of the high vowels and
functions as a consonant before or after vowels, as the initial
sounds of yell and well and the final sounds of coy and cow. Also
called glide.
synthetic or inflected language a language in which the grammatical
function of a word is conveyed chiefly by its inflections or endings
stop a consonant made by closing the path of the air stream at the place
where the articulators meet so that air is not allowed to go through
the centre of the mouth past the obstruction, e.g. /p/, /b/.
stress the relative auditory prominence of a syllable.
subjectless clause a clause whose verb takes a 3rd pers. sg. inflection (no
matter what NP arguments are present) and which lacks a
nominative NP.
syncretism (inflectional syncretism) indicates a single form fulfilling two
or more different functions. Thus syncretism is found even in
English, whose inflectional morphology (system of different word-
forms) is simple in comparison with many languages.
synthetic language (also inflecting language) a language where an
inflectional affix typically represents several morphemes.
topic of a sentence is the element which is given, usually in the
preceding discourse, while the comment is new.
transition from synthetic to analytic In the course of the history of
English, morphological case and agreement gradually disappear.
At the same time, auxiliaries, determiners, pronouns and
prepositions become more frequent, and the word order becomes
fixed. These changes are often described as transforming the
language from synthetic (lacking auxiliaries, etc.) to analytic
(having auxiliaries, etc.), the strictness of word order compensating
for the lack of case and agreement endings, and the introduction of
auxiliaries compensating for the loss of inflection for tense and
aspect. Thus, Old English has morphological case and agreement
but relatively few auxiliaries, determiners, pronouns and
prepositions; Modern English has very little case and agreement
but many auxiliaries, determiners, pronouns and prepositions that
occupy fixed positions.

183
umlaut (Germanic umlaut) refers to the fronting of vowels in a Germanic
language, caused by assimilation to an original front vowel in the
following syllable, especially viewed diachronically.
velar a sound that is articulated using the back of the tongue and the soft
palate or velum. Consonants like /k/ and /g/ are velar.
verb-fronting is verb-subject order (VS), also inversion in questions and
negative-initial sentences
voiced a sound produced with the vocal cords vibrating. In English all the
vowels as well as some consonants like /l/ /m/ /d/ /z/ are voiced.
voiceless a sound produced with vibration of the vocal cords.
Consonants like /f/ /s/ /t/ /h/ are voiceless.
vowel chart Reproduction of The International Phonetic Alphabet
(Revised to 2005)

184
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Aelfric's Colloquy (text in Old English, glossary, sound files, and

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Paston letters and papers of the fifteenth century Paston family v.:
facsims.: Clarendon Press Oxford, 1971. Online:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/PasLett.html
Puttenham, George. The Arte of English Poesi., Source: The Arte of English
Poesie. Contriued into three Bookes: The first of Poets and Poesie,
the second of Proportion, the third of Ornament. Aa London.
Printed by Richard Field,dwelling in the black-Friers, neere
Ludgate. 1589. Online at Project
Gutenberg.http://www.gutenberg.net
Rolle, Richard, of Hampole, 1290?-1349. English prose works of Richard
Rolle : a selection / from the edition by Carl Horstman. Ann Arbor,
Michigan: University of Michigan, Digital Library Production
Service, 2003. Source: Yorkshire writers : Richard Rolle of
Hampole, an English father of the church and his followers / edited
by C. Horstman. Rolle, Richard, of Hampole, 1290?-1349.
Horstmann, Carl, b. 1851., ed. London: Sonnenschein, 1895-1896.
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/rollewks
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ( 1400). Corpus of Middle English Prose
and Verse, University of Michigan. This text was created at
Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library from Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight Anonymous 2nd ed. edited by:

191
 J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, revised by: Norman Davis xxviii,
232 p.: Clarendon PressOxford 1967. First ed. published in 1925.
Sir Orfeo. TEAMS Middle English Texts. The TEAMS Middle English
Texts are published for TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching
of the Middle Ages) in association with the University of
Rochester by Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan
University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Edited by Anne Laskaya and
Eve Salisbury. Originally Published in The Middle English Breton
Lays. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995.
TEAMS Middle English Texts. The TEAMS Middle English Texts are
published for TEAMS (The Consortium for the Teaching of the
Middle Ages) in association with the University of Rochester by
Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University,
Kalamazoo, Michigan. The General Editor of the series is Russell
Peck of the University of Rochester. Online:
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/tmsmenu.htm
The Laud Troy book. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library,
2006. The Laud Troy book. Wülfing, J. Ernst, 1863-1913.,
Bodleian Library. London: Pub. for the Early English text society,
by K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., ltd., 1902[-03].
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/APE9595.0001.001
The Lay of Havelok the Dane : composed in the reign of Edward I, about
A.D. 1280 / Formerly ed. by Sir F. Madden for the Roxburghe
cl[ub], and now re-edited from the unique ms. Laud misc. 108, in
the Bodleian library, Oxford; by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat. Ann
Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library 2006. Source:
The lay of Havelok the Dane : composed in the reign of Edward I,
about A.D. 1280 / Formerly ed. by Sir F. Madden for the
Roxburghe cl[ub], and now re-edited from the unique ms. Laud
misc. 108, in the Bodleian library, Oxford; by the Rev. Walter W.
Skeat.Madden, Frederic, 1801-1873., Skeat, Walter W. (Walter
William), 1835-1912. London: Pub. for the Early English text
society, by N. Trubner&co., 1868.
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AHA2626.0001.001
The Ormulum / with the notes and glossary of R.M. White; edited by Robert
Holt. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library, 2006.
Source: The Ormulum/ with the notes and glossary of R.M. White;
edited by Robert Holt. White, Robert Meadows, 1798-1865, Holt,
Robert Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1878.
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AFW5744.0001.001

192
The Owl and the nightingale. 1190-1210. This text was created at Electronic
Text Center, University of Virginia Library from an edited version
of the Cotton manuscript. Source; The Owl and the nightingale,
edited with introduction, texts, notes, translation, and glossary by
J.W.H. Atkins editor: xc, 231 p.: University Press Cambridge 1922.
The Towneley plays. (1460). Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse,
University of Michigan. This text was created at Electronic Text
Center, University of Virginia Library from The Towneley plays,
edited from the unique ms.: George Englandwith side-notes and
introduction by: Alfred W. Pollard xxxiv, 418 p.; Published for the
Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press London;
New York [1966] Early English Text Society (Series). Extra series
no. 71.Note: First published 1897.
The York plays (1460). Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse,
University of Michigan. This text was created at Electronic Text
Center, University of Virginia Library from The York plays edited
by: Richard Beadle 537 p.: E. Arnold London 1982 York medieval
texts. Second series
Wycliffe, John. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments,
with the Apocryphal books. Corpus of Middle English Prose and
Verse, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University
of Michigan Library, 2006. This text was created from The Holy
Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with the
Apocryphal books, Wycliffe, John, d. 1384., Forshall, Josiah,
1795-1863., Madden, Frederic, 1801-1873. Oxford: University
Press, 1850. http://name.umdl.umich.edu/AFZ9170.0001.001

193
Glossary to Old English Texts
Abbreviations
nouns verb
f feminine impers impersonal
m masculine past part past participle
n neuter pres present
str strong pret preterite
i-mut i-mutation ind indicative
inst instrumental st strong
subj subjunctive
other wk weak
adj adjective
anom anomalous interj interjection
comp comparative pers personal
conj conjunction poss possessive
dem demonstrative prep preposition
indef indefinite pron pronoun
inter interrogative rel relative
w with

Glossary for Ælfric's Colloquy

A æt prep w dat: at
ac conj: but ætberstan vb wk: escape
acennan vb str: produce ætberstende 1st pers sg pres
acennede past part:produced
afedan str vb: feed B
afede 1st pers sg pres subj bæcere str m noun: baker
agenlædan wk vb: lead back bæceras n pl
agenlæde 1st pers sg pres ind began str vb: to go about;
astigian vb str: proceed, ascend begæst 2nd pers sg pres ind
astigie/astige 1st pers sg pres begytan vb, str: get, acquire
ind board begyte 1st pers sg pres subj
behefe adj: useful
Æ béon, wesan vb anomalous: to be
ær str n noun: brass acc sg beoþ3rd pers pl pres in are
ælce adj: each eom 1st pers sg pres ind am
æcere dat sg fem nys, nis 3rd pers sg pres ind: is
ænig adj: any not
ænigne masc acc sg

194
synt, synd 3rd pers pl pres ind: cyncges gen sg; cyngce dat sg
are (to the) king
wære 2nd pers sg pret ind cynn str n noun: kind, sort
wæs 1st pers sg pret ind:was cynnes gen sg
betwenan prep: between, among cypan str vb: sell
bicgean strong verb buy cype 1st pers sg pres
bicge 1st pers sg pres cypmann i-mut m noun:
bridelþwancg str m noun rein merchant
bridelþwancgas acc pl cypmenn nom pl
broþor anomalous noun: brother cyse m noun: cheese
gebroþrum dat pl: the brothers
(i.e. the speaker's fellow monks) D
butan/buton prep, conj except, dæg str m noun: day
provided that, unless, without dægræd str n noun: dawn
butere wk f noun: butter dæl m noun: region
buteran acc sg sælig;-lice dælas the high seas
buteric str m noun: leather bottle gedeorf str n noun: work, labour
butericas acc pl deorfan vb str: work, labour
(ge)deorfe1st pers sg pres ind
C deoror adv comp: at a higher
cnapa wk m noun: boy, servant price
cræft str m noun: craft, skill, deorwyrþe adj: precious,
occupation valuable
cræfte dat sg dyrwyrþe acc pl masc
culter str m noun: coulter, a don str vb: to do, make
detachable iron blade for a plow do 1st pers sg pres ind do
which made the vertical cut in drifan vb str: drive
the soil drife 1st pers sg pres ind
gefæstnodon . . . cultre with the durran vb str: to dare, presume
coulter attached durre, dear 1st pers sg pres ind
cunnan vb pret pres: know;
know how to; E
hwæt cunnon . . . þine geferan? eac adv: also
what do your companions do? eala interj: oh, hey, well (an
what trades have your attention-getting word without
companions mastered? lexical content)
cwic adj: alive eoldormann m noun: nobleman,
cyld str n noun: chill, cold ruler
cylde dat sg ealdormannum dat pl
cyle str m noun: cold eall(e) adj: all
cyning str m noun: king

195
ealra gen pl of all
eallum dat pl (to) all
ege str masc noun: fear
ege dat sg
ele m noun: oil acc sg
eow dat pl (to) you
eower gen pl of you/your
erian wk vb: plow
F ge nom pl you
fæstnian vb wk: fasten;
gefæstnodon past part as adj
fastened
fætels str m noun: vessel
fætelsas acc pl
fela/feala pron: many
feld masc str n: field
felda dat sg
fell str n noun: skin
fell acc pl
gefera wk m noun: companion
geferan acc pl
fiscere str m noun: fisher
fisceras n pl
flaxe wk f noun: bottle
flaxan acc pl
folc n noun: people follce dat
sing
for prep w dat: on account of,
because of
forewerd adj: early
forlidenes f noun: shipwreck
forlidenesse acc sg
forswelgan vb: swallow up
forswelgen 3rd pers pl pres subj
fremman wk vb help, benefit
fremode 3rd pers sg pret subj
fuglere str m noun: fowler
fugleras n pl
ful adj: full, complete
fulne masc acc sg
196
G
gadisen str n noun: (iron-tipped)
cattle goad
gadisene dat sg
gan vb str: go
ga 1st pers sg pres ind
ge conj: and, also
ge pers pron you (pl)
eow dat pl (to) you
eower gen pl of you/your
gea interj: yea, yes
gearkian wk vb: to prepare
gebohtest 3rd pers sg pret: got,
acquired
(ge)lædan vb str: bring
gelædst 2nd pers sg pres
gearkie 1st pers sg pres ind
gereord str n noun: voice,
speech, language
gereorde dat sg
getrywe adj: true, faithful
glæs str n noun: glass acc sg
gold str m noun: gold acc sg
gymmas acc pl: jewels
gyt adv: yet, still
H
habban vb wk 3: (to) have
hæbbe 1st pers sg pres ind
ham str masc noun: home
ham dat sg
has adj: hoarse
hælfter str f noun: halter
hælftra acc pl
hætu str f noun: heat
hider adv: here
hie pron: they
hie acc pl them
hira gen pl their
hi acc pl them geiukodan past part as adj:
hig acc pl them yoked
hig nom pl they
hig str n noun: hay L
hig interj: a cry of distress land n noun: land, country
higdifæt str n noun:leather-bottle lande dat sg
higdifætu acc pl
hit pers pron: it læs str f noun: pasture
him dat sg/pl to him/them leden str n noun: Latin
hlaford str m noun: lord leof adj: dear
hlaford acc sg leornian vb wk 2: learn
hlafordes gen sg leþerhosu str f noun: leathern
hlaforde dat sg gaiter
hlæst n noun load, cargo, freight leþerhosa acc pl
hlæstum dat pl: loads, cargo, loc str n noun: fold
freight loca acc pl
hream str m noun: noise (yelling) lutian vb wk: hide, lurk
hu inter adv: how lyre m noun: loss dat sg
hund str m noun: dog acc sg
hundum dat pl M
hunta wk m noun: hunter mancgere m noun: merchant,
huntan nom pl trader
huntian wk vb: hunt mara comp adj: more
hwæt what mare acc pl
hwil f noun time mare acc n sg
hwilum, hwilon dat pl mæstlingc str n noun: brass acc
sometimes sg
hwilc interr pron, adj which, me (dat) me ;
what kind of melkan vb: milk
hwilce acc pl what kinds of melke 1st pers sg pres ind
hyd str f noun: hide micel adj much, great nom sg
hyda acc pl masc
gehyran wk vb: to hear micclan dat sg much
gehyrde 1st pers sg pret ind mid prep w dat: with
min poss adj: my
I mines masc gen sg/ neut gen sg
ic, þu, etc. pers. pron: I, you mine masc acc pl
þu you (nom sg) minra gen pl
iugian, iucian vb wk: join, yoke mynum, minum, minon dat sg
iugie 1st pers sg pres ind mistlic adj: various; plentiful
mistlices gen sg

197
morgen str m noun: morning
monuc str m noun: monk
N rowe 1st pers sg pres
nan: none, not one
nellan vb, anom: be unwilling
nelle 1st pers sg pres ind: am
unwilling
nele 3rd pers sg pres indic
neodþearf adj: necessary
nu adv: now
nytwyrþnes wk f noun
usefulness, utility
nytwyrþnessæ gen sg
O sceap str n noun: sheep
of prep w dat: of, from
ofer prep: over, past, beyond
oferwintran wk vb: to get
through the winter
on prep w d or a: in, on, into,
onto
ond conj: and
oþþe conj: or
oxa wk m noun: ox
oxan acc pl
oxan dat pl: geiukodan oxan
with the oxen yoked
oxanhyrde str m noun: oxherd
oxanhyrdas n pl
P þæt acc sg masc
pæll str m noun: purple garment
pællas acc pl: purple garments
pinne wk f noun: flask, bottl
pinnan acc pl
pliht str m noun: danger, risk
plihte dat sg
pusa wk m noun: bag, scrip
pusan acc pl
198
R
reaf str n noun: garment acc pl
rowan vb str: row
S
sæ m/f noun sea dat sg
sælic adj: of the sea, marine
sælice acc masc pl
scear str m noun: (plow)share, a
detachable iron blade for a plow
which made a horizontal cut in
the soil and turned the furrow;
gefæstnodon sceare with the
plowshare attached
scephyrd, sceaphyrde str m
noun: shepherd
sce(o)wyrhta wk m noun:
shoemaker
scewyrhtan nom pl
sculan str vb: must, shall, ought
to
sceal 1st, 3rd pers sg ind pres
must
sceoh str m noun: shoe
sceos acc pl
gescy str n noun shoes pl
scyp n noun: ship/boat acc sg
se dem pron: the, that
þa acc pl
þe inst sg
sealtere str m noun: salter
sealteras n pl
secgan str vb: to say
secge 1st pers sg pres ind
sægest/sægst 2nd pers sg pres
ind sayest, (you) say
selcuþ adj: rare, various
selcuþe acc pl
seofon num: seven þa dem pron acc pl: the, that
singan vb wk 3e: to sing þæt acc sg masc
sincge 1st sg pres ind þe inst sg
side f noun: silk þanon adv: thence, whence
sidan acc pl: silks þær adv: there
sprecan vb str 5: to speak þeahhwæþere conjunctive adv:
spurleþer str n noun: spur-strap nevertheless, moreover
spurleþera acc pl þearle adv: hard, very much,
standan vb: stand excessively
stande 1st pers sg pres ind þencan str vb: to think
gestreon str n noun: profit þingc, þing str n noun: thing
gestreon acc sg þingc acc pl: things
sulh str fem noun: plough; þisum dat sg: this
syl dat sg þas þine geferan these
sum indef pron and adj: a certain; companions of yours
certain, some þingc, þing str n noun: thing
sum(m)e nom pl þingc acc pl:
sunu str m noun: son þinga gen pl
sunu acc sg þonne conj w compar: than
swa adv and conj: so, to that þearle adv: hard, very much,
extent, such a excessively
swefel str m noun: sulphur acc sg þænne conj: when, then
swyftlere str m noun: slipper þolian vb, wk: suffer
swyfleras acc pl þolie 1st pers sg pres
swylce, swilce adv: likewise þu pers pron 2nd pers sg: thou,
swylce pron:such you (sg)
syllan vb, str: sell, give þin gen: your
þine acc pl masc your
T þy læs conj phrase: lest
tid str f noun: time, occasion þylc pron: such þylces acc pl
tida times; (services at the) þywan vb str: to drive
canonical hours þewende, þywende pres part
tin str n noun: tin acc sg driving
to prep: to
togelædan vb, str: bring, U
transport uneaþe adv: not easily, hardly
togelæde 1st pers sg pres us pers pron 1st pers pl dat (to)
twegen num: two us
tweowa adv: twice ut adv: out

Þ/Ð W

199
weligum dat pl (to the) rich
weorc str n noun: work, labor
weorc nom sg;
weorkes gen sg of work
Hwæt hæfst þu weorkes?
What kind of work do you have?
What do you have, for work?
geweorc str n noun: work
wif str n noun: wife, woman
wif acc sg
willan vb anomalous: to want to
(do something), wish, desire
wille1st pers sg pres ind /pl
wolde 2nd pers sg pret subj
would wish to
wylt/wilt 3rd pers sg pret
indic/subj
win n: wine
winter str m noun: winter
wintra dat sg
witodlice adv: truly, verily
wulf str m noun: wolf
wyrcan wk vb: do, make;
wyrce 1st pers sg pres ind
wyrcst 2nd pers sg pres ind
wyrtgemangc str n noun:
mixture of herbs, spices, and
perfume acc pl
Y
ylpesban str n noun: ivory acc sg
yrþlincg, yrþlingc str m noun:
a farmer, ploughman

Glossary for Bede’s Ecclesiastical History

A began: practise, perform

andettan str verb: confess beeodon, beeodan, bieodon pl
andette, ondette 1st/3rd pers sg pret ind
pres/pret ind betera adj (comp of god): better
andswarian wk verb: answer beon anom verb: be
andswarode, ondsworede 3rd syndon pl pres ind
pers sg pret ind wære 2nd pers sg pret subj
wæs 3rd pers sg pret indic
Æ bigong: m noun: worship, service
æfæstnes f noun: religion bigange dat sg
æghwæþer ge... ge both... and bisceop, biscop m noun: bishop,
ænig adj: any high priest
ænige acc sg fem bodian wk verb: preach
æt prep: at, from bodad past part
ætsomne adv: together
C
B Cefi prop noun: Cefi
be prep: about, by Crist proper noun: Christ
Criste dat sing
cuðlic adj: certain

200
cuðlice adv: certainly, clearly
cweðan str verb: say H
cwæð 3rd pers sg pret ind habban wk verb: have, hold
cyning m noun: king hafað 3rd pers sg pres ind
hæbbe 1st pers sg pres ind
D hæfde 3rd pers sg pret ind
don anom verb: do, make, take hæfdon pl pret ind
dyde 3rd pers sg pret ind halgian wk verb: consecrate
gehalgade/gehalgode past part
E hatan str verb: call, name, order
ealdorbisceop m noun: high haten past part
priest he pron: he, it m sg nom
eall adj.: all hine: him m sg acc
ealle nom pl m him: (to) him, them m sg dat, pl
eallum dat pl m dat
eallinga adv: utterly his: his m sg gen
hie, hi: they, them pl nom/acc
F hwæt pron: what;
forðon (ðe) conj: therefore, interj: lo!, hey!, well! (attention-
because, and so, wherefore getting word without lexical
fram, from prep: from content)
fremsumnes f noun: benefit hwæþere adv, conj: however,
fremsumnesse acc pl nevertheless, yet, but
freond m noun: friend hwelc inter pron: which, what,
freondum dat pl what kind of
frignan str verb: ask,inquire hwylc nom sg f
frignende pres part hieran str verb: obey, hear
fultumian wk verb: help, support hyrde 1st pers sg pret ind

G I
giefu f noun: gift ic pron: I 1st pers sg nom
gefe acc sing me: me, (to) me 1st pers sg
geornlice adv: eagerly, zealously acc/dat
geornlicor comp in prep and adv: in
gif conj: if
god n noun: (pagan) god, God L
godo nom pl lar f noun: teaching, doctrine
goda gen pl læran str verb: teach, advise
godcundnes f noun: divinity, læred past part
divine nature, divine service lærde 3rd pers sg pret ind
godcundnesse gen sg læs adv: less

201
geleafa m noun: belief, faith P
geleafan dat sing Paulinus prop noun: Paulinus
geleornian wk verb: learn
geleornad past part S
lif n noun: life sculan anom verb: must, have to,
lifes gen sing ought to
gelustfullice adv: willingly sceolde, scolde 3rd pers sg pret
gelustfullicor comp ind
se dem pron/dem adj: the, that
M masc nom sg
ma adv: more þa pl nom/acc; f sg acc
mara adj (comp of micel): more, self pron, adj: self, himself,
larger herself etc., same, very
maran acc pl/sg f sylfne acc sg m
mægen n noun: strength, power geseon str verb: see, consider
mægenes gen sg gesawen/gesewen past part
mid prep: with geseoh imper sg
mihte acc sg soðlice adv: truly
monige nom pl m gesprec n noun: conference,
discussion
N strang adj.: strong
nawiht, nowiht n noun: nothing strangran acc pl n
nænig pron: none, no one swa adv: thus, so
ne adv,conj.: not, nor swa swa adv: just as
neodlice adv: diligently syndriglice adv: individually,
neodlicor comp separately, especially
niwan adv: newly, recently gesyntu f noun: prosperity
niwe adj: new gesynto acc sg
noht þon læss conj: nevertheless
nu adv, conj.: now that, now T
nyttnes f noun: usefulness, to prep: to
benefit to bysene: as an example

O Þ/Ð
on prep: on, onto, upon, in, into; þa conj: then, when
adv: on, in þæt conj: that, so that
onfon str verb w dat: receive, þær adv: there
accept, take up þe rel particle: who, which, that
onfengon 3rd pers pl pret ind geþafian wk verb: consent to,
oð prep: up to, as far as, until approve
geþafade 3rd pers sing pret ind

202
geþeaht n noun: counsel, underþeodde 3rd pers sg pret
deliberation, consideration, ind
advice
þegn m noun: nobleman, thane, W
retainer, warrior we pron: we 1st pers nom pl
þegna gen pl us dat
þeode f noun: people, nation ure gen
þas nom acc pl ura poss adj gen pl: our
þeos f nom sg wille f noun: well, fountain, font
þing n noun: thing willan dat sing ???
þingum dat pl willan anom verb: wish, desire,
þu pers pron: you (singular) will
þe acc woldan pl pret ind
þin poss adj: your woldan pl pret subj
þinra gen pl wolde 3rd pers sg pret ind
þonne conj or comp adv: then, wislic adj.: wise, prudent
when; than witan verb: know
þyncan impers verb: seem wat 1st pers sg pres ind
þuhte past part wita m noun: wise man,
þynceð 3rd pers sg pres ind counsellor;
wytum, witum dat pl
U word n noun: word
underþeodan wk verb: subject,
submit, devote

203